Learning WordPress theme development

Question

I am learning WordPress theme development. I need your clarification on when to use third party plugin or build my own plugin or just develop around WordPress core functions without plugins.
Secondly, if I edit or give style third-party plugins what happens if the css classes changes after the author does an updates.

Answer 1

Refer the Theme Development for learning WordPress Theme Development.

Refer the Plugin Development for learning Plugin development.

You can create your own plugin and use third party plugin as you wish or as per your requirement. For fulfill your requirement you can also modify some plugin's default functionality.

If you want to use Third-party plugins then make plugins directory in your theme folder and create file which you want to edit. i.e, If you want to edit akismet plugin then make akismet folder in plugins folder in your activate theme folder and copy file which you want to edit. Make changes in this files.

Secondly, if I style third-party plugins what happens if the css classes changes after the author does an updates.

Answer 2

Not really enough information to give a full answer, but I'll try:

Re: when to use third party plugin - this is completely your judgement, as plugins can serve a very simple purpose (in which case, adding this functionality yourself is probably OK), to being complex (such as e-commerce, forms etc). Consider that developing the plugin is the first step; you also have to maintain it on an ongoing basis to keep up with WordPress core updates.

Re: if I edit or give style third-party plugins what happens if the css classes changes after the author does an updates - This will shape your decision from the previous question. Anything could change when using a plugin; but as you use some, you'll learn which plugins you can trust to not make drastic changes.

Generally, I'll only use a plugin if:

• It is established, with a good star rating on GitHub or the WP plugin repo
• It has a development team around it, and they are making money from a premium version of the plugin or a complementary plugin or service
• It is updated frequently ('frequently' could be as often as once a month for large plugins, or once every 6 months for small)
• There is a development community surrounding it
• The plugin changelogs are thorough, and explain what's been updated in detail - this type of communication shows respect for the development community

I hope this helps.