WordPress Web Application Development - Second Edition

By Rakhitha Nimesh Ratnayake

About This Book

• Develop rapid web applications using the core features of WordPress
• Explore various workaround techniques to prevent maintenance nightmares by identifying the limitations of WordPress
• A practical guide filled with real-world scenarios that will guide you through how to build modular and scalar applications

Who This Book Is For

This book is intended for WordPress developers and designers who want to develop quality web applications within a limited time frame and for maximum profit. Prior knowledge of basic web development and design is assumed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Release date: May 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781783988563

Rakhitha Nimesh Ratnayake

Rakhitha Nimesh Ratnayake is a freelance web developer, writer, and an open source enthusiast. He also provides technical consultation on large scale web applications to one of the leading software development firms in SriLanka. Rakhitha is the creator of www.innovativephp.com, where he writes tutorials on the latest web development and design technologies. He is also a regular contributor to a number of popular websites such as 1stwebdesigner, the Tuts+ network, and the SitePoint network. Building Impressive Presentations with impress.js was his first book, also published by Packt Publishing. In his spare time, he likes to watch cricket and spend time with his family. Make sure you visit him online at www.innovativephp.com and follow him on Google+ at http://goo.gl/UiEf5B.

Book preview

Table of Contents

WordPress Web Application Development Second Edition

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. WordPress as a Web Application Framework

WordPress as a CMS

WordPress as a web application framework

The MVC versus event-driven architecture

Simplifying development with built-in features

User management

Media management

Template management

Database management

Routing

XMR-RPC API

Caching

Scheduling

Plugins and widgets

Themes

Actions and filters

The admin dashboard

Identifying the components of WordPress

The role of WordPress themes

Structure of a WordPress page layout

Customizing the application layout

The role of the admin dashboard

The admin dashboard

Posts and pages

Users

Appearance

Settings

The role of plugins

The role of widgets

A development plan for the portfolio management application

Application goals and target audience

Planning the application

User roles of the application

Planning application features and functions

Understanding limitations and sticking to guidelines

Building a question-answer interface

Prerequisites for building a question-answer interface

Creating questions

Customizing the comments template

Changing the status of answers

Saving the status of answers

Generating a question list

Enhancing features of the questions plugin

Customizing the design of questions

Categorizing questions

Approving and rejecting questions

Adding star rating to answers

Summary

2. Implementing Membership Roles, Permissions, and Features

Introduction to user management

Preparing the plugin

Getting started with user roles

Creating application user roles

The best action for adding user roles

Knowing the default roles of WordPress

Choosing among default and custom roles

Scenario 1

Scenario 2

Removing existing user roles

Understanding user capabilities

Creating your first capability

Understanding default capabilities

Registering application users

Implementing frontend registration

Shortcode implementation

Pros and cons of using shortcodes

Page template implementation

Pros and cons of page templates

Custom template implementation

Building a simple router for a user module

Creating the routing rules

Adding query variables

Flushing the rewriting rules

Controlling access to your functions

The advantages of using the do_action function

Creating custom templates

Designing the registration form

Planning the registration process

Handling registration form submission

Exploring the registration success path

Automatically log in the user after registration

Activating system users

Creating a login form in the frontend

Displaying the login form

Checking whether we implemented the process properly

Time to practice

Summary

3. Planning and Customizing the Core Database

Understanding the WordPress database

Exploring the role of existing tables

User-related tables

Post-related tables

Term-related tables

Other tables

Adapting existing tables into web applications

User-related tables

Post-related tables

Scenario 1 – An online shopping cart

Scenario 2 – A hotel reservation system

Scenario 3 – The project management application

Term-related tables

Other tables

Extending the database with custom tables

Planning the portfolio application tables

Types of tables in web applications

Creating custom tables

Querying the database

Querying the existing tables

Inserting records

Updating records

Deleting records

Selecting records

Querying the custom tables

Working with posts

Extending the WP_Query class for applications

Introduction to WordPress query classes

The WP_User_Query class

The WP_Comment_Query class

Other query classes

Limitations and considerations

Transaction support

Post revisions

How to know whether to enable or disable revisions?

Auto saving

Using meta tables

Summary

4. Building Blocks of Web Applications

Introduction to custom content types

The role of custom post types in web applications

Planning custom post types for application

Projects

Services

Articles

Books

Implementing custom post types for a portfolio application

Implementing the custom post type settings

Creating the project class

Assigning permissions to projects

Creating custom taxonomies for technologies and project types

Assigning permissions to the project type

Introduction to custom fields with meta boxes

What is a template engine?

Building a simple custom template loader

Creating your first template

Comparing the template loader and template engine

Persisting custom field data

Customizing custom post type messages

Introducing custom post type relationships

Pods framework for custom content types

Should you choose Pods for web development?

Time to practice

Summary

5. Developing Pluggable Modules

A brief introduction to WordPress plugins

Understanding the WordPress plugin architecture

WordPress plugins for web development

Creating reusable libraries with plugins

Planning the template loader plugin

Using the template loader plugin

Handling plugin dependencies

Extensible plugins

Extend plugins with WordPress core actions and filters

Planning a file uploader for portfolio application

Creating the extensible file uploader plugin

Converting file fields with jQuery

Integrating the media uploader to buttons

Extending the file uploader plugin

Customize the allowed types of images

Saving and loading project screens

Extend plugins with custom actions and filters

Pluggable plugins

Tips for using pluggable functions

Time to practice

Summary

6. Customizing the Dashboard for Powerful Backends

Understanding the admin dashboard

Customizing the admin toolbar

Removing the admin toolbar

Managing the admin toolbar items

Customizing the main navigation menu

Creating new menu items

Adding features with custom pages

Building options pages

Creating a custom layout for options pages

Building an application options panel

Using the WordPress options API

Using feature-packed admin list tables

Working with default admin list tables

The post list

Creating custom actions for custom posts

Creating custom filters for custom post types

Creating custom post status links

Displaying custom list columns

The user list

The comments list

Building extended lists

Using the admin list table for the following developers

Step 1 – defining the custom class

Step 2 – defining the instance variables

Step 3 – creating the initial configurations

Step 4 – implementing the custom column handlers

Step 5 – implementing the column default handlers

Step 6 – displaying the checkbox for records

Step 7 – listing the available custom columns

Step 8 – defining the sortable columns of list

Step 9 – creating a list of bulk actions

Step 10 – retrieving list data

Step 11 – adding a custom list as a menu page

Step 12 – displaying the generated list

An awesome visual presentation for admin screens

Using existing themes

Using plugin-based third-party admin themes

Creating your own admin theme

The responsive nature of the admin dashboard

Time for action

Summary

7. Adjusting Theme for Amazing Frontends

An introduction to the WordPress application frontend

A basic file structure of the WordPress theme

Understanding the template execution hierarchy

The template execution process of web application frameworks

Web application layout creation techniques

Shortcodes and page templates

Custom templates with custom routing

Using pure PHP templates

The WordPress way of using templates

Direct template inclusion

Theme versus plugin-based templates

Are you planning to create an application-specific theme?

Building the portfolio application home page

What is a widget?

Widgetizing application layouts

Creating widgets

Designing a home page template

Generating the application frontend menu

Creating a navigation menu

Displaying user-specific menus on the frontend

Managing options and widgets with customizer

Adding custom options to the theme customizer

Handling widgets in the theme customizer

Creating pluggable templates

Pluggable templates in WordPress

Extending the home page template with action hooks

Customize widgets to enable extendable locations

Planning action hooks for layouts

Time for action

Summary

8. Enhancing the Power of Open Source Libraries and Plugins

Why choose open source libraries?

Open source libraries inside the WordPress core

Open source JavaScript libraries in the WordPress core

What is Backbone.js?

Understanding the importance of code structuring

Integrating Backbone.js and Underscore.js

Creating a developer profile page with Backbone.js

Structuring with Backbone.js and Underscore.js

Displaying the projects list on page load

Creating new projects from the frontend

Integrating events to Backbone.js views

Validating and creating new models for the server

Creating new models in the server

Using PHPMailer for custom e-mail sending

Usage of PHPMailer within the WordPress core

Creating a custom version of a pluggable wp_mail function

Loading PHPMailer inside plugins and creating custom functions

Implementing user authentication with OpenAuth

Configuring login strategies

Implementing LinkedIn account authentication

Verifying LinkedIn account and generating response

Building a LinkedIn app

The process of requesting the strategies

Initializing the library

Authenticating users to our application

Using third- party libraries and plugins

Time for action

Summary

9. Listening to Third-party Applications

Introduction to APIs

The advantages of having an API

The WordPress XML-RPC API for web applications

Building the API client

Creating a custom API

Integrating API user authentication

Integrating API access tokens

Providing the API documentation

Time for action

Summary

10. Integrating and Finalizing the Portfolio Management Application

Integrating and structuring the portfolio application

Adding the template loader dependencies

Interating the template loader into a user manager

Working with a restructured application

Building the developer model

Designing the developer list template

Enabling AJAX-based filtering

Updating a user profile with additional fields

Updating the values of the profile fields

Scheduling subscriber notifications

Notifying subscribers through e-mails

Time for action

Final thoughts

Summary

11. Supplementary Modules for Web Development

Internationalization

Introduction to WordPress translation support

The translation functions in WordPress

Creating plugin translations

Creating the POT file using PoEdit

Loading language files

Changing the WordPress language

Working with media grid and image editor

Introduction to the post editor

Using the WordPress editor

Video embedding

Lesser-known WordPress features

Caching

Transients

Testing

Security

Introduction to multisite

Time for action

Summary

A. Configurations, Tools, and Resources

Configure and set up WordPress

Step 1 – downloading WordPress

Step 2 – creating the application folder

Step 3 – configuring the application URL

Creating a virtual host

Using a localhost

Step 4 – installing WordPress

Step 5 – setting up permalinks

Step 6 – downloading the Responsive theme

Step 7 – activating the Responsive theme

Step 8 – activating the plugin

Step 9 – using the application

Open source libraries and plugins

Online resources and tutorials

Index

WordPress Web Application Development Second Edition

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WordPress Web Application Development Second Edition

Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: November 2013

Second edition: May 2015

Production reference: 1250515

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-78217-439-4

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Credits

Author

Rakhitha Nimesh Ratnayake

Reviewers

Alex Bachuk

Baljeet Singh

Doug Sparling

Commissioning Editor

Deepika Gaonkar

Acquisition Editor

Reshma Raman

Content Development Editor

Rohit Singh

Technical Editor

Dhiraj Chandanshive

Copy Editor

Janbal Dharmaraj

Project Coordinator

Mary Alex

Proofreaders

Stephen Copestake

Safis Editing

Indexer

Hemangini Bari

Production Coordinator

Komal Ramchandani

Cover Work

Komal Ramchandani

About the Author

Rakhitha Nimesh Ratnayake is a freelance web developer, writer, and an open source enthusiast. He develops premium WordPress plugins for individual clients and the CodeCanyon marketplace. Rakhitha is the creator of www.innovativephp.com, where he writes tutorials on the latest web development and design technologies. He is also a regular contributor to a number of popular websites, such as 1stwebdesigner, the Tuts+ network, and the SitePoint network. Building Impressive Presentations with impress.js was his first book, which was published by Packt Publishing. In his spare time, he likes to watch cricket and spend time with his family. You can visit him online at www.innovativephp.com and follow him on ODesk at http://goo.gl/ykDLnk.

About the Reviewers

Alex Bachuk is a web developer with over 7 years of experience, specializing in custom JavaScript and WordPress web applications. Alex has been working with WordPress since Version 2.5 and has worked on projects ranging from a single-page website to interactive web applications and social platforms.

These days, Alex mostly works on single-page web applications powered by Angular.js and full stack Javascript applications using Meteor. His current projects include http://classmate.io, a web application for education, and www.timebooklet.com, a timesheet-focused reporting application.

Alex also organizes and talks at WordPress meetups throughout New England. He writes about technology on his blog, www.alexbachuk.com.

In his free time, Alex likes to travel the world with his wife Oksana, and when there is even more time, he practices Judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Baljeet Singh is a web programmer, mobile application developer, consultant, and trainer. He is the creator of Cinnabar WordPress Framework (a WordPress theme framework based on Bootstrap 3). A github repo link for this is available at http://goo.gl/7z2Zom. He is very passionate about web technologies. In his free time, he likes to write about WordPress and various emerging technologies at http://baljeetsingh.in/blog/.

His objective is to make a positive impact on clients, co-workers, and the Internet, using his skills and experience to design and develop compelling and attractive websites, web applications, and mobile applications. He enjoys working on projects that involve a mix of web design, web development, and mobile application development.

Doug Sparling works as a technical architect and software developer for Andrews McMeel Universal, a publishing and syndication company in Kansas City, MO. At AMU, he uses Go for web services and backend processing, Ruby on Rails for web development, and Objective-C, Swift, and Java for iOS and Android development. The sites include www.gocomics.com, www.uexpress.com, www.puzzlesociety.com, and www.dilbert.com.

He is also the director of technology for a small web development firm called New Age Graphics (www.newage-graphics.com). After creating a custom CMS using C# and ASP.NET, all his work has moved to WordPress since the time WordPress 3.0 was released.

He is a passionate advocate for WordPress and has written several WordPress plugins. He can occasionally be found on the WordPress (https://wordpress.org) forums answering questions (and writing sample code) under the username scriptrunner.

He was also the co-author of a Perl book, Instant Perl Modules, for McGraw-Hill and is a reviewer for other Packt Publishing books, including jQuery 2.0 Animation Techniques: Beginner's Guide, and its first edition. He was also a reviewer for The Well-Grounded Rubyist, Second Edition, Manning Publications, and a technical proofer for Programming for Musicians and Digital Artists.

He is currently the technical directing editor for Programming in Haskell and reviewer for Go In Action, among others.

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Preface

Developing WordPress-powered websites is one of the standout trends in the modern web development world. The flexibility and power of the built-in features offered by WordPress has made developers use this framework for advanced web development. This book will act as a comprehensive resource for building web applications with this amazing framework.

WordPress Web Application Development, is a comprehensive guide focused on incorporating the existing features of WordPress into typical web development. This book is structured towards building a complete web application from scratch. With this book, you will build a portfolio management application with a modularized structure supported by the latest trending technologies.

This book provides a comprehensive, practical, and example-based approach for pushing the limits of WordPress to create web applications beyond your imagination.

It begins by exploring the role of existing WordPress components and discussing the reasons for choosing WordPress for web application development. As we proceed, more focus will be put onto adapting WordPress features into web applications with the help of an informal use-case-based model for discussing the most prominent built-in features. While striving for web development with WordPress, you will also learn about the integration of popular client-side technologies, such as Backbone.js, Underscore.js, jQuery, and server-side technologies and techniques, such as template engines and OpenAuth integration.

This book differentiates from the norm by creating a website that is dedicated to providing tutorials, articles, and source code to continue and enhance the web application development techniques discussed throughout this book. You can access the website for this book at http://www.innovativephp.com/wordpress-web-applications.

After reading this book, you will possess the ability to develop powerful web applications rapidly within limited time frames with the crucial advantage of benefitting low-budget and time-critical projects.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, WordPress as a Web Application Framework, walks you through the existing modules and techniques to identify their usage in web applications. The identification of the WordPress features beyond the conventional CMS and planning portfolio management application are the highlights of this chapter.

Chapter 2, Implementing Membership Roles, Permissions, and Features, begins the implementation of a portfolio management application by exploring the features of the built-in user management module. Working with various user roles and permissions, as well as an introduction to the MVC process through routing, are the highlights of this chapter.

Chapter 3, Planning and Customizing the Core Database, serves as an extensive guide for understanding the core database structure and the role of database tables in web applications. Database querying techniques using WordPress query classes and coverage of the planning portfolio management application database are the highlights of this chapter.

Chapter 4, Building Blocks of Web Applications, explores the possibilities of extending WordPress posts beyond their conventional usage to suit complex applications. Advanced use of custom post types and an introduction to managing template loaders are the highlights of this chapter.

Chapter 5, Developing Pluggable Modules, introduces the techniques of creating highly reusable and extensible plugins to enhance the flexibility of web applications. Implementing various plugins for explaining these techniques with the use of WordPress action and filter hooks is the highlight of this chapter.

Chapter 6, Customizing the Dashboard for Powerful Backends, walks you through the process of customizing the WordPress admin panel for adding new features, as well as changing existing features and design. Building reusable grids and designing an admin panel with various different techniques are the highlights of this chapter.

Chapter 7, Adjusting Theme for Amazing Frontends, dives into the techniques of designing amazing layouts, thereby opening them up for future extension. Widgetizing layouts and building reusable templates are the highlights of this chapter.

Chapter 8, Enhancing the Power of Open Source Libraries and Plugins, explores the use of the latest trending open source technologies and libraries. Integrating open authentication into your web application and structuring the application on the client side are the highlights of this chapter.

Chapter 9, Listening to Third-party Applications, demonstrates how to use the WordPress XML-RPC API to create a custom API for your web application. Building a simple yet complete API with all the main features is the highlight of this chapter.

Chapter 10, Integrating and Finalizing the Portfolio Management Application, guides you through the integration of modules and refactoring the code developed throughout this book. Improving the consistency of the application's code and completing the features developed throughout the previous chapters are the highlights of this chapter.

Chapter 11, Supplementary Modules for Web Development, introduces you to the supplementary WordPress features, such as Internationalization, video embedding, media grid, and multisite. An introduction to important concepts in application development, such as caching, security, and testing are the highlight of this chapter.

Appendix, Configurations, Tools, and Resources, provides an application setup guide with necessary links to download the plugins and libraries used throughout the book.

What you need for this book

Technically, you need a computer, browser, and an Internet connection with the following working environment:

The Apache web server

PHP Version 5.2 or higher

WordPress Version 4.0 or higher.

MySQL Version 5.0 or higher

Once you have the preceding environment, you can download the Responsive theme from http://wordpress.org/themes/responsive and activate it from the Themes section. Finally, you can activate the plugin developed for this book to get things started.

Please refer to Appendix, Configurations, Tools, and Resources, for the application setup guide, required software, and plugins.

Who this book is for

This book is intended for WordPress developers or designers, who know how to create a basic CMS site and are looking for ways to learn the complex web application development in a reusable, maintainable, and modular way. Basic knowledge of WordPress themes and plugin development is expected, although this is not a must for experienced PHP developers to go through this book.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: WordPress passes existing MIME types as the parameter to this function. Here, we have modified the $mimes array to restrict the image types to JPG.

A block of code is set as follows:

function filter_mime_types($mimes) {

  $mimes = array(

    'jpg|jpeg|jpe' => 'image/jpeg',

  );

  return $mimes;

}

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

function filter_mime_types($mimes) {

  $mimes = array(

    'jpg|jpeg|jpe' => 'image/jpeg',

  );

 

do_action_ref_array('wpwa_custom_mimes', array(&$mimes));

 

  return $mimes;

}

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: Once the Publish button is clicked, we validate the form and save the error messages as transients.

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Reader feedback

Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or disliked. Reader feedback is important for us as it helps us develop titles that you will really get the most out of.

To send us general feedback, simply e-mail <[e-mail]>, and mention the book's title in the subject of your message.

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Customer support

Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.

Downloading the example code

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Downloading the color images of this book

We also provide you with a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. The color images will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file from: http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/4082OS_ColorImages.pdf.

Errata

Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you could report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded to our website or added to any list of existing errata under the Errata section of that title.

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Piracy

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We appreciate your help in protecting our authors and our ability to bring you valuable content.

Questions

If you have a problem with any aspect of this book, you can contact us at <[e-mail]>, and we will do our best to address the problem.

Chapter 1. WordPress as a Web Application Framework

In recent years, WordPress has matured from the most popular blogging platform to the most popular content management system. Thousands of developers around the world are making a living from WordPress design and development. As more and more people are interested in using WordPress, there are discussions and arguments about exploring the possibilities of using this amazing framework for web application development.

The future seems bright as WordPress has already got dozens of built-in features, which can be easily adapted to web application development using slight modifications. Since you are already reading this book, you have to be someone who is really excited to see how WordPress fits into web application development. Throughout this book, we will learn how we can inject the best practices of web development into WordPress framework to build web applications in rapid process.

Basically, this book will be important for developers from two different perspectives. On one hand, beginner- to intermediate-level WordPress developers can get knowledge of cutting-edge web development technologies and techniques to build complex applications. On the other hand, web development experts who are already familiar with popular PHP frameworks can learn WordPress for rapid application development. So, let's get started!

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

WordPress as a CMS

WordPress as a web application framework

Simplifying development with built-in features

Identifying the components of WordPress

Making a development plan for portfolio management application

Understanding limitations and sticking with guidelines

Building a question-answer interface

In order to work with this book, you should be familiar with WordPress themes, plugins, and its overall process. Developers who are experienced in PHP frameworks can work with this book while using the reference sources to learn WordPress. By the end of this chapter, you will have the ability to make the decision to choose WordPress for web development.

WordPress as a CMS

Way back in 2003, WordPress released its first version as a simple blogging platform and continued to improve until it became the most popular blogging tool. Later, it continued to improve as a CMS and now has a reputation for being the most popular CMS. These days everyone sees WordPress as a CMS rather than just a blogging tool.

Now the question is, where will it go next?

Recent versions of WordPress have included popular web development libraries such as Backbone.js and Underscore.js and developers are building different types of applications with WordPress. So, we can assume that it's moving in the direction of building applications. It's important to keep an eye on the next few versions to see what WordPress offers for web applications.

Before we consider the application development aspects of WordPress, it's ideal to figure out the reasons for it being such a popular framework. The following are some of the reasons behind the success of WordPress as a CMS:

Plugin-based architecture for adding independent features and the existence of over 20,000 open source plugins

A super simple and easy-to-access administration interface

A fast learning curve and comprehensive documentation for beginners

A rapid development process involving themes and plugins

An active development community with awesome support

Flexibility in building websites with its themes, plugins, widgets, and hooks

These reasons prove why WordPress is the top CMS for website development. However, experienced developers who work with full stack web applications don't believe that WordPress has a future in web application development. While it's up for debate, we'll see what WordPress has to offer for web development.

Once you complete reading this book, you will be able to decide whether WordPress has a future in web applications. I have been working with full stack frameworks for several years, and I certainly believe the future of WordPress for web development.

WordPress as a web application framework

In practice, the decision to choose a development framework depends on the complexity of your application. Developers will tend to go for frameworks in most scenarios. It's important to figure out why we go with frameworks for web development. Here's a list of possible reasons why frameworks become a priority in web application development:

Frameworks provide stable foundations for building custom functionalities

Usually, stable frameworks have a large development community with an active support

They have built-in features to address the common aspects of application development, such as routing, language support, form validation, user management, and more

They have a large amount of utility functions to address repetitive tasks

Full stack development frameworks such as Zend, CodeIgniter, and CakePHP adhere to the points mentioned in the preceding section, which in turn becomes the framework of choice for most developers. However, we have to keep in mind that WordPress is an application where we built applications on top of existing features. On the other hand, traditional frameworks are foundations used for building applications such as WordPress. Now, let's take a look at how WordPress