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Professional WordPress: Design and Development 3rd Edition
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Professional WordPress is the only WordPress book targeted to developers, with advanced content that exploits the full functionality of the most popular CMS in the world. Fully updated to align with WordPress 4.1, this edition has updated examples with all new screenshots, and full exploration of additional tasks made possible by the latest tools and features. You will gain insight into real projects that currently use WordPress as an application framework, as well as the basic usage and functionality of the system from a developer's perspective. The book's key features include detailed information and real-world examples that illustrate the concepts and techniques at work, plus code downloads and examples accessible through the companion website. Written by practicing WordPress developers, the content of this edition focuses on real world application of WordPress concepts that extend beyond the current WordPress version.
WordPress started in 2003 with a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing, and has grown to be the largest self-hosted website platform in the world. This book helps you use WordPress efficiently, effectively, and professionally, with new ideas and expert perspectives on full system exploitation.
- Get up to speed on the new features in WordPress 4.1
- Learn cutting edge uses of WordPress, including real-world projects
- Discover how to migrate existing websites to WordPress
- Understand current best practices and tools in WordPress development
WordPress was born out of a desire for an elegant, well-architected personal publishing system built on PHP and MySQL, and has evolved to be used as a full content management system through thousands of plugins, widgets, and themes. Professional WordPress is the essential developer's guide to this multifunctional system.
- ISBN-101118987241
- ISBN-13978-1118987247
- Edition3rd
- PublisherWrox
- Publication dateJanuary 12, 2015
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions7.2 x 1.2 x 9 inches
- Print length512 pages
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Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
Master WordPress development with this top-rated guide
Professional WordPress Design and Development has been a favorite resource of developers since the first edition in 2010. Now fully updated for the current WordPress release, this 3rd edition offers new coverage of migrating websites to WordPress, the latest tools, and cutting edge uses for WordPress. You'll gain insight into real projects that currently use WordPress as an application framework, as well as the basic usage and functionality of the system from a developer's perspective. Detailed information and real-world examples will help you use the world's largest self-hosted website platform efficiently, effectively, and professionally.
Professional WordPress Design and Development
- Clearly explains and demonstrates timeless WordPress fundamentals, no matter what version
- Gets you quickly up to speed on the new tools and features of WordPress
- Explores new uses for WordPress, illustrated with real-world projects
- Demonstrates how to efficiently migrate existing websites to WordPress
- Presents new ideas and expert perspectives on full system exploitation
- Offers techniques for crafting the best user experience, securing WordPress, managing data, and determining when WordPress is the right tool
- Provides everything you need to understand, develop, and deploy successful WordPress sites
wrox.com
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Join our Programmer to Programmer forums to ask and answer programming questions about this book, join discussions on the hottest topics in the industry, and connect with fellow programmers from around the world.
Code Downloads
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From the Back Cover
Master WordPress development with this top-rated guide
Professional WordPress Design and Development has been a favorite resource of developers since the first edition in 2010. Now fully updated for the current WordPress release, this 3rd edition offers new coverage of migrating websites to WordPress, the latest tools, and cutting edge uses for WordPress. You'll gain insight into real projects that currently use WordPress as an application framework, as well as the basic usage and functionality of the system from a developer's perspective. Detailed information and real-world examples will help you use the world's largest self-hosted website platform efficiently, effectively, and professionally.
Professional WordPress Design and Development
- Clearly explains and demonstrates timeless WordPress fundamentals, no matter what version
- Gets you quickly up to speed on the new tools and features of WordPress
- Explores new uses for WordPress, illustrated with real-world projects
- Demonstrates how to efficiently migrate existing websites to WordPress
- Presents new ideas and expert perspectives on full system exploitation
- Offers techniques for crafting the best user experience, securing WordPress, managing data, and determining when WordPress is the right tool
- Provides everything you need to understand, develop, and deploy successful WordPress sites
wrox.com
Programmer Forums
Join our Programmer to Programmer forums to ask and answer programming questions about this book, join discussions on the hottest topics in the industry, and connect with fellow programmers from around the world.
Code Downloads
Take advantage of free code samples from this book, as well as code samples from hundreds of other books, all ready to use.
Read More
Find articles, e-books, sample chapters, and tables of contents for hundreds of books, and more reference resources on programming topics that matter to you.
About the Author
Brad Williams is the cofounder of WebDevStudios.com and AppPresser.com, a cohost of the DradCast WordPress podcast, and the coauthor of Professional WordPress Plugin Development.
David Damstra is Vice President of Marketing Services and Creative Director for CU*Answers where his team of developers empowers clients with WordPress.
Hal Stern is an IT executive with a major healthcare company. He is coauthor of Blueprints for High Availability, also from Wiley.
Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.
Product details
- Publisher : Wrox
- Publication date : January 12, 2015
- Edition : 3rd
- Language : English
- Print length : 512 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1118987241
- ISBN-13 : 978-1118987247
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.2 x 1.2 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #333,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #94 in Web Design (Books)
- #787 in Computer Science (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors

Hal Stern dabbled in technical writing after discovering that Shakespeare, modern (but still dead) European writers and art history didn't stimulate any passion for a good nerd story. A breakfast meeting with Tim O'Reilly to discuss an idea for what became "Managing NFS & NIS" turned into nearly 20 years of books, articles, and tutorials. Every decade (give or take), Hal happens into some new technology area and becomes fascinated with its underpinnings: NFS in 1987, high availability in 1997, and WordPress in 2007. That's where the book ideas comes from. When not making his high school English teachers lament their wasted effort, Hal enjoys ice hockey, rollerblading, poker, yoga, photography, and heavy metal music.

David Damstra is Vice President of Professional Services for CU*Answers, a credit union service organization. David manages a team of developers to create websites and web applications for the financial industry. David's team uses WordPress as the foundation for many web projects. David is also a Zend Certified Engineer for PHP5. You can find David online professionally at http://ws.cuanswers.com where he focuses on web technology and best practices for web development, especially pertaining to the credit union industry and personally at http://mirmillo.com where he talks about his family and home brewing.

Brad Williams is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of WebDevStudios (WDS). Brad has helped grow WDS from a coffee table startup to one of the oldest and most respected WordPress Agencies working with clients like Microsoft, Viacom, Campbell Soup Company, Starbucks, and the NBA.
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/williamsba
Website:
https://webdevstudios.com
Brad is a co-author of the Professional WordPress Book Series, which are some of the highest rated advanced WordPress Development books on the market. He is the co-organizer of WordCamp Philly 2010 – 2015 and the Philadelphia WordPress Meetup. Brad was also a co-organizer for the Inaugural WordCamp US in 2015 and again in 2016. He has been developing websites for over 20 years. In the last 10, Brad has specifically focused on open-source technologies like WordPress.
Brad lives in Philadelphia with his wife and son. He’s obsessed with cheesesteaks, Raider’s football (it’s complicated), podcasting, Halloween, LED lights, and all things technology.
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Professional WordPress 3rd editional - "Dressed To Imppress!!"
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2019Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseIn the past 2 or 3 years I have reviewed and read so many books by "WordPress Aficionados" that are nothing but fluff and contain no useful information for professional programmers seeking the hidden gateway into the maze that is WordPress that just the thought of those books makes my stomach churn.
This is THE BOOK for programmers. I'm only 5 chapters into it and, as a professional software engineer, I am completely enthralled by it. Literally every page answers questions that I have always had about WordPress. I've been working with WordPress for years - mostly on previously built sites and have managed to muddle my way through theme modifications and functionality enhancements (without hacking the core!) with successful results, but I have never had a level of comfort working in WordPress, from a developer perspective that I've desired, but which I am now achieving, compliments of this book.
These authors have done a SPECTACULAR JOB of presenting the information critically needed by software developers in a logical and precise manner that not only renders instant value, but opens the doors and exposes paths to gain further knowledge by demystifying the Codex and providing alternatives.
Brad Williams, David Damstra, and Hal Stern - Kudos to you all! Thank you, truly, for writing such a wonderful book on WordPress!
- Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2015Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseWROX books, especially the Professional series, are the technical books geeks can't live without. And for good reason. Whatever the subject, they are clear, thorough and filled with information you didn't know you needed. Than the Lord for Kindles though, hauling a shelf full of these around would be a nightmare.
This is not a book for beginners on how to use WordPress to publish your blog, though it does cover that as a small part of the book. This is rather a book to help those who develop WordPress sites either as a profession or part of their daily work load. While it would be rare for anyone to find the entire book applies to them, it is extremely rare for someone to find that none of the book applies. This book thoroughly covers WordPress architecture and development to the platform for any web developer. Some of the books topics assume you are familiar with programming principles, as well as HTML and CSS, and that you know at least a little about web development and PhP. If you are short in those areas, there are plenty of good books and online tutorials to bring you up to speed. Since the code discussed in the book is available for download, you can learn many of the techniques simply by modifying existing code snippets and adding them to your own work.
If there is any negative to this book, it's not the fault of the book but rather the speeds at which publishers and platform developers work. While WROX is quick to publish books, and the authors in the Professional series are usually writing with pre-release software, by the nature of the publishing cycle versus the speed of the development cycle, most published books start going out of date the moment they ship. Fortunate, WROXD keeps publishing updated versions, such as this one, being the third edition.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2015Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseAs other users have noted, there is a lack of wordpress books that are more oriented towards actual web development. This is definitely geared toward a more technical crowd, so if you have no experience with databases or programming or web development, then this may not be the best resource. I am familiar with java, VB, and C# but little to no experience with PHP, CSS, and wed databases, so this book was just what I needed. There is a long "getting started" portion, which I supplemented with some video tutorials online but it was good to have a print resource alongside to fill in the gaps.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2017Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseAwesome book. It really explains details of how WordPress works starting with the Loop in perfect detail. It is easy to read. I was looking for a book that would provide an explanation of the Loop and all the other parts of WordPress in an organized way, and this books has been fantastic in doing that in a short amount of time for me. It also provides you with the the URLs of the most important sources of information of WordPress depending on what you are looking for. For example, the books provides specific URLs for the best Wordpress Codex pages with information about functions, tag templates, Plugin API , Shortcode, Options API, Rewrite API, etc. This has been extremely valuable since WordPress documentation is huge but not very well organized. I read other books that I though would provide the level of detail that one requires to understand the under the hood workings of WP, but this is by far the very best one I have found. I highly recommend it.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2015Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseBest WP book for devs out there. Really, outside the dated plugin dev book, the ONLY advanced WP book out there. Which is surprising given the number of sites powered by WP. You can find literally dozens of HTML 5 books, hundreds of CSS 3 books, many XML... you get the picture. Even tho WP powers upwards of millions of sites, plus their own .com sites, there are very few "actual" books. By that, I simply mean lots of folks are taking advantage of the 'self-publication' route and producing $3.00 64 page booklets that do little more than present sections of the codex, often replete with misspellings and missing information, as 'real' books. They aren't.
I get that WP moves so fast that to research and write and publish a book means that four new versions have been released since the idea first came to you, but damn. I saw and Advanced WP book come out, but it was half-complete and roundly attacked. The WP Bible's not been updated since Snowden was still in America. Too long.
Still - that isn't about THIS book. This book is in the third edition and has been updated for WP all the way through 4.1. Nice! Lots of good, in-depth and in-detail chapters. Just what is needed. I liked it enough that this is my second copy - I have a 2nd Edition, too.
Pick it up.
Top reviews from other countries
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SteeveReviewed in Canada on March 3, 20155.0 out of 5 stars Good Reference
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseUn bon livre qui couvre l'ensemble de WordPress 4
Une bonne référence
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Cliente AmazonReviewed in Italy on April 19, 20165.0 out of 5 stars Ottimo testo per sviluppatori web pro
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseLibro molto utile per chi vuole sviluppare in Wordpress. Tratta tutti gli argomenti in modo dettagliato e spiega perfettamente il funzionamento di ogni singola parte del CMS fornendo la chiave per personalizzare ogni sezione. Sconsigliato ai beginners, questo libro tratta l’argomento in maniera tecnica ed avanzata, infatti presuppone una conoscenza dei linguaggi: HTML, CSS, PHP, MYSQL.
Nella nostra realtà professionale, come Agenzia Web, Neting.it, operiamo nella realizzazione di siti web professionali e pur avendo un'ottima esperienza come svilupatori devo ammettere che questo libro è stato molto utile per capire in profondità molti aspetti di WordPress e lo considero un ottimo aiuto per chi vuole personalizzare ogni aspetto, creare Plug-in e Template. Diventa ancora più utile se lo si usa come strumento di lavoro e in maniera empirica, leggendo il libro e provando subito le modifiche al codice consigliate mentre si è davanti allo schermo. Questa è infatti la maniera in cui consiglio di utilizzare questo libro, poco teorico e molto pratico!
Vivamente consigliato a tutti coloro che vogliono sviluppare siti web professionali in WordPress, avere una visione completa dell’intera logica e, infine, creare i propri Template, Plug-in, Web Page senza dover contare su risorse esterne gratuite o a pagamento.
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José Enrique GuijarroReviewed in Spain on June 4, 20155.0 out of 5 stars Muy buen libro
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseLibro perfecto para ir más allá en el manejo de Wordpress. Muy recomendable si quieres hacer tus propios temas y plugins, e ir más allá que la mera interacción con el back end de word press
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Michael MatthesReviewed in Germany on April 21, 20155.0 out of 5 stars Hervorragende Einführung in die Programmierung in Wordpress
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase-> Guter Überblick über die Strukturen der Wordpressinstallation
-> Hilfe bei der Installation einer Testsite und Hilfe beim Übertragen derselben auf den Zielserver
-> PHP-Code mit Erklärungen; setzt gute Kenntnisse voraus.
-> Hilfreich die Kapitel über Sicherheit, Installation einer eigenen Suchfunktion (Plugins und eigene Programmierung) und Aufbau von Multisite
-> Einführung in Custom Post Types, Custom Taxonomies und Metadata (setzt gute PHP-Kenntnisse voraus)
Zu den Kapitel Theme- und Pluginentwicklung kann ich nichts sagen, weil mir die Programmierkenntnisse fehlen.
Ich habe "Professional Wordpress" mit Ausnahme der Plugin- und t<heme-Entwicklung komplett durchgearbeitet, kann einfache Anpassungen an meiner Wordpressinstallation vornehmen und sogar PHP-Code am richtigen Ort einfügen.
Mr. Vincent DubroeucqReviewed in France on March 15, 20174.0 out of 5 stars Solid book
Format: KindleVerified PurchaseThis is a good book, but it's a lot to read. Some chapters are practical and detailed while a few others are rather high level and very theoretical. Still it's a solid ressource !











