OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using WordPress MU (WPMU)

Building a Corporate Blog Portal using WordPress MU Dan York Director of Conversations, Voxeo blogs.voxeo.com twitter.com/voxeo twitter.com/danyork dyork@voxeo.com

Intro   Global leader in open standards voice application hosting   Founded in 1999   Focus on making telephony development simple and accessible for web developers – and open without vendor lock-in   Over 45,000 developers – over 80,000   Director of Conversations, applications Voxeo   Free developer accounts and downloads   www.danyork.com   Developers should never pay!   twitter.com/danyork   evolution.voxeo.com   linkedin.com/in/danyork   www.tropo.com   www.imified.com OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

My Reasons 1.  Tell Our Story In Our Own Words 2.  Educate, Encourage, Engage Community 3.  Marketing/Search – “Feed The Beast” 4.  Industry Soapbox 5.  Platform To Respond OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Who?   CxOs?   Marketing?   Product Managers?   Developers?   Support?   Sales?   The “Blogger” OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Our Stories   Voxeo Talks   Announcements, photos, glimpse inside the company   Voxeo Developer’s Corner   Tips, tricks and tutorials about developing on our platform   Voxeo Labs   CTO Lab   A view into the activities of our Labs teams   The Tropo Blog   Insight into Tropo.com, our open source cloud telephony service   Speaking of Standards   Voxeo’s views on industry standards   Behind the Blog   Telling the story of using WordPress MU for a corporate blog portal   Emerging Tech Talk   A video podcast about emerging technology topics OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Corporate Blog Portal Guidelines   http://www.thenewpr.com/   User Interface Suggestions   List of Available Weblogs   Aggregation of Blog Entries on a Main Page   RSS Feed for all Blogs   Search Across All Blogs   Images   Tag Cloud   Technology Suggestions   Design Integration with Main Website   Support for Users Authoring in Multiple Blogs   Private Blogs   Statistics   Integration with Social Services OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

How will you use WPMU?   External corporate blog portal?   External community site?   Internal blog portal? OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Good News For A Corp Site   Many security issues not relevant   You know the people who will be blogging   You can restrict who is blogging   You can restrict access to admin interfaces   You can constrain (or not) design choices   You can present unified “face” externally   Your users may already have WordPress experience   There are tons of consultants OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Bad News For A Corp Site   Will need some design and configuration   Blog portal components require assembly   Does require some tech savvy   How do you feel about editing PHP files? OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Policy Decisions   Who will you let have admin access to the blog site?   Only employees? partners? anyone?   Who will be able to create new blogs?   Anyone? Or only the “site administrators”?   Who gets to pick the URLs? the blog names?   Who can add users to a blog site?   Blog admins? Or only site admins?   What design “themes” will you let blog admins choose?   Only one (or more) “corporate” themes? Or from a collection?   Will you have a stated distribution license for your content?   Creative Commons? OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Domain Decisions   Which style of blog site?   Subfolders:   http://blogs.voxeo.com/voxeotalks/   http://blogs.voxeo.com/behindtheblog/   Subdomains:   http://voxeotalks.example.com/   http://behindtheblog.example.com/   What will the main domain you are using be?   Will you allow “domain mapping” of custom domains?   Choose wisely, as URLs should never change once used. OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Requirements   PHP version 4.3 or greater   MySQL version 4.0 or greater   Web server (Apache or Litespeed recommended)   (yes, that’s it)   (And a server: Linux, Mac, Windows, whatever) OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Installation Process   http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WPMU   http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress 1.  Download WPMU   http://mu.wordpress.org/download/ 2.  Create a database in MySQL and associated user account 3.  Copy the WPMU files into the web server directory 4.  In your browser, open that web URL and follow the instructions 5.  (And probably a number of other small steps) OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Logging In   Follow the link:   Bookmark URLs:   http://blogs.example.com/<blogname>/wp-login.php   http://blogs.example.com/<blogname>/wp-admin.php OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

A WordPress Theme 404.php links.php archive.php page.php archives.php post-footer.php attachment.php rtl.css comments.php screenshot.jpg comments-popup.php screenshot.png favicon.ico searchform.php footer.php search.php functions.php sidebar1.php header.php sidebar2.php image.php sidebar.php images single.php index.php style.css OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Theme: sidebar1.php, pg1 <div class="sidebar" id="sidebar1"> <div class="sidebarcontent"> <ul> <li><h2>Subscribe</h2> <ul> <li><a href="<?php bloginfo('rss2_url'); ?>"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/rss.png” alt="RSS" /> RSS Feed</a> <li><a href="http://feeds.voxeo.com/AllVoxeoBlogs"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/rss.png" alt="RSS" /> RSS Feed - All Blogs</a> <li><a href="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit? feedId=number&loc=en_US">Subscribe via Email</a> <li><a href="http://twitter.com/voxeo">Follow us on Twitter</a> <li><a href="http://friendfeed.com/voxeo">Follow us on Friendfeed</a> <li><a href="http://www.voxeo.com/facebook">Become a fan on Facebook</a> </ul> </li> <?php wp_list_pages('title_li=<h2>Pages</h2>' ); ?> <li><h2>Archives</h2> <ul> <?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?> </ul> </li> OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Theme: sidebar1.php, pg2 <?php wp_list_categories('show_count=1&title_li=<h2>Categories</h2>'); ?> <?php /* If this is the frontpage*/if( is_home()||is_page()||true ) { ?> <?php wp_list_bookmarks(); ?> <li><h2>Actions</h2> <ul> <?php wp_register(); ?> <li><?php wp_loginout(); ?></li> <?php $current_site = get_current_site(); ?> <li><a href="http://<?php echo $current_site->domain . $current_site->path ?>" title="<?php echo $current_site->site_name ?>"><? php echo $current_site->site_name ?></a></li> <?php wp_meta(); ?> </ul> </li> <?php } ?> <?php endif; ?> </ul> </div> </div> OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Theme: sidebar2.php <div class="sidebar" id="sidebar2"> <div class="sidebarcontent"> <ul> <li><a href=”URL"><img src=”URL" alt=”" border="0" width="162" height="180"/></a> <li><h2><a href="http://www.voxeo.com/free/"><img src="http://blogs.voxeo.com/ files/2009/07/get_started_button.png" alt="Get Started Now Building Apps" border="0" width="189" height="60"></a><br> <a href="http://www.voxeo.com/free/"><img src="http://blogs.voxeo.com/files/ 2009/07/download_free_button.png" alt="Download Free Software" border="0" width="189" height="60"></a></h2> </li> <li><h2>Voxeo Blogs</h2> <ul> <li><a href="http://blogs.voxeo.com/">Blogs Home</a></li> <?php list_all_wpmu_blogs('100', 'name', '<li>', '</li>', 'updated'); ?></li> </ul> <li><h2>Tags</h2> <?php wp_tag_cloud(''); ?> <?php if ( function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') && dynamic_sidebar(2) ) : else : ?> <?php endif; ?> </ul> </div> </div> OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Plugins   WordPress and WordPress MU have “plugin” framework for extensibility   LARGE repositories of WP and WPMU plugins:   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ (5,941 today)   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=WordPress +MU   CAUTION: Not all WordPress plugins work with WordPress MU OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Plugins in WPMU   Two VERY different locations for plugins:   mu-plugins   Apply to ALL WPMU blogs   plugins   Available to blogs, must be activated per blog (or by site admin across all)   Site administrators must install plugins   Can allow blog admins to activate plugins OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

mu-plugins   Unfiltered Mu   Allows users with Editor and above to use any embeds   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/unfiltered-mu/   List All Posts   Lists all posts across all blogs – used on portal page   http://www.wpmudev.org/project/list-all-Posts   Sitewide Feed   Creates three RSS feeds across all blogs   http://wpmudev.org/project/WPMU-Sitewide-Feed-Plugin---ITDamager   Search All Blogs (GT Search all Blogs)   http://joevanni99.wordpress.com OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Plugin Commander   http://firestats.cc/wiki/WPMUPluginCommander   Caveat: WPMU 2.8.2 appears to have similar functionality   Located in mu-plugins OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Plugins   Akismet – blog comment spam   http://akismet.com/   http://akismet.com/commercial/   Feedburner – syncs WP feeds to FB feeds   http://www.google.com/support/feedburner/bin/answer.py? hl=en&answer=78483   WPTouch – iPhone interface   http://www.bravenewcode.com/wptouch/   PodPress – podcasting support   http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress/ OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Plugins - Twitter   Twitter Tools   Posts to Twitter and also incorporates tweets into blog   http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress   Twitter Publisher   Post-only, and uses bit.ly (which lets you track usage)   Haven’t tried it with WPMU yet   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-publisher/   Twitter Posts   Suggested to me, but I have not tried it yet   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-posts/ OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Feedburner – My Brand   http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mybrand   Use “feeds.voxeo.com”, yet still get FB stats   Useful abstraction layer should you want to move from FB OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Google Analytics   https://www.google.com/analytics/   Small bit of JavaScript in your theme OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Integration of Other Sites   Don’t want full duplication of content   Considering blogs with partial syndication   WP-o-matic   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-o-matic/ OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Author Training   Education a key to growing pool of authors   Create screencasts showing how to create a post, categories, tags   Danger that this gets outdated with WPMU updates   Create internal wiki documentation, author guides, HOWTOs OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

The List Goes On…   Publish to Identi.ca (WordIdentica plugin… didn’t work… WPMU issue?)   Identity plugins – make it easy for visitors to comment   OpenID   Twitter   Facebook Connect   Google Friend Connect   RSS Plugins – to embed contact info in feed to combat content scrapers   Improved Sidebars   Performance Plugins   SEO Plugins   And… and… and… and… and… OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Resources   WordPress Codex   WPMU Tutorials   http://codex.wordpress.org/   http://www.wpmututorials.com/   WordPress MU Forums   WPMU DEV   http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/   http://www.wpmudev.org/   WordPress TV   Behind The Blog   http://wordpress.tv/   http://blogs.voxeo.com/behindtheblog/   WPMU on IRC   #wpmu on Freenode OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using Worpress MU - Dan York - blogs.voxeo.com - Copyright 2009 Dan York

Thank You! Dan York Director of Conversations, Voxeo blogs.voxeo.com twitter.com/voxeo twitter.com/danyork dyork@voxeo.com slideshare.net/voxeo

OSCON 2009: Building a Corporate Blog Portal using WordPress MU (WPMU)

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