Tag: tutorials

25 Free WordPress Troubleshooting Tools Our Support Experts Swear By
Looking for the best free tools for quick and easy WordPress troubleshooting? Here are 25 site-saving tools our support team use every day to troubleshoot and fix issues on thousands of WordPress sites.

WPMU DEV’s support team handles an average of almost 10,000 support requests each month from members via live chat and forums, and over 75% of all the support tickets we receive involve troubleshooting WordPress sites.

Given the volume of support requests we receive and the urgent need to resolve issues for our members as quickly and effectively as possible, our support team has built up quite a list of useful WordPress troubleshooting tools…and most of them are free to use!

Bookmark this handy and helpful resource – it will help you become your clients’ all-time WordPress hero!

Keep reading to learn about all these useful tools or click on a link to go directly to the tool’s description and link.
MxToolbox

Use MxToolbox for troubleshooting email issues and improving email delivery.

MxToolbox offers a comprehensive set of tools to manage email configuration and troubleshoot email issues for improved email delivery.

The integrated tool provides diagnostics for MX records, DNS, blacklists, and SMTP. By inputting a domain name or IP address, you can access relevant tools and information, along with a chronological history of results.

The tool covers various checks, including reputation blacklists, SMTP server testing, MX records, SPF records, DNS A records, and more. Additionally, you can perform tasks such as domain registration lookup, IP address block information, TCP and HTTP connection verification, ping, trace route, and DNS server checks.

Check it out here: MxToolbox

httpstatus.io

httpstatus.io is a bulk URL HTTP status code, header , and redirect checker.

httpstatus.io is a free tool for checking HTTP status codes, response headers, and redirect chains of a server in response to a URL request. It allows you to check bulk URLs and analyze and export the results.

The tool offers flexibility in modifying HTTP request settings, such as changing the User Agent, sending server authentication credentials, and adding custom headers, and helps troubleshoot issues like redirect chains, which can impact site performance, SEO, and user experience.

httpstatus.io also provides features like a redirect checker, customizable request headers, filters for sorting results, data export options, and identification of redirect latency issues.

The tool allows easy input of up to 100 URLs for checking status codes and redirect chains in one go, making it convenient for troubleshooting multiple WordPress sites.

Check it out here: httpstatus.io

Temp-Mail

Use Temp Mail for disposable temporary emails.

Temp-MailÂ is a free throwaway email service that provides temporary and disposable email addresses.

Disposable email addresses are useful for troubleshooting sites, testing purposes, and protecting your business email from spam lists. They help keep your mailbox clean, protect against hacking attempts and spam, maintain anonymity, andÂ are commonly used for registering on WordPress sites, forums, Wi-Fi networks, and online services.

Features of temp-mail.org include easy creation of temporary email addresses, no registration or personal information required, multiple email addresses available, temporary email storage for received messages, and the ability to generate random or choose specific email addresses.

Check it out this tool here: Temp-Mail

Tempail

Tempail – Temporary Email service.

Another temporary email address service we use to send notifications or test emails is Tempail.

Tempail’s temporary mail addresses expire after 1 hour and can be used to sign up to websites, social media, and read incoming emails.

Visit the website:Â Tempail

Postman

Use Postman to make and test API calls.

Postman provides a comprehensive set of tools for designing, testing, documenting, mocking, and discovering APIs.

The Postman API client is a foundational tool that lets you explore, debug, and test your APIs. It supports various API request types, including HTTP, REST, SOAP, GraphQL, and WebSockets.

The API client automatically detects response language, links, and formats for easy inspection, provides built-in support for authentication protocols (e.g. OAuth 1.2/2.0, AWS Signature, and Hawk), lets you organize requests into reusable collections, include JavaScript code to connect requests or automate workflows, and use scripting capabilities to visualize API responses as charts and graphs for better analysis.

For more info, go here: Postman

MailTrap

MailTrap simplifies email testing and provides in-depth analysis to help avoid email-related issues during WordPress troubleshooting.

MailTrap’s Email Testing tool makes a Sandbox SMTP server so you can use it to â€˜sendâ€™ emails and they get â€˜trappedâ€™ by the SMTP server.

It creates individual testing environments for capturing and analyzing SMTP traffic, making it easy to test emails from staging and development environments.

Mailtrap also allows you to create individual inboxes, organize testing data, and manage email activity for different aspects of your WordPress site. The tool offers a Testing API for automating test flows and scenarios, and facilitates collaboration by enabling you to share test emails with your team, manage access to inboxes, and send selected test emails to whitelisted recipients.

You can view messages, check spam scores, validate headers, and analyze HTML support across different email clients for comprehensive email content and source analysis.

More info: MailTrap Email Sandbox

Mailhardener

Mailhardener helps to ensure your domain meets all email security standards.

We use Mailhardener to test email-related DNS records, but there are many reasons to considerÂ using this tool.

For example, Mailhardener enhances email security, prevents fraud, and improves deliverability for WordPress sites.

It also:
- Maximizes email security standards to combat fraud, impersonation, interception, and censorship.
- Enables management of policies for email senders, actively monitoring email traffic and blocking fraudulent activity.
- Facilitates secure email transport through encryption and digital signatures.
- Includes email security features to improve deliverability by increasing trustworthiness in the eyes of spam filters.
- Provides visibility into email security results, helping identify areas for improvement and fine-tuning deliverability strategies.
Note: Mailhardener is a paid service, but it offers a free version for personal or evaluation use, allowing one domain with up to one month of data retention..

Learn more here: Mailhardener

ipinfo.io

Use ipinfo.io to obtain detailed information about an IP address.

ipinfo.io consolidates IP data in one place, offering valuable insights for troubleshooting WordPress sites.

Key features of this tool include include geolocation lookup, IP range analysis, privacy detection, company lookup, ASN details, hosted domains, mobile carrier detection, abuse contact information, and IP Whois records.

Benefits of using ipinfo.io for troubleshooting WordPress sites include:
- Streamlined analysis with a comprehensive suite of tools and APIs.
- Enhanced security by identifying potential threats and taking appropriate measures.
- Improved performance by optimizing network connectivity and addressing dependencies.
- Personalization and targeting based on geolocation and mobile carrier data.
- Reliable email deliverability through email security monitoring and improvements.
- Efficient troubleshooting with access to accurate and comprehensive IP data.
Check out the tool here: ipinfo.io

ifconfig

Use ifconfig to check IP addresses.

ifconfig is another tool you can use to check IP addresses and get information, such as geolocation, country, ISP, or organization.

It’s also a helpful tool for uncovering network bottlenecks or connectivity issues, combatting spam comments, malicious registrations, and abuse on sites, making informed decisions on blocking or whitelisting specific IP addresses, and gaining insights into website visitor sources.

SQL Queries to Change WordPress Website Domain

Use SQL Queries when moving WordPress sites across different domains.

SQL Queries is a great time-saving tool is for moving WordPress websites from one domain to another. Just generate the queries and run them in MySQL.

DNSChecker

Use DNSChecker.org to ensure global accessibility of your website by performing comprehensive DNS propagation lookups.

Understanding DNS propagation is crucial, as it takes time for DNS changes to propagate worldwide.

DNSChecker offers a free DNS propagation check service to verify if DNS records have propagated across multiple DNS servers worldwide.

The tool collects data from over 100 global DNS servers and presents results in an easy-to-understand format. Results are visually represented on a map, with green ticks indicating availability of DNS records and crosses symbolizing unavailability.

DNSChecker.org supports checking A, AAAA, CNAME, and additional DNS records for their propagation status. It also allows customization by adding custom DNS servers and performing checks based on IP, continent, and country. Detailed DNS record lookups enable troubleshooting of specific record-related issues.

To use the tool, go here: DNSChecker

WhatsMyDNS

WhatsMyDNS – DNS Propagation checker.

WhatsMyDNS is another DNS propagation checker you can use.

The tool lets you instantly perform a DNS lookup to check a domain name’s current IP address and DNS record information against multiple nameservers located in different parts of the world.

SecurityTrails

SecurityTrails.com is a powerful tool for troubleshooting and securing WordPress sites, and addressing malware-related concerns.

SecurityTrails helps prevent infrastructure hijacking, identify hidden information on websites, and track domain history.

Our support team uses it to view a site’s historical DNS records. For example, let’s say that when moving a domain from one nameserver to another you forget to copy over a DNS record. If the record is not masked (this is generally done by cloudflare on purpose), then it should be visible on securitytrails.com

Key features include DNS record history, domain historical WHOIS data, domain names database, website technologies identification, passive DNS datasets, instant IP and domain search, hostname information exploration, and tagging for efficient searches.

The tool provides an API for fetching domain, DNS, and IP-related data, real-time intelligence, and a user-friendly interface.

A free account shows you the full DNS history for any domain.

Other benefits of using this tool include:
- Prevent hijacking of IT infrastructure through DNS manipulation.
- Identify hidden information on websites.
- Identify previous hosting companies using historical DNS information.
- Check domains past nameserver & MX record history.
- Find the real IP address of a website behind Cloudflare.
Note: some of the items listed above require a premium account.

For more details about this tool, go here: SecurityTrails

SSL Checker

Use the SSL Checker tool to check the validity of SSL certificates.

SSL Checker is a free tool from SSL Shopper thatÂ helps verify the correct installation, validity, trustworthiness, and error-free status of SSL certificates on web servers. This ensures that users’ browsers won’t display untrusted warnings, maintaining a seamless browsing experience.

The tool performs comprehensive SSL certificate verification, checking the SSL connection and providing clear results on the certificate’s status.

The SSL Checker tool confirms the correct hostname inclusion in the certificate, checks for other potential issues, such as outdated hash functions, to ensure SSL security is up to date, and includes an expiration date reminder feature to facilitate timely renewal.

Check it out here: SSL Checker

Why No Padlock?

Check for insecure issues in domains with Why No Padlock?

Why No Padlock? is an alternative to using the SSL Checker tool described above. It is a powerful tool that checks if SSL is valid, helps identify the source of insecure content elements on SSL pages in WordPress, and provides information about the issuing company of the SSL certificate.

The tool verifies SSL certificate validity, checks for proper installation of intermediate chain certificates to prevent false security indicators, and matches the URL with the certificate domain. It also generates a detailed report on insecure calls to images, CSS, and JavaScript, SSL certificate validation, secure resource loading, insecure calls with referrer information, and third-party SSL certificate validation.

WhyNoPadlock.com is compatible with various eCommerce platforms, including ShopSite, Magento, and WooCommerce.

More info: WhyNoPadlock.com

GiftOfSpeed

GiftOfSpeed.com offers a range of tools to optimize WordPress site speed.

GiftOfSpeed provides tool to identify and help resolve speed-related issues.

Tools include compression tests, image optimization, caching evaluation, CSS and JavaScript compression, HTTP request checking, keep-alive testing, and more.

Benefits of using GiftOfSpeed.com’s tools for troubleshooting WordPress sites include:
- Improved page speed and user experience.
- Enhanced search engine rankings.
- Reduction in file sizes without compromising quality.
- Minimization of unnecessary elements and line breaks.
- Identification and removal of broken links and unoptimized images.
Learn more about this tool here: GiftOfSpeed.com

Domsignal

Domsignal

Domsignal offers an extensive range of free tools to help you test, troubleshoot, and enhance the performance, security, and SEO of WordPress sites.

Testing tools include Secure Headers Test, TLS Scanner, Referrer-Policy Test, Secure Cookie Test, HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) test, TTFB Test, HTTP Headers Checker, X-Frame-Options Test, MIME Sniffing Test, and many other powerful tools.

One tool we use in particular is Domsignal’s mixed content testing tool, which helps identify and locate mixed content issues in WordPress sites.

Domsignal’s Mixed Content Testing Tool helps to identify and resolve mixed content issues, improve site security, and provide a seamless browsing experience for site visitors.

Mixed content refers to web pages that request elements over non-secure connections despite being served securely. Mixed content can compromise website security and trigger browser warnings, leading to decreased trust and potential loss of web traffic.

Resolving mixed content involves updating URLs to use secure protocols (HTTPS) and contacting resource providers for HTTPS availability or alternatives.

This tool streamlines the troubleshooting process, enabling the maintenance of a secure and trustworthy website for visitors.

For more information, go here: Check Mixed Content

GZIP Compression Checker

Check Gzip compression of your website to save bandwidth and improve render time.

GZIP Compression Checker is a fast and easy-to-use tool that provides detailed results on whether gzip compression is enabled on your web server.

Gzip compression reduces page size, leading to faster loading and display. The tool is free, with no hidden costs. Enabling gzip compression is straightforward, with default settings in Apache’s mod-deflate module or configurable options in IIS. Remember to back up server settings before making any changes.

xBrowserSync

We use XBrowserSync to sync bookmarks across different browsers.

xBrowserSync offers a privacy-focused alternative to traditional browser syncing services provided by tech giants like Google, Firefox, and Opera.

It prioritizes data control and privacy, allowing users to regain control of their data and ensure anonymity, enhances productivity by adding descriptions, tags, and an intuitive search interface to native browser bookmarks, and offers backup and restore functionality to prevent data loss.

The tool includes a desktop browser web extension and a mobile app for Android users.

Check it out here: xBrowserSync

Broken Link Checker

Use Broken Link Checker to find and fix broken links on WordPress sites.

Broken links can harm SEO, user experience, and site health.

Broken Link Checker is a fast and accurate tool for WordPress that helps monitor and detect broken links, and resolve them quickly.

The plugin scans deeply and frequently, covering external and internal links, images, and redirects. It is 20x faster than other plugins and provides detailed results.

Broken Link Checker offers two link checking engines: a cloud-based engine for speed, unlimited scanning, and management of multiple sites, and a local engine that uses site/server resources.Â The plugin allows manual or scheduled scans, editing or unlinking broken links, detailed reports, email notifications, advanced search filtering, and export options.

Uptime

WPMU DEV’s Uptime alerts you immediately if a site goes down.

Understanding if your site is down helps in troubleshooting and identifying potential issues like DNS problems, internet backbone failures, or network congestion.

Uptime can be accessed from The Hub. Our team uses Uptime reports to see how long a site has been offline when errors are reported.

Uptrends

Uptrends – free website uptime testing tool.

Uptrends provides a free website uptime tool that lets you check the availability of your website from over 40 worldwide locations. Each checkpoint sends a request to your site, tracks the response time, and generates a report.

The tool provides green or red tiles indicating site availability, along with test duration and detailed timing information. A red status across all checkpoints indicates significant problems like DDoS attacks, hosting provider outages, or hardware malfunctions.

New Relic (WPMU DEV Hosted Sites)

Use New Relic monitoring to diagnose performance-related issues on your WordPress site.

Our support team uses New Relic to quickly identify and address performance issues on WordPress sites hosted with WPMU DEV.

WPMU DEV hosting plans include free integration with New Relic and their free plan is sufficient for troubleshooting analysis.

Uploading Plugins To Hub Connected Sites

The Hub lets you upload plugins to sites using various methods.

Being able to upload plugins to any site connected to The Hub, even via ZIP or public/Dropbox/GDrive link, is useful,Â since the zip method allows for multiple plugin zips to be uploaded.

This method is useful for testing plugins if you have the latest version of a premium plugin .zip file but for some reason you are unable to update the plugin from the WordPress admin.

Payment Testing

Use sandbox accounts to test payment forms.

Sandboxes provide a testing environment that simulates the behavior of actual payment gateways without processing real transactions.Â Testing payment forms using Stripe and PayPal sandboxes ensures that integrations with payment gateways is functioning correctly.

We use Stripe and Paypal sandboxes to test payment forms (e.g. Forminator).

For more information about setting up sandbox accounts for Stripe and PayPal and instructions on integrating and testing payment forms with their sandboxes, go here: Stripe Sandbox | PayPal Sandbox

Gists

Use gists to create time-saving custom code snippets.

In addition to the above tools, we also use GitHub Gists to create custom snippets that help support team members save time running various scripts when troubleshooting WordPress sites.

Gists offer a convenient method for sharing code snippets with others. Each gist is a Git repository, allowing it to be easily forked and cloned. When you create a gist while logged in to GitHub, it becomes associated with your account and appears in your list of gists on your gist home page.

Gists can be either public or secret. Public gists are displayed in the Discover section, enabling people to explore recently created gists. They are also searchable, making them suitable if you want others to discover and view your work.

WordPress Site Troubleshooting – DIY Or Use WPMU DEV’s Support?

Hopefully, the list of tools we have provided here will help you diagnose and troubleshoot issues on your clients’ WordPress sites more quickly and effectively (remember to bookmark this article, so you have this list handy!)

These tools, however, are only a small part of what it takes to keep WordPress sites running error-free and without problems. Managing WordPress sites effectively requires continually and proactively staying on top of performance issues to ensure a smooth user experience.

If you are a WPMU DEV member, why not let our support team handle it all for you so you can focus on growing your business?

WPMU DEV’s all-in-one WordPress platform is designed to help WordPress developers better manage their client sites. This includes providing world-class and affordable hosting services with a built-in suite of professional plugins and tools to ensure optimal site performance, and 24/7 access to the expertise of an entire support team with the knowledge and skills to resolve problems on WordPress sites quickly and effectively.
31.05.2023
25 Free WordPress Troubleshooting Tools Our Support Experts Swear By
Looking for the best free tools for quick and easy WordPress troubleshooting? Here are 25 site-saving tools our support team use every day to troubleshoot and fix issues on thousands of WordPress sites.

WPMU DEV’s support team handles an average of almost 10,000 support requests each month from members via live chat and forums, and over 75% of all the support tickets we receive involve troubleshooting WordPress sites.

Given the volume of support requests we receive and the urgent need to resolve issues for our members as quickly and effectively as possible, our support team has built up quite a list of useful WordPress troubleshooting tools…and most of them are free to use!

Bookmark this handy and helpful resource – it will help you become your clients’ all-time WordPress hero!

Keep reading to learn about all these useful tools or click on a link to go directly to the tool’s description and link.
MxToolbox

Use MxToolbox for troubleshooting email issues and improving email delivery.

MxToolbox offers a comprehensive set of tools to manage email configuration and troubleshoot email issues for improved email delivery.

The integrated tool provides diagnostics for MX records, DNS, blacklists, and SMTP. By inputting a domain name or IP address, you can access relevant tools and information, along with a chronological history of results.

The tool covers various checks, including reputation blacklists, SMTP server testing, MX records, SPF records, DNS A records, and more. Additionally, you can perform tasks such as domain registration lookup, IP address block information, TCP and HTTP connection verification, ping, trace route, and DNS server checks.

Check it out here: MxToolbox

httpstatus.io

httpstatus.io is a bulk URL HTTP status code, header , and redirect checker.

httpstatus.io is a free tool for checking HTTP status codes, response headers, and redirect chains of a server in response to a URL request. It allows you to check bulk URLs and analyze and export the results.

The tool offers flexibility in modifying HTTP request settings, such as changing the User Agent, sending server authentication credentials, and adding custom headers, and helps troubleshoot issues like redirect chains, which can impact site performance, SEO, and user experience.

httpstatus.io also provides features like a redirect checker, customizable request headers, filters for sorting results, data export options, and identification of redirect latency issues.

The tool allows easy input of up to 100 URLs for checking status codes and redirect chains in one go, making it convenient for troubleshooting multiple WordPress sites.

Check it out here: httpstatus.io

Temp-Mail

Use Temp Mail for disposable temporary emails.

Temp-MailÂ is a free throwaway email service that provides temporary and disposable email addresses.

Disposable email addresses are useful for troubleshooting sites, testing purposes, and protecting your business email from spam lists. They help keep your mailbox clean, protect against hacking attempts and spam, maintain anonymity, andÂ are commonly used for registering on WordPress sites, forums, Wi-Fi networks, and online services.

Features of temp-mail.org include easy creation of temporary email addresses, no registration or personal information required, multiple email addresses available, temporary email storage for received messages, and the ability to generate random or choose specific email addresses.

Check it out this tool here: Temp-Mail

Tempail

Tempail – Temporary Email service.

Another temporary email address service we use to send notifications or test emails is Tempail.

Tempail’s temporary mail addresses expire after 1 hour and can be used to sign up to websites, social media, and read incoming emails.

Visit the website:Â Tempail

Postman

Use Postman to make and test API calls.

Postman provides a comprehensive set of tools for designing, testing, documenting, mocking, and discovering APIs.

The Postman API client is a foundational tool that lets you explore, debug, and test your APIs. It supports various API request types, including HTTP, REST, SOAP, GraphQL, and WebSockets.

The API client automatically detects response language, links, and formats for easy inspection, provides built-in support for authentication protocols (e.g. OAuth 1.2/2.0, AWS Signature, and Hawk), lets you organize requests into reusable collections, include JavaScript code to connect requests or automate workflows, and use scripting capabilities to visualize API responses as charts and graphs for better analysis.

For more info, go here: Postman

MailTrap

MailTrap simplifies email testing and provides in-depth analysis to help avoid email-related issues during WordPress troubleshooting.

MailTrap’s Email Testing tool makes a Sandbox SMTP server so you can use it to â€˜sendâ€™ emails and they get â€˜trappedâ€™ by the SMTP server.

It creates individual testing environments for capturing and analyzing SMTP traffic, making it easy to test emails from staging and development environments.

Mailtrap also allows you to create individual inboxes, organize testing data, and manage email activity for different aspects of your WordPress site. The tool offers a Testing API for automating test flows and scenarios, and facilitates collaboration by enabling you to share test emails with your team, manage access to inboxes, and send selected test emails to whitelisted recipients.

You can view messages, check spam scores, validate headers, and analyze HTML support across different email clients for comprehensive email content and source analysis.

More info: MailTrap Email Sandbox

Mailhardener

Mailhardener helps to ensure your domain meets all email security standards.

We use Mailhardener to test email-related DNS records, but there are many reasons to considerÂ using this tool.

For example, Mailhardener enhances email security, prevents fraud, and improves deliverability for WordPress sites.

It also:
- Maximizes email security standards to combat fraud, impersonation, interception, and censorship.
- Enables management of policies for email senders, actively monitoring email traffic and blocking fraudulent activity.
- Facilitates secure email transport through encryption and digital signatures.
- Includes email security features to improve deliverability by increasing trustworthiness in the eyes of spam filters.
- Provides visibility into email security results, helping identify areas for improvement and fine-tuning deliverability strategies.
Note: Mailhardener is a paid service, but it offers a free version for personal or evaluation use, allowing one domain with up to one month of data retention..

Learn more here: Mailhardener

ipinfo.io

Use ipinfo.io to obtain detailed information about an IP address.

ipinfo.io consolidates IP data in one place, offering valuable insights for troubleshooting WordPress sites.

Key features of this tool include include geolocation lookup, IP range analysis, privacy detection, company lookup, ASN details, hosted domains, mobile carrier detection, abuse contact information, and IP Whois records.

Benefits of using ipinfo.io for troubleshooting WordPress sites include:
- Streamlined analysis with a comprehensive suite of tools and APIs.
- Enhanced security by identifying potential threats and taking appropriate measures.
- Improved performance by optimizing network connectivity and addressing dependencies.
- Personalization and targeting based on geolocation and mobile carrier data.
- Reliable email deliverability through email security monitoring and improvements.
- Efficient troubleshooting with access to accurate and comprehensive IP data.
Check out the tool here: ipinfo.io

ifconfig

Use ifconfig to check IP addresses.

ifconfig is another tool you can use to check IP addresses and get information, such as geolocation, country, ISP, or organization.

It’s also a helpful tool for uncovering network bottlenecks or connectivity issues, combatting spam comments, malicious registrations, and abuse on sites, making informed decisions on blocking or whitelisting specific IP addresses, and gaining insights into website visitor sources.

SQL Queries to Change WordPress Website Domain

Use SQL Queries when moving WordPress sites across different domains.

SQL Queries is a great time-saving tool is for moving WordPress websites from one domain to another. Just generate the queries and run them in MySQL.

DNSChecker

Use DNSChecker.org to ensure global accessibility of your website by performing comprehensive DNS propagation lookups.

Understanding DNS propagation is crucial, as it takes time for DNS changes to propagate worldwide.

DNSChecker offers a free DNS propagation check service to verify if DNS records have propagated across multiple DNS servers worldwide.

The tool collects data from over 100 global DNS servers and presents results in an easy-to-understand format. Results are visually represented on a map, with green ticks indicating availability of DNS records and crosses symbolizing unavailability.

DNSChecker.org supports checking A, AAAA, CNAME, and additional DNS records for their propagation status. It also allows customization by adding custom DNS servers and performing checks based on IP, continent, and country. Detailed DNS record lookups enable troubleshooting of specific record-related issues.

To use the tool, go here: DNSChecker

WhatsMyDNS

WhatsMyDNS – DNS Propagation checker.

WhatsMyDNS is another DNS propagation checker you can use.

The tool lets you instantly perform a DNS lookup to check a domain name’s current IP address and DNS record information against multiple nameservers located in different parts of the world.

SecurityTrails

SecurityTrails.com is a powerful tool for troubleshooting and securing WordPress sites, and addressing malware-related concerns.

SecurityTrails helps prevent infrastructure hijacking, identify hidden information on websites, and track domain history.

Our support team uses it to view a site’s historical DNS records. For example, let’s say that when moving a domain from one nameserver to another you forget to copy over a DNS record. If the record is not masked (this is generally done by cloudflare on purpose), then it should be visible on securitytrails.com

Key features include DNS record history, domain historical WHOIS data, domain names database, website technologies identification, passive DNS datasets, instant IP and domain search, hostname information exploration, and tagging for efficient searches.

The tool provides an API for fetching domain, DNS, and IP-related data, real-time intelligence, and a user-friendly interface.

A free account shows you the full DNS history for any domain.

Other benefits of using this tool include:
- Prevent hijacking of IT infrastructure through DNS manipulation.
- Identify hidden information on websites.
- Identify previous hosting companies using historical DNS information.
- Check domains past nameserver & MX record history.
- Find the real IP address of a website behind Cloudflare.
Note: some of the items listed above require a premium account.

For more details about this tool, go here: SecurityTrails

SSL Checker

Use the SSL Checker tool to check the validity of SSL certificates.

SSL Checker is a free tool from SSL Shopper thatÂ helps verify the correct installation, validity, trustworthiness, and error-free status of SSL certificates on web servers. This ensures that users’ browsers won’t display untrusted warnings, maintaining a seamless browsing experience.

The tool performs comprehensive SSL certificate verification, checking the SSL connection and providing clear results on the certificate’s status.

The SSL Checker tool confirms the correct hostname inclusion in the certificate, checks for other potential issues, such as outdated hash functions, to ensure SSL security is up to date, and includes an expiration date reminder feature to facilitate timely renewal.

Check it out here: SSL Checker

Why No Padlock?

Check for insecure issues in domains with Why No Padlock?

Why No Padlock? is an alternative to using the SSL Checker tool described above. It is a powerful tool that checks if SSL is valid, helps identify the source of insecure content elements on SSL pages in WordPress, and provides information about the issuing company of the SSL certificate.

The tool verifies SSL certificate validity, checks for proper installation of intermediate chain certificates to prevent false security indicators, and matches the URL with the certificate domain. It also generates a detailed report on insecure calls to images, CSS, and JavaScript, SSL certificate validation, secure resource loading, insecure calls with referrer information, and third-party SSL certificate validation.

WhyNoPadlock.com is compatible with various eCommerce platforms, including ShopSite, Magento, and WooCommerce.

More info: WhyNoPadlock.com

GiftOfSpeed

GiftOfSpeed.com offers a range of tools to optimize WordPress site speed.

GiftOfSpeed provides tool to identify and help resolve speed-related issues.

Tools include compression tests, image optimization, caching evaluation, CSS and JavaScript compression, HTTP request checking, keep-alive testing, and more.

Benefits of using GiftOfSpeed.com’s tools for troubleshooting WordPress sites include:
- Improved page speed and user experience.
- Enhanced search engine rankings.
- Reduction in file sizes without compromising quality.
- Minimization of unnecessary elements and line breaks.
- Identification and removal of broken links and unoptimized images.
Learn more about this tool here: GiftOfSpeed.com

Domsignal

Domsignal

Domsignal offers an extensive range of free tools to help you test, troubleshoot, and enhance the performance, security, and SEO of WordPress sites.

Testing tools include Secure Headers Test, TLS Scanner, Referrer-Policy Test, Secure Cookie Test, HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) test, TTFB Test, HTTP Headers Checker, X-Frame-Options Test, MIME Sniffing Test, and many other powerful tools.

One tool we use in particular is Domsignal’s mixed content testing tool, which helps identify and locate mixed content issues in WordPress sites.

Domsignal’s Mixed Content Testing Tool helps to identify and resolve mixed content issues, improve site security, and provide a seamless browsing experience for site visitors.

Mixed content refers to web pages that request elements over non-secure connections despite being served securely. Mixed content can compromise website security and trigger browser warnings, leading to decreased trust and potential loss of web traffic.

Resolving mixed content involves updating URLs to use secure protocols (HTTPS) and contacting resource providers for HTTPS availability or alternatives.

This tool streamlines the troubleshooting process, enabling the maintenance of a secure and trustworthy website for visitors.

For more information, go here: Check Mixed Content

GZIP Compression Checker

Check Gzip compression of your website to save bandwidth and improve render time.

GZIP Compression Checker is a fast and easy-to-use tool that provides detailed results on whether gzip compression is enabled on your web server.

Gzip compression reduces page size, leading to faster loading and display. The tool is free, with no hidden costs. Enabling gzip compression is straightforward, with default settings in Apache’s mod-deflate module or configurable options in IIS. Remember to back up server settings before making any changes.

xBrowserSync

We use XBrowserSync to sync bookmarks across different browsers.

xBrowserSync offers a privacy-focused alternative to traditional browser syncing services provided by tech giants like Google, Firefox, and Opera.

It prioritizes data control and privacy, allowing users to regain control of their data and ensure anonymity, enhances productivity by adding descriptions, tags, and an intuitive search interface to native browser bookmarks, and offers backup and restore functionality to prevent data loss.

The tool includes a desktop browser web extension and a mobile app for Android users.

Check it out here: xBrowserSync

Broken Link Checker

Use Broken Link Checker to find and fix broken links on WordPress sites.

Broken links can harm SEO, user experience, and site health.

Broken Link Checker is a fast and accurate tool for WordPress that helps monitor and detect broken links, and resolve them quickly.

The plugin scans deeply and frequently, covering external and internal links, images, and redirects. It is 20x faster than other plugins and provides detailed results.

Broken Link Checker offers two link checking engines: a cloud-based engine for speed, unlimited scanning, and management of multiple sites, and a local engine that uses site/server resources.Â The plugin allows manual or scheduled scans, editing or unlinking broken links, detailed reports, email notifications, advanced search filtering, and export options.

Uptime

WPMU DEV’s Uptime alerts you immediately if a site goes down.

Understanding if your site is down helps in troubleshooting and identifying potential issues like DNS problems, internet backbone failures, or network congestion.

Uptime can be accessed from The Hub. Our team uses Uptime reports to see how long a site has been offline when errors are reported.

Uptrends

Uptrends – free website uptime testing tool.

Uptrends provides a free website uptime tool that lets you check the availability of your website from over 40 worldwide locations. Each checkpoint sends a request to your site, tracks the response time, and generates a report.

The tool provides green or red tiles indicating site availability, along with test duration and detailed timing information. A red status across all checkpoints indicates significant problems like DDoS attacks, hosting provider outages, or hardware malfunctions.

New Relic (WPMU DEV Hosted Sites)

Use New Relic monitoring to diagnose performance-related issues on your WordPress site.

Our support team uses New Relic to quickly identify and address performance issues on WordPress sites hosted with WPMU DEV.

WPMU DEV hosting plans include free integration with New Relic and their free plan is sufficient for troubleshooting analysis.

Uploading Plugins To Hub Connected Sites

The Hub lets you upload plugins to sites using various methods.

Being able to upload plugins to any site connected to The Hub, even via ZIP or public/Dropbox/GDrive link, is useful,Â since the zip method allows for multiple plugin zips to be uploaded.

This method is useful for testing plugins if you have the latest version of a premium plugin .zip file but for some reason you are unable to update the plugin from the WordPress admin.

Payment Testing

Use sandbox accounts to test payment forms.

Sandboxes provide a testing environment that simulates the behavior of actual payment gateways without processing real transactions.Â Testing payment forms using Stripe and PayPal sandboxes ensures that integrations with payment gateways is functioning correctly.

We use Stripe and Paypal sandboxes to test payment forms (e.g. Forminator).

For more information about setting up sandbox accounts for Stripe and PayPal and instructions on integrating and testing payment forms with their sandboxes, go here: Stripe Sandbox | PayPal Sandbox

Gists

Use gists to create time-saving custom code snippets.

In addition to the above tools, we also use GitHub Gists to create custom snippets that help support team members save time running various scripts when troubleshooting WordPress sites.

Gists offer a convenient method for sharing code snippets with others. Each gist is a Git repository, allowing it to be easily forked and cloned. When you create a gist while logged in to GitHub, it becomes associated with your account and appears in your list of gists on your gist home page.

Gists can be either public or secret. Public gists are displayed in the Discover section, enabling people to explore recently created gists. They are also searchable, making them suitable if you want others to discover and view your work.

WordPress Site Troubleshooting – DIY Or Use WPMU DEV’s Support?

Hopefully, the list of tools we have provided here will help you diagnose and troubleshoot issues on your clients’ WordPress sites more quickly and effectively (remember to bookmark this article, so you have this list handy!)

These tools, however, are only a small part of what it takes to keep WordPress sites running error-free and without problems. Managing WordPress sites effectively requires continually and proactively staying on top of performance issues to ensure a smooth user experience.

If you are a WPMU DEV member, why not let our support team handle it all for you so you can focus on growing your business?

WPMU DEV’s all-in-one WordPress platform is designed to help WordPress developers better manage their client sites. This includes providing world-class and affordable hosting services with a built-in suite of professional plugins and tools to ensure optimal site performance, and 24/7 access to the expertise of an entire support team with the knowledge and skills to resolve problems on WordPress sites quickly and effectively.
31.05.2023
How to Validate Customer Phone Numbers (2 Ways)
Are you looking for ways to validate your customer’s phone numbers?

Phone number verification helps filter invalid leads before they’re added to your database. This way, you’ll save time and cost by only removing fake or inactive numbers.

In this article, we will show you how to validate customer phone numbers using different ways.

Why Validate Customer Phone Numbers?

If you collect customer phone numbers as part of lead generation, then it is important to validate the contact information.

Sometimes, a user might make an error when entering the phone number, providing a fake number, or the number is no longer active. It’s important to verify this information and make sure that your efforts don’t go to waste.

That’s because you can use a valid phone number to provide customer support through a business phone service, deliver shipping details, order information, marketing and sales-related activities, and more.

Plus, you’ll also reduce costs by removing invalid contact information. This is really useful when you’re using marketing tools to send SMS messages, emails, and other messages, as you’ll save credits.

That said, let’s see how to validate customer phone numbers in WordPress. We’ll cover different methods, so you can click the links below to jump ahead to any section.
- Method 1: Validate Phone Numbers using WP Simple Pay
- Method 2: Validate Phone Numbers using Formidable Forms
Method 1: Validate Phone Numbers using WP Simple Pay

If you’re selling digital products online, then you can verify the customer’s phone number using WP Simple Pay. It is the best Stripe payment plugin for WordPress and allows you to accept online payments without setting up a shopping cart.

The plugin offers a phone number validation feature that confirms if a user has entered the phone number correctly. This way, you can reduce the likelihood of typos and errors.

For this tutorial, we will use the WP Simple Pay Pro plan because it includes the phone number validation feature. However, there is also a free version of WP Simple Pay available.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the WP Simple Pay plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll see the WP Simple Pay setup wizard. Simply click the ‘Let’s Get Started’ button to continue.

On the next screen, you’ll need to enter the license key. You can easily find the key in your WP Simple Pay account area.

After entering the license key, you can click the ‘Activate and Continue’ button.

Next, you must connect your Stripe account with WP Simply Pay.

Go ahead and click the ‘Connect with Stripe’ button to move forward.

You’ll now need to login to your Stripe account and follow the onscreen instructions to connect your account.

Do note that Stripe only works with sites with SSL encryption. Most WordPress hosting services provide free SSL certificates. However, you may also want to see our guide on how to move a website from HTTP to HTTPS.

Once you’ve connected your Stripe account, the setup wizard will ask you to configure the email settings. You can enable options to receive payment receipts, upcoming invoices, and payment notifications.

Go ahead and click the ‘Save and Continue’ button when you’re done.

Now, you’re ready to create a payment form in WP Simple Pay. Simply click the ‘Create a Payment Form’ button.

WP Simple Pay offers multiple form templates to choose from. You can simply add a payment button, donate button, or set up all types of payment forms.

For this tutorial, we will select the ‘Payment Form’ template. You can hover over the template and click the ‘Use Template’ button.

Next, you can edit your payment form.

In the General settings tab, you’ll see options to change the form title, description, form type, payment success page settings, and more.

After that, you can switch to the ‘Payment’ tab.

Here, you will see different settings to edit the pricing options.

You can scroll down to add prices for your products. Plus, there are also settings to choose the subscription type. For instance, you can make it a one-time payment or a recurring subscription.

WP Simple Pay also lets you add different payment methods. You can accept payments through credit/debit cards, ACH direct debit, Aplipay, Klarna, and more.

After that, you can switch to the Form Fields tab to add or remove different fields in your payment form.

By default, WP Simple Pay won’t add the phone number field.

To add the field, simply click the Form Fields dropdown menu and select the ‘Phone’ field. Once you’ve selected it, click the ‘Add Field’ button.

Next, you can expand the Phone field and further customize it, like editing its label and making it a required field.

For phone number verification, make sure that you enable the ‘Offer Smart Phone Number Validation’ option and select the default country.

Aside from that, you can edit other form fields and rearrange their order by simply dragging them up or down.

Once you’re done editing, go ahead and click the ‘Publish’ button.

Next, you can add the payment form on any page or post on your WordPress site.

Simply edit or add a new post or page. Once you’re in the content editor, click the ‘+’ icon and add the ‘WP Simple Pay’ block.

Now, click the dropdown menu in the block to select your payment form. Once that’s done, simply publish or update your page.

You can now visit your website to see the payment form with the phone number validation option.

When a user enters an invalid phone number, they will not be able to move ahead in the form.

Method 2: Validate Phone Numbers using Formidable Forms

Another way to verify your customer’s phone numbers is using Formidable Forms. It is one of the best contact form plugins for WordPress. It offers powerful features and helps you create complex forms, like mortgage calculators.

Formidable Forms lets you add a phone number field to your forms and helps validate the numbers. You can also select a format, so users enter the correct information without making any mistakes. This is really useful if you’re collecting leads or gathering user information on a WordPress blog.

For this tutorial, we will be using the Formidable Forms Pro version because it includes advanced settings for phone validation.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the Formidable Forms Lite plugin, which acts as a base for advanced premium features. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can head to the Formidable Â» Global Settings. Here, you will need to click the ‘Click to enter a license key manually’ link.

After that, simply enter the license key in the box and click the ‘Save License’ button.

You can find the license key in your Formidable Forms account area.

Now, you’re ready to create a new WordPress form.

Next, you can go to Formidable Â» Forms from the WordPress dashboard and click the ‘+ Add New’ button.

After that, Formidable Forms will ask you to select a form template. There are multiple templates to choose from.

For this tutorial, we will use the ‘Contact Us’ form template.

Next, you’ll see the drag-and-drop form builder, where you can edit your contact form.

From the panel on your left, simply drag the ‘Phone’ field and drop it onto the template.

You can now select the Phone form field and further customize it.

For instance, there are options to change its label, make it a required field, and enter CSS classes.

Next, you can open the ‘Advanced’ tab from the panel on your left.

Here, you can set the format for your phone number. This will help users to fill in the contact information correctly. Besides that, there are other options to add placeholder text, edit the field size, add max characters, and more.

Lastly, you’ll need to switch to the ‘Validation Messages’ tab from the left panel.

In this section, you can enter the message that customers will see when they enter an invalid format.

Other than that, Formidable Forms also offers different settings for your WordPress form.

You can switch to the ‘Setting’ tab from the top to view them. For instance, there are options to edit the actions and notifications for your form.

By default, Formidable Forms will send a confirmation message when a user submits a form. Plus, your website admin will also receive an email that a new form has been submitted.

After making changes to the form settings, you can embed in any page or post.

Simply click the ‘Embed’ button at the top. A new window will now open where you’ll need to select an existing page, create a new page, or manually insert the form on your website.

For this tutorial, we will select the ‘Create new page’ option.

Next, you’ll need to enter a name for the new page. Once that’s done, click the ‘Create page’ button.

You should now see a preview of your form in the WordPress block editor.

Go ahead and publish your page. You can visit your website to see the contact form with the phone number validation field.

Now, if someone enters the phone number with an invalid format, they won’t be able to submit the form and will see the validation message.

We hope this article helped you learn how to validate customer phone numbers. You may also want to see our guide on the best live chat software for small businesses and our ultimate guide to WordPress SEO.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to ourÂ YouTube ChannelÂ for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us onÂ TwitterÂ and Facebook.

The post How to Validate Customer Phone Numbers (2 Ways) first appeared on WPBeginner.
29.05.2023
How to Make Separate RSS Feeds for Each Category in WordPress
Do you want to make a separate RSS feed for each category in WordPress?

Categories allow you to easily sort your content into major sections. Adding category RSS feeds can help your users subscribe to specific areas of your website that interest them.

In this article, we will show you how to easily make a separate RSS feed for each category in WordPress. We will also talk about how you can use these feeds effectively to grow your website.

How to Find RSS Feeds for Different Categories in WordPress

Categories and tags are two of the main default taxonomies in WordPress. They allow you to easily sort and organize your content into different subjects and topics.

By default, each category on your WordPress website has its own RSS feed. You can locate this RSS feed by simply adding ‘feed’ at the end of the category page URL.

For instance, if you have a category called ‘News’ with a URL like this:

https://example.com/category/news/

Then its RSS feed would be located at the following URL:

https://example.com/category/news/feed/

Tip: You can find your category URL by visiting the Posts Â» Categories page and clicking on the ‘View’ link under a category.

Now that you have located the RSS feed URLs for your categories, let’s look at some of the ways that you can share them with visitors on your WordPress website.
Method 1: Add Links for Category RSS Feeds Using WordPress

If you want to add links to your category RSS feeds using the default WordPress settings, then this method is for you.

First, you will need to open up a page or post where you want to add the RSS feed links in the block editor.

Once you are there, you can type the name of all the categories on your website in a List block.

After that, simply click the ‘Link’ icon in the block toolbar to open up the link prompt.

Here, you can type the URL for your category RSS feed.

You will need to repeat this process for each category RSS feed on your website by linking to it on the related name within the List block.

Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button to save your changes.

You have now manually created a list of links to all your category RSS feeds. Now, you can visit your website to see these RSS feed links in action.

However, keep in mind that if you want to add, delete, or merge categories in the future, then you will have to manually update this list again.

Method 2: Add Links for Category RSS Feeds Using WPCode (Recommended)

If you want to create a list of category RSS feed links that are automatically updated every time you make changes, then this method is for you.

To add URLs to the category RSS feed, we will need to add custom code to your website theme’s functions.php file. However, even the smallest error in the code can break your site, making it inaccessible.

We recommend always using WPCode when adding custom code to your website. It is the best WordPress code snippet plugin that makes it safe and easy to add custom code without manually editing your functions.php file.

First, you need to install and activate the WPCode plugin. For more instructions, you may want to see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: You can also use the free WPCode plugin for this tutorial. However, upgrading to the pro WPCode plugin will give you access to a cloud library of code snippets, smart conditional logic, and more.

Upon activation, head over to the Code Snippets Â» + Add Snippet page from the WordPress admin sidebar.

Next, click on the ‘Use Snippet’ button under the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.

This will take you to the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page, where you can start by typing a name for your code snippet.

This name is only for your identification and won’t be used on the website’s front end.

Next, you need to select ‘PHP Snippet’ as the code type from the dropdown menu on the right corner of the screen.

After that, copy and paste the following code into the ‘Code Preview’ box.
```
function wpbeginner_cat_feed_list() {
	$string = '<ul>';
	$string .= wp_list_categories( array(
		'orderby'    => 'name',
		'show_count' => true,
		'feed_image' => '/path/to/feed-image.png',
		'echo' => false,
	) );
	$string .= '</ul>';

	return $string;
}

add_shortcode( 'wpb-cat-feeds', 'wpbeginner_cat_feed_list' );
```
Hosted with â¤ï¸ by WPCode

1-click Use in WordPress
Once you have done that, you can now also choose an icon image that will be displayed next to your category RSS feed links.

To do this, simply replace the /path/to/feed-image.png line in the code with the URL of your preferred icon image for the feed links.

Keep in mind that the icon image will first need to be uploaded to your WordPress media library.

Once it’s uploaded, you can get its URL by visiting the Media Â» Library page from the admin sidebar and clicking on the icon image to view its attachment details.

After adding the URL for the icon image to the code, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section.

From here, select the ‘Auto Insert’ method so that the code will be executed automatically on the website page where you add a shortcode.

Note: Keep in mind that even after choosing the ‘Auto Insert’ mode, you will need to add a [wpb-cat-feeds] shortcode to the page where you want to list categories RSS feeds. This shortcode is not the WPCode ‘Shortcode’ feature, but a part of the code snippet itself.

Next, scroll back to the top and toggle the ‘Inactive’ switch to ‘Active’.

Finally, click the ‘Save Snippet’ button to store your settings.

After that, you need to open up the page or post where you want to add the category RSS feed links in your WordPress block editor.

From here, click the ‘Add Block’ (+) button at the top left corner of the screen and locate the ‘Shortcode’ block.

Upon adding the block, simply copy and paste the following shortcode into it.

[wpb-cat-feeds]

Finally, click the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button to save your changes.

Now visit your website to check the category RSS feed links in action.

Method 3: Display RSS Feed Subscription Option on the Category Pages

If you want to add a Subscribe link at the top of all your category pages, then you can use this method.

To do this, you will need to add custom code to your WordPress category.php or archive.php theme template.

However, it can be risky, and the smallest error can break your website.

This is why we recommend using WPCode instead. It is the easiest and safest way to add custom code to your WordPress website.

First, you need to install and activate the WPCode plugin. For more instructions, please see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, visit the Code Snippets Â» + Add Snippet page from the WordPress admin sidebar.

Next, head over to the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option and click the ‘Use Snippet’ button under it.

Once you are taken to the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page, start by typing a name for your code snippet.

It can be anything you like and is only for your identification purposes.

After that, select ‘PHP Snippet’ as the code type from the dropdown menu on the right.

Next, simply copy and paste the following code into the ‘Code Preview’ box.
```
<?php
if ( is_category() ) {
$category = get_category( get_query_var('cat') );
if ( ! empty( $category ) )
echo '<div class="category-feed"><p><a href="' . get_category_feed_link( $category->cat_ID ) . '" title="Subscribe to this category" rel="nofollow">Subscribe</a></p></div>';
}
?>
```
Hosted with â¤ï¸ by WPCode

1-click Use in WordPress
Upon adding the code, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section and choose the ‘Auto Insert’ method.

This way, the code will automatically be executed on your website.

Next, you have to open up the ‘Location’ dropdown menu and switch to the ‘Page-Specific’ tab from the column on the left.

After that, select the ‘Insert Before Excerpt’ option as the snippet location.

Once you have done that, scroll back to the top and toggle the ‘Inactive’ switch to ‘Active’.

Finally, click the ‘Save Snippet’ button to save your changes.

Now, you can visit your website category page to view the Subscription link for the RSS feeds in action.

This is what it looked like on our demo website.

How to Optimize Category RSS Feeds in WordPress

Category RSS feeds allow your users to subscribe only to content that interests them the most.

For instance, if you have a technology news blog, then your users can choose to subscribe only to news about the devices that they use.

However, a plain RSS feed isn’t readable without a feed reader, and most users aren’t using one to subscribe to their favorite websites.

Luckily, you can still use your category feeds to deliver content to your users anywhere they want.

For example, you can ask users to sign up for your email newsletter with the option to only get updates for specific content categories.

With email marketing services like Constant Contact or Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), you can easily set up an automated RSS-to-email newsletter for specific categories. You can see our guide on how to notify subscribers of new posts for step-by-step instructions.

Similarly, you can also allow users to get instant push notifications for each category using PushEngage. It is the best push notification service on the market that allows you to send messages directly to your users’ devices (desktops as well as mobile phones).

PushEngage allows you to set up automatic push notifications using RSS feeds. You simply need to enter your category RSS feed URL, and a push notification will go out whenever a new post is published in that category.

We hope this article helped you learn how to make separate RSS feeds for each category in WordPress. You may also want to see our easy tips to grow your blog traffic or read our comparison of the best live chat software for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to ourÂ YouTube ChannelÂ for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us onÂ TwitterÂ and Facebook.

The post How to Make Separate RSS Feeds for Each Category in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.
27.05.2023
How to Automatically Add a Disclaimer in WordPress (Easy Way)
Do you want to automatically show disclaimers and important notices on your WordPress website?

A disclaimer helps protect your business from legal action and provides users with additional information. Usually, you’d have to enter disclaimers in your content manually.

In this article, we will show you how to automatically add a disclaimer in WordPress using an easy method.

Why Show a Disclaimer in WordPress?

Adding a disclaimer to your WordPress website is a great way of communicating important notices and announcements to your visitors. It also protects your business from being legally liable for any claims a user makes.

There are many situations where you can show a disclaim on your website. For example, let’s say your site features product endorsements or has affiliate links. You can display an FTC disclosure stating how you may receive compensation from the companies whose products you feature on your website.

Similarly, if you operate in an industry that is governed by different regulations, then you can show legal disclaimers. This is really helpful if you’re offering medical or health advice, legal advice, or financial investment tips.

Let’s say you’re writing a blog post on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You can show a disclaimer notifying users that they should get in touch with an internet law attorney to seek legal advice.

On the other hand, if you have a WordPress blog where you share personal opinions, then adding a disclosure can safeguard you from any legal action.

That said, let’s look at how you can automatically add a disclaimer in WordPress. You can click the links below to jump to any sections of this post.
- Creating Disclaimers in WordPress
- Automatically Adding Disclaimers in WordPress
Creating Disclaimers in WordPress

You can add disclosures manually in WordPress using the content editor. Simply enter the disclaimer content in your blog posts or page. However, this is time-consuming since WordPress doesn’t offer an option to show these disclaimers automatically, and you’d have to edit every page.

An easy way to do that is by using WPCode. It is the best WordPress code snippet plugin that makes it very easy to manage and add custom code snippets.

What’s a Code Blocks Snippet?

WPCode offers a Custom Blocks Snippets feature that you can use to create disclaimers. What it does is it creates a custom WordPress block that you can automatically place anywhere on your site.

Usually, this would require editing code or building a reusable block. WPCode makes the process easier, and you don’t have to mess around with the website code or have to manually edit posts and pages.

Aside from creating disclaimers, you can also use this WPCode feature to make custom WordPress blocks for call-to-action boxes, display important notices, create interactive blocks that include forms or image sliders, and much more.

For this tutorial, we will be using the WPCode Pro version because it includes the Custom Blocks Snippets option. However, there is also WPCode free version you can use to get started.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the WPCode Pro plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can head to Code Snippets Â» Settings from the WordPress admin panel and enter the license key. You’ll find the license key in your WPCode account area.

Next, you can go to Code Snippets Â» + Add Snippet from the WordPress dashboard.

From here, you’ll need to select the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.

After that, you can enter a name for your snippet, like ‘Disclaimer Notice.’

Next, you must click the Code Type dropdown menu and select the ‘Blocks Snippet’ option. When you’re done, simply click the ‘Save Snippet’ button.

You can now edit your disclaimer notice using the WordPress content editor.

To do that, go ahead and click the ‘Edit with Block Editor’ button.

Next, you’ll be taken to the block editor in WordPress. Go ahead and enter the text for your disclaimer.

You can further customize your disclaimer notice using the styling options in the block editor.

Simply switch to the ‘Style’ tab in the Settings panel on the right. From here, you can change the color of the text, background, and link. There are also options to edit the size of the text.

For this tutorial, we will add a background color for the disclaimer notice so that it stands out from the rest of the text. Don’t forget to click the ‘Update’ button.

After customizing your disclaimer notice, you can then click the ‘Return to WPCode Snippet’ button at the top.

Automatically Adding Disclaimers in WordPress

Once you’re on the WPCode Snippet screen, simply scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section. Here, you can select when and where your disclaimer notice will appear.

You can keep the ‘Insert Method’ to Auto Insert. After that, go ahead and click the Location dropdown menu.

WPCode will now show multiple options. Go ahead and switch to the Page-Specific tab.

Next, you can choose where your site will display the disclaimer. For example, it can appear at the beginning of a post, after a few paragraphs, at the end of the post, and more.

For the sake of this tutorial, we will select the ‘Insert After Paragraph’ option. This way, the snippet will appear on all the pages after a certain number of paragraphs.

WPCode will also let you select the number of paragraphs, after which the custom block snippet will appear.

For example, we want the disclaimer notice to automatically appear after the first 3 paragraphs on all the pages on our demo site.

Once you’re done, don’t forget to activate the blocks snippet and click the ‘Update’ button at the top.

Besides that, you can also insert the disclaimer notice on specific pages using shortcodes.

Simply switch to the Insert Method from Auto Insert to Shortcode.

After that, you can copy the shortcode and add it anywhere on your website. For example, you can show the disclaimer on specific pages and posts.

WPCode also lets you schedule your disclaimer scripts. This is really useful if you have a time-sensitive notice to display on your website. You can simply select the start date and end date for scheduling the snippet.

When you’re done, don’t forget to activate the snippet and click the ‘Update’ button.

You can now visit your website to see the disclaimer in action.

We hope this article helped you learn about how to automatically add a disclaimer in WordPress. You may also want to see our list of must-have WordPress plugins and tools for business sites and how to create an email newsletter the right way.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to ourÂ YouTube ChannelÂ for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us onÂ TwitterÂ and Facebook.

The post How to Automatically Add a Disclaimer in WordPress (Easy Way) first appeared on WPBeginner.
25.05.2023
How to Use Shortcodes in your WordPress Sidebar Widgets
Do you want to learn how to use shortcodes in your WordPress sidebar widgets?

You can add shortcodes to any page or post using the Shortcode block. However, if you want to use the same code across your entire site then it may be easier to add it to a sidebar widget instead.

In this article, we will show you how to use shortcodes in the WordPress sidebar.

Why Use Shortcodes in Your WordPress Sidebar Widgets?

Shortcodes allow you to add advanced content and features to your website, including contact forms, tables, random quotes, and much more. WordPress comes with several built-in shortcodes but some plugins also add their own shortcodes.

You can add shortcodes to any page or post using the WordPress editor and built-in Shortcode block. However, if you want to use shortcode across your entire site then it often makes sense to add it to the sidebar.

For example, you can display Instagram photos in the WordPress sidebar using a shortcode provided by Smash Balloon Instagram Feed.

This content will then appear across your entire WordPress website, so you don’t need to add it each page and post manually. This can save you a ton of time and effort, and helps to keep your site’s design consistent.

With that in mind, let’s look at a few different ways to add and use shortcodes in the WordPress sidebar widgets. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.
Method 1: Using the WordPress Shortcode Widget (Easy)

Most free and paid WordPress themes come with widget-ready sidebars. With that in mind, you can often simply add a Shortcode widget to your website’s sidebar.

First, go to Appearance Â» Widgets in your dashboard. Here, you’ll see all the different areas where you can add widgets in WordPress, including the sidebar.

Simply click on the ‘+’ button and start typing in ‘Shortcode.’

When the right block shows up, drag it onto the WordPress sidebar.

You can now add your shortcode to the block.

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to click on ‘Update’ to make the changes live.

You can now visit your WordPress blog or website to see the shortcode in action.

Method 2. Using the Full Site Editor (Works With Block-Enabled WordPress Themes)

If you’re using a block theme then you can add shortcode to the sidebar using the full-site editor. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Themes Â» Editor.

This opens the full-site editor, with one of your theme’s templates already selected.

If you want to add shortcode to a different template, then click on the arrow in the toolbar and select â€˜Browse all templates.â€™

You’ll now see all the different templates that make up your theme.

Simply find the template where you want to add the shortcode, and give it a click.

After that, click on the ‘+’ button and start typing in ‘Shortcode.’

When the right widget shows up, simply drag it onto the theme’s sidebar.

You can now add your shortcode to the widget. When you’re happy with your changes, click on ‘Save’ to make the shortcode live.

Method 3: Using the Custom HTML Widget (More Customizable)

Sometimes you may want to show other content along with the shortcode. For example, RafflePress can add a contest or giveaway to your sidebar using a shortcode. To draw even more attention to the contest, you may want to show a heading above the competition.

Instead of creating separate Shortcode and Heading blocks, you can simply add the shortcode and text to a Custom HTML block. This helps you arrange the different content in a nice layout. You can also style the block using HTML, so you can control exactly how it looks in the sidebar.

The Custom HTML block doesn’t support shortcodes by default, but you can easily change this by adding custom code to WordPress. After adding this code, you can use shortcodes in any Custom HTML block across your entire WordPress website.

Often, you’ll find guides with instructions to add custom code to your site’s functions.php file. However, this isn’t recommended as any mistakes in the code can cause common WordPress errors, or even break your site completely.

That’s where WPCode comes in.

This free plugin makes it easy to add custom CSS, PHP, HTML, and more to WordPress, without putting your site at risk. Even better, it comes with a library of ready-made snippets including code that allows you to use shortcodes in text widgets.

To start, you’ll need to install and activate WPCode. For more information, you can see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After that, go to Code Snippets Â» Add Snippet in the WordPress dashboard. You can now start typing in ‘shortcode.’

When it appears, hover your mouse over the following snippet: ‘Enable Shortcode Execution in Text Widgets.’

You can then go ahead and click on ‘Use snippet.’

This will open the snippet in the WPCode editor. WPCode configures the snippet settings for you, so you can simply click on the ‘Inactive’ switch so that it turns blue.

With that done, click on ‘Update’ to make the snippet live.

Now, you can add a shortcode to any text widget.

Simply go to Appearance Â» Widgets and type ‘Custom HTML’ into the search bar.

When the right block appears, drag it onto your website’s sidebar.

With that done, you can add your HTML and shortcode to the block.

When you’re happy with how the widget is set up, click on ‘Update.’

Now if you visit your website, you’ll see the shortcode and custom HTML live.

FAQ: Using Shortcodes in WordPress Sidebar Widgets

No matter what theme you’re using, you should be able to add shortcodes to the sidebar using one of the methods above. However, if you need extra help then here are some of the most frequently asked questions about adding shortcodes to the sidebar.

How Do I Change Where the Sidebar Widget Appears?

The sidebar’s location is controlled by your WordPress theme. If you’re not happy with the sidebar’s position then you may be able to change it using the theme settings.

Many of the best WordPress themes let you choose between different layouts. Often, this includes showing the sidebar on different sides of the screen.

To see whether your theme has different sidebar layouts, go to Appearance Â» Customize in the WordPress dashboard. Here, look for any settings labeled Sidebar or similar.

Simply click on this option and look for any settings that allow you to change where the sidebar appears on your site.

For example, the following image shows the sidebar settings in the Astra WordPress Theme.

After making your changes, click on the ‘Publish’ button to make the new sidebar layout live.

If you can’t change the sidebar’s location using the built-in settings, then another option is to create a WordPress child theme.

How Do I Add a Sidebar to My WordPress Theme?

If your theme doesn’t have a sidebar then you could create a child theme and then add a sidebar using code.

If you’re not comfortable writing code, then you can also create a custom WordPress theme using a plugin such as SeedProd. You can use this popular page builder plugin to design your own theme and sidebar using a simple drag-and-drop editor.

For step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to create a custom WordPress theme without any code.

How Do I Use a Different Shortcode on Each Post or Page?

Sometimes you may want to use different shortcodes on some of your posts and pages. For example, you might want to show the most popular posts on your archive page and display ads on your homepage.

To learn more, please see our guide on how to display different sidebars for each post and page in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily add shortcodes to your WordPress sidebar widgets. You may also want to see our guide on how to create a landing page with WordPress or our expert pick of the best social media plugins.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to ourÂ YouTube ChannelÂ for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us onÂ TwitterÂ and Facebook.

The post How to Use Shortcodes in your WordPress Sidebar Widgets first appeared on WPBeginner.
24.05.2023
How to Sell Your Website or Online Business (Complete Guide)
Are you looking to sell your website or online business?

Selling a business or website is like selling a house. It can be stressful and involves a lot of preparation and paperwork. Many beginners are unsure how to get started.

In this article, weâ€™ll show you how to sell your website or online business for the highest price.

Why Sell Your Website or Online Business?

So youâ€™ve taken time to create a successful website and build an online business around it.

But what do you do when itâ€™s time to move on to something new?

Perhaps your circumstances have changed or you want to take time off to travel. Maybe you simply need the money or you are ready for a new business adventure.

What is the best way to sell your website or online business and get what itâ€™s worth? For that matter, how do you find out how much your site is worth to begin with?

Selling a website can be overwhelming. However, itâ€™s certainly possible to sell your site for what itâ€™s worth. In fact, many people make money online by flipping websites.

With that being said, letâ€™s take a look at how to sell your website or online business for what itâ€™s worth. Here are the topics we’ll cover:
How Much Is Your Website Worth?

You might be wondering how much you can realistically sell your website for. Itâ€™s impossible to come up with an exact figure, but weâ€™ll show you how to come up with a workable range.

One rule of thumb is that you can generally sell a website for 2 to 3 times your annual profit, after expenses. This will mean that the person buying your website can expect to make their money back in just two to three years.

This gives you a ballpark range to start with. However, in some cases, you can make even more money. For example, subscription-based websites and businesses that serve a particular niche such as health or personal finance are often worth more.

You can get a better estimate of your siteâ€™s value using online website value calculators.

The Flippa Free Online Business Valuation Tool gives you a figure for how much your website is worth after answering six questions. This should only take a few minutes to complete.

The Empire Flippers Valuation Tool also calculates a valuation for your website after answering a few questions.

However, to receive the valuation you will first need to provide your email address and optionally your phone number.

There are other tools that give you a rough valuation based on just your websiteâ€™s URL. Potential buyers may use them to get an idea of how much your site is worth, so you may want to check them as well.
- Worth of Web Website Value Calculator
- SiteWorthTraffic
Finally, you can have a look at what websites similar to yours are selling for. The best way to do this is by searching on the Flippa website and checking the ‘Recently Sold’ box at the bottom of the left column.

You might also like to talk to a website broker since they are experienced in valuing and selling websites. More on that later.

How to Make Your Website More Valuable

If youâ€™re not in a hurry to sell your site, then you will be able to make more money by waiting until it peaks. This means that you need to do some work first, and the more effort you put in, the easier it will be to sell.

In particular, you should focus on maximizing your traffic and profits before you sell. This will increase the value of your site and business. Most buyers will carefully look at your last year of sales, so you need to make the numbers as good as you can.

Increase Traffic to Your Website

The more visitors your website has, the more valuable it will be.

Since most of your organic traffic will come from search engines, you need to improve your search engine optimization (SEO) so your site ranks higher on Google.

You can get started by working through our 13-point WordPress SEO checklist for beginners.

Improve Your Websiteâ€™s Performance

A fast website is more valuable than a slow one. Fast-loading pages improve user experience, increase your pageviews, and help with your WordPress SEO.

Our ultimate guide to boosting WordPress speed and performance is full of actionable steps that you can take to improve your WordPress speed immediately.

For online stores, you can follow our guide on how to speed up WooCommerce performance.

Grow Your Social Media Followers

Potential buyers will also be interested in your reach on social media. You can start to build your social following using our complete social media cheat sheet.

Create an Email List

In our business, an email list gets 10 times higher conversions than social media campaigns.

Building an email list will increase conversions and grow your profits, and will be a valuable resource to the person buying your business.

See our guide on the right way to create an email newsletter to learn how to get started.

Improve Your Profits

You can also start looking for new ways to make money and improve profits. The profits you made over the last year is an important indicator of the value of your website.

If you have a blog, then you’ll find plenty of ways to increase your profits in our guide on proven ways to make money online blogging with WordPress.

If you have an online store, then you can start tracking your WooCommerce conversions with MonsterInsights to learn what is working and what needs more attention.

How to Make Sure Your Business Is Transferrable

Once your website is sold, how easy will it be to transfer to the new owners? Potential buyers will want to know that the website will continue running successfully after the sale.

Now is the time to start preparing everyone for a change in ownership and removing potential obstacles to a smooth transition.

Make Sure Your Business Does Not Rely on You Personally

Make sure your website or business will continue to run smoothly once you are no longer involved. Most buyers are looking for an investment, not a full-time job trying to replace you.

That means you will need to train a team or virtual assistant to run the business, including customer support, operations, and more.

For example, if you sell WordPress plugins, then make sure that your team includes developers who understand the software and can continue to maintain it after the sale.

You can also use automation and artificial intelligence to ensure that your website or online store runs smoothly with minimal effort.

Alternatively, you can switch to managed WordPress hosting where backups, updates, and many other maintenance tasks are done for you.

Prepare Any Third Parties for the Change of Ownership

If your business relies on third-party businesses, then you need to make sure those relationships will continue after the change. This can include your partners, suppliers, influencers, freelancers, and more.

For example, if you are getting a special deal from one of your suppliers that helps you stay profitable, then you should make sure the deal will carry on with the new owners.

Make Sure the Necessary Resources Are Transferrable

If you run several websites or businesses, then you may be sharing resources between them, such as a phone number, customer support staff, or your website hosting account.

If thatâ€™s the case, then you will need to separate them before you can sell. This will allow you to transfer each of these resources to the new owner more easily.

Make sure that you handle your communications in a business email account you can transfer to the new owner rather than your personal email account.

And check that any premium WordPress plugins your site relies on are registered in the name of the business and use a business email address.

Also, you should make sure that any team management tools you are using can be transferred to the new owner. For example, Slack makes it easy to transfer ownership.

Create Standard Operating Procedures

If you havenâ€™t already done so, consider creating standard operating procedures on how you run your business and handle specific tasks. This will help the new owners continue to run it with the same success you have.

This could include how you do keyword research, create content, optimize for search engines, create product catalogs, and more.

Final Preparations Before the Sale

Once you put your website up for sale, potential buyers are going to be doing their due diligence to weigh up whether your business is worth buying. They will ask you a lot of detailed questions.

This means you will need to collect accurate data about your website and finances.

Collect Accurate Website Metrics

Potential buyers will want to see detailed reports about your website. Hopefully, you have already been keeping information about your traffic, visitors, conversion rates, and more.

If not, you can follow our guide on tracking important website metrics such as site speed, traffic, top referrals and countries, demographics, and your best-performing posts and pages.

We recommend you document at least three to six months of the following:
- Google Analytics reports demonstrating user engagement
- Google Search Console reports showing keywords used to find your site
- Google AdSense reports or similar to prove your profit and loss figures (if relevant)
Collect Accurate Financial Records

You should also get your financial records up to date. Messy finances are frustrating to buyers and force them to do more work in making their decision.

Here are some financial reports potential buyers would like to see:
- Profit and Loss sheet
- Proof of Sales (if you have an online store)
- PPC ad spend
You may find it worth hiring an accountant. They understand what they are doing, and can get your records into a form thatâ€™s easy for potential buyers to understand.

Alternatively, websites like Flippa offer due diligence verification and assessment services.

Place a Dollar Value on Your Business Assets

Make sure that you place a value on all of the assets that you will be selling along with your business. These increase the value of your business.

This can include your working capital, store inventory, team, and Adwords campaign history.

You can also try to put a price on less tangible assets like your customer database, email list, social media engagement, website traffic, and processes and procedures.

Where Can You Sell Your Website or Online Business Safely?

Once you are ready, you need to choose the right place to sell your website. Typically, this will be with an online marketplace or a broker.

Flippa

Flippa is the best online marketplace to sell your site. Itâ€™s an auction site similar to eBay but specializes in online businesses, websites, and domain names.

They maintain a list of affiliated reputable business brokers who can help you with the sale.

Users can follow auctions and bid on your website or business. If you accept their bid, then they follow the Flippa payment guidelines.

Usually, sellers use Flippaâ€™s escrow service for secure payments and transfer of registration.

Empire Flippers

Empire Flippers is a leading broker that will help sell your business or online business. They will value your business, design the sales page, and handle the advertising.

A broker is a great choice if youâ€™re not sure where to start, or youâ€™re just short of time. And because they charge a commission, they are motivated to get the best price that they can.

Whether you choose a marketplace or broker, they will give you all the help you need when it comes time to transfer the website or business to the new owner.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to sell your website or online business. You may also want to see our guide on creating a WordPress membership site, or our expert picks on the best drag and drop WordPress page builders.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to ourÂ YouTube ChannelÂ for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us onÂ TwitterÂ and Facebook.

The post How to Sell Your Website or Online Business (Complete Guide) first appeared on WPBeginner.
22.05.2023
Can ChatGPT Build a Useful WordPress Plugin That Actually Works?
Can AI turn non-coders into pro WordPress plugin developers? To find out, we asked ChatGPT to build a custom WordPress plugin from scratch and then had our crack team of developers examine the code…

AI is the world’s most popular two-letter word right now. With all the recent news headlines about whether AI will take our jobs away, we wanted to know… can ChatGPT actually develop a functional and useful WordPress plugin without having to write code from scratch? And does the plugin meet best coding practices?

Fortunately, WPMU DEV builds some of the most robust WordPress plugins in the world, so we have plenty of expert WordPress plugin developers who can put ChatGPT to the test.

In fact, if you take a stroll around our company’s virtual corridors, you can’t help but bump into WordPress coders and developers. It seems everyone around here can look at a WordPress plugin and see PHP the way Neo sees the Matrix’s digital rain code.

Everyone, that is …except me!

I’m just a blog writer with no coding skills and a burning desire to add “prompt engineer” to my resumÃ©.

So, in this post, we’ll explore how to leverage the power of ChatGPT to build a simple custom WordPress plugin quickly and securely, even if you lack extensive coding skills.

We’ll do this by:

1) Asking ChatGPT to generate the code for a useful plugin that we can test, and

2) Running the code generated by ChatGPT past our team of professional plugin developers so they can review it and provide their honest feedback.

We’ll cover the following:
Exploring the Power of ChatGPT for WordPress Plugin Development

One of the reasons WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system is the software’s flexibility and extensibility to create sites that can do anything and everything using plugins.

While there are over 60,000 free WordPress plugins available covering every type of functionality you can imagine, sometimes you may need a custom solution to meet a client’s specific requirements.

If you’re not a WordPress plugin developer, then until recently, your only options were to either become a WordPress plugin developer and learn how to code a plugin from scratch or modify an existing plugin’s code, or hire a WordPress developer to do this for you.

With the explosion of new AI tools and technologies, we now have a third option, which while not necessarily promising to do things better, can help you get things done cheaper and faster (check out our recent article on ways that ChatGPT can help you as a WordPress developer).

ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI, is an advanced language model capable of generating human-like text based on given prompts. It alsoÂ claims to be able to assist you in the process of building custom WordPress plugins by providing code snippets, explanations, and even recommendations for best practices.

So, we wanted to find out for ourselves if we can leverage ChatGPT to accelerate the WordPress plugin development process and ensure the security of your plugins.

To do this, we’ll ask ChatGPT to build us a simple, useful, and functional plugin.

Define Your Plugin’s Functionality

Before using ChatGPT to generate code, you need to have a clear understanding of the functionality you want your plugin to provide.

This starts by outlining the specific features, actions, or modifications you want to achieve with your plugin. This will then help you generate accurate prompts for ChatGPT and ensure that your AI-generated code aligns with your desired outcomes.

Generate Code Snippets with ChatGPT

To generate our code snippets using ChatGPT, we’ll keep things simple (and free) and use the freely available interface provided by OpenAI.

Take #1…

Note: My first attempt at using ChatGPT to create a WordPress plugin from scratch was way too ambitious.Â I asked ChatGPT to build me a simple WordPress ~~time-travel~~ dummy text generating plugin, using the prompt below…

This prompt will surely kick ChatGPT’s WordPress plugin development tyres.

As someone who spends a lot of time writing WordPress tutorials, I often need dummy content to test plugins, create screenshots, etc.

So, I thought it would be great to model my AI-generated dummy content plugin on a plugin I often use called FakerPress.

ChatGPT immediately pushed back on my request and told me that creating a fully functional WordPress plugin with all the features I described was beyond the scope of a single response.

However, it did offer to provide me with a basic template, guide me on how to implement some of the features I mentioned, and even gave me instructions on how to create a plugin directory and file…

Mmm…maybe my first attempt at creating a WordPress plugin was a tad too ambitious!

At first, I thought there was light at the end of the tunnel. ChatGPT output code that looked quite impressive to my untrained eyes and unskilled mind…

To someone who knows ‘zip’ about coding, the above code snippet sure looks impressive!

ChatGPT also output all the additional code required to complete the next steps.

Lacking coding skills, I relied on ChatGPT to guide me through each step of the plugin development process.

And it apologized for my lack of coding knowledge and experience…

This is what happens when a dummy asks ChatGPT to create a dummy plugin.

It also guided me with step-by-step instructions, just like it had promised…

I’m just gonna let ChatGPT do all the heavy lifting here…

I can’t really describe what I felt seeing ChatGPT spit out the code, but it’s probably similar to what Bill Gates must have felt when he first held a set of floppy disks containing the working code for the Windows operating system.

Set Up Your Test Site

With the plugin code generated, the next step was to set up a dummy site to test the plugin.

I quickly spun a new site in The Hub.

Let’s spin up a new test site using The Hub.

Note: If you are developing a plugin for an existing site, we recommend setting up a local development environment or a staging site to ensure that the plugin works as intended and does not conflict with other existing plugins or themes on the site.

After drumming my fingers on my desk for a few minutes, my new WordPress site was ready.

A brand new WordPress site with not much to see just yet.

With the test site set up, the next step was to upload the plugin and test to make sure it works.

Test Your Custom Plugin

I followed ChatGPT’s instructions and uploaded the plugin folder to the wp-content > plugins directory of my test site using The Hub’s file manager.

I could have used the Plugin uploader, but The Hub’s File Manager works just as well!

With the plugin file uploaded, I activated it inside the Plugins screen.

And now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for [drumroll]…

And…I got a fatal error!

What an anticlimax…the lowest point of my WordPress plugin development career!

Assuming that maybe I didn’t add the additional snippets that ChatGPT provided correctly, I went back and asked for all the code to be provided as a single file that I could simply copy and paste to overwrite and update the uploaded plugin file.

ChatGPT obliged and delivered me the complete code.

Why couldn’t it just have given me the entire copy and paste code the first time?

There was a lot of code to output, so every time things came to a standstill, I instructed ChatGPT to continue the process.

ChatGPT sometimes just needs a little gentle encouragement to keep going.

I repeated this process several times.

Feels like ChatGPT and I are like an old married couple now…

Finally, the entire code was output. ChatGPT even provided some helpful information at the end of the process.

After waiting a whole 2 minutes…ChatGPT finally output all of the plugin code!

I uploaded the plugin file with the new code to my test site, then jumped into the site’s admin area and activated the plugin.

It worked! Or so it seemed.

ChatGPT even gave the plugin its own menu item…

ChatGPT created all this!

And a settings screen with lots of fancy boxes and fields.

Looks impressive…but will it work?

My first impression was “Wow…ChatGPT created the plugin and made its own decisions about some of the plugin settings and the user interface layout and design!”

But… “does the plugin work?”

I couldn’t see a field where I could specify how many posts or pages to create, so I simply ticked some boxes, entered some values, and clicked on the “Save Changes” button to see what happens.

And now, for the moment of truth…

And…absolutely nothing happened!

The newest lowest point of my WordPress plugin development career…a plugin that does nothing!

My fancy-ass plugin was all make-believe, just like one of those children’s playground spaceships that’s filled with useless knobs you can turn and buttons you can press while pretending to be flying in outer space.

So, I reached out to one of our developers via Slack and asked them to look at the plugin file.

Some of the comments that came back included the following:
- “The plugin tries to generate random content on each and every admin page load”
- “It calls a function dummy_content_generator_generate_content_paragraphs which, in turn, attempts to call dummy_content_generator_get_random_paragraph for every paragraph it tries to generate. The problem is that there is no dummy_content_generator_get_random_paragraph function.
- “The page loads to a point, then it errors out because there’s more missing stuff”
- “Other than all the mentioned issues, there’s no validation whatsoever, and no escaping of the output, which is terrible”
- “In terms of having something as starting point, this is a very, very poor one. In terms of having a working plugin, this is nowhere near that”
After some back and forth discussions , it was deemed that there was quite a lot wrong with the plugin, that it would take a lot of work to fix it, and they suggested I scrap the project.

At this point, however, I was too invested in my mission to simply abandon everything and give up. Recalling Sir Winston Churchill’s famous words (~~“Fetch me another brandy”~~ “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never…”), I decided it was time for…

Take #2…

Ok, so my first attempt to get ChatGPT to build a WordPress plugin from scratch was a dismal failure. This in itself provided some valuable insights into ChatGPT’s ability to perform complex coding tasks (or, as someone in the team put it, “you canâ€™t code using ChatGPT without having extensive coding knowledge.”)

So, for “Take #2,” let’s reset and go again with a simpler plugin request.

Going back to the drawing board, a genius lightbulb moment lit up my mind…why not ask ChatGPT to suggest ideas for simple WordPress plugins it could then generate the code for?

So, that’s what I did. Here’s the prompt I promptly engineered…

My genius prompt.

And here’s the list of suggested plugins ChatGPT replied with…

The blueprint of my WordPress plugin empire.

I liked the last suggestion, so I asked ChatGPT to generate the code for a functional content duplicator plugin, and it immediately went to work.

This is what a license to print money looks like!

ChatGPT generated the following code for the plugin in the blink of an eye:
```
<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Content Duplicator
Description: Allows users to duplicate posts, pages, or custom post types with one click.
Version: 1.0.0
Author: Your Name
Author URI: https://yourwebsite.com
*/

// Add duplicate action links to post row actions
function content_duplicator_add_duplicate_link( $actions, $post ) {
    if ( current_user_can( 'edit_posts' ) ) {
        $actions['duplicate'] = '<a href="' . wp_nonce_url( admin_url( 'admin-post.php?action=content_duplicator_duplicate_post&post_id=' . $post->ID ), 'content_duplicator_duplicate_post' ) . '" title="Duplicate this item" rel="permalink">Duplicate</a>';
    }
    return $actions;
}
add_filter( 'post_row_actions', 'content_duplicator_add_duplicate_link', 10, 2 );

// Duplicate the post
function content_duplicator_duplicate_post() {
    if ( isset( $_GET['post_id'] ) ) {
        $post_id = absint( $_GET['post_id'] );

        if ( current_user_can( 'edit_posts' ) && wp_verify_nonce( $_GET['_wpnonce'], 'content_duplicator_duplicate_post' ) ) {
            $post = get_post( $post_id );

            $args = array(
                'post_title' => $post->post_title . ' (Duplicate)',
                'post_content' => $post->post_content,
                'post_type' => $post->post_type,
                'post_status' => $post->post_status,
                'post_parent' => $post->post_parent,
                'post_author' => get_current_user_id(),
            );

            $new_post_id = wp_insert_post( $args );

            if ( $new_post_id ) {
                // Duplicate meta fields
                $meta_fields = get_post_custom( $post_id );
                foreach ( $meta_fields as $key => $values ) {
                    foreach ( $values as $value ) {
                        add_post_meta( $new_post_id, $key, $value );
                    }
                }

                // Redirect to the duplicated post
                wp_redirect( admin_url( 'post.php?action=edit&post=' . $new_post_id ) );
                exit;
            }
        }
    }
}
add_action( 'admin_post_content_duplicator_duplicate_post', 'content_duplicator_duplicate_post' );
```
It even provided a set of instructions after generating the code.

The code not only comes with instructions, but ChatGPT even says “Please”!

I then went back to my test site and uploaded the new plugin file to the wp-content > plugins directory.

There’s a lot of action to unpack in this screenshot.

I also created a dummy post to test the plugin with…

Can the plugin duplicate this cheesy post? Let’s find out!

Here are the post’s menu options before activating the plugin…

A default post with default options.

Let’s go and activate the plugin…

“Activate Content Duplicator” – Sounds like a line from a Star Trek movie.

Success! The plugin activated.

A gratuitous screenshot proving that the plugin successfully activated.

Now, let’s see if the plugin actually works.

Here’s my test post again. Note that the plugin has added a new “Duplicate” item to the menu after being activated.

Let’s click on “Duplicate” and see what happens…

ChatGPT even added a “Duplicate” menu item tooltip to the code!

A duplicate post has been created…

A duplicate of the original post.

Here’s the table of posts showing entries for the original and duplicated post.

The original post and its cloned version.

I’m sure that with better prompt engineering and some code tweaking, the plugin could have been significantly improved. For example, I would prefer if the plugin set the post status of the newly-duplicated post to ‘draft’ instead of publishing it, but ChatGPT delivered a simple WordPress plugin that worked. It was basic, but it did the job.

All I needed to do now was to ask someone who codes WordPress plugins for a living to scrutinize the code and share how they felt about using a tool like ChatGPT to code plugins.

Feedback from Our Expert Plugin Developers

Shortly after uploading the plugin to one of our testing channels, I got pinged from one of our developers. Here are some of the key points provided in their feedback:
- “ChatGPT et al are decent at answering questions you already know the answer to.”
- “I also used it in the past to build a simple plugin for me, but as long as I was giving more complex prompts, it started to mess things around, so eventually I manually debug the given code to work, cause else itâ€™d take ages for it to actually debug it line by line.”
- “Basically, it does what it says. However, it does what it says very literally. As in, it will duplicate a post and its corresponding postmeta (custom) fields. However, it doesn’t seem like it will propagate any taxonomies to the duplicated post (the plugin should copy and assign the same taxonomy terms, such as categories or tags, from the original post to the duplicated post).”
- If I was to be super-nitpicky about this, I’d also mention that it’s not L10n-ready – there won’t be an option to translate this plugin. But, that’s just being very nitpicky – I don’t really think, nor would I expect, a prompt-generated plugin to be generic enough to be needing something like that at all. To me, it is more of a “very specific problem domain” kind of a thing, including the language used. At the end of the day, it does do what it says it will, which is very nice.”
In addition to examining the WordPress plugin code generated by ChatGPT and providing feedback as shown above, our developers also agreed with the following key points after assessing ChatGPT’s current capabilities to generate code:

1 – It’s important to exercise caution and not blindly accept ChatGPT-generated code as correct.
- ChatGPT can provide answers, but it’s up to the user to assess whether the answer is correct or not.
- There is a risk of receiving incorrect or nonsensical answers from ChatGPT, both obvious and subtle.
- It’s important to exercise caution and not blindly accept the generated code as correct.
- ChatGPT’s output should be treated as autocomplete, making life easier but requiring caution and verification.
The ability to discern good code from bad or nonsensical code, however, implies that…

2 – Users should have sufficient knowledge and understanding of WordPress plugin development to evaluate and modify the generated code as needed.
- ChatGPT can help simplify and expedite the process of building simple custom WordPress plugins, generate code snippets, and provide explanations. Anything more complex, however, requires plugin development experience and coding skills.
- Using ChatGPT without sufficient knowledge can lead to negative consequences or unreliable code.
- Relying solely on ChatGPT without critical thinking is similar to blindly copying the first answer from Stack Overflow (Stack Overflow threads provide more context, multiple answers, and feedback from other users, making it a more reliable resource, but Stack Overflow threads tend to be more generic, whereas ChatGPT can provide specific answers to individual queries).
3 – Utilizing other resources, such as WordPress documentation, tutorials, and community forums, alongside ChatGPT can provide a more comprehensive understanding of WordPress plugin development.
- As you explore the possibilities of using ChatGPT for WordPress plugin development, it’s valuable to engage with the WordPress community. Share your experiences, ask for feedback, and seek guidance from experienced developers. Participating in forums, attending WordPress meetups, or joining online communities can provide valuable insights and help you refine your plugin development process.
- Additionally, consider following WordPress security best practices to safeguard your website from potential vulnerabilities. ChatGPT can provide recommendations on security measures you can implement to protect your plugin.
- It’s also essential to maintain a clear understanding of your desired functionality and thoroughly review and test the generated code and secure your custom plugins before deploying them to a production environment.
Can ChatGPT Turn You Into a WordPress Plugin Developer?

We’ve explored how you can utilize ChatGPT to build simple custom WordPress plugins quickly and securely, even if you have limited coding experience.

Beyond the core functionality of your plugin, you can also leverage ChatGPT to generate code for custom user interfaces. With its ability to understand prompts and generate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript snippets, you can create intuitive admin interfaces, front-end components, and interactive elements that will enhance the user experience and allow you to deliver a polished final product.

By utilizing the language model’s capabilities, you can generate code snippets, optimize functionality, and create user-friendly interfaces. However, it’s crucial to understand the generated code, review and refine it, and thoroughly test your custom plugins before deploying them to your live website.

The generated code may also require adjustments to align with coding standards, naming conventions, or specific project requirements. This requires a certain amount of coding knowledge and skills, as does optimizing the code and ensuring it follows WordPress coding guidelines for better maintainability.

The bottom line: AI-powered tools like ChatGP can streamline your workflow, boost productivity, and unlock new possibilities. While ChatGPT is a powerful and valuable tool to have in your arsenal, AI won’t replace skilled coders any time soon.

Interested in Developing WordPress plugins?

Check out some of our tutorials and articles on WordPress plugin development:
22.05.2023
Can ChatGPT Build a Useful WordPress Plugin That Actually Works?
Can AI turn non-coders into pro WordPress plugin developers? To find out, we asked ChatGPT to build a custom WordPress plugin from scratch and then had our crack team of developers examine the code…

AI is the world’s most popular two-letter word right now. With all the recent news headlines about whether AI will take our jobs away, we wanted to know… can ChatGPT actually develop a functional and useful WordPress plugin without having to write code from scratch? And does the plugin meet best coding practices?

Fortunately, WPMU DEV builds some of the most robust WordPress plugins in the world, so we have plenty of expert WordPress plugin developers who can put ChatGPT to the test.

In fact, if you take a stroll around our company’s virtual corridors, you can’t help but bump into WordPress coders and developers. It seems everyone around here can look at a WordPress plugin and see PHP the way Neo sees the Matrix’s digital rain code.

What PHP code looks like to experienced WordPress plugin developers. Source: Giphy.com

Everyone, that is …except me!

I’m just a blog writer with no coding skills and a burning desire to add “prompt engineer” to my CV.

So, in this post, we’ll explore how to leverage the power of ChatGPT to build a simple custom WordPress plugin quickly and securely, even if you lack extensive coding skills.

We’ll do this by:

1) Asking ChatGPT to generate the code for a useful plugin that we can test, and

2) Running the code generated by ChatGPT past our team of professional plugin developers so they can review it and provide their honest feedback.

We’ll cover the following:
Step 1 – Define the Plugin’s Functionality

Before using ChatGPT to generate code, we need to have a clear understanding of the functionality we want our plugin to provide.

This starts by outlining the specific features, actions, or modifications we’ll want to achieve with our plugin. This will then help us generate accurate prompts for ChatGPT and ensure that our AI-generated code aligns with our desired outcomes.

Step 2 – Generate Code Snippets with ChatGPT

To generate our code snippets using ChatGPT, we’ll keep things simple (and free) and use the freely available interface provided by OpenAI.

Take #1…

Note: My first attempt at using ChatGPT to create a WordPress plugin from scratch was way too ambitious.Â I asked ChatGPT to build me a simple WordPress ~~time-travel~~ dummy text generating plugin, using the prompt below…

This prompt will surely kick ChatGPT’s WordPress plugin development tyres.

As someone who spends a lot of time writing WordPress tutorials, I often need dummy content to test plugins, create screenshots, etc.

So, I thought it would be great to model my AI-generated dummy content plugin on a plugin I often use called FakerPress.

ChatGPT pushed back on my request and let me know that creating a fully functional WordPress plugin with all the features I requested was beyond the scope of a single response.

However, it did offer to provide me with a basic template, guide me on how to implement some of the features I mentioned, and even gave me instructions on how to create a plugin directory and file…

Mmm…maybe my first attempt at creating a WordPress plugin was too ambitious!

At first, ChatGPT output code that looked quite impressive…

To someone who knows ‘zip’ about coding, the above code snippet sure looks impressive!

ChatGPT also output all the additional code required to complete the next steps.

Lacking coding skills, I relied on ChatGPT to guide me through each step of the plugin development process.

With the plugin code output, the next step was to upload the plugin to my test site and test it to make sure it works.

Step 3 – Test The Custom Plugin

After uploading the folder containing the plugin code to the wp-content > plugins directory of my test site and activating it inside the Plugins screen…

And now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for [drumroll]…

I got a fatal error!

What an anticlimax…the lowest point of my WordPress plugin development career!

Assuming that maybe I didn’t add the additional snippets that ChatGPT provided correctly, I went back and asked for all the code to be provided as a single file that I could simply copy and paste to overwrite and update the uploaded plugin file…

Why couldn’t it just have given me the entire copy and paste code the first time?

There was a lot of code to output, so whenever the process came to a standstill, I instructed ChatGPT to continue…

ChatGPT sometimes just needs a little gentle encouragement to keep going.

After repeating this process several times, ChatGPT output the entire code and even provided some helpful information.

After waiting a whole 2 minutes…ChatGPT finally output all of the plugin code!

I uploaded the plugin file with the new code to my test site, then jumped into the site’s admin area and activated the plugin.

It worked! Or, so it seemed.

ChatGPT gave the plugin its own menu item…

ChatGPT created all this!

And a settings screen with lots of fancy boxes and fields…

Looks impressive…but will it work?

But I couldn’t see a field to specify how many posts or pages to create, so I simply ticked some boxes, entered some values, and clicked on the “Save Changes” button to see what happens.

And now, for the moment of truth…

And…absolutely nothing happened!

The newest lowest point of my WordPress plugin development career…a plugin that does nothing!

My fancy-ass plugin was all make-believe, just like one of those children’s playground spaceships that’s filled with useless knobs you can turn and buttons you can press while pretending to be flying in outer space.

So, I reached out to one of our developers via Slack and asked them to look at the plugin file.

Some of the comments that came back included the following:
- “The plugin tries to generate random content on each and every admin page load”
- “It calls a function dummy_content_generator_generate_content_paragraphs which, in turn, attempts to call dummy_content_generator_get_random_paragraph for every paragraph it tries to generate. The problem is that there is no dummy_content_generator_get_random_paragraph function.
- “The page loads to a point, then it errors out because there’s more missing stuff”
- “Other than all the mentioned issues, there’s no validation whatsoever, and no escaping of the output, which is terrible”
- “In terms of having something as starting point, this is a very, very poor one. In terms of having a working plugin, this is nowhere near that”
After some back and forth discussions , it was deemed that there was quite a lot wrong with the plugin, that it would take a lot of work to fix it, and they suggested I scrap the project.

At this point, however, I was too invested in my mission to simply abandon everything and give up. Recalling Sir Winston Churchill’s famous words (~~“Fetch me another brandy”~~ “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never…”), I decided it was time for…

Take #2…

Ok, so my first attempt to get ChatGPT to build a WordPress plugin from scratch was a dismal failure. This in itself provided some valuable insights into ChatGPT’s ability to perform complex coding tasks (or, as someone in the team put it, “you canâ€™t code using ChatGPT without having extensive coding knowledge.”)

So, for “Take #2,” I decided to try again with a simpler plugin request.

Going back to the drawing board, a genius lightbulb moment lit up in my mind…why not ask ChatGPT to suggest ideas for simple WordPress plugins it could then generate the code for?

So, that’s what I did. Here’s the prompt I promptly engineered…

My genius prompt.

And here’s the list of suggested plugins ChatGPT replied with…

The blueprint of my WordPress plugin empire.

I liked the last suggestion, so I asked ChatGPT to generate the code for a functional content duplicator plugin, and it immediately went to work.

This is what a license to print money looks like!

ChatGPT generated the following code for the plugin in the blink of an eye:
```
<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Content Duplicator
Description: Allows users to duplicate posts, pages, or custom post types with one click.
Version: 1.0.0
Author: Your Name
Author URI: https://yourwebsite.com
*/

// Add duplicate action links to post row actions
function content_duplicator_add_duplicate_link( $actions, $post ) {
    if ( current_user_can( 'edit_posts' ) ) {
        $actions['duplicate'] = '<a href="' . wp_nonce_url( admin_url( 'admin-post.php?action=content_duplicator_duplicate_post&post_id=' . $post->ID ), 'content_duplicator_duplicate_post' ) . '" title="Duplicate this item" rel="permalink">Duplicate</a>';
    }
    return $actions;
}
add_filter( 'post_row_actions', 'content_duplicator_add_duplicate_link', 10, 2 );

// Duplicate the post
function content_duplicator_duplicate_post() {
    if ( isset( $_GET['post_id'] ) ) {
        $post_id = absint( $_GET['post_id'] );

        if ( current_user_can( 'edit_posts' ) && wp_verify_nonce( $_GET['_wpnonce'], 'content_duplicator_duplicate_post' ) ) {
            $post = get_post( $post_id );

            $args = array(
                'post_title' => $post->post_title . ' (Duplicate)',
                'post_content' => $post->post_content,
                'post_type' => $post->post_type,
                'post_status' => $post->post_status,
                'post_parent' => $post->post_parent,
                'post_author' => get_current_user_id(),
            );

            $new_post_id = wp_insert_post( $args );

            if ( $new_post_id ) {
                // Duplicate meta fields
                $meta_fields = get_post_custom( $post_id );
                foreach ( $meta_fields as $key => $values ) {
                    foreach ( $values as $value ) {
                        add_post_meta( $new_post_id, $key, $value );
                    }
                }

                // Redirect to the duplicated post
                wp_redirect( admin_url( 'post.php?action=edit&post=' . $new_post_id ) );
                exit;
            }
        }
    }
}
add_action( 'admin_post_content_duplicator_duplicate_post', 'content_duplicator_duplicate_post' );
```
It even provided a set of instructions after generating the code.

The code not only comes with instructions, but ChatGPT even says “Please”!

I then uploaded the new plugin file to the wp-content > plugins directory of my test site using The Hub’s file manager.

There’s a lot of action to unpack in this screenshot.

And created a dummy post to test the plugin with…

Did the plugin duplicate this cheesy post? Let’s find out!

Here are the post’s menu options before activating the plugin…

A default post with default options.

After activating the plugin…

“Activate Content Duplicator” – Sounds like a line from a Star Trek movie.

Success!

A gratuitous screenshot proving that the plugin successfully activated.

The plugin activated. But did it actually work?

Here’s my test post again (note that the plugin added a new “Duplicate” item to the menu after activation).Â I then clicked on “Duplicate” to see what happens…

ChatGPT even added a “Duplicate” menu item tooltip to the code!

And a duplicate post was created!

A duplicate of the original post.

Here’s the table of posts showing entries for the original and duplicated post.

The original post and its cloned version.

I’m sure that with better prompt engineering and some code tweaking, the plugin could have been significantly improved. For example, I would prefer if the plugin set the post status of the newly-duplicated post to ‘draft’ instead of publishing it, but ChatGPT delivered a simple WordPress plugin that worked. It was basic, but it did the job.

The last step was to ask someone who codes WordPress plugins for a living to scrutinize the code and get their opinion about using a tool like ChatGPT to code plugins.

Feedback from Our Expert Plugin Developers

Shortly after uploading the plugin to one of our testing channels, I got a ping from one of our developers. Here are some of the key points provided in their feedback:
- “ChatGPT et al are decent at answering questions you already know the answer to.”
- “I also used it in the past to build a simple plugin for me, but as long as I was giving more complex prompts, it started to mess things around, so eventually I manually debug the given code to work, cause else itâ€™d take ages for it to actually debug it line by line.”
- “Basically, it does what it says. However, it does what it says very literally. As in, it will duplicate a post and its corresponding postmeta (custom) fields. However, it doesn’t seem like it will propagate any taxonomies to the duplicated post (the plugin should copy and assign the same taxonomy terms, such as categories or tags, from the original post to the duplicated post).”
- If I was to be super-nitpicky about this, I’d also mention that it’s not L10n-ready – there won’t be an option to translate this plugin. But, that’s just being very nitpicky – I don’t really think, nor would I expect, a prompt-generated plugin to be generic enough to be needing something like that at all. To me, it is more of a “very specific problem domain” kind of a thing, including the language used. At the end of the day, it does do what it says it will, which is very nice.”
In addition to examining the WordPress plugin code generated by ChatGPT and providing feedback as shown above, our developers also agreed with the following key points after assessing ChatGPT’s current capabilities to generate code:

1 – It’s important to exercise caution and not blindly accept ChatGPT-generated code as correct.
- ChatGPT can provide answers, but it’s up to the user to assess whether the answer is correct or not.
- There is a risk of receiving incorrect or nonsensical answers from ChatGPT, both obvious and subtle.
- It’s important to exercise caution and not blindly accept the generated code as correct.
- ChatGPT’s output should be treated as autocomplete, making life easier but requiring caution and verification.
The ability to discern good code from bad or nonsensical code, however, implies that…

2 – Users should have sufficient knowledge and understanding of WordPress plugin development to evaluate and modify the generated code as needed.
- ChatGPT can help simplify and expedite the process of building simple custom WordPress plugins, generate code snippets, and provide explanations. Anything more complex, however, requires plugin development experience and coding skills.
- Using ChatGPT without sufficient knowledge can lead to negative consequences or unreliable code.
- Relying solely on ChatGPT without critical thinking is similar to blindly copying the first answer from Stack Overflow (Stack Overflow threads provide more context, multiple answers, and feedback from other users, making it a more reliable resource, but Stack Overflow threads tend to be more generic, whereas ChatGPT can provide specific answers to individual queries).
3 – Utilizing other resources, such as WordPress documentation, tutorials, and community forums, alongside ChatGPT can provide a more comprehensive understanding of WordPress plugin development.
- As you explore the possibilities of using ChatGPT for WordPress plugin development, it’s valuable to engage with the WordPress community. Share your experiences, ask for feedback, and seek guidance from experienced developers. Participating in forums, attending WordPress meetups, or joining online communities can provide valuable insights and help you refine your plugin development process.
- Additionally, consider following WordPress security best practices to safeguard your website from potential vulnerabilities. ChatGPT can provide recommendations on security measures you can implement to protect your plugin.
- It’s also essential to maintain a clear understanding of your desired functionality and thoroughly review and test the generated code and secure your custom plugins before deploying them to a production environment.
Can ChatGPT Turn You Into a WordPress Plugin Developer?

In this article, we’ve explored how you can utilize ChatGPT to build simple custom WordPress plugins, even if you have limited coding experience.

In other articles, we’ve seen that AI-powered tools like ChatGP can streamline your workflow, boost productivity, and unlock new possibilities (check out our recent article onÂ ways that ChatGPT can help you as a WordPressÂ developer).

While there are over 60,000 free WordPress plugins available covering every type of functionality you can imagine, sometimes you may need a custom solution to meet a client’s specific requirements.

Beyond the core functionality of your plugin, you can also leverage ChatGPT to generate code for custom user interfaces. With its ability to understand prompts and generate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript snippets, you can create intuitive admin interfaces, front-end components, and interactive elements that will enhance the user experience and allow you to deliver a polished final product.

By utilizing the language model’s capabilities, you can generate code snippets, optimize functionality, and create user-friendly interfaces. However, it’s crucial to understand the generated code, review and refine it, and thoroughly test your custom plugins before deploying them to your live website.

The generated code may also require adjustments to align with coding standards, naming conventions, or specific project requirements. This requires a certain amount of coding knowledge and skills, as does optimizing the code and ensuring it follows WordPress coding guidelines for better maintainability.

The bottom line:

Here are my findings after trying to get ChatGPT to code me a plugin from scratch:
1. I couldnâ€™t have gotten this done without the help of our experienced developers.
2. Using ChatGPT to generate code without coding knowledge is really challenging – it helps to know what you are doing 🙂
3. While ChatGPT is a powerful and valuable tool, it doesn’t seem like AI will replace skilled coders any time soon.
Interested in Developing WordPress plugins?

Check out some of our tutorials and articles on WordPress plugin development:
22.05.2023
How to Create Your Company Org Chart in WordPress

Do you want to create your company org chart in WordPress?

Organizational charts can help visitors, clients, and potential customers learn more about your business, and find the right person to contact. If you have lots of employees, then an org chart can also help different teams communicate and work together more easily.

In this article, we will show you how to create a company org chart in WordPress.

Why Create Your Company Org Chart in WordPress?

An organizational chart shows how a company is structured, from the CEO right through to the different teams and individual employees within each team.

A helpful organizational chart can help employees understand how other teams are structured, and who they need to contact in any situation.

A chart may also be useful to third parties. For example, if youâ€™re creating a client portal then an org chart can help clients find the best person to contact.

You might even add a company org chart to your public WordPress website, to show the human side of your business and improve your brandâ€™s reputation.

That being said, letâ€™s take a look at how to easily create and manage a company organizational chart in WordPress.

How to Create Your Company Org Chart in WordPress

The easiest way to build an employee chart is by using Organization Chart.

With this free plugin, you can create charts using a simple visual editor, and add images, links, text, and popups to your company org chart.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Organization Chart plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to Wpdevart Chart Â» Charts. Then, click on the Add New button.

This launches the user-friendly visual editor.

To start, type in a title for the company org chart. This is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.

By default, Organization Chart adds one element to the chart. Typically, youâ€™ll turn this into the head of your organization, such as the team leader or CEO.

To add more people to the chart, simply hover over the default element. Youâ€™ll now see two small icons: a pencil and an arrow.

Go ahead and click on the arrow, which adds one element directly below the first one.

Now, simply hover your mouse over this new element and youâ€™ll see three arrows.

This allows you to add another element to the right or left of this person. Typically, people on the same level in an org chart have the same job title or similar responsibilities.

You can also click on the downwards-pointing arrow to create a new level below this person. Usually, people will report to the person above them in an org chart.

By hovering over each element and clicking on the different arrows, you can easily create your companyâ€™s structure. This includes multiple different branches or teams.

The next step is adding content to each element, such as the personâ€™s name, author photo, or email address.

To get started, hover over any element and then click on the small pencil icon.

In the popup that appears, youâ€™ll need to add a photo of the person.

Go ahead and click on the â€˜Uploadâ€™ button and then either choose an image from the WordPress media library or upload a new file from your computer.

After that, type in a â€˜Title,â€™ which will appear directly below the personâ€™s picture. Typically, youâ€™ll want to use the personâ€™s name.

You can then add a â€˜Description,â€™ which will appear beneath the title. Usually, youâ€™ll want to type in the personâ€™s job title, but you can also add a short sentence about their role.

Next, you may want to add a link to the image, title, or description. For example, you might link to a contact form for the person or maybe a page where potential clients can see the employeeâ€™s design or photography portfolio.

To do this, simply type in the URL you want to use. Then, choose the area where you want to add the link using the settings in the â€˜Select the link areaâ€™ section. For example, you might add a link to the personâ€™s image or description.

By default, the link opens in the same tab. You may prefer to open the link in a new tab, particularly if youâ€™re using an external URL. To do this, simply check the box next to â€˜Open the URL in a new tab.â€™

You may want to show more information about each person in the company org chart. For example, you could add their business email address and phone number, bio, a more detailed job description, or any other information you want.

This plugin lets you create a popup for each person. In this way, you can show detailed information without making the chart look complicated or text-heavy.

To add a popup, simply click on the â€˜Popupâ€™ tab.

You can now type your messaging into the small text editor. This editor has all the standard WordPress formatting, so you can add links, create a bullet point list, use bold and italic text formatting, and more.

When youâ€™re happy with the information youâ€™ve entered, you can specify how visitors will open the popup using the settings next to â€˜Select the Popup area.â€™

With that done, click on â€˜Update.â€™

Now, simply repeat this process for every person in the company org chart.

When youâ€™re happy with how the chart looks, click on the â€˜Saveâ€™ button.

After that, itâ€™s time to add the chart to your WordPress blog or website. Simply open the page or post where you want to show the company org chart, and then click on the â€˜+â€™ icon.

In the popup that appears, type in â€˜WpDevArt organization chart.â€™ When the right block shows up, give it a click to add it to the page.

That done, open the â€˜Select a Treeâ€™ dropdown and choose the org chart you created earlier.

When youâ€™re ready to make the org chart live, click on either the â€˜Updateâ€™ or â€˜Publishâ€™ button.

Now, you can visit your business website to see the company org chart in action.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create your company org chart in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to create automated workflows in WordPress, and our expert pick of the best live chat software for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to ourÂ YouTube ChannelÂ for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us onÂ TwitterÂ and Facebook.

The post How to Create Your Company Org Chart in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

20.05.2023