1. WordPress as a CMS
Justin Sisley
justin.sisley@gmail.com
www.justinsisley.com
Matthew Vaccaro
mattyvac@gmail.com
www.matthewvaccaro.com
“Make an enterprise
level CMS out of
WordPress?”

2. Wiki Says…
Wordpress as a CMS

3. The Definition of a CMS
A web content management system (WCMS)[1] is a
software system that provides website authoring,
collaboration, and administration tools designed to allow
users with little knowledge of web programming
languages or markup languages to create and manage
website content with relative ease. - Wikipedia
Wordpress as a CMS

4. A Brief History
Wordpress as a CMS

5. …a [very] brief history.
“WordPress was born out of a desire for an elegant, well-architectured personal
publishing system built on PHP and MySQL and licensed under the GPLv2 (or later). It is
the official successor of b2/cafelog. WordPress is fresh software, but its roots and
development go back to 2001. It is a mature and stable product. We hope by focusing on
user experience and web standards we can create a tool different from anything else out
there.” – wordpress.org/about/
Serious Blogging
Serious Forking
Serious CMSing
Wordpress as a CMS

6. Why You’re Here
WordPress as a CMS

7. …and why we’re here.
WordPress today
• Robust, customizable platform that is very CMSish
• Allows the use of many core CMS principles such as media re-use and
workflow
WordPress is not just a blog platform...
• ...and is not just a convenient CMS for small client projects, it’s much more!
• Some may be doing this already:
– Network of client sites for ease of updating
– Network of blogs under one media company
• ….but what about HUGE single sites!?
Wordpress as a CMS

8. “You’re gonna
need a bigger
CMS” –Brody
Wordpress as a CMS

9. Why We Chose WordPress
What we were up against:
• Enterprise systems based on .NET and ColdFusion
• Ektron, SiteCore, etc.
• ‘Enterprise mentality’
• Enterprise
What we needed:
• Dynamically driven (database) content
• Ability for multiple users to update the website
• Easier integration of social media and API’s
– Brightcove, Flickr, etc.
• Better navigation and information architecture
• More modern responsive design
• Integrated search and knowledge base
Wordpress as a CMS

10. “Say ‘enterprise’
again. Say ‘enterprise’
again, I dare you, I
double dare you.”
-Jules
Wordpress as a CMS

11. Why We Chose WordPress
What we hoped to achieve:
• Stronger engagement of users
• Better, more timely, communication of information internally and externally
• Reflects the ‘21st Century’ college motto
• Better adapts to users needs
• More comprehensive metrics
and analytics collection
Wordpress as a CMS

12. Why We Chose WordPress
– Cost
– Pre-existing knowledge, no consulting needed like proprietary systems
– Positive outlook for WP as a platform
– Massive community
Wordpress as a CMS

13. How We’re Using
WordPress
Wordpress as a CMS

14. How We’re Using WordPress as a CMS
College of Medicine CMS design and development process
• Desired functionality brainstorming
– What features already exist
– What features did we have to create for ourselves
– Using third-party plugins vs. writing our own
• Use as few third party plugins as possible (Less than 5)
• Multisite vs. single site considerations
– Get_blog_list(); and switch_to_blog(); is bad! (Sort of, but let us explain…)
• Get_blog_(); is deprecated – and horrible
– Network search, or anything network wide
• User roles, permissions and capabilities
– Content Editor -> Content Manager -> Approver/Publisher
– Remove options from users on a per role or per site basis (RoleScoper Plugin)
• JavaScript
– Ajax
– Script management
– Closures
– Use only what you need
Wordpress as a CMS

15. How We’re Using WordPress as a CMS
Evolution of design
• ‘Web 1.0’ to ‘Web 2.0’
• Static to dynamic
• Designing ‘for the group’
Wordpress as a CMS

16. How We’re Using WordPress as a CMS
TA-DA!
Custom
wp_list_pages
functions, jQuery
audience panel
Custom fields,
custom post
type events
calendar
Wordpress as a CMS

17. How We’re Using WordPress as a CMS
Evolution of design /*** @group general ***/
• Theming and templates ::-moz-selection {
background-color: #9bd2f1;
– Not every page needs a template color: #fff;
– Use PHP to your advantage when creating }
templates /*** @group headings ***/
• Consolidate templates with statements h1 a, h2 a, h3 a {
-webkit-text-stroke: 1px transparent;
}
Design Considerations /*** @group header ***/
• Combine and minimize CSS and jQuery header {
• Use markers in CSS (@group) overflow: auto;
margin-bottom: 10px;
• Includes make life easier }
– @import for CSS /*** @group universal bar style ***/
– <?php require_once ('includes/site-head'); ?> .grey-bar {
border: 1px solid #ccc;
– <?php get_template_part('includes/site-head'); font-size: 14px;
?> text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #FFF;
}
/*** @group navigation - top ***/
ul#top-navigation {
overflow: hidden;
width: 955px;
z-index: 19999;
margin: 0 auto;
clear: both;
}
Wordpress as a CMS

18. How We’re Using WordPress as a CMS
Make use of the WordPress functions!
• …The ones above
• wp_list_pages(); (wp_get_pages(); also rocks!)
• get_queried_object();
• get_top_ancestor();
…and TONS more
<?php
$bodyClass = get_body_class();
$currPageID = get_the_ID();
$currPageActive = get_top_ancestor($currPageID);
$activeClass = 'activeNav';
if (in_array("root-parent-id-".$currPageActive, $bodyClass) && $currPageActive == 8) {
$aboutActive = $activeClass;
}elseif(in_array("root-parent-id-".$currPageActive, $bodyClass) && $currPageActive == 12) {
$acadActive = $activeClass;
}
?>
<ul id="sideNavList">
<li class="homeBackground"><a href="<?php bloginfo('url'); ?>" class="homeLink">Return Home</a></li>
<li><a href="<?php echo get_permalink( 8 ); ?>" class="<?php echo $aboutActive; ?>">About</a>
<ul class="children <?php echo $aboutActive; ?>">
<?php side_nav_list_pages( 8 ); //custom function ?>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Wordpress as a CMS

19. How We’re Using WordPress as a CMS
Security
• Nonces
• Mysql_real_escape_string
• Theme security = plugin security!
– functions.php is just as important as a plugin
– Escaping non-plugin and non-functions.php code when using code within themes
• Awareness is key
<?php
$rss = fetch_feed('http://www.external-url.com/feed/?post_type=news');
if (!is_wp_error( $rss ) ) :
$maxitems = $rss->get_item_quantity(7);
$rss_items = $rss->get_items(0, $maxitems);
endif; ?>
<ul>
<?php if ($maxitems == 0 ) echo $rss->get_error_message();
else foreach ( $rss_items as $item ) : ?>
<li> <a href='<?php echo esc_url( $item->get_permalink() ); ?>' title='<?php echo 'Posted '.$item->get_date('j
F Y | g:i a'); ?>'> <?php echo esc_html( $item->get_title() ); ?></a> </li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>
Wordpress as a CMS

20. How We’re Using WordPress as a CMS
Backups
• CRON is your friend!
Multi-server deployment
• Separate environments (development, staging, production)
• DB Syncing
– Production to development every night (CRON)
Revisions & Version Control
• Capistrano, git, etc.
• SVN is getting older; distributed is getting newer.
Wordpress as a CMS

21. How We’re Using WordPress as a CMS
Content organization strategies
• Custom post types
– Cutting the ‘blog’ out of WordPress
• Custom fields
• Naming documents (meta data)
Authoring and publishing workflow
• Revisions and review process
• Push users to create and update content
Wordpress as a CMS

22. How We’re Using WordPress as a CMS
Upkeep & Maintenance
• Email alert system ‘page out of date’
• Queries
• Remove old revisions and empty the trash
DELETE a,b,c
FROM wp_posts a
LEFT JOIN wp_term_relationships b ON (a.ID = b.object_id)
LEFT JOIN wp_postmeta c ON (a.ID = c.post_id)
WHERE a.post_type = 'revision'
Wordpress as a CMS

23. TO THE FUTURE!
Wordpress as a CMS

24. But what about…the future, man?
• Exponential content growth
– When someone can, they will
– Old information gets archived, new information is
created
• Cosmetic progression
– Keeping up with the cool kids
• Workflow
• Maintenance
Wordpress as a CMS