Extending WordPress with Plugins

WordCamp Hamilton 2015

PLUGINS FOR THE PEOPLE

WHO IS THIS GUY?• GraphicSource.ca – web since 1998• WP since 2006• Hamilton Ontario #Hamont

WHAT IS A PLUG-IN?

An extra piece of software that adds a specific function to your WordPress website.

NOT THE ONLY WAY TO EXTEND WP

HOW DO I FIND ONE?• WP Plugin Repository

• Google It

• Tidy Repo

• Free

• Freemium

• Premium

WENT TO THE PLUGIN REPOSITORY

FOUND 87 PLUGINS I HAD TO CHOOSE FROM

WENT TO THE PLUGIN REPOSITORY

DANGER / BEWARE• Core Updates

• Plugin Updates – or lack thereof

• Plugin Conflicts

HOW DO I INSTALL A PLUGIN?

LET’S DEMO

Settings may appear in Different Places – you have to dig around a bit

THE FIRST PLUGIN YOU SHOULD INSTALL

Plugin Central

MY DEFAULT INSTALL LIST• WordPress SEO - Yoast

• WordFence

• WP3 Total Cache

• Contact Form 7 – Free

CONTACT FORM PLUG-INS• Jet Pack – Enables WordPress.com functionality

• Gravity Forms – Paid

• Contact Form 7 – Free

GALLERY PLUG-INS• Will be the most giant headache

• Cactus Masonry Plugin – FREE

• Global Gallery Responsive WordPress Plugin

ACCESSIBILITY PLUG-INS• WP accessibility

• Gravity forms accessibility

• Accessible Twitter feed

WHAT ELSE CAN PLUG-INS DO?• All kinds of widgets, photos, calendars,

• Booking systems, ecommerce, donations

• Sliders, galleries, contests, social media

• Wordpress functionality tweaks

• Site backups / moves - Duplicator

• Podcasting – Blubrry Power Press

• Blogging Tools – Inbound Writer (Premium)

• Translation / Multi Language

MORE PLUGINS

Maintenance – close site to outsiders while working on it

No Longer in Directory – are your current plugins?

CSV to SortTable – Sortable HTML table

Invoice King Pro

Customer Area – protected area for client files and invoices.

Image Widget

Insert Javascript and CSS

Performance Monitoring – GTMetrix for Wordpress, WP system health.

FROM THE SPEAKERS

FROM THE SPEAKERS

• Backup Buddy - PAID

• Duplicator - FREE

• Pixgridder – page grid composer – inside WP

• Sidekick – real time, voice guided training

• Adminimizer – simplify admin area

• Shortcodes Ultimate - Shortcodelic

• Responsive Menu

• Leadin - marketing automation

• Adminer – db management

• All in one schema

• Advanced Custom Fields

• Author Avatar List

• LivePress – live blogging - PAID

SECURITY PLUGINS

Better WP SecurityWP Login Delay PluginBrute ProtectWordFence

Clef – www.getclef.com

RULES OF THUMB FOR PLUGINS• Careful with overloading too many plugins

• Watch site performance

• If not in use, disable

• Troubleshooting? Start shutting them down one by one and test

• Take some time to evaluate have a plan

• Check your site after installing one

• Avoid mass installs/upgrades of unknown plugins

WPPLUGINSATOZ.COM• Podcast review of Plugins with Marcus Couch and

John Overall

TIDYREPO.COM

[SHORTCODES]A small line of code that looks like

[shortcode_name]

And allows you to quickly add functionality

Utilized by plugins

ALL THIS GREAT POWER…. FOR FREE• Leave feedback

• Contact developers about conflicts

• Make a donation to the developer

DON’T FEAR CODE

• HTML / CSS

• www.w3schools.com

• Why?

• Style your text

• Move things around

• Add some space around text

• Jazz it up

• <p style=“color:red; font-weight:bold;”> Hello </p>

BONUS DESIGN TIPGIVE YOUR TEXT SOME SPACE

THAT’S ALL FOLKS…geoff@graphicsource.ca

Twitter: @graphicsource

www.graphicsource.ca

For this presentation:

Graphicsource.ca/wch2015