Developer: Getting to Know the WordPress Customizer

WordPress’ Customizer API provides a standardized way to implement settings in themes and plugins with front-end context. WordPress 4.0 introduces several additions to this API, enabling developers to build exponentially larger solutions into the Customizer.

For this meetup, Nick Halsey will explain how to implement live-previewable options in themes and plugins with the Customizer, focusing on the additions in 4.0, exploring some advanced and under-documented Customizer tricks, and discussing the future of the Customizer in core. Topics covered will include:

• Customizer sections, settings, and controls.
• Customizer panels: a way to group sections and create customization contexts.
• New built-in control types: textareas and generic input support; new control parameters: descriptions and input_attrs.
• Contextual controls: implementing front-end-context-specific options.
• Custom controls, and when to use them; customize control JS API.
• Custom setting types, improvements to the customize_update_$type and customize_preview_$type actions, and how to use them.
• What’s next for the Customizer in core.

For more information about the new stuff in 4.0, check out Nick's post on make WordPress core: http://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/07/08/customizer-improvements-in-4-0/ (particularly the API section). His talk will go into depth with these concepts, looking at specific use-cases and examples, and answering your questions on the Customizer, its APIs, and its future.