Understanding WordPress Actions and Filters

In my experience, one of the toughest concepts for new WordPress developers to grasp is the difference in actions and filters.

By this, I don’t mean that they are difficult to use. In fact, I think most developers have a pretty easy time picking up how to hook their functions into hooks and filters when needed, but it seems as if its a bit challenging to grasp WordPress page life cycle and how actions and filters fit into the overall context of WordPress.

So in my latest article at Envato, I try to provide a clear understanding of WordPress Actions and Filters.

In the article, I cover the following topics:

• The WordPress Page Lifecycle
• All About Hooks
• Taking Action
• Understanding when to use filters and when to use actions
• Various resources related to the topic at hand

In the article, I provide a working definition for both actions and filters, and how to determine when to use what based on your particular requirements.

Overall, it serves as an introduction to the topic but I attempted to be as completed as possible in distilling the information into something as concise and clear as possible, so head over to the article and check it out.