📨 Submitting Your Plugin – Like Sending Your Code to College

“It’s time. You’ve raised it, tested it, documented it. Now… let it fly. Into the wild world of WordPress.”

You’ve built the plugin. You’ve fed it a beautiful readme.txt. Now it’s ready to move out and make you proud. This is the part where you send it off to the WordPress Plugin Directory, cross your fingers, and pretend to be calm.

💾 Step 1: Create a ZIP File — A Plugin in a Snug Hoodie

Bundle up that beautiful plugin folder:

my-noob-plugin/
├── my-noob-plugin.php
├── readme.txt
├── includes/
├── assets/
└── uninstall.php

Now ZIP it. Don’t zip the folder itself — zip the contents of the folder.

Bad:

my-noob-plugin.zip
  └── my-noob-plugin/
        └── all your files

Good:

my-noob-plugin.zip
  ├── noo-plugin.php
  ├── readme.txt
  ├── includes/

You wouldn’t wrap a gift, then wrap the box it’s in too, right?

🛠️ Step 2: Create a WordPress.org Account

Go here: https://login.wordpress.org/register

Choose a solid username because it’s gonna show up everywhere. Make it cool. Or weird. But not “plugin1234dev”.

📬 Step 3: Submit It to the Plugin Directory

Go to: 🔗 https://wordpress.org/plugins/developers/add/

Upload your ZIP, give it a slug (this becomes the URL), and hit submit.

Then? You wait. Sometimes for a few hours. Sometimes longer. Don’t panic. They’re real humans (allegedly) and they’re busy.

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🧛 What Happens Behind the Scenes?

The Plugin Review Team:

• Checks your plugin for malware, shady code, and any hint of evil.
• Looks at your readme.txt and hopes it makes sense.
• Reviews file structure and security stuff (nonces, sanitization, etc.).

If something’s wrong, they’ll email you. Kindly. Sternly. Possibly with passive-aggressive suggestions.

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🎉 If You Get Approved (And You Will, Because You’re Awesome)

You’ll get access to your very own SVN repository (don’t worry, we’ll help with that in Part 5).

Celebrate by:

• High-fiving yourself.
• Tweeting it.
• Telling your mom she was right — you are special.

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🧟‍♂️ If You Get Rejected

It’s okay. It happens to the best of us (even ones with coffee-themed plugins).

They’ll usually tell you exactly what’s wrong. Fix it, resubmit, boom — redemption arc unlocked.x

Want me to hit you with next topic - Using SVN Without Crying😄