Content Management

Versionning! (again)

Reminders

• Not a requirement, a must have
• Auto document the changes
• Work in teams
• Separate your changes from third party code
• Be able to rollback

Drawbacks

• Hard to implement?
• New concept, learning curve
• What about databases?

In a nutshell

• Use it (on real projects, not only this class)!
• Use submodules for themes, plugins and WordPress core
• Disable auto updates, file editors... stay in control!

Questions?

Introduction to Wordpress

History

• A blog engine
• Official successor of b2/cafelog
• Launched in 2003

wordpress.com

• Commercial WordPress hosting
• No plugins, only 250 themes, no script modification
• Custom domain in expensive VIP subscription
• Solid infrastructure and quick start with no technical knowledge
• More details on their website and on Expand2Web

wordpress.org

• Home of the Open Source project
• Free download
• Free resources
• More technical, allows a lot more things!

Worldwide use

According to DMR, updated August 14th, 2015

• Not accurate
• 23% of the web
• 18 millions of new WordPress website in 2014
• First CMS worldwide

Community

• Largest CMS community in the world
• Wide background: design agencies, developers, end-users, UX Designers...
• Local user groups (Edinburgh: next meeting October 21th 2015)
• Wordcamp: WordPress centered conferences

License

WordPress is licensed under the GPLv2 or later which guarantees users several freedoms:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish.
• The freedom to redistribute.
• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others.

From WordPress website

Philosophy

WordPress is guided by the following set of principles:

• Work Out of the Box
• Design for the Majority
• Decision not Options
• Clean, Lean, and Mean
• Strive for Simplicity
• Deadlines are not Arbitrary
• Be Mindful of the Vocal Minority
• The WordPress Bill of Rights

From WordPress website

Platform

WordPress developers allow the following requirements:

• Minimum: PHP 5.2.4+ and MySQL 5.0+
• Currently recommended: PHP 5.6+ and MySQL 5.5+

It is advised to use the latest supported versions of both PHP and MySQL to avoid attacks with exposed security vulnerabilities

Questions?

Extending WordPress

themes

Requirements

• Use companies visual identity / branding guidelines
• Control your theme security (free themes can be unsecured)
• Control your SEO completely
• Quite easy to do!

Don't use free themes

• Bad referencement practices (wrong use of h1-h6 tags...)
• Security vulnerability (escape output should be respected)
• Standout, free themes are so common...
• Rarely expose customisation options

But still... use them for personal blogs and website, contribute back when finding issues on them.

Premium themes

• Not always quality (source your provider correctly)
• Still not your company visual identity
• Cost money
• Watch out for extensibility and support

May solve some of the problem, but definitely not a fully professional solution.

Getting started

• New theme?
• Child theme?

New theme

Creating a new theme consists in creating all the required elements to display the WorPress website. Therefore, it implies:

• Not to forget a display feature
• To use the features provided by WordPress to respect extensibility
• To have a budget large enough for both development and long term maintenance

Child themes

Creating a child theme consists in extending / overwriting an existing theme. Therefore it implies:

• Reduced development time
• Reduced maintenance time
• Less possibilities (parent theme defines the basics)
• Parents themes still receive updates

Where to start?

The WordPress offers lessons on the codex (ie: their documentation)

Colour scheme

• First article on the codex: Developing a colour scheme
• Use your company branding guidelines
• Watch out for accessibility (W3 WAI accessibility list)

Theme structure

Read the doc!

Questions

Next week

WordPress: developing a child theme

• Sourcing a parent theme
• Adding your own design (University theme)
• Don't forget versioning!! (see last week's practical)

Questions?