One of the things that attracted me to the WordPress platform was the plugin API and large selection, but more recently I have been self developing before looking for plugins, only using plugins for things that I don’t feel I would be able to complete on time and in budget.
So what do you do when you need functionality? Do you first think how you can do it yourself, or do you dive into the plugin repo straight away, the ‘never reinvent the wheel’ mentality? I think both have valid arguments.
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There are several things I consider when making such choice (in no particular order):
- does task involve general functionality (plugin) or processing my specific content (develop)
- is there the plugin for the task from known developer and well-maintained (plugin) or there is fractured field of numerous plugins (develop)
- do I want full range of related functionality (plugin) or single specific tweak (develop)
In general I will always do at least quick search through plugins to assess how likely it is to get task done with them.
There is no rule of a thumb here. I both use plugins for tasks that can be easily coded (for example page titles) and coded from scratch some really beaten things (for example anti-spam protection).
