In the previous part of this series, I explored the ways in which you can use child themes to create sites using your theme framework. In this tutorial, Ill look at occasions on which you might create plugins instead.Deciding When to Create a PluginIt can sometimes be difficult to decide whether to use a plugin or your child theme’s functions.php file when you want to add functionality to a site which is using your framework.When deciding what to do, I would ask myself a few questions, as documented in this infographic:This will help you decide whether you should be using your child or parent theme’s functions file, a plugin, or your starter child theme.If the functionality you’re adding adds a lot of code, would be useful to others, or will be used on other sites you develop but not all of them, writing a plugin is generally the best idea.Creating Your PluginsIf you’ve decided you need a plugin, then you can make use of the hooks you’ve added to your framework to make them more powerful.
Original post:
Developing Plugins for Your WordPress Theme Framework