The GiveCamp BA/PM/Developer’s Guide

to WordPress

Presented by Sarah Dutkiewiczsarah@cletechconsulting.com

Originally created for Software Craftsmanship Guild

What is WordPress?

What Is WordPress?

What is WordPress?

Other WordPress Sites

http://wordpress.org/showcase/

What is WordPress?

• Content Management System (CMS)•Makes it easy for even non-technical users to maintain their website’s content• Allows site managers to manage their uploaded media• Supports themes to offer a variety of stock layouts, as well as offer customized layouts• Supports plugins to add in functionality not built into the core

Platforms that Support WordPress• LAMP (Linux / Apache / MySQL / PHP)• LEMP (Linux / Nginx / MySQL / PHP)•WAMP (Windows / Apache / MySQL / PHP)•WIMP (Windows / IIS / MySQL / PHP)

Installing WordPress via Dreamhost

The Beauty of the One-Click Install

Through a One-Click Install

•DNS Propagation• Any other host-specific gotchas• Empty directory (DreamHost requirement)

Screenshots of One-Click Install

Features

• Posts•Media• Pages• Comments• Appearance• Plugins•Users• Tools• Settings

Posts

• Appear in the posts page of a site•Doesn’t always appear on the front page, depending on the theme• Permissions can be set so that people can add posts to be reviewed before being published

Posts (continued)

• Can be scheduled to appear on a certain date• Cannot be set to disappear on a certain date by default (more on this later)• Can be assigned to multiple categories• Can have multiple tags•May have different templates, depending on the theme (more on this later)•Has Visual and Text editors

Media

•Media library for storing files that would be beneficial to the site• Commonly used for attachments to pages and posts•May be used as featured images and in carousels (more on these later)• File size limitation – managed in PHP.ini file

Pages

•May contain posts, calendar, forms, and other content• Can be scheduled to appear on a certain date•May have a parent page, used in navigation•May have a selection of templates (depending on the theme)• Can control the order of pages•May have a featured image (depending on the theme)

Comments

• Comments can be moderated• Approved• Unapproved• Spam• Trash

• Previous comments marked as spam help filter future spam comments• Plugins may also help with filtering comments

AppearanceExploring the various appearance options

Appearance

• Themes•Widgets•Menus•Header• Background• Editor

Themes

•Deluxe installation ships with a bunch of default themes•More themes can be downloaded from wordpress.org• Can do a search through your search engine and install themes via the Upload functionality• Can do a search in WordPress and install their themes• Customizable

Themes (Deluxe Install)

Themes (Search WordPress)

Themes (Search WordPress)

Themes (Search Engine)

Widgets• Section of a sidebar, header, footer, or special customizable section of a theme

Widgets

•May include things such as:• RSS Feeds• Archives• Categories• Custom Menus• Calendars• Custom Text• Custom HTML• And more!

Menus

• Some themes support custom menus• Allows you to create custom menus with:• Custom Links• Select pages• Select categories

Header

• Custom header image• Custom header text• Background formatting of header•Depends on theme

Background

• Customizable site background• Image and color

•Dependent on theme for support

Editor

• Allows customization of theme from within the browser• If creating a custom theme, find a theme to use as a basis and copy it to its own folder. Then modify the copy rather than changing the base theme.• Some themes are updated and these updates may

take out your customizations.

WordPress Plugins

Extensibility in WordPress

Plugins

• Adds extra functionality to WordPress not included in the base files• Can be installed via Upload functionality or Search functionality•Needs to be activated in order to be used

Default Plugins

• The following are included in a deluxe installation:• Akismet• Chartbeat• Hello Dolly• Hotfix• Jetpack by WordPress.com• MediaElement.js – HTML5 Audio and Video• WP Super Cache

Handy Plugins

•Contact Form 7•Contact Form DB•Really Simple CAPTCHA•Content Scheduler• Tweetily•WP e-Commerce Dynamic Gallery

Other Uncovered Sections

• For you to explore…• Users• Tools• Settings

•More sections may appear as plugins are installed. These usually have configuration information.

More WordPress Resources

•WordPress Codex – online manual for WordPress•WordPress Forums•WooThemes.com•Wpbeginner•Digging Into WordPress

Installing WordPress on Linux

Visiting the LAMP and LEMP stacks

Installing WordPress with Apache and Ubuntu (LAMP)• Root Privileges• Software packages:• Apache• MySQL• PHP

• More on configuring the LAMP stack: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-install-linux-apache-mysql-php-lamp-stack-on-ubuntu

Generic Steps for Installing WordPress in Linux

1. Download WordPress2. Create the WordPress Database and User3. Setup the WordPress Configuration4. Copy the Files5. Access the WordPress Installation

• Specific commands can be found here: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-install-wordpress-on-ubuntu-12-04

Installing WordPress with nginx and Ubuntu (LEMP)• Root Privileges• Software packages:• Nginx• MySQL• PHP-FPM

• More on configuring the LEMP stack: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-install-linux-nginx-mysql-php-lemp-stack-on-ubuntu-12-04

Generic Steps for Installing WordPress in Linux with nginx

1. Download WordPress2. Create the WordPress Database and User3. Setup the WordPress Configuration4. Copy the Files5. Setup the nginx Server Blocks6. Activate the Server Block7. Access the WordPress Installation

• Specific commands can be found here: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-install-wordpress-with-nginx-on-ubuntu-12-04

Installing WordPress on Windows

Visiting the WAMP and WIMP stacks

Setting up WordPress on WAMP

1. Download and install WampServer2. Configure local web server3. Set up WordPress4. Set up PHP config5. Manage local site6. Manage local MySQL database7. Sync local server with live server

•Great tutorial at: http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/install-wordpress-on-your-computer-using-wampserver/

Setting up WordPress on WIMP•Use Microsoft WebMatrix to install WordPress and all of its dependencies

•More on WordPress for Windows: http://www.microsoft.com/web/wordpress