WordPress is used by a lot of different companies for their content management systems. As such, there is a growing need for WordPress developers. You might have even seen some job ads for these positions.
But what exactly does a WordPress developer do? Read on to learn what the job entails and what skills you need to succeed.
What Is a WordPress Developer?
A WordPress developer goes beyond being able to add content to WordPress and install a theme. Although they do need to know about the tools available, they also need to be able to make, not just use, custom content for WordPress. This could include plugins, modules, and themes.
WordPress developers require a lot of knowledge about the platform's infrastructure and require the programming skills to work within that framework. As such, a familiarity with PHP is very important for WordPress developers. WordPress is written in PHP.
What Skills Do WordPress Developers Need?
WordPress developers need to be familiar with WordPress. It is important for them to have a deep understanding of the plugins, themes, and already offered for WordPress. There is no sense in coding something that is already readily available.
Beyond that, a WordPress developer needs to understand the inner workings of the platform. They need to understand how content is loaded, common issues that will arise, how to optimize a site, how to customize pages, and how to increase traffic to a site. This will require a background in web programming.
Coding Skills for WordPress Development
1. HTML
Anyone that uses WordPress can benefit from learning HTML. WordPress makes it easy to access the HTML for a page. In the page editor, all you need to do is switch the editor from Visual to Text. That will show the HTML and give you more fine-grain control over the formatting of the page.
HTML is a markup language, not a programming language, but it is still a very powerful tool. You can use HTML to customize your page, and even add elements like buttons. It is especially useful to have some familiarity with HTML if you want to use embedded content like tweets and YouTube videos in your posts. Understanding the HTML attributes for the embedded content will help you understand how to change adjust the size or formatting of the content.
There are many great resources for learning HTML. If you are intimidated by coding, start with an introduction to basic HTML tags. You will quickly learn how easy HTML really is.
2. PHP
The backend of WordPress is powered by PHP, making this one of the more important programming languages for a WordPress developer. PHP is a server-side scripting language that is used to communicate between a website and a server. For WordPress, this means that all of the site content is relayed via PHP.
All WordPress' core files are written in PHP. This, and code that interacts with the site, such as plugins, is written in PHP. It's even needed to design themes. The interface is designed such that developers use PHP functions to call different design elements that they wish to style.
PHP is an open source scripting language, widely used across the web. Consequently, there are many tutorials available. You can get a good introduction to PHP by building a simple website that uses the language.
3. CSS
You need PHP to access design elements in WordPress themes, but to change the style, you need to be familiar with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). It is a style language that defines how the website will look. It also allows you to customize the style for different screen sizes or devices.
CSS is the most important language to customize the design. It has its own syntax, but it is an easy language that can be learned quickly. Each command primarily consists of two parts, the selector and the declaration. The selector chooses what you wish to style and the declaration defines the style. And there are many great CSS cheat-sheets that make using the language even easier.
4. JavaScript
JavaScript allows you to add interactive elements to a website. You can use it to manipulate the behavior and content of your website, which makes it a very powerful language. It is a great tool to turn a static page into an interactive one.
JavaScript runs in the browser, rather than on a server, and it runs as soon as the page is loaded. So while PHP is server-side scripting, JavaScript is client-side scripting.
JavaScript is most powerful in WordPress when combined with PHP. JavaScript can make a page interactive, but it cannot change or access information stored on the server. PHP, on the other hand, can work with the server but is not as good as JavaScript for creating interactive elements.
5. MySQL
Although you need PHP to relay information from the WordPress server to the website, the server runs on MySQL. MySQL is based on SQL, which is a server query language. All relational databases use languages based on SQL.
If you wish to interact with the database, you will need to know MySQL. Junior WordPress developers may not need to know MySQL, but it can bring your skills to the next level.
Learn the Skills to Be a WordPress Developer
Many websites depend on WordPress as their content management system. This has created a demand for WordPress developers who can offer a deep understanding of how WordPress works and what features, plugins, and themes available.
However, familiarity with WordPress is not enough to be a WordPress developer. To really be a WordPress developer you need to be able to program within the WordPress platform. That may mean creating custom themes and plugins or customizing a page by editing the code.
The key coding skills that will help you take your skills to the next level include HTML, PHP, CSS, MySQL, and JavaScript. If you have no coding skills, HTML is a great place to start, and JavaScript is very useful. But PHP will be the most important language to learn for any WordPress developer.