Resources For Learning Coding Best Practices

If you want to learn more about customizing your WordPress theme, you’ll need to learn CSS, PHP and a bit of HTML and Javascript.

Once you learn the basics of coding, you’ll have already found and used code snippets from all over the web.

Generally, the best quality code snippets come directly from your theme Developer and have been tested on the theme framework you use.

Once you start writing your own code, you might want to find some quality resources which teach you the best practices to follow when writing different types of code.

Keep in mind that independent resources like W3Schools are NOT open source therefore cannot be edited and corrected unlike most of the resources linked to below.

So here’s a few links to resources which will help you write code according to best industry standards for WordPress.

• WordPress Developers Coding Standards – An excellent resource for developers of WordPress themes and plugins. Provides content relating to CSS, PHP, HTML and other code used in the development of WordPress powered websites.

• Github –  CSS coding best practices.

• Google Developers University – Provides a list of tools including free customizable apps, discussions, stories and course catalog.

• W3 Fools – Provides a list of resources and recommends against using W3 Schools to learn coding.

• Zend – PHP for the absolute beginner.

• PHP – This is the official PHP site and includes the latest news by the PHP development team.

• Mozilla Web Development – Provides an introduction to web development including CSS, HTML, Javascript and other languages.

Learning PHP Coding for WordPress Beginners

No doubt, using custom functions in your child theme on a local installation is an excellent way to become comfortable with PHP.

Once you’re familiar with the basics of including hooks & conditional tags in custom functions, you might want to try a series like PHP 101 for the absolute beginner. Its an excellent series for newbies and also fun to read because of the light humor added to the content.

I’ll be adding more links to content which helps beginners and intermediates learn more about best practice relating to coding WordPress themes and plugins.

If you’re needing specific help with WordPress, you’ll find different support forums will more than likely provide access to code written by volunteers and web developers/designers.

Some provide code written using best practices and some do not.

And You?

Do you have any quality resources you’d like to add to this list which relate to industry best practice for coding with CSS, HTML and PHP?