In this article I would like to share the list of few plugins that I generally use when working on my localhost during the initial stages of WordPress websites to save time.
I do not necessarily have all the ones below active for every website during development but rather on a case-by-case basis when needed and sometimes keep a few on after making the site live depending on the need.
Bulk Page Creator: Allows you to create multiple pages in a batch/bulk manner.
Duplicate Menu: Easily duplicate your WordPress menus with one click.
Duplicate Post: Clone posts and pages.
Oomph Clone Widgets: Insert a “+” button on widget titles in the widgets screen that will copy the widget and all of its settings into a new widget.
Reveal IDs: Reveal IDs on admin pages.
Featured Image Column: Adds a column before the title (far left) the shows the entry’s featured image if it’s supported and/or exists.
I believe we may also need a plugin to duplicate widgets
Indeed. https://wordpress.org/plugins/oomph-clone-widgets/ is the plugin for that. I have added this in my post.
Hi Sridhar,
Thanks for the many fine posts you’ve made regarding development techniques for WordPress and the Genesis Framework. They have been incredibly helpful for expanding my development ability.
This post is extremely useful, giving us a glimpse into your personal arsenal of tools for WordPress development. I would find it very useful if you were to expand your thoughts on how you use each tool, perhaps a post covering each tool. It is very possible that you are using the tools in some ways that are not obvious to beginners. Not sure about other readers, but I would find this quite useful and interesting.
Thanks again for your efforts to expand the state of knowledge about WordPress.
Thanks!
Here’s a nice one I use on many sites for replacing files in the media library. It is especially useful during development:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/enable-media-replace/
I use Bulk Page Creator on the initial stage of every client site. We usually have the sitemap ready to go so this makes it very easy to add all the proper pages. Here are a few more that I have been using to monitor current page template and query info.
Show Current Template
I just noticed that this plugin does both. Seems to work very well.
Query Monitor
Query Monitor is a must have! I use it for support and it’s invaluable when troubleshooting template selection and the like.
Thanks again for another useful article, Sridhar.
Do you know of any plugin (premium on Envato — doesn’t matter) that can accomplish the following?
I’d like something that will create a, b, c, d, e, ….. w, x, y, z links at the top of the page.
Then, when the user clicks on an “a”, it will take the user to all of the pages (which will be names of people) with names beginning with the letter “a” — preferably a list of shorter links (linking to the actual page) that have page titles beginning with that letter, or, if not that, just the archives for “a”, I suppose.
What type of system is this called, and are you aware of any plugins that can accomplish such a thing?
Further notes:
I use Genesis solely, and mostly Dynamik as a child theme. The particular site in question is a site on America’s justice system and due process. It’s actually my personal nonprofit organization.
It’s an SSL’d multisite network running on Parallax Pro with about 35 premium plugins (~20 network activated, the others activated on a sub-site basis).
Thanks!
http://sridharkatakam.com/z-filterable-glossary-wordpress-using-types-views/
https://github.com/mgibbs189/facetwp-alpha
Thank you very much, Sridhar! Purchased FacetWP & downloaded the a–>z from github. I’ll let you know how it works out if you’ve never used it before. Appreciate it!
Query Monitor is another development essential for me, as it helps diagnose errors, see exactly what queries go into building a page, and quite a lot of other useful tools.
I might add that a useful plugin that I use during development (especially if it’s going to be a site with a lot of registrations) is User Switching.
This plugin allows you to switch to another person’s account in one click, which comes in handy in a lot of circumstances.
Really great list of plugins for use during the development stage. I’ve always wanted to figure out how to duplicate widgets.
If you are developing in a live server then UnderConstrutionis a must have
It’s annoying switching between pages while editing via the admin bar’s Pages screen. The List All Pages plugin adds a toggle button to the top of the WordPress admin sidebar that will list all of the pages in your site. Clicking on the link to the page will immediately take you to the edit screen for that page.
I’m a huge fan of:
CMS Page Tree View: https://wordpress.org/plugins/cms-tree-page-view/
Let’s you view pages and custom post types in admin area in a tree view instead of the normal post view. super easy for moving posts and pages around by drag and drop without having to worry about setting menu order.
Under Construction: https://wordpress.org/plugins/underconstruction/
This plugin puts out an easily customized home page for those who are not logged in. This is essential if you’re developing on a staging site that is live on the web.
Cheers!
I would like to suggest “What the File” plugin. It helps you know which template is used on what page/post/section via frontend.