WordPress Development
Amber Hinds
Why WordPress?
Because copy/pasting content is boring.
Lots of resources for learning.
Open source.
Large collaborative community.
What is a WordPress developer?
Builds & sells commercial software products.
Works in-house on a single WP website.
Builds/modifies WP websites for clients.
Combination of coding from scratch, modifying someone else's code, and clicking buttons in a CMS.
Modifying WordPress
Check out the "core" files - know what's there...
but don't change it!
With every WordPress update, most of these files get overwritten.
When WordPress updates, your safe zone is:
- .htaccess
- wp-config
- wp-content directory contents
- any non-WP files you have in the root
WP devs build themes and plugins.
Themes
Control style only (best practice; not always reality)
Plugins
Control functionality and (to some degree) style
Jargon and Other Things To Know...
"Posts" & "Pages"
"posts" = blog posts - content related to one another by category/tags (taxonomies) and by date
"pages" = stand-alone content that may have a hierarchical relationship to one another or none at all - more static
Actually it's all the same
...they are all stored in the same table: wp_posts
Extra details about content is stored in wp_postmeta & is linked by the post id
Custom Post Types
Create your own as a way of better organizing content...
- staff
- portfolio items
- products
- recipes
- and more...
Widgets
Mini programs/tools that can be added to repeatable areas of the site - header, footer, sidebars, etc.
- Found under Appearance > Widgets
- "Widget Areas" are created by the theme
- "Widgets" can come from core, plugins, and/or theme
Learn more...
Shortcodes
A way of adding macros - code fragments - in the body of a post or page
Learn more...
Theme Development
Themes live in /wp-content/themes
More than a skin - the front of the website will literally not function without a theme.
Themes control the look of the website and also pull content out of the database.
Themes can be:
- Stand alone & static
- Part of a framework - they update!
- Child theme, adopting most styles from a parent theme
Themes contain
- Stylesheet - style.css (+ index.php are bare minimum for a child theme)
- Functions file - functions.php
- enqueue stylesheets & scripts
- Add features - widget areas, custom image handling, etc.
- Set up options for users
- Template Files - PHP source files used to generate the pages requested by visitors, and are output as HTML
Learn more...
- WordPress Theme Development
- Genesis Framework - popular (lean) framework
- _S (Underscores) - starter theme
Plugin Development
Plugins add functionality or modify functionality of WordPress
Some plugins modify the functionality of other plugins.
Plugins live in wp_content/plugins...and don't even have to be in a directory.
Looking at a basic plugin
Learn more...
- Writing a Plugin
- Plugin API
- Plugin Boilerplate
- Plugins Worth Purchasing - talk I gave
- Plugin/teaching notes - from a plugin dev workshop I co-taught
- Get Your Plugin on WordPress.org
Tools
- Sublime Text
- Desktop Server
- Git
- Photoshop
Resources
From WordPress
Books
Podcasts/Hangouts on Air
- The Matt Report - business
- WP Elevation - business
- Mastermind.fm - business
- Officehours.fm - business
- Apply Filters - development
- WP Watercooler & WPblab - general WordPress news
- WP Tavern/WordPress Weekly - general WordPress news
Other Resources
- WPShout & Up and Running
- Lynda.com
- Treehouse
- Just Google It
Fort Collins WordPress Meetup
2nd & 4th Tuesdays - Dev & User Meetups
