PHP for WordPress Development

If you want to build themes, plugins, or do any serious WordPress development, you need to understand PHP. More than any other language, PHP is the backbone of WordPress—it powers everything from how posts are displayed to how plugins work.

This free course on PHP for WordPress teaches you the core PHP concepts you need to write and understand WordPress code. Think of it as the “grammar” behind how WordPress works. Once you understand PHP, you’ll be able to read and write WordPress code with confidence.

How PHP and WordPress Fit Together

To develop with WordPress, you need to understand two things:

• PHP itself – the core language WordPress is built in
• WordPress’s PHP vocabulary – the functions and tools specific to WordPress

Most tutorials focus on that second part. This course focuses on the first: learning PHP as a WordPress developer, with clear, practical examples that apply directly to the kind of code you’ll see in themes and plugins.

Okay, let’s get started on learning PHP for WordPress development!

Start Learning: Modules & Lessons

Over these 22 lessons, you’ll build a solid foundation in PHP as it applies to WordPress development – from basic syntax and logic to working with arrays, loops, functions, and object-oriented programming.

🎥 A quick note about videos: Some lessons include videos recorded when the course was first launched in 2017. While the tools shown and the WordPress interface may look different today, the underlying principles remain the same. The written content in each lesson is kept up to date.

🧱 Module 1: PHP Fundamentals

Learn the building blocks of PHP syntax and how it fits into the world of WordPress development.

1. PHP for Beginners: Starting on Backend WordPress Development
2. Learning PHP: Concatenate Strings and Variables Efficiently
3. Learning PHP for WordPress Development: Understanding PHP’s echo
4. Learning PHP for WordPress Development: Introduction to PHP Functions
5. Learning PHP for WordPress Development: Understanding PHP’s return
6. PHP Development Basics: How to Include PHP in HTML

🔄 Module 2: Logic and Control Flow

Dive into conditions, loops, arrays, and operators—the foundation for dynamic logic in your code.

7. Understanding PHP Operators of Logic, or || and && and ! a lot more
8. PHP Control Flow Basics: Concepts and Code Examples
9. A Complete Guide to PHP Data Types: Numbers, Booleans, Strings, & More
10. A Thorough Introduction to PHP Arrays
11. PHP Math Functions: Understanding the Basics
12. Understand PHP Modulo: Tricks with Division Remainders
13. How to Use PHP while() Loops: Concepts and Code Examples
14. PHP Foreach: All You Need to Know
15. Three Tips for Writing Airtight PHP Conditions

🧠 Module 3: Writing Better PHP

Improve your PHP code quality with insights into scope, global variables, and development styles.

16. Understanding PHP Globals and Variable Scope in WordPress
17. The Three Development Paradigms: Procedural, Object-Oriented, and Functional

🧰 Module 4: Object-Oriented PHP for WordPress

Learn how to write modern, reusable PHP code using object-oriented programming, and see how it connects to WordPress development.

18. Introduction to Object-Oriented PHP for WordPress Developers
19. Understanding Class Inheritance (Child and Parent Classes) in Object-Oriented PHP
20. Object-Oriented PHP: The __construct() Magic Method
21. Where and How to Use WordPress Hooks in Objects
22. How to Understand PHP Static Methods, Properties, & Classes

PHP for WordPress

I hope you’ve gotten a ton out of this free course on PHP for WordPress development. If you understand the topics above, you’re well on your way to grasping the core PHP topics you’ll need as a WordPress developer.

If you’d like to learn PHP for WordPress in the best and most complete treatment we can give you, sign up for updates on our full PHP for WordPress Development premium course, coming soon:

Thanks for reading!