WordPress is much more than a blogging platform. As this practical guide clearly demonstrates, you can use WordPress to build web apps of any type—not mere content sites, but full-blown apps for specific tasks. If you have PHP experience with a smattering of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you’ll learn how to use WordPress plugins and themes to develop fast, scalable, and secure web apps, native mobile apps, web services, and even a network of multiple WordPress sites.

The authors use examples from their recently released SchoolPress app to explain concepts and techniques throughout the book. All code examples are available on GitHub.

• Compare WordPress with traditional app development frameworks
• Use themes for views, and plugins for backend functionality
• Get suggestions for choosing WordPress plugins—or build your own
• Manage user accounts and roles, and access user data
• Build asynchronous behaviors in your app with jQuery
• Develop native apps for iOS and Android, using wrappers
• Incorporate PHP libraries, external APIs, and web service plugins
• Collect payments through ecommerce and membership plugins
• Use techniques to speed up and scale your WordPress app