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Professional WordPress: Design and Development

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The highly praised resource returns with updated content, examples, and code downloads

WordPress is the most popular self-hosted open source website software in use today, and the latest version makes it even simpler to operate. Packed with real-world examples for load balancing and multiusers, this esteemed resource replaces some of the more basic material with more advanced content. Every single chapter has been reworked to provide the most current and proper methods for developing and designing in WordPress. Coverage of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript and new chapters on custom post types, custom taxonomies, Multisite, and extensions of themes bring the content of this book completely up-to-date and provides you with all you need to deploy successful WordPress sites.

Offers an overview of the WordPress system and describes what happens when a WordPress-generated web page is displayed Demonstrates extending WordPress through plugins and customizing it via themes Combines a developer view of user experience and optimization with the deployment requirements for performance, security, and measurement Includes code downloads and code samples from the book's website

You'll be hard pressed to find a reliable resource with more advanced content than Professional WordPress, Second Edition!

456 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

128 people are currently reading
314 people want to read

About the author

Brad Williams

75 books1 follower
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5 stars
100 (30%)
4 stars
107 (32%)
3 stars
103 (31%)
2 stars
16 (4%)
1 star
1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
Profile Image for Jason Rogers.
40 reviews5 followers
January 7, 2014
I've read a decent number of wordpress books now. This one is in my top few. Easy to read. Easy to understand.
Profile Image for Dhul Wells.
3 reviews
November 6, 2018
I'm not sure why this book doesn't have 5 stars all-around. By far the most comprehensive book you can read on WordPress design and development. Other than reading the codex, I can't think of a better resource.
Profile Image for imane.
496 reviews417 followers
February 15, 2018
القيت نظرة على الكتاب فقط اعيد قراءة الفصول التالية بالتفصيل فيما بعد
Plugin Development
Theme Development
Crafting a User Experience
Securing Wordpress
Application Framework
Profile Image for Elizabeth.
183 reviews28 followers
March 6, 2017
Es el primer libro de wordpress que leo.
Soy novata en Wordpress, y siento que este libro no respondió todas las dudas e inquietudes que tenía con respecto a cómo hacer ciertas cosas. Es un buen libro, pero se me quedó corto. Me habría gustado que tuviese más información.
Profile Image for Ray Perreault.
Author 37 books141 followers
December 30, 2015
I was a little disappointed in this book. Perhaps I was expected too much. I knew a little about Wordpress when I bought it, and I hoped the book would give me more of an insight into the software. I found it to be a lot of the same rudimentary information that is available through many sources.
If a person in interested in WP you can find the same information for free from many sites, just do a little research and save the purchase price.
Profile Image for Michael Musgrove.
14 reviews1 follower
February 1, 2016
An essential book to have on your shelf if you mess with WordPress at all. Touches on some basic things all the way up to some more advanced tasks. Lots of great information, although the layout and design of the material is a little technical and boring. I wish the book was spiral-bound as well. I use it a lot for reference, and the paper cover isn't holding up well.
Profile Image for Aaron Stephens.
Author 1 book6 followers
November 6, 2014
This is a very difficult book for the average person. This is not intended for the starting person. This is advanced and you will struggle with a lot of it. It's good, but too deep for most people.
Profile Image for Britta.
212 reviews
January 30, 2015
Very useful, would recommend to actually do the steps immediately while working through the book.
1 review
Read
March 16, 2020
this book is professional about codex and core wordPress coding
Profile Image for Dayton Outar.
113 reviews5 followers
October 20, 2020
Comprehensive treatment for those who want a good lay of the land for WordPress.
42 reviews1 follower
April 24, 2024
Engaging book, packed with interesting content. It was quite easy to get through. I utilized it while designing the website https://zgift.ru
Profile Image for Emorgan05.
570 reviews2 followers
May 8, 2017
Thoroughly useful, but some of the information is slightly out of date.
Profile Image for Gareth Otton.
Author 5 books125 followers
February 18, 2013
This book was informative and an interesting read.

I did find it frustrating however as it really could have been three times as big and not been big enough. They do a good job of introducing you to many aspects of WordPress but I don't think there was anything complete enough in here to really get you started.

I bought this book looking to learn how to develop custom themes for WordPress and I have finished this book realising that it will be best for me to look elsewhere online for more information.

If anyone is looking to read this for the same reason that I was, custom theme creation, then I think that the following link would be a better option for you. It is a video tutorial that I mean to try next. I would never normally recommend something I haven't used myself yet but it is by a man named Chris Coyier and I have followed his tutorials before with great success. He has a real knack for making really complicated things easy.

Wordpress Tutorial
176 reviews2 followers
March 25, 2014
"Professional WordPress - Design and Development" is really good book on WordPress. It shows you how WP works (starting from the loop, to hooking etc... which makes it outlive the WP version it was written for (I thought 3.0). I guess this is very useful for everyone who wants to take his WP skills from just running WP to hacking it to his/her own wishes.

Starting from a top-level view on WP, it then diggs down into the Loop, database, queries, taxonomies, plugin development, shortcodes, theming and, very important as WP grows: security. It also covers content building, navigation, search optimization, migration, ... more than you could wish for.

I am just a small-time developer on WP (made some 30 sites to date) but this book has been a good reference for me in a lot of darker moments. It also led me to develop a working routine that now saves me a lot of time.

Highly recommend for everyone serious about WordPress.
Profile Image for Eugene Cordell.
25 reviews1 follower
October 1, 2012
This is great if you're trying to create a website from scratch; so for those who are just using templates and plugins, don't bother -- just pay for a registrar and host, and use the new plugins to make your stuff look pro. The plugin instructions update every year, so please read their info before applying it to your wordpress site.

For the beginners out there, just read the Dummies for WordPress.
Profile Image for John Hobbs.
125 reviews3 followers
May 31, 2011
Good, solid overview. Nothing you can't pick up by reading online, but nicely organized and explained.
Profile Image for Madalin Ignisca.
12 reviews
August 3, 2017
If you want to learn WordPress development, don't waist time with other books "for beginners". This book will introduce you in this and teach you want you need to continue after.
Profile Image for Kashif Khan.
1 review1 follower
April 3, 2014
Highly recommended for both newbie and those who are coming from PHP / WordPress background.
Profile Image for Serghei.
7 reviews
May 18, 2016
My first, and hopefully last, WordPress book. Very decent explanation of the basics.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews

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