A Beginners Guide
to PHP in WordPress
WordCamp Baltimore 2014
Zane M. Konik
Founder, Zane Matthew, inc.
http://zanematthew.com/
@zanematthew on twitter
@zkolnik on twitter
[email protected]
Intro to coding,
non-developers,
what PHP do I need to know
for WordPress?
How do I get it
& what version?
Apple Customers
MAMP
MAMP Pro
How do I get it & what version?
Window Customers
WAMP
WAMP Pro
How do I get it & what version?
MAMP Pro/WAMP Pro
Supports PHP versions
5.2.17
5.3.2
5.4.1
How do I get it & what version?
Source http://wordpress.org/about/stats/
PHP Versions
If developing to contribute plugins or themes use 5.3.
PHP Versions
Specifically what PHP code do I need to know?
1. Conditional Statements
2. Printing
3. Arrays (Ordered Maps)
4. Loops
5. Functions
6. File includes
PHP
If, else, elseif, switch
Conditional Statements
If, else, elseif, switch
Normally used with operators:
&& and
|| or
== equal
! false
!= not equal
=== exactly equal, i.e., 0, 0
!== exactly not equal
<, >, <=, >= greater/less than
Conditional Statements
If, else, elseif, switch
...and type comparisons:
Conditional Statements
If, else, elseif, switch
...and type comparisons:
empty()
is_null()
isset()
Conditional Statements
Conditional Statements
echo, print, prinft(), sprintf()
Printing
echo vs. print?
Simply used to display content, echo is a language construct (its built into
the language).
Just use one and stick with it.
Echo vs. Print
printf() Displays content
sprintf() Returns content
Most commonly used in translations.
Echo vs. Print
printf( <strong>%s</strong>,
__(Name, foo)
);
sprintf( %$2s, <strong>%$1s</strong>,
__(Name, foo),
__(First, foo)
);
printf, sprintf
Arrays
Indexed
Associative
Multi-dimensional
Arrays
$pages_by_slug = array(about, blog, contact-me);
How would we traverse this?
Indexed
$pages_by_slug = array(about, blog, contact-me);
How would we traverse this?
foreach( $pages_by_slug as $page ){
echo $page; // What does this display?
}
Indexed
$pages_by_slug = array(about, blog, contact-me);
How would we traverse this?
foreach( $pages_by_slug as $page ){
echo $page; // Displays, about, blog, contact-me
}
Indexed
$pages = array(
page_name => Contact,
page_id => 89,
page_slug => contact-me
);
How would we traverse this?
Associative
$pages = array(
page_name => Contact,
page_id => 89,
page_slug => contact-me
);
How would we traverse this?
foreach( $pages as $page ){
echo $page[page_name]; // about, blog, contact-me
}
Associative
$items = array(
pages => array(
name => Contact,
id => 89,
slug => contact-me
),
pages => array(
...
)
);
How would we traverse this?
Multi-dimensional
foreach( $items as $k => $v ){
echo $k . . $v[slug]; // What does this display?
}
Multi-dimensional
How would we traverse this?
foreach( $items as $k => $v ){
echo $k . . $v[slug]; // pages about...
}
Multi-dimensional
Loops
$i = 1;
while( $i <= 10 ){
echo $i++;
}
Loops
$i = 1;
while( $i <= 10 ){
echo $i++;
}
WordPress has the_loop
Loops
<?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>
<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
<h1 class=entry-title><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
Loops
Functions
foo( name: , tim );
function foo( $a=null, $b=null ){
echo $a . . $b;
}
Functions
$a = array(name=> tim);
function foo( $a=array() ){
extract( $a );
echo $name;
}
Functions
File Includes
1. require_once fatal error
2. require fatal error
3. include_once warning error
4. include warning error
File Includes
1. require_once fatal error
2. require fatal error
3. include_once warning error
4. include warning error
WordPress has its own set of file includes
File Includes
get_header(); // includes header.php
get_sidebar(); // includes sidebar.php
get_footer(); // includes footer.php
get_template_part( $path, $slug ); // includes partials/content-
image.php
load_template(); // includes $file
locate_template(); // returns a path to a template
File Includes
Debugging Why do you care?
Debugging allows you to be accurate as an owl, that is approaching its
first night meal.
Debugging Why do you care?
1. Notice Found something that could indicate an error
2. Warning Run-time errors, the code still works
3. Fatal Code will not run, syntax error, memory allocation, etc.
Types of Debugging
1. Software
2. PHP config
3. wp-config.php
Enabling Debugging
Just enable it
Software
Via PHP
error_reporting(-1);
ini_set('display_errors', 'On');
ini_set & error_reporting
Via .htaccess
php_flag display_startup_errors on
php_flag display_errors on
php_flag log_errors on
php_value error_log /my/path/PHP_errors.log
ini_set & error_reporting
define('WP_DEBUG', true);
Shows errors, notices, warnings, and deprecated functions.
wp-config.php
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
Uses PHPs built in error_log function. Saves your errors in /wp-
content/debug.log.
wp-config.php
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);
Errors will not be shown, but can still be logged via define
('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
wp-config.php
define('SCRIPT_DEBUG', true);
Forces WordPress to use the "dev" versions of core CSS and Javascript
files rather than the minified versions that are normally loaded.
wp-config.php
define('SAVEQUERIES', true);
Stores queries in the global $wpdb->queries.
wp-config.php
Note all of these methods should only be done in a development
environment.
Debugging Why do you care?
1 Obtaining PHP
2 Components Conditional, printing, arrays (order maps), loops, file includes
3 Debugging
Conclusion
Questions
http://wordpress.org/about/stats/
http://php.net/manual/en/function.error-reporting.php
http://php.net/manual/en/function.ini-set.php
http://php.net/manual/en/ref.array.php https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/coding-
standards/php/
http://blog.codinghorror.com/new-programming-jargon/
http://www.php-fig.org/psr/psr-1/
http://www.php-fig.org/psr/psr-2/
http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.php
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/139427/which-coding-convention-to-follow-for-php
http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.php
http://stackoverflow.com/a/10057916/714202
References
