Print PDF

Plugins make for a very easy way to add new functionality to your website.  At the time of writing this, there are more than 14,000 plugins freely available for you to download through WordPress.org.  The type of functionality that they can add to your site can vary dramatically from plugin to plugin.  I tend to break down plugins into 3 main categories though, and I find that once you understand the three types of plugins, you’ll find it remarkably easy to work with any well-designed plugin out there.

Example of Available Widget Areas In A Theme

Widgets

Widgets are very simple way to get a specific type of content into a specific spot on your site.  Your site must be using a theme that supports Widgets of course (but most themes available today have support for widgets already).  Assuming you are working with a theme that does support widgets, then there’ll be a preset number of “widget areas” defined already for you.  You’ll see these in the back-end under Appearance/Widgets.  Each one of these can be expanded by clicking on its down arrow (right side).  Once expanded, you’ll see any widgets that are currently contained in that area.  To the left of these available widget areas, you’ll be shown a mashup of all the available widgets.  All you have to do is drag one of the available widgets into a widget area, configure its options, and hit save.  The content that the widget is supposed to be displaying (this varies from widget to widget — it could be posts from a specific category, or plain text etc…) should appear on your site instantly!  It doesn’t get much easier than that!

An Example Of A Shortcode In Use Within A Post

Shortcodes

Some plugins allow you to use what are known as “Shortcodes” within your posts/pages.  When a plugin that you’re installing touts this as a feature, it typically means that you can actually have the plugin do its thing right within the body of your pages and posts.  Once again, the type of functionality that this type of plugin provides is hard to detail, because it varies so greatly between plugins.

Here’s an example of code block though — these come in very handy whenever I need to include some sample code within one of my posts.  Code contained within a code block like this maintains its formatting, and I can even have the plugin highlight keywords within my code.

Code block

Anything typed in here shows up in a code block

Miscellaneous Plugins

These plugins are the hardest to define because it encompasses basically anything that doesn’t match one of the aforementioned categories.  Typically these plugins tie (or hook) into various events within WordPress’ core.  There are plugins that will allow for SMTP emailing capabilities –> these ones work because WordPress has built-in email capabilities, but it expects you to have a mail server on the same machine/network as your web server.  If you don’t happen to have a mail server available, then WordPress is basically at a loss.  If you install one of these SMTP plugins however, then any time WordPress tries to send an email, it will use the settings defined within this plugins’ settings page.  The settings for these types of plugins are usually located under “Settings” in the back-end of WordPress.  Another example of a misc. plugin like this would be the one that you’ll see in action at the bottom of this post.  You’ll notice a bunch of buttons that allow you to share this post through various social media.  This plugin works by hooking into a WordPress event — the one that actually draws the post to the screen.

Other Sites