* The Boilerplate is based on the [Plugin API](http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API), [Coding Standards](http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Coding_Standards), and [Documentation Standards](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/best-practices/inline-documentation-standards/php/).
* All classes, functions, and variables are documented so that you know what you need to change.
* The Boilerplate uses a strict file organization scheme that corresponds both to the WordPress Plugin Repository structure, and that makes it easy to organize the files that compose the plugin.
The Boilerplate can be installed directly into your plugins folder "as-is". You will want to rename it and the classes inside of it to fit your needs. For example, if your plugin is named 'example-me' then:
It's safe to activate the plugin at this point. Because the Boilerplate has no real functionality there will be no menu items, meta boxes, or custom post types added until you write the code.
The original launch of this version of the boilerplate included the folder structure needed for using your plugin on WordPress.org. That folder structure has been moved to its own repo here: https://github.com/DevinVinson/Plugin-Directory-Boilerplate
The WordPress Plugin Boilerplate uses a variable to store the text domain used when internationalizing strings throughout the Boilerplate. To take advantage of this method, there are tools that are recommended for providing correct, translatable files:
Any of the above tools should provide you with the proper tooling to internationalize the plugin.
## License
The WordPress Plugin Boilerplate is licensed under the GPL v2 or later.
> This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
> This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
> You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
A copy of the license is included in the root of the plugin’s directory. The file is named `LICENSE`.
## Important Notes
### Licensing
The WordPress Plugin Boilerplate is licensed under the GPL v2 or later; however, if you opt to use third-party code that is not compatible with v2, then you may need to switch to using code that is GPL v3 compatible.
For reference, [here's a discussion](http://make.wordpress.org/themes/2013/03/04/licensing-note-apache-and-gpl/) that covers the Apache 2.0 License used by [Bootstrap](http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/).
### Includes
Note that if you include your own classes, or third-party libraries, there are three locations in which said files may go:
*`plugin-name/public` is for all public-facing functionality
Note that previous versions of the Boilerplate did not include `Plugin_Name_Loader` but this class is used to register all filters and actions with WordPress.
The previous version of the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate included support for a number of different projects such as the [GitHub Updater](https://github.com/afragen/github-updater).
The same is true of using tools like Grunt, Composer, etc. These are all fantastic tools, but not everyone uses them. In order to keep the core Boilerplate as light as possible, these features have been removed and will be introduced in other editions, and will be listed and maintained on the project homepage.
The WordPress Plugin Boilerplate was started in 2011 by [Tom McFarlin](http://twitter.com/tommcfarlin/) and has since included a number of great contributions. In March of 2015 the project was handed over by Tom to Devin Vinson.
The current version of the Boilerplate was developed in conjunction with [Josh Eaton](https://twitter.com/jjeaton), [Ulrich Pogson](https://twitter.com/grapplerulrich), and [Brad Vincent](https://twitter.com/themergency).
The homepage is based on a design as provided by [HTML5Up](http://html5up.net), the Boilerplate logo was designed by Rob McCaskill of [BungaWeb](http://bungaweb.com), and the site `favicon` was created by [Mickey Kay](https://twitter.com/McGuive7).
