WordCamp UK 2009 presentation

Saturday, 18 July 2009

WORDPRESS CMS  BASED WEBSITE  DEVELOPMENT FROM START TO FINISH Jonnya Freelance Crea-ve www.jonnya.net Saturday, 18 July 2009

MY JOURNEY TO WORDPRESS ๏ Freelance graphic designer • Over 10 years studio experience • Mixed media background ๏ Began researching CMS • Development pla<orm for the future • Post‐Nuke, Joomla, Drupal  ๏ 2005 Launched photoshopninja.com blog • First exposure to WordPress at v1.4 • WordPress 1.5 ‐ pages introduced Saturday, 18 July 2009

WHY WORDPRESS IS IDEAL FOR  WEBSITES... NOT JUST BLOGS! ๏ Ease of customisa-on • Template system • Plugin architecture ๏ Content management facili-es • Taxonomy (improved in v2.8) • User management • Admin area ๏ Development cycle/security • Regular update cycle • Easy to update • Security record Saturday, 18 July 2009

Search WordPress.org Go ome About Extend Docs Blog Forums Hosting Download WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time. More simply, WordPress is what you use when you want to work with your blogging software, not fight it. New to blogging? Learn more about WordPress, then follow the three easy steps below to start blogging in minutes. Or, for the ultimate in ease of use, get a free blog on WordPress.com. Saturday, 18 July 2009

PITFALLS OF WEB DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS Saturday, 18 July 2009

AVOID PITFALLS ๏ Project budget ๏ Client expecta-ons ๏ Firm proposal ๏ Content genera-on ๏ Scope creep Saturday, 18 July 2009

THE WEB DEVELOPMENT PROCESS STEP 1 Planning and Proposals Saturday, 18 July 2009

1.1 INITIAL ENQUIRY & RESEARCH ๏ Research • Clients market • HosUng arrangements ๏ Consulta-on • Audience • Purpose • Tastes • FuncUonality Saturday, 18 July 2009

1.2 PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT ๏ Proposal development • NavigaUon/structure • FuncUonality outline • Accessibility level ๏ Proposal reﬁnement with client • Audience • Purpose • FuncUonality ๏ Responsibili-es Saturday, 18 July 2009

CLIENT SIGN‐OFF OF PROPOSAL Saturday, 18 July 2009

THE WEB DEVELOPMENT PROCESS STEP 2 Crea-ve Design and development Saturday, 18 July 2009

2.1 CREATIVE DESIGN ๏ Ra-onalise naviga-on • Top level • Secondary level • Focus areas • Posts/pages/tags ๏ Crea-ve design • Photoshop/Illustrator • Homepage and content page ๏ Func-onality • Plugins • Development Saturday, 18 July 2009

CLIENT SIGN‐OFF OF CREATIVE Saturday, 18 July 2009

2.2 XHTML/CSS CODING ๏ Build XHTML/CSS • Blueprint CSS • CSS Edit/Style Master ๏ Tes-ng, tes-ng and more tes-ng! • Mac web development • Online resources • IE Tester • Firefox add‐ons ๏ Func-onality • Plugins • Development Saturday, 18 July 2009

CLIENT SIGN‐OFF OF TESTBED SITE Saturday, 18 July 2009

2.3 CONVERTING THE CREATIVE INTO A WORDPRESS THEME ๏ The Testbed environment ๏ WordPress Structure • Special categories • Custom taxonomy ๏ Build WordPress theme • Template tags • Plugin integraUon • include(TEMPLATEPATH . '/myfile.php'); • query_posts() • WP_Query() Saturday, 18 July 2009

CODE EXAMPLE FOR MINI LOOP <?php $mycontent = new WP_Query(); $mycontent->query('tag=moo&showposts=4&orderby=date&$order=DEC'); while($mycontent->have_posts()) : $mycontent->the_post(); ?> <li><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="View <?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li> <?php endwhile; ?> Saturday, 18 July 2009

www.jonnya.net Saturday, 18 July 2009

GETTING YOUR TEMPLATES UNDER CONTROL ๏ h^p://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Hierarchy • Understand the ‘cascade’ ‐ eg category display 1. category‐x.php 2. category.php 3. archive.php 4. index.php ๏ Page templates ๏ Condi-onal loca-on tests ๏ Special categories Saturday, 18 July 2009

Ramada Birmingham Oldbury Saturday, 18 July 2009

2.4 FINAL WORDPRESS BUILD PHASE ๏ Plugins • Write custom plugins • Don’t re‐invent the wheel! • Integrate into theme • CSS modiﬁcaUons ๏ Tes-ng ๏ Training ๏ Final content integra-on Saturday, 18 July 2009

ESSENTIAL PLUGINS ๏ Maintenance Mode ๏ Role Manager ๏ WP‐CMS Post Control ๏ WP‐DBManager plugin ๏ Google XML Sitemaps ๏ Cforms  ๏ Akismet Saturday, 18 July 2009

CLIENT SIGN‐OFF OF  WORDPRESS PRIVATE SITE Saturday, 18 July 2009

THE WEB DEVELOPMENT PROCESS STEP 3 Go‐live Saturday, 18 July 2009

3.1 GO‐LIVE ๏ Enable website • Privacy • Maintenance mode • RSS feeds/Feedburner • Google AnalyUcs • XML Sitemap ๏ Back‐up! • wp‐content folder • Database ๏ Begin marke-ng Saturday, 18 July 2009

3.2 FIRST MONTH REVIEW ๏ XML sitemaps ๏ Check backups ๏ Search engine indexing ๏ Google Analy-cs ๏ Check client using WordPress func-onality ๏ Final snag catching Saturday, 18 July 2009

3.3 FIRST QUARTER REVIEW ๏ Search engine indexing ๏ Check content/formacng ๏ Develop on‐going content plan/schedule ๏ Tell the world! Saturday, 18 July 2009

3.4 ONGOING ๏ Marke-ng ๏ Google Analy-cs ๏ Improvements ๏ Update WordPress Saturday, 18 July 2009

WORDPRESS CMS  BASED WEBSITE  DEVELOPMENT FROM START TO FINISH Jonnya Freelance Crea-ve www.jonnya.net Saturday, 18 July 2009

Saturday, 18 July 2009

WordCamp UK 2009 presentation

by Jonny a on Jul 18, 2009

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WordCamp UK 2009 presentation — Presentation Transcript