Getting Started with WordPress Plugins
Part of the genius and magic of WordPress is the plugin system. These plugins extend and enhance what WordPress is able to do in very specific ways. Anyone is able to write a plugin for WordPress, and even include it in the official plugin library, otherwise known as the WordPress Plugin Repository.Let’s explore some essential information for getting started with plugins.
Installing and Activating Plugins
Among the WordPress files on your server, there is a special directory, /wp-content/plugins/, that contains all of your site’s plugins. The tried-and-true method for installing a plugin is to download it to your computer, and then upload it to your server into the plugins directory. After that, the plugin will appear in the Admin area on the “Plugins” page. By default, new plugins are inactive, so you will need to manually activate them before they take any effect.You can, at any time, deactivate a plugin in this same way. Do be aware, however, that plugins have serious power. Any time you activate or deactivate a plugin, you should do some thorough investigating of your site to make sure everything is looking and functioning as expected.Plugins can also be searched for and installed directly from the Admin area of your site. Just go to Plugins > Add New. The plugins available here are exactly the same as those available at the WordPress Plugin Repository. In order to take advantage of this direct web installation, your plugins directory must be “writeable” by the server. In a perfect world, giving write permissions to a directory would be absolutely safe, but in the hostile environment of today’s Web, you should definitely consider carefully whether or not such permission is truly necessary.The bonus of downloading plugins from the WordPress.org directory is that you can be sure that the plugin isn’t malicious in any way. There are certainly ways you can get yourself into trouble with plugins, but plugins obtained from the Repository are unlikely to damage your site or harrass your visitors. There are plugins “out in the wild” available for download as well, but there are no guarantees as to what you will get, so be very conscious of the source when installing such plugins.