Web designers in general and WordPress developers in particular will readily acknowledge the immense functionality and usefulness of plugins. But as with everything in life, plugins are not perfect and developers always yearn for that extra bit of functionality in plugins to obtain the optimal WordPress Development experience.
In this blogpost, our WordPress developers at HireIndianProgrammers seek to suggest ways to customise plugins. With this, developers can customise or broaden the scope of existing plugins to serve their needs. A basic knowledge of HTML, PHP and CSS is all that is needed.
The first and most challenging part of this process is to select the right plugin. Considering that developers are mostly preoccupied with work and their aim to make WordPress development services more efficient, this is certainly important. There are thousands of WordPress plugins out there, but developers need to zero in on that plugin that almost always plays a key role in all of the web development projects.
In other words, developers must look for a plugin that they can work on in the long term. In addition to that, the said plugin must have a significant user base with a good record of fixing bugs and providing support.A great add on benefit would be an inclusive library of plugin specific hooks that they can use for various functions.
The next thing in the process of customising plugins is to determine the kind of extra features that developers want to add to the plugin. Sky is the limit. Experienced WordPress developers can always turn a good plugin to a better version. At the same time, they also need to remember not to deviate but rather focus on the actual site functionality. Either they might want to facilitate website maintenance or improve upon on the ease of use for the user.
For example, they can leverage the functionality of WordPress custom fields to add, modify any kind of data – case in point – an improved calendar plugin that has the ability to add links, documents in a user friendly way.
Another way WordPress Developers can look to customise a plugin is to change the plugin’s output. It can be done in a way that aligns with the subject matter of the client’s website – for example making use of WordPress filter gettext. Developers can also experiment with changing or adding new data in accordance with special situations – those that in particular seek to improve user experience. Look to streamline as much as possible.
Developers can also try various combinations of plugins, like for instance, using a slider to display the top selling products of the client’s website, if it is an e-commerce business. Combinations can work wonders if some quality time is spent on it. They can be achieved even with plugins built into WordPress itself. Again, here sky is the limit.
Are you looking to hire dedicated wordpress developers for your website? Look no further. The developer team at HireIndianProgrammers has completed quite a number of projects in the past decade. Often, it is the smaller and finer details like customisable plugins that differentiates a great site from an average site. This enhances the overall functionality of the website. Our WordPress development services promise to pay attention to such details and much more to provide clients to the best possible web development output.
