Last week, I mentioned that I’m often asked by aspiring WordPress Developers is how to get started within the community. After all, it’s active, there are a lot of people, and there are various ways to contribute.

One thing that seems to be a common thread is that developers often come wanting to know how to develop themes or develop plugins. If they’re interested in both, their interest still seems to lean in one of the two areas.

That said, the same challenge exists: How do you get started with WordPress Plugin Development?

We all have different ways of learning and I realize that not everything will work for everything, but I do think that when it comes to writing code, there’s a lot to be said for learning by doing and Pippin Williamson of Pippin’s Plugins is making it easier.

Get Started with WordPress Plugin Development

Currently, Pippin is building, managing, and maintaining the Easy Digital Downloads plugin. I discussed my recent contributions to the plugin and urged you guys to do the same.

But if you’re an aspiring developer, what’s the advantage?

  • Pippin is an expert WordPress Plugin developer. Reading his code and follow its organization will yield significant learning about developing WordPress Plugins.
  • If you just opt to watch the repository, you’ll learn a lot about open source development and how various contributors interact with issues, pull requests, and so on.
  • There’s an open list of issues so there’s an opportunity for you to contribute to the plugin without having to deal with the overhead of building one from the ground up.

Of course, these are just a few of the reasons.

Personally, I’d love to see this plugin continue to grow. Time is of the essence for everyone, right? But if you’ve got some time and are looking to improve your skills, this is a great project on which to focus.