The lead author has a related title to his credit [1], as well as the earlier editions of this book. In my view, this third edition is simply the best of its kind available [2,3].

Chapter 1 covers no new ground, but publishers seem to insist on these throwaway introductions. The second chapter gets into the overview of WordPress (WP) file structures and configuration in a helpful way. Working with local components follows before chapter 4 gets into a real tour de force of key components of PHP and code. Loop, including global variables, gets a full separate chapter of almost 30 pages, followed by a chapter on data management and the WP database schema.

Custom post types and taxonomies, as well as the metadata, are discussed in chapter 7, with plugin development usefully reviewed in chapter 8. As anyone who has set up WP websites knows, themes are useful, crucial, and often frustrating; therefore, the 50 pages on all aspects thereof are great to see in this title. Chapter 10 covers multisite operations and perhaps will be of little interest to most (I did not spend time there). However, I did make use of the tips in chapter 11, on migrating to WP from existing sites. More discussion of the difficulties presented by Joomla and Drupal-based sites would have been helpful.

Chapter 12, “Crafting a User Experience,” did not add much to my web handicraft. However, in contrast, the following chapters on security, application frameworks, and “WordPress In the Real World” present many points worth contemplating. The book concludes with a chapter on the developer community, including an especially broad section on additional resources that I appreciated. The book’s index is very comprehensive.

Refreshingly, this is a well-written, complete book for developers that doesn’t insult one’s intelligence and does not fill its pages with needless screenshots and white space. Code downloads and other resources are available online. While Jones’ book [2] may be better for absolute beginners and MacDonald provides a decent reference [3], the book under review gives substantive direction and information for experienced users. It is my most highly recommended professional how-to book of the year.

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