Session 1: PHP has become one of the most popular ways to do server side scripting for web applications. The reasons include that it’s Open Source, easy to learn, flexible, operates on most OSes, interfaces with most popular database platforms, very stable, portable, and get’s updated and improved regularly. But, as we have learned, development from the ground up can be daunting. So what if you have a custom project that needs to be fully developed without using an existing code base? There are ways to get a jump start on this process. “CodeIgnitor is a powerful PHP framework with a very small footprint, built for PHP coders who need a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured web applications.” (codeignitor.com) Let take a brief look at CodeIgnitor and then continue learning about plugin development for WordPress.

WordPress Plugin Developer Resources:
Writing a WordPress Plugin
Your First WordPress Plugin (Video)

Session 2: Today we will analyze some examples that are further developed. We will look at a working version of these examples and then take a quick look at some of the source code, paying particular attention to new functions and techniques.

Due on Week 7 Session 2
WordPress Plugin Exercise:
1. Write a WordPress plugin to display the “age” of a post
2. Display the days, hours, and minutes in a human readable form
3. Try using the template tag the_time()
4. Try also using the WordPress function human_time_diff()