WORDPRESS
THE GENIUS OF
by Jen Riehle

What is
WordPress?

WordPress is...
an open source content
management system,
often used as a blog
publishing application,
that uses PHP and MySQL.

What makes WordPress
SO AWESOME, Jen?

WordPress
Awesomeness
Open source = YAY!
Large user community
Used by > 12% of the largest 1,000,000
websites on the web
Flexible deployment options

More WordPress
Awesomeness
Availability of cool widgets
Extendable and flexible with
plugins and APIs
Easy to get in; Easy to get out
widgets: twitter, meebo, flickr, etc.
plugins: google analytics, google maps plugins; video player plugins, WPTouch

That sounds
AWESOME!
How do I get me
some of that?

Getting you WordPress
1. Sign up for a blog at wordpress.com
2. Download WordPress from
wordpress.org and install in a hosted
environment
2 options:

wordpress.com
versus
wordpress.org

.com Basics
Requires an account for blog owners; no
account for browsing (can limit access)
URL is http://yourblogname.wordpress.com
Takes care of everything: setup, upgrades,
spam, backups, security, etc.
Free account comes with 3GB storage
but may have text-only ads
Premium option available for a fee (css
editor; domain mapping)
“From time to time, we display text ads on your blog to logged-out users who aren’t regular visitors.”
Premium: custom css editior; domain mapping; VideoPress; no ads
wordpress.com community: your blog cane be highlighted on home page; ratings for your
posts/blog available

The Dashboard
trackback: notification when someone links to your site
Manage comments
View usage statistics
Quickpost
Polls
ALL INCULDED AUTOMATICALLY. Some auto available on wordpress.com but others only
available as a plug-in YOU have to install

The Posts
Stats - comments - likes
Note the “likes” (aggregated throughout Wordpress.com)

Adding Content
Trackbacks and pingbacks both refer to when other people link back to content on your site;
pingback is essentially the same but with an extra step to verify that the host is there and real
- helps limit spam.
Trackback block helps confirm to other sites that you’ve linked to them

category
- cat e go ry
- noun
- definition: a class or group of things
possessing some quality or qualities
in common
All posts must be in at least one category;
can have more than one
Categories may be hierarchical
Categories must be unique
Are generally displayed with each post (depending on your theme)
Clicking on a category gives a list of posts that use that category

tag
- tag
- noun
- definition: a children’s game in
which one player pursues the other
until he or she is able to touch them
Not hierarchical
On wordpress.com, clicking on a tag
will show you all instances of that tag in
all wordpress blogs
Can create tags for wordpress.com account but they are community tags

Prettiness
Search for themes by:
colors, #-column layout, left/right sidebar, language translation availability, widget
availability
BUT THERE ARE NOY MANY OPTIONS ~100

widget
- widg et
- noun
- definition: a GUI element that
displays information in an
arrangement that is changeable by
the user
Very useful, drag-and-drop functionality

plugin
- plug-in
- noun
- definition: an accessory software
package that is used to extend the
capabilities of the existing
application
a widget is a type of plugin
Not available for wordpress.com account

.com Limitations
Can’t install a custom theme
Can’t hack the PHP or CSS*
Can’t use plugins
Your blog is tied into wordpress.com
community of blogs
* Can hack CSS with limited options with a for-pay account
Pay account also allows domain mapping

What does it
mean?
No plugins in wordpress.com
Limited themes
Tags, ratings, etc. tie-in to wordpress.com community

wordpress.org:
Time to Level Up

With great power
comes great
responsibility
Have a good web host;
need a database and PHP
You’re responsible for
backups, upgrades,
managing spam, etc.
Mismanage the site and
you can lose it all

Let’s go play...

WordPress 3.0
(the next generation)

What’s New
New default theme and theme APIs
Multi-site functionality (formerly
WordPress MU)
Updated menu management
Custom post types
Custom taxonomies (with hierarchical
structure)
WordPress MU was a separate installation of WordPress, now functionality built into 3.0
Allows one installation of WordPress to manage multiple blogs - one administrator can
deploy a community of blogs
Taxonomy: a way of classifying data
By default, Wordpress has 3: categories, tags and link categories
WordPress 3.0 lets you create who new taxonomies, for example if you host a movie review
blog you might have a new taxonomy for genres and then create new terms within that
taxonomy

“
“
Matt Mulleweg
(WordPress creator)
Normally this is where I’d say we’re about to start work on 3.1, but
we’re actually not. We’re going to take a release cycle off to focus on
all of the things around WordPress. The growth of the community has
been breathtaking, including over 10.3 million downloads of version
2.9, but so much of our effort has been focused on the core software
it hasn’t left much time for anything else. Over the next three
months we’re going to split into ninja/pirate teams focused on
different areas of the around-WordPress experience, including
the showcase, Codex, forums, profiles, update and compatibility
APIs, theme directory, plugin directory, mailing lists, core
plugins, wordcamp.org… the possibilities are endless.
- June 18th, 2010
3.1 due in late 2010
3.2 in 2011

More Fun
Books. So many, many books
WordCamp! WordCamp Mid-Atlantic (DC) is
Sept. 11
Web lists of WordPress plugins, themes, etc.
Download WordPress app for iPhone, iPad,
Android or Blackberry
WordPress for Dummies, 3rd edition (2010); WordPress 24 hour trainer (2009)
WordCamp
Mashable has lists of Top Plugins for RSS feeds, for managing multiple blogs, etc.
Don’t get to become one of the biggest website deployment tools out there without a solid
user base - google your question and you’ll find help.

The Codex
The WordPress Encyclopedia
GREAT resources with tons of
information (primarily for installed
instances of WordPress)
wordpress.org also includes a blog,
forum and hosting info
Documentation source

Photo Help
Slide 1: flickr/crystal/bb_matt
Slide 4: flickr/a street called awesome/ moonlightbulb
Slide 7: flickr/bitter beer face/a4gpa
Slide 9: flickr/proof testing imperial equipment/stefan
Slide 14: flickr/double happy carebear rainbow/pink sherbert photography
Slide 16: flickr/mario kart wii promo event/goodrob13
Slide 19: flickr/chief engineer/striatic

Questions?
Jen Riehle
jen_riehle@ncsu.edu
Twitter: @ncsumarit
http://www.slideshare.net/ncsumarit