What you need to know to develop a WordPress plugin

There are a few things you might find helpful to understand before attempting WordPress plugin development. 

I suggest having a good read through the following resources as this will all help the apprentice WordPress developer...

• Firstly you need basic PHP and perhaps a little MySQL. The PHP tutorial at W3Schools will help here as will the PHP / MySQL lessons they have.

• You then need to delve a little under the hood of WordPress and get your head around the following:
  • How the whole WordPress world is centered around the WordPress Loop
  • Breaking a site up with WordPress Template tags and the Template Hierarchy
  • Have a look through the WordPress Function Reference so you don't reinvent the wheel
• The next thing to do is to understand the idea behind the Hooks, Actions and Filters of the WordPress Plugin API

• Read the Writing a Plugin guide

• The next thing to look at might be the WordPress coding standards and then to take a look the code behind a simple plugin.

That should keep even the most extreme beginner busy!