advanced wordpress

Kathy [email protected]://blog.kathyreid.id.auhttp://www.slideshare.net/KathyReid

Advanced WordPress

Saturday 19 Sep 09Software Freedom Day

Melbourne

Kathy [email protected]

http://blog.kathyreid.id.auhttp://slideshare.net/KathyReid

mailto:[email protected]

http://blog.kathyreid.id.au/

http://www.slideshare.net/KathyReid



http://slideshare.net/KathyReid


This workshop is for YOU

Let me know if there's something

you would like covered in more depthor in a different way

If it's too technical, let me know

If it's not technical enough, let me know





What does this workshop assume?

● You are comfortable with creating posts and pages

● You are comfortable installing and changing themes, widgets and plugins

● Have used WordPress.com online or have installed your own WordPress on your server

● Installation page on Codex:http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress#Installation




http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress#Installation


Common installation issues - permissions

● wp-config.php has to be writable by the web server. This is the file that you enter your DB username and password details into

● Permissions can usually be changed via FTP

● Is everyone familiar with Linux file system permissions?





Common installation issues - DB

● MySQL database has to be created, and the MySQL user has to be given permissions to the database

● This is best done through PhpMyAdmin (available through most hosting control panels)

● If MySQL is upgraded on your host, you may need to recreate the user and permissions





Common installation issues - upgrades

● Since WordPress 2.7, there are tools that automate the process of upgrading

● Disable all plugins before upgrading

● Ensure you make a backup of your database

● This can also be done in PhpMyAdmin

● Everyone familiar with PhpMyAdmin?





Common installation issues - timeout

● By default, WordPress has a timeout set to 30 seconds when downloading from FTP to do an automatic update

● This can result in an error like;

Downloading update from http://wordpress.org/wordpress2.7.1.zipDownload failed.: Operation timed out after 30000 milliseconds with 351500 bytes received Installation Failed




http://wordpress.org/wordpress-2.7.1.zip


Timeout (cont'd)

● You need to do the following to fix this error

● In the file system where WordPress is installed, find the file called 'file.php'

● /wpadmin/includes/

● Find the line;$response = wp_remote_get($url, array(’timeout’ => 30));

● Change the '30' to something like '500' and try the upgrade again





Themes – modifying or building your own

● Easier to modify an existing theme as the basic layout will already have been done for you

● (check licensing of theme)● Modifying or building your

own themes requires some knowledge of HTML and CSS

● Themes intro page on Codexhttp://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes




http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes


Themes – File hierarchy

● When building themes, it is important to have an understanding of the file hierarchy – ie which 'pieces' of the theme get included where. This page on the WordPress codex covers this;

● http://codex.wordpress.org/Stepping_Into_Templates




http://codex.wordpress.org/Stepping_Into_Templates


Themes – styles.css

● This is the main file that needs to be edited

● The first block is used by WordPress to show style information in the Appearance menu in the Dashboard

● You will need CSS skills to edit the Theme

● http://www.cssreference.com




http://www.cssreference.com/


Themes – Getting new ones

● There are literally tens of thousands of themes. High quality themes usually have;– Widget support– 'Fluid layouts' that fit to

screen– Are standards compliant– Well tested or many installs

● Good place to start is:● http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/




http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/


Exercise 1 – Modifying an existing theme

● Create a copy of one of the themes in the 'wp-content/themes' directory

● Edit the styles.css file so that the first block of information is changed

● Make some changes to the colours or CSS styling within the file





Exercise 1 - contd

● Navigate to 'Appearance' in your Dashboard and change the chosen theme to the one you modified.

● Can you see the differences?● What else would you like to

change about your theme?





Installing plugins

● A plugin is a piece of code written in PHP by a developer which can be added to WordPress to provide additional functionality

● The quality of plugins and their maturity varies – some are excellent, some are rubbish

● Most are usually free, some are not.





Finding plugins

● The best place to start is:● http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/● Each plugin has information

on – Version– Compatibility– Author– Home page– Screenshots– Documentation




http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/


Assessing a plugin

● What rating does it have?● How comprehensive is the

documentation or website?● What version is the plugin

(usually higher version, more mature)

● How active is the development (last version date)

● How many other people have it installed (a good indicator of quality)





Exercise 2: Assessing and installing a plugin

● In your Dashboard, navigate to Plugins -> Add New

● You will be presented with a field where you can search for plugins. Try the keyword for a plugin you're interested in. In this example, we'll use 'twitter' (it's not case sensitive)

● WordPress will go and search all the plugins that match this keyword and present them to you in a table





Exercise 2: Assessing and installing a plugin

● Identify the plugin you wish to install (refer to 'assessing a plugin' earlier in this presentation)

● Click the 'install' link next to the plugin

● The plugin will install automatically

● You may have to configure options for the plugin





Plugins – you MUST have

● Akismet is an anti-spam plugin; it is packaged by default with WordPress. It will identify which comments are spam and which are legitimate with a high rate of accuracy.

● http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/




http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/


Plugins - Forms

● Cforms is a plugin which provides a very robust and complete method to create forms for your website.

● It is overkill for basic contact forms, but has a lot of functionality such as captcha control and auto replies

● http://www.deliciousdays.com/cforms-plugin




http://www.deliciousdays.com/cforms-plugin


Other plugins you might like

● Sociable: Allows people to read your posts and flag them with tools such as Delicious, Digg, Twitter etc

● Similar posts: Automatically suggest posts your readers may also like from keywords and categories

● WordPress mobile edition: Make sure your blog is readable on mobile devices





Keeping plugins updated

● It's important that you keep an eye out for plugins that need to be updated – for bugs and vulnerabilities but also for enhancements.

● WordPress automatically notifies you of plugins that have updates available;





Writing your own plugin

● You will need to know PHP reasonably well

● Helps to have a knowledge of the WordPress code and components – and 'hooks' that are built in for plugin developers

● Has someone else already written the plugin

● How will you support it?● http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_a_Plugin




http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_a_Plugin


Roles

● Roles and permissions in WordPress are basic; it is designed to be a blog used by a single person

● Blog owner can assign a role to a user which restricts what abilities that user has on the site – each role has different capabilities

● http://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities#Roles




http://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities#Roles


WordPress Multi User (WPMU)

● WPMU is a different form of WordPress that is designed to be installed in a multi-blogging environment

● For instance, you can run hundreds of blogs from one installation

● The administrator can set privilege levels and plugins site wide or on certain sites only

● http://mu.wordpress.org




http://mu.wordpress.org/


Social networking: BuddyPress

● BuddyPress aims to add social networking functionality to WordPress to make it more suitable for community sites

● Still in its infancy; is quite immature – but one to watch

● http://buddypress.org




http://buddypress.org/


Additional resources

FLOSS Manual(Free/Libre and Open Source

Software)http://en.flossmanuals.net/wordpress

WordPress – downloads, docs, themes

http://www.wordpress.org




http://en.flossmanuals.net/wordpress

http://www.wordpress.org/

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