Wordpress as a CMS

WordPress as a CMS Michael J. Hammel http://www.graphics-muse.org [email_address]

Credits Shamefully stolen from Beyond a Blog By Jamie Oastler WordCamp Toronto 2008 Icons from Crystal Clear collection at Wikimedia Commons

Highlights

Introduction
The Power of the Platform
Anatomy of a theme
Plugins

Wordpress-as-CMS
What can WordPress do?
Where do we go from here?

Power of the Platform

11.1 million by Oct 2008
1.3 million since Dec 2009 (2.7 release)
1100 changes to repository
3000+ registered plugins

Fast / Easy Installation
Hierarchical data structure (categories, pages, etc.)
User Roles
Content Approval / publishing workflow
Content Versioning

Customizable presentation layer
Comment system
Canonical URLs
Support for RSS, SSL

Out of box functionality

Community Built
Community Driven
PHP backbone
MySQL backend

Themes
Plugins
Filters: database or display pipelines
Actions: event or code-location based
WordpressMU: multiuser version

Power of the Platform “ WordPress was always designed as a simple CMS for people smart enough to not get mired in the things the CMSes usually get mired in.” Matt Mullenweg

Themes

Templates
“ Template files are the building blocks of your WordPress site. They fit together like the pieces of a puzzle to generate the web pages on your site. Some templates (the header and footer template files for example) are used on all the web pages, while others are used only under specific conditions.” - Stepping into Templates (Codex)
Themes Directory - /wp-content/themes

Anatomy of a theme Theme File Usage 404.php Invalid URL requests will be served this page archive.php Display template for posts without category styling category.php Display template for categories requests comments.php Included inside display templates to display comments and allow users to add new comments to a post / page. footer.php Put your analytics code here! functions.php A container for functions called in other themes files header.php <head> </head> and usually top-navigation index.php Primary and possibly only page Start simple, design iteratively http://wpcandy.com/articles/the-WordPress-starter-theme-project.html

Anatomy of a theme The volume and types of files in any theme will be based on the complexity / variety of designs and the skill of the author to implement those styles. Theme File Usage page.php Display template for pages (non-blog) searchform.php <?php include(TEMPLATEPATH.'/searchform.php');?> sidebar.php Navigation or code included in other display templates. Can be managed through admin via widgets - http://automattic.com/code/widgets/themes/ single.php Display template for individual blog posts style.css Primary css stylesheet [Javascript] Sub-folder index.php Primary and possibly only page

Anatomy of a theme

Less cost / more time
More coding / less customization (maybe)
Self Sufficient: DIYers

Less time / more cost (potentially)
Less coding, more customization

Starting Points http://www.wordpress.org http://www.wordcamptoronto.com http://vibr8bros.com/Wordpress-project http://weblogtoolscollection.com http://themestation.com Starting Points http://www.wordpress.com/extend/themes http://www.templatemonster.com http://woothemes.com http://www.wPremix.com http://www.revolutoinstheme.com http://www.themeforest.net

Plugins

Good / Bad / Ugly: choose with caution
Read code / comments
Backups!!!
Experiment: Dev Server

scp plugindir `pwd`

Share your experiences!

http://weblogtoolscollection.com

Plugins

Download, unzip, upload, activate, integrate, test
More control of process
More secure

WordPress Help Sheet and Advanced Version
WordPress Snippets
WordPress Reference

Requires FTP
Use ssh / dev server instead

Cross browser implications
Cross plugin compatibility

Plugins

Akismet
WordPress.com Stats
WP-Print
WP Super Edit
Google XML Sitemaps
Maintenance Mode
WordPress Database Backup
WP-Cache or WP Super Cache – high volume (Slashdot effect)
NextGen Gallery

WordPress as a CMS

What does this mean?
Go beyond blogs
Provide Publishing Workflow
Multiple Users

Blogs: http://scobleizer.com/
Magazines: http://wphacks.com/best-magazine-style-wordpress-themes/
Portals: http://cnnpolitics.com/
Tutorials: http://psdtuts.com/
Subscription based content
AJAX: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ajaxd-wordpress/
GPS / Google Maps
Auctions / eCommerce: paypal, google checkouts
Mailing lists, Contact Managers, CRM
Role Management: http://agapetry.net/news/introducing-role-scoper/
Events / Calendars

What can WordPress do? Website / App Plugin Social Media Everything Share This Social Traffic Monitor Social Homes Facebook Wordbook Twitter Twitpress SimpleTwitter StumbleUpon Stumble Reviews Stumble Digest Ping.FM WPing.FM Flickr PhotoXhibit OpenID SimpleOpenID Amazon S3 TanTan S3

External Integration