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Modern WordPress Fast Track

Modern WordPress Fast Track

Overview
Curriculum

Learn to build high-value block themes and plugins with AI and automation in a focused 10-week course.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Understand WordPress lifecycle, routing, hooks, and potential performance bottlenecks.
  • Use AI to assist when building and deploying modern WordPress block themes and plugins.
  • Embrace Node.js, Composer, PHPUnit and GitHub Actions for tooling and automation.
  • Optimize for scale with caching, dependency injection, and lazy loading.
  • Confidently deploy professional-grade WordPress solutions.

Full course details →

Curriculum

  • 11 Sections
  • 127 Lessons
  • 0m Duration
Collapse All
How WordPress Runs the Web
10 Lessons
  1. Web Fundamentals
  2. Internet: Tubes and Computers
  3. Internet Packets: TCP, UDP and Ports
  4. Domain Name System (DNS)
  5. Hypertext and the HTTP Protocol
  6. HTTP Methods and URLs
  7. HTTP Headers
    Preview
  8. Authentication and Cookies
  9. HTTPS: Securing the Web
  10. WordPress and the Web
Inside a WordPress Web Server
11 Lessons
  1. Inside a WordPress Web Server
  2. From URL to WordPress
  3. Web Server is a Computer with 3 Programs
  4. Computers vs. Containers
  5. Setup a Web Server with Docker
  6. Nginx and Apache Routing for WordPress
  7. How Web Server Talks to WordPress
    Preview
  8. WordPress Template Routing for Classic and Block Themes
  9. Block Theme Overview
  10. Semantic HTML, Accessibility and SEO
  11. Progressive Enhancement and Web Standards
Set Up Your Development Environment
13 Lessons
  1. Your Development Environment (Your Happy Place)
  2. Ideal Development Environment
  3. Note on Cross-Platform Development Environments
  4. Developer App Store with Homebrew and Chocolatey
  5. Required Development Software
  6. Install Everything Using Homebrew (macOS)
  7. [Windows] Install Everything Using Chocolatey
  8. $PATH and Symlinks
  9. VS Code Overview
  10. Clone Project Repository
  11. Project Structure Overview
  12. Adding WordPress as a Dependency using Composer
    Preview
  13. Configure wp-config.php and .htaccess for WordPress in a Subdirectory
Tooling for Development and Automations
19 Lessons
  1. Tooling for Development and Automations
  2. Shipping Code
  3. Sample Tool: WP-CLI Overview
  4. Install WP-CLI using Composer
  5. Dangers of the root User and How to Solve Them
  6. Your First Dockerfile: Adding `less` for WP-CLI
  7. Adding Composer to Docker Image
  8. Adding Node.js to Docker Image
  9. Project Task Runners
  10. The Magic of -- (double-dash)
  11. Configure WP-CLI with wp-cli.yml
  12. Configure WP_SITEURL and WP_HOME in wp-config.php (Why so Hard?)
  13. Composer Package Registry for WordPress
  14. Adding PHPMyAdmin
  15. Adding Mailhog Email Catcher (and *.wp-env.net domains)
  16. Set Up Automations with GitHub Actions
    Preview
  17. Enabling and Sharing VS Code Extensions
  18. Setup GitHub Copilot AI Assistant
  19. The Benefits of Bundled Tooling
WordPress Content Model and Templates
14 Lessons
  1. From URL Request to Theme Template
  2. WordPress Content Model
  3. WordPress Content Storage in Database
  4. From Database to WP-Admin
  5. Permalinks and Rewrite Rules
  6. From Rewrite Rules to WP_Query and Theme Files
  7. Setup Xdebug for Breakpoint Debugging and Ultimate Insight
  8. How Themes Template Files are Loaded
  9. The Minimal Theme and Plugin
  10. From Rewrite Rules to WP_Query Posts
  11. Templates in Themes and Database
  12. Block Themes and theme.json Overview
  13. Sitemaps, Feeds, REST API and Other Routes + Actions and Filters
  14. Summary: From Routing to Output
Giving WordPress Superpowers
8 Lessons
  1. Hook system with actions and filters in PHP and JS
  2. WP “main” content queries and available filters
  3. Custom post types and metadata
  4. Post settings with meta boxes and block editor sidebar controls
  5. Extend WP core blocks with styles and variations
  6. Child themes and when not to use them
  7. Global options and settings pages with the Options API and JS APIs
  8. Deprecated APIs: customizer, widgets and shortcodes and their replacements
Create Block Themes
9 Lessons
  1. The importance of composition and component thinking
  2. Full-site editing (FSE) concepts and theme.json
  3. Design systems and tokens, fonts, colors and spacing
  4. Global styles and style variations
  5. Template parts, patterns and theme structure
  6. Layout blocks vs. content blocks
  7. Reusable block patterns and starter templates
  8. Static vs. dynamic blocks
  9. Migration strategies from classic themes
Blocks for Everything
13 Lessons
  1. Block attributes and markup
  2. Block attribute storage options – inline vs. post meta vs. APIs
  3. Static vs dynamic blocks and how to strike a good balance
  4. Block controls: toolbar and sidebar inspector
  5. Inherit block features for alignment, style and behaviour
  6. Block display and edit contexts, and the associated scripts and styles
  7. React fundamentals for block edit experience
  8. WP wrapper libraries for React primitives
  9. *.asset.php and dynamic script data
  10. Block render logic and available hooks
  11. PHP data structure of blocks, attributes and inner blocks
  12. Custom REST API endpoints for block data
  13. Using @wordpress/scripts for everything
Performance and Caching
10 Lessons
  1. Ten ways to slow down WordPress (and how to avoid that)
  2. Performance budgets and how to identify critical elements
  3. How to lazy-load almost everything
  4. Frontend asset loading strategies for scripts, styles, fonts, embeds and media
  5. Image, embed and media loading optimization
  6. Object caching for runtime and persistence
  7. Transients API and external object cache for persistent caching
  8. Database query optimization tips and tricks
  9. Full page caching approaches and gotchas with personalization
  10. Performance testing and measurement
Power Tools for WordPress Development
11 Lessons
  1. Modern dependency management with Node, NPM and Composer
  2. PHP autoloading and dependency isolation to avoid conflicts
  3. Coding standards and linting for PHP, JS and CSS
  4. Easy setup of PHPUnit for testing PHP
  5. JavaScript testing with Jest for blocks
  6. End-to-end and integration testing for PHP and JS using Playwright
  7. Continuous Integration workflow with GitHub Actions
  8. Automating development tasks with WP-CLI
  9. Release automation and version management
  10. Code review workflows and best practices
  11. Managing technical debt in WordPress projects
Ship It: From Local to Git to Production
9 Lessons
  1. Git branching strategies for WordPress projects
  2. Handling environment-specific configuration and secrets
  3. Managing database migrations between environments
  4. Deployment strategies: direct, staged, and Blue-Green
  5. WordPress.org plugin submission process and requirements
  6. SVN for WordPress.org plugin repository management
  7. Implementing continuous deployment with GitHub Actions
  8. Monitoring WordPress sites in production
  9. Documentation for the future and peace of mind

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