WordPress offers millions an opportunity to create their own websites. Aspiring programmers and students use it to learn the basics of coding. They are free to experiment with thousands of free themes and plugins of their choice. But they are limited by their functionality and can rarely afford paid content.
People who want to get the most out of WordPress may consider learning to code themselves. While this is the harder route, it is definitely more rewarding. You’ll have the knowledge to create something of your own, for example, a theme or plugin users may find helpful. There are several languages one must know to program for WordPress. Let’s focus on the best-suited options.
CSS
CSS is a language that allows you to determine how HTML documents look. Programmers can use it to style HTML structure. This way, the content will be organized properly. As is the case with other web apps, WordPress is heavily dependent on CSS.
This programming language is especially popular in theme creation. Almost all HTML elements in the CMS follow specific CSS rules. They dictate the formatting of its elements and visual presentation. WordPress themes are crucial for making websites look appealing to users. All themes come with a .css file that controls the visual appearance of various theme parts.
WordPress offers an option that allows applying your own CSS rules to websites. Devs can use it via the WordPress dashboard. Extra CSS options can be activated in the Appearance > Customize menu.
HTML
HTML is the standard language that handles how pages look in web browsers. This is a fundamental piece of web design. There is a 99% chance that websites you visit for online homework help when you are in a jam are based on it. It uses annotations that describe the page content and define its meaning.
Most content management systems use HTML, and WordPress is no different. HTML is in the structure of templates, pages, and posts. In some cases, PHP and HTML work together to generate dynamic sections of the pages. WordPress offers a couple of solutions that negate the need to learn HTML.
The most popular are Classic Editor and Gutenberg plugins. Compared to SQL and PHP, this language is fairly easy to learn. It’s not originally a coding language, so you have only to remember what individual tags do and where to put them.
JavaScript
JavaScript is still among the most popular and lightweight web languages. Developers use it to make it easier for users to interact with the website. It’s also applied to make digital content more interactive. JavaScript is one of the three languages any web developer must learn, including CSS and HTML.
It is a client-side language that doesn’t use a server for processing. Instead, it runs directly in a user’s browser. As a rule, JS relies on events. These are actions that happen to HTML elements, like when users click on buttons, pages load, or when cursors hover over elements. Specific codes are executed to facilitate desired behavior.
WordPress employs JavaScript to add dynamic behavior to posts and pages. In essence, it serves to add such things as timers and sliders. The CMS work and operation are highly dependent on the programming language. It’s heavily used in the work of the administration panel. Most of the plugins and themes rely on JS to include specific features.
PHP
PHP is one of the most durable programming languages. It was first introduced in 1994. The script is executed via a dedicated web server. The results of the analyzed code create the webpage content. PHP code is later embedded with HTML tags. This processed mix creates the final webpage iteration.
PHP is a general-purpose language. Programmers use it to create web apps and stand-alone software. For example, it’s often utilized in machine learning and AI apps. In WordPress, developers choose the language for several key features:
- handling requests of certain pages and posts;
- activating plugins into doing their own processing;
- validating parameters as set and valid in requests;
- validating permission of users requesting posts or pages;
- processing and rendering final content in HTML blocks and sending it to the browser;
- using SQL to load requested content, media files, and meta fields from the database.
Different WordPress variants can work with several versions of PHP. But the platform does have recommendations for each CMS version. It’s strongly recommended that users look for the best version of PHP.
SQL
SQL is the go-to language when it comes to working with databases. It’s designed for managing relational databases and performing operations on them. Programmers need a relational database management system. It allows creating, updating, and administrating relational databases. In short, RDMS runs SQL requests and manages databases.
WordPress uses two main components: application and data storage. This is common practice for most content management systems. There are those that don’t use a complex database engine, but this is not the case for WordPress.
Instead, the platform relies on databases to organize and store website data. It can include such things as users, settings, and posts. You need at least basic knowledge of SQL to code yourself. Yet, most hosting providers have visual tools for managing WordPress databases.
The most common app in this regard is phpMyAdmin. This free software tool allows you to visually administer MySQL databases. It is compatible with both MariaDB and MySQL.
Conclusion
There are many ways of grasping information about the languages we mentioned in this article. You can start out with learning the basics and then gradually move on to harder things. YouTube lectures, free and paid online courses, as well as books, are all legitimate sources for this purpose.
There is plenty of information because HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and SQL remain popular to this day. Try out coding for WordPress and see where it takes you. Perhaps, the experience will stir you to pick up programming as a hobby or even as a vocation. Good luck!