using wordpress as an application framework

WordPress is an Application Framework

1Friday, 17 August 12

Tom Willmothumanmade • happytables • wpremote

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@humanmadeltd

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github.com/humanmade2Friday, 17 August 12

WordPress is not just for blogging.


WordPress is a CMS.


WordPress is not just a CMS.


WordPress is an Application Framework.


• What is an Application Framework

• What makes WordPress an Application Framework

• How we built the WP Remote web app on WordPress.

What is an Application Framework


What is an Application Framework


A web application framework is a software framework that is designed to support the development of dynamic websites, Web applications and Web services. The framework aims to alleviate the overhead associated with common activities performed in Web development. For example, many frameworks provide libraries for database access, templating frameworks and session management, and often promote code reuse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application_framework10Friday, 17 August 12

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application_framework


That sounds a lot like WordPress!


WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog.


WordPress is an Application Framework that happens to come with a default app called “Blog”.


WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful app, website or blog.


Application Frameworks are libraries of useful API’s & Classes


• HTTP

• XMLRPC

• WP_User

• WP_Rewrite

• WPDB

• WP_Cache & Transients

• WP_Scripts

• WP_Filesystem

• admin-ajax.php

• I18N

• WP_Query

• Security

• Templating system

• An Administration interface

Core API’s


• HTTP

• XMLRPC

• WP_User

• WP_Rewrite

• WPDB


• WP_Scripts

• WP_Filesystem

• admin-ajax.php

• I18N

• WP_Query

• Security




What did I miss?


The thing that makes WordPress uniquely powerful?


add_filter();


3rd Party API’s

• TLC Transients

• WP Thumb

• Custom Meta Box API

• WordPress Objects


https://github.com/markjaquith/WordPress-Skeleton/


• TLC Transientshttps://github.com/markjaquith/WP-TLC-Transients

• WP Thumb



• Term Meta


https://github.com/markjaquith/WP-TLC-Transients






• TLC Transients

• WP Thumbhttps://github.com/humanmade/WPThumb



• Term Meta


https://github.com/humanmade/WPThumb

https://github.com/humanmade/WPThumb



• TLC Transients

• WP Thumb

• Custom Meta Box APIhttps://github.com/humanmade/Customs


• Term Meta


https://github.com/humanmade/Custom-Meta-Boxes

https://github.com/humanmade/Custom-Meta-Boxes



• TLC Transients

• WP Thumb


• WordPress Objectshttps://github.com/humanmade/WordPress-Objects

• Term Meta




https://github.com/humanmade/WordPress-Objects




• TLC Transients

• WP Thumb



• Term Metahttps://gist.github.com/2953813




https://gist.github.com/2953813

https://gist.github.com/2953813

All these API’s can be used without the “Blog”

part of WordPress


Still need convincing?

• Continuously improved.

• Great backwards compatibility support.

• Super easy to jump in and get started.

• Can run on literally any server.

• Widely tested, runs 16.7% of the web, some of the largest sites in the world.


Why Not

• Some of the core API’s are old and nasty.

• It doesn’t enforce a strict MVC structure.https://github.com/markjaquith/WordPress-Skeleton/

• People might think your not a real software engineer if your not using Ruby to build your web app.


WordPress powered Apps!


WP Remote

Quick Demo


WordPressBack-end

WordPress PluginClient Site

Knockout.jsFront-endJSON

JSON


• Users

• Sites

• Site Meta

• Core, Plugin and Theme updates

• Groups

• History

• Backups

• Settings


• Standard WordPress subscriber level users.

• Custom Login, Registration and Lost Password pages and Change Password pages.

Users


• Sites are stored as a custom post_type.

• Each site has the post_author set to the user that owns the site.

• The site status is set to private to signify that users sites are private to them.

• Meta information about the site like home_url, admin_url etc. are stored in post_meta. As are lists of backups, history items and plugins and themes that need updating.

Sites


• Site Group is a custom taxonomy

• Each group is a new term in that taxonomy

• Doesn’t matter if 2 users unknowingly use the same group as each user only sees sites that they own.

• We use a custom term_meta table to store things like whether a group is collapsed or not.

Site Groups


• Installed on each of the users sites

• We use the HTTP API to communicate between the back-end and Plugin.

• The Plugin hooks into the Core, Plugin & Theme update API’s to do the actual updates.

Plugin


• AMC Story Synchttp://www.amctv.com/shows/breaking-bad/story-sync

• Bendy Wordshttp://bendywords.com/demo-board/

• StudioPresshttp://www.woothemes.com/2011/07/supportpress/

Others


http://www.amctv.com/shows/breaking-bad/story-sync




http://bendywords.com/demo-board/

http://bendywords.com/demo-board/

http://www.woothemes.com/2011/07/supportpress/




Done!


Thanks For Listening


Ask Questions Now

Or later on twitter @tomwillmot


using wordpress as an application framework

Technology

i18n wp

scripts wp

user wp

rewrite wpdb wp

cache transients wp

wp remote web app

core apis http xmlrpc

web application framework