To really get into WordPress development, learning PHP remains the way to go. But that's far easier to say than do. Especially if you don't have a coding background, it can feel so intimidating to even get started. Articles assumes you know things you've never even heard of. Where do you even begin?!

PHP for WordPress Development is a clear, accessible, start-at-the-beginning introduction to PHP that teaches you the concepts you really need to know to work as a WordPress developer. But because we value your time, the course also skips the stuff you don't really use when working in WordPress. Empowered by this course, you'll find thing like modifying plugins and themes easier. And more importantly, what you're doing when you do that will make sense.

A Focused, WordPress-Specific Look at PHP

PHP is an enormous web programming language, constantly evolving and powerful enough to be the backbone of massive web projects like Facebook, Wikipedia, and Tumblr.

It's also the main language of WordPress development, and here's a secret: you don't have to know the whole thing!

In her day job, a WordPress developer uses a select number of tools and patterns within PHP constantly—and others not at all.

Wouldn't it be nice if someone taught you the fundamentals of PHP with the specific aim of empowering you as a WordPress developer? That's exactly what Introduction to PHP for WordPress Developers does:

• Each and every code example is taken from a WordPress project.
• All the code-along projects are real uses of PHP within WordPress that you can start to apply immediately.
• As we go along, we clue you into coding patterns that come up constantly in WordPress development: passing in $args arrays, using while() loops, and more.
• We don't cover a host of topics, from cURL to PDO to PHP namespaces, that you simply don't need very much as a WordPress developer.

Well-Rounded Learning: Text, Videos, and Code Exercises

In five years of creating WordPress educational content, we've found that the best way to help others learn is a combination of text tutorials, video walkthroughs, and code-along examples that help you get the rhythms of WordPress development under your own fingertips. Introduction to PHP for WordPress Developers includes all that, plus handy at-a-glance infographics and more!

What's Inside

The topics we cover include:

What PHP Does

• Introduction to Servers
• What's on the Server: Database and Filesystem
• PHP: A Programming Language that Outputs HTML
• WordPress's PHP Skeleton
• Getting a (Local) Server Running (with MAMP)
• Project: Get a local server running

PHP Programming Fundamentals

• Basics of PHP Syntax: the <?php ?> Tag and Comments
• Put Stuff on the Page: echo and Strings
• Strings 102: Concatenating Strings
• PHP Variables and Key Variable Types (assigning with =)
• PHP Operators (*, /, %, ==, ===, etc.)
• PHP Arrays
• PHP Functions
• Project: Write a PHP script that calls a function to do a calculation

Intermediate PHP Programming

• Loops
• Object and Object-Orientation
• Project: Create and use a new PHP class

Common PHP Patterns in WordPress Development

• Mmm, Spaghetti: Backwards-Compatibility, Technical Debt, and WordPress's Diverse Codebase
• Front Controllers: Why Nothing Lives in the Root
• Templating: How HTML and PHP Interact in WordPress
• Functions Calling Functions
• $args: Arrays of Function Arguments
• Global State and Global Variables and Why They're Bad But Used All the Time in WordPress
• Event-Driven Programming: Everything Touches Everything Else Uncomfortably
• Output Buffering
• Lots of WordPress Functions Do PHP Stuff but Better
• Project: Your First Plugin Using wp_mail()

Start Learning PHP for WordPress Today

If you want to learn WordPress development—or coding in general—this is the best first step for you. Get started today!