Using

For Internet Publishing

Laura SolomonLibrary Services Manager

OPLIN

solomola@oplin.org

www.oplin.org

The agenda today:

• What is WordPress & some stuff about it

• Comparison to Blogger

• Some examples of Wordpress installs

• How OPLIN uses WordPress

• Installing and working with WordPress

What is WordPress?

What constitutes a blog?

• Ongoing chronicle of information

• Frequently updated

• Pieces/parts:– Main content area with posts– Archive of older posts– A way for people to leave posts– Links to other sites– One or more RSS feeds

Wordpress is not…

Content Management System

(CMS)

What can WordPress do?

• Act as a supplemental section or blog

• Provide additional functionality

What CAN’T Wordpress do (probably)?

Replace your entire web site

Wordpress is…

A little background

• The largest self-hosting blogging tool in the world

• Open source

• Can download and customize it

Different flavors of Wordpress

Hosted Local

Photo courtesty of iShot71 (Flickr)

Hosted: “No worries, mate!”

Pros Conswww.wordpress.com

Virtually no setup Less control of the look

Easy to get started

Less access to plugins

DIY: Calling Bob Vila..(Local)

Pros Cons

www.wordpress.orgTotal control over the look and layout

Requires backend database and scripting languages support*

Access to more plug-ins *Might* need a good tech in-house or to hire

More easily integrated into existing sites

Upgrades and backups are on your own

How does this compare to Blogger?

Blogger vs. WordPress

Blogger WordPress

Slightly simpler Slightly more complex

Entirely hosted Hosted or local installation

More limited functionality Great extensibility with widgets

No support for categories Supports categories

What’s a widget?

• Sidebar plugin

• Additional functionality without changing source code

Some example widgets• Active Discussions - Display posts with currently active

discussion threads • Contact - Adds a contact form to the sidebar • del.icio.us cached++ - Create a list of the latest

bookmarks on a del.icio.us account, from its RSS feed

• Flickr Badge Widget - display your flickr photos in the

sidebar • Now Reading scroll down on that page to see the widget

version

• WP Polls - a widget for WP Polls plugin

How OPLIN uses WordPress

How OPLIN uses WordPress

Actually installing WordPress

• Ingredients:– MySQL database (preferably with admin tool)– Web server– PHP– Download of Wordpress– Caffeine helps, I swear

Your new best friend!

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

Do this…

• Allow a really good chunk o’time

Surround yourself with happy thoughts

Be patient

Actual demo here

What to do

• Install XAMPP • Go to the XAMPP admin panel and open

up the admin interface for Apache• Click on phpMyAdmin on the left and

create a new database• Unzip WordPress. Put actual wordpress

directory in the htdocs directory of Apache (most likely C:\xampp\htdocs) so that you end up with C:\xampp\htdocs\wordpress.

Take a deep breath, the hard parts are over!

• You’re now ready to install WordPress!– Go to

http://your_domain_and_path_here/wordpress– Follow the wizard– Remember, if you have (properly!!) locked

down MySQL, the username and password are not “root/no password”

WordPress Resources

• Full list of widgets (http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins/WordPress_Widgets)

• WordPress Lessons (http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons)

Video Tutorials

• WordPress.com - Step-by-Step Tutorial on How to Blog (http://youtube.com/watch?v=MWYi4_COZMU)

• WordPress Tutorial - How to Edit a WordPress Page (http://youtube.com/watch?v=rnMnpt6u5uo)

• Wordpress tutorial--installing on a local server (http://youtube.com/watch?v=OD4nh5A5up4)

• Wordpress Tutorial (http://youtube.com/watch?v

=H1ImndT0fC8)

Where is this presentation?

http://www.slideshare.net/OPLIN

Questions?

solomola@oplin.org