Fast & Friendly WordPress
Slides Available at
https://slides.com/matiassilva/wp
https://slides.com/matiassilva/wp/live
Runs 27% of all websites
Software
- Text Editor (notepad++)
- FTP Client (Filezilla)
- Internet Browser
What do We need?
Files
- WordPress Core
- WordPress Theme
Resources
- Linux based webserver
- MYSQL Database
- Domain or Subdomain
WordPress Core
Text Editor
Used for quickly editing text files, viewing server logs.
Notepad++ is a lightweight, open source, text editor with many great features
- Syntax Highlighting
- Multiple taps
- Plugins and Extensions
FTP Client
Used to efficiently files from your computer to the internet and vice versa
Web Browsers
Installing WordPress
Set Up The Database
- Create a user <school_bonds>
- Create a password user <school_bonds>
- Create a database <school_bonds>
- Grant <school_bonds> all permissions on <school_bonds>
- Set database collation to utf8mb4_unicode_ci
This will save a lot of headache in the future
Unzip The Files
Do It
FTP the Contents of the WordPress directory to the root folder of the website
Visit the website using your web browser
Things to Keep in mind
- Do not use the following usernames
- Admin
- Administrator
- Root
- Make the password secure
- The admin account should not be anyone's primary user account
WordPress Essentials
How to log in
$BASE_URL + '/wp-login.php'
Toolbar
Dashboard
Posts vs Pages
Posts
- Tied to a timeline.
- As new posts are made, old posts are pushed to the back.
- Meant to stay mostly the same once published, to provide an archive of what a situation was, at the time it was published.
- Each post should be its own self-contained article.
- Dynamically generated URL
- bond.com/news/july-update
Pages
- Meant for static information
- About us, Contact, Policies etc.
- Not tied to a timeline
- Should be edited to reflect the current state of things.
- Can be nested according to a hierarchy
- About us
- Our History
- Locations
- US
- Canada
- Contact us
- About us
Posts
Pages
User Roles
wp_roles();
- Admin
- Editor
- Author
- Contributor
Most Common
- Super Admin
- Subscriber
Also Exist
Contributor
- Can write and edit their own posts
- Posts to website must be approved by an editor before being published
Author
- Can create posts and pages
- Can edit their own posts and pages
- Can publish posts and pages to the website without editor's approval
Editor
- Can create and edit their own posts, and the posts of other users
- Can publish and un-publish posts
Admin
- Update WordPress
- Manage Plugins
- Manage Themes
- Change website settings
- Can run any arbitrary php
- Can do everything an editor can do
Further Reading
Menus
Menu
- Menus hold links to pages, posts, images etc.
- Menus may contain links to external websites
- Changing the name of a menu link does not affect the name of the post or page
- Updating a page's location will not break a menu link
Menu Locations
- Predefined 'slots' for user-defined menus to pop into
- Must be implemented in the theme
- The same menu can be assigned to multiple menu locations
Further Reading
Media Library
What the Media Library Does
- Catalogs file uploads
- Sorts files into folders based on upload month
- Creates 3 thumbnails for all pictures
- Small - 150x150
- Medium - 300x300
- Large - 1024x1024
Library Notes
- Does not allow executable files to be uploaded
- .exe .apk .zip etc
- File size limit cannot be set higher than the php file size limit.
php.ini
upload_max_filesize = 32M
post_max_size = 32M
New Site Checklist
Change the Tagline
Set the timezone
Disable Registration
Set the link structure
Customization
Themes
Theme Repository
- Any theme on the theme repository must be open source
- Often "light" versions of commercial themes
- Huge range of code quality
- Themes are removed if they are known to contain security flaws*
*there is no one actively checking themes
Premium Themes
- Usually Cost $50 - $100
- Can vary wildly in code quality
- Typically have their own versions of plugins
Picking a theme
Plugins
Plugins can do anything*
There are 47,273 Plugins in the WordPress Repo
If you have a problem, someone has probably made a plugin to fix it
Events Calendar
Ninja Forms
Shortcodes Ultimate
WP Migrate DB
All in one SEO
WordPress Security
You will only be as secure as the weakest link in the chain
Don't be the low hanging fruit
Stay on top of updates
Do not use a default name for the Admin Account
Never post as the admin account
Use secure passwords
Only allow logging in from certain IPs
Install
WordFence
Don't put anything on the internet that you are not okay with EVERYONE seeing.
Extra Resources
Installation
WordPress
By Matias Silva
WordPress
An overview of Essential Wordpress Concepts
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