How to go from a beginner to pro in WordPress in 5 easy steps...just kidding it's more than that but this is a good start!

1. BRIDGING THE GAP: FROM
WORDPRESS BEGINNER TO
WORDPRESS WIZARD

2. WHO I AM:
MATTHEW VACCARO
WHAT I DO:
ALL ENCOMPASSING IDEA-MAKER OF THE WEB AND
OTHER THINGS
HOW TO CONTACT ME:
MATTHEWVACCARO.COM
SLIDES POSTED ON: SLIDESHARE.NET/MATTYVAC

3. STEP 1: MAKE AN AWESOME
ENVIRONMENT
FOUNDATION IS IMPORTANT!
• USE YOUR OWN HOSTING SERVICE INSTEAD OF A SIGN-UP “ONE CLICK” SITE
• ADMIN YOUR OWN DV SERVER FOR BONUS POINTS (SETUP NGINX FOR
SUPER EXTRA POINTS)
• SETUP LOCAL (MAMP/WAMP), DEVELOPMENT, STAGING, AND PRODUCTION SPACES
• SETUP GITHUB (OR CAPISTRANO IF YOU ARE REALLY AWESOME)
• LEARN HOW TO USE phpMyAdmin
NOT REALLY GOOD - SORTA GOOD - BEST
EDIT ON FTP - COPY TO LOCAL AND IMPORT - USE GITHUB!

4. STEP 2: BE A SECURE SALLY
EASY STEPS TO A SECURE WP INSTALL:
• RENAME TABLE PREFIXES ON INSTALL (OR AFTER)
• DISABLE ROOT LOGIN ON SERVER
• DISABLE GUEST/ANONYMOUS FTP LOGINS ON SERVER
• REMOVE ‘ADMIN’ DEFAULT USERNAME
• RESET USER PASSWORDS PERIODICALLY
• IF YOU ARE USING A CRON/BASH SCRIPT TO PUSH STAGING TO PRODUCTION
SCRAMBLE ALL PASSWORDS DURING THE PUSH AND “SALT” THEM
• USE A SECURITY PLUGIN IF YOU’RE LAZY (JUST KIDDING THEY ARE USEFUL)
• SEARCH THE CODEX “HARDENING WORDPRESS” FOR OTHER IDEAS SUCH AS
LOGGING OR BACKING UP

5. STEP 3: DEVELOP LIKE A
PRO*
* RELEASE BUGS INTO PRODUCTION, ACCIDENTALLY
DELETE CODE, DON’T LISTEN TO QA, “WELL IT WORKS IN
DEV”
LEARNING PHP (FOR WORDPRESS) AND THE ABILITY DISSECT CODE ON YOUR OWN IS PARAMOUNT.
THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR THIS KNOWLEDGE WHEN TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT’S WRONG WITH
YOUR WEBSITE.
INSTEAD OF USING FRONTPAGE, EXPRESSIONS WEB, ADOBE MUSE:
USE DREAMWEAVER, APTANA STUDIO, SUBLIMETEXT, OR EVEN NOTEPAD(++)
MY CURRENTLY USED AND RECOMMENDED INSTALL PACKAGE (MAC):
SUBLIMETEXT, GITHUB, CODEKIT, MAMP (BONUS: USE LESS OR SASS CSS)
…AFTER YOU BECOME AN AWESOME DEVELOPER, USE TRANSIENTS FOR CACHING!

6. DON’T BE A “THERE’S A
PLUGIN FOR THAT” PERSON!

7. STEP 3.5: BECOME FRIENDS
WITH THE FUNCTIONS
AS PART OF BEING A WORDPRESS DEVELOPMENT WIZARD LEARNING THE WORDPRESS
FUNCTIONS CAN SPEED UP DEVELOPMENT AND ALLOW YOUR IDEAS TO FLOURISH.
THERE IS A FUNCTION FOR ALMOST EVERYTHING!
• BOOKMARK THE WORDPRESS CODEX (CODEX.WORDPRESS.ORG)
• FUNCTIONS WILL HELP YOU PULL DATA, DISPLAY THINGS, AND MAKE YOUR INSTALL
AWESOME!
• BONUS: WHEN A SPECIFIC FUNCTION ISN’T AVAILABLE, USE PHP/MYSQL AND PREEXISTING FUNCTIONS TO GRAB THE DATA YOU NEED

8. EXAMPLE:
//---Top navigation list pages
function top_nav_list_pages( $page_id_array, $transient_name ){
if( ($transient_pages = get_transient( $transient_name ) ) === false ) {
$args = array(
'include' => $page_id_array,
'sort_column' => 'menu_order'
);
$transient_pages = get_pages( $args );
set_transient( $transient_name, $transient_pages, 30*60 );
}
foreach ( $transient_pages as $pagg ) {
$title = $pagg->post_title;
$url = get_permalink( $pagg->ID );
echo '<li><a href="'.$url.'">'.$title.'</a></li>';
}
}
//---Return the exact URL
function exact_url(){
return $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
}

9. STEP 4: DESIGN WIZARDRY
THEMES MAKE THINGS LOOK NICE, MAKE THINGS ACCESSIBLE, AND MAKE THINGS AWESOME!
PRE-MADE THEMES ARE COOL, BUT MAY NOT INCLUDE ALL OF THE NEEDED MODULES AND
FUNCTIONS YOU WANT…BUT DON’T GO ADDING A MILLION PLUGINS…
• DESIGN YOUR OWN THEMES FROM A BLANK THEME (SUCH AS “BLANKSLATE”)
• CHILD THEMES WILL HELP WITH THIS IF YOU WANT TO PIGGY-BACK OFF OF A PURCHASED
THEME
• USE WIREFRAMES TO MAP DATA AND THEN DESIGN AN AMAZING THEME IN PHOTOSHOP!
• [GOING BACK TO OUR DEVELOPMENT TALK A LITTLE BIT] TRY TO AVOID CROP AND CUT CODE
CREATORS
• …OR DON’T DO ANY OF THAT AND MAKE YOUR SITE BY USING PURE CSS STRAIGHT ON THE WEB!

10. STEP 5: BE A BETTER YOU (BE
A WIZARD)
KEEP UP WITH THE TIMES AND THE INDUSTRY, RESEARCH, READ, TRY, AND DO!
•
RESPONSIVE DESIGN, MOBILE FIRST, ETC.
FOLLOW PEOPLE ON THE INTERTUBES!
WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER, BY USING PRE-EXISTING TOOLS TO DO COMPLEX OR TIME-CONSUMING WORK. SUCH AS A JAVA
UNSCRAMBLER FOR GARBLED CODE (http://jsbeautifier.org/) OR BROWSER PLUGINS FOR CHROME (OR OTHER BROWSERS)
WHICH ALLOW YOU TO SELECT ITEMS ON THE PAGE TO GET INFORMATION ON THEM (WHATFONT?, EYEDROPPED, RESISR,
FIREBUG, ETC).
DON’T GET BOGGED DOWN IN PLANNING AND “THINKING”, 9 TIMES OUT OF 10 “DOING” IS GOING TO PRODUCE THE BEST
RESULTS (JUST NOT ON THE PRODUCTION SERVER).
BE HAPPY!

11. EL FIN
(THE END)