Title: How to develop plugin addons or extensions
Last modified: August 21, 2016

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# How to develop plugin addons or extensions

 *  [Jose Llanos](https://wordpress.org/support/users/latinunit/)
 * (@latinunit)
 * [12 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-develop-plugin-addons-or-extensions/)
 * I have developed a plugin, now I wish to extend it’s functionality by creating
   an add-on, but I don’t know how to…
 * Can anyone please give me an example, I hear people saying use hooks and filters
   and actions but I am still on the learning phase, any advice is greatly appreciated.
 * Thanks

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [12 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-develop-plugin-addons-or-extensions/#post-4218883)
 * It depends on how tightly or independent the extension integrates with the base.
   It could be a separate plugin that checks for the base on activation, or it could
   be an extra file in the same plugin folder that’s conditionally included by the
   base file. Or something in between. There’s no “official” structure. Do what 
   makes sense for your situation, within the constraints of PHP and WordPress.
 * Definitely get a handle on action and filter hooks. It is the primary way our
   code interacts with the WordPress core. You can start with going through the 
   [Plugin API](http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API). There’s hundreds of places
   in WordPress core you can hook into, and good themes and plugins have their own
   hooks as well.
 * A hook is initiated by core code. It basically is saying “Hey! I’ve got this 
   bit of data (or something just happened or is about to happen), anyone want to
   do something about it before I continue? This is your opportunity for your code
   to say “Yes, thank you! Let me see the data.” You then can do whatever, then 
   finally say “OK, I’ve done my thing, here’s the latest data version, carry on!”
 * That’s the idea, but the dialog is technically flawed. What really happens is
   you add your function name, which you wish to be called at a certain point, to
   a list maintained by WordPress. When that certain point is reached, all the functions
   in the list associated with that certain point are called in turn before WordPress
   continues on with the normal process. Bear in mind that other plugins, themes,
   or even core code can be hooked into the same filter or action. It’s important
   to play well with others and not do anything that prevents other elements from
   using the same resource.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘How to develop plugin addons or extensions’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [add-on](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/add-on/)
 * [addons](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/addons/)
 * [extend](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/extend/)

 * In: [Hacks](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/plugins-and-hacks/hacks/)
 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-develop-plugin-addons-or-extensions/#post-4218883)
 * Status: not resolved

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