My WordPress introductory presentation at the Open Source Overview presented by MyCity4Her.com at the ETC in Baltimore on July 21, 2011.

1. Open Source Overview
Andy Stratton / WordPress Developer / http://theandystratton.com

2. What is WordPress?
• Content management platform
• PHP and MySQL web application
• Created by Matt Mullenweg
(@photomatt) and Mike Little
• In production for over 8 years
• Can run on most hosting environments

3. History of the Software
• Roots go back to the b2/cafelog
blogging software from 2001
• WordPress branch started in 2003
• started as a blogging platform
• 2004: Plugins
• 2005: Themes

4. History of the Software
• 2007: Widgets, tagging and advanced
UI introduced
• 2008: Better Admin UI and shortcodes
were introduced
• 2009: Theme installer, trash/undo
feature, oEmbed support
• 2010: Custom Post Types, Multisite

5. History of the Software
• 2011: WordPress 3.0 released
• 32.5 million downloads in 8 months
• Most downloaded open source CMS

6. Version 1.5 - Theme

7. Version 3.2 - Theme

8. Version 1.5 - Admin

9. Version 2.3 - Admin

10. Version 2.9 - Admin

11. Version 3.2 - Admin

12. WordPress.com
• WordPress.com is a community of free
hosted blogs running on a modified
version of WordPress
• Typically: username.wordpress.com
• Can be linked to domain (fee)
• Limited theme/plugin installs

13. WordPress.com

14. WordPress.org
• Source code, theme and plugin
repository
• Where you download the PHP/MySQL
code to run on your own server
• Self-managed, no-restrictions
• Free!

15. WordPress.org

16. Who is using WP?
• Anyone and everyone
• Bloggers, designers, developers
• Actors, Musicians (Katy Perry)
• Schools and Universities (Harvard)
• Small and big business

17. Who is using
WordPress?

18. Image of
WordPress
• One of the most powerful open-source
CMS platforms on the Internet
• Scrutinized for past security issues and
typically bashed when any security
issues occur
• Common with all open-source apps

19. Image of
WordPress
• Most security issues now spawn from
users/site owners not following best
practices to secure their sites:
• Insecure passwords (site hacked)
• Poor hosting environments
• Installing unsafe plugins/themes

20. What is a CMS
platform?
• a base library of functionality that allows
users to publish a variety of content to
the web
• powers the website that visitors see
• requires minimal programming
knowledge, if any

21. Why is a platform
important?
• maintain aesthetic quality and usability
of the website
• enable users to publish content
(communicate with audience)
• ideally, it can be extended/enhanced as
needed by programmers/platform

22. So, What’s It Do?
• Blog Post Management
• Excerpts
• Featured Image
• Categories
• Tags
• Archives (Date, Author, Tag, Cat,

23. Featured Image
• Upload and resize an
image specifically
attached to the post/
page you are editing
• Can be later used by
themes in the design
or by plugins to extend

24. Category vs. Tag
• Both are methods of classifying content
• Categories are hierarchical, which
means it can have a parent or children,
for example:
• United States
• Maryland

25. Category vs. Tag
• Tags are non-hierarchical, a tag is a
tag and doesn’t belong to anyone
• crab feasts
• happy hour
• restaurant

26. Custom Fields
• Custom fields are arbitrary name/value
pairs that can be stored with a piece of
content
• Can be used by a theme / plugin to
conditionally perform an action or
display content

27. Custom Fields

28. So, What’s It Do?
• Page Management
• Hierarchical
• Sortable (menu order)
• Featured Image
• Custom Fields

29. So, What’s It Do?
• Media Management
• Just about any file you can upload
• Image sizes and insertion into editor
• Image galleries API
• Can be attached to posts/pages

30. So, What’s It Do?
• Menus
• Can be used within themes/plugins
• Can be assigned to theme locations
• Widgets
• Used in widgetized sidebars

31. So, What’s It Do?
• Password protected posts/pages
• Cross-blog communication, trackbacks
and pingbacks
• Typography conversion and smart text
formatting
• Import/Export from many popular

32. So, What’s It Do?
• Permalink URL’s
• e.g. /blog/name-of-the-post/
• HTTP Headers
• 404 headers
• 301 headers

33. Extend with Plugins
• PHP code that extend/modify the
default behavior of WP
• Can be downloaded and installed from
the public repository within the admin
interface
• Over 15,000 free plugins to date

34. What Can Plugins Do?
• Modify existing behavior of WordPress
via hooks and actions, e.g.
• Change the content of notification emails
• Add registration fields for user accounts
• Spam filtering (comments)

35. What Can Plugins Do?
• Add functionality to WordPress
• Custom post types
• Custom taxonomies
• Shortcodes
• Contact and lead submission forms
• Search optimization (custom post/page meta
data and titles)
• Job boards, portfolio management, social

36. Custom Post Types
• Custom posts types are a content type,
like a post or a page
• Title, content, excerpt, sorting, hierarchies,
thumbnails, etc.
• Support any features a post/page can
support

37. Custom Post Types
• Examples:
• Events
• Job Opportunities
• Portfolio Entries
• Car Inventory

38. Custom Taxonomies
• A taxonomy is a method of classifying
something
• In WordPress, a custom taxonomy is a
way of classifying content
• Can be hierarchical (like categories) or
non-hierarchical (like tags)

39. Custom Taxonomies
• Examples:
• Department
• Type of Work (print, web, etc.)
• Car Make (Audi, BMW, Mercedes...)
• Product Category

40. Shortcodes
• Shortcodes are a simple method of
inserting dynamic content into a section
of WordPress post/page content
• Formatted with square brackets, e.g.:
[gravityform id=”1” description=”false”]

41. Shortcodes
• When content is displayed on the
website, [gravityform id=”1”
description=”false”] is replaced with an
HTML form that accepts submissions
• Can be used for a variety of things

42. Some Uses for Shortcodes
• Insert a dynamic contact form
• See Gravity Forms, www.gravityforms.com
• Insert complex HTML/CSS code
• See Raw HTML Snippets,
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/raw-html-snippets/
• List links to all child pages of the current
page
• See List Children
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/list-children/

43. Getting Plugins
• There is a repository of over 15,000
free WordPress plugins at:
• http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins
• You can find third-party plugins on
websites for free
• You can find premium (paid) plugins

44. Getting Plugins
Plugins from the
WordPress.org
repository can be
found/installed
directly within the
software

45. Free Plugins
• Repository is the best place for free
plugins, especially if you’re not a
WordPress developer
• Many are audited
• Quick community response for security
and functionality issues
• Be very weary of third-party sites with

46. Premium Plugins
• Plugins like Gravity Forms, Shopp and
other paid plugins
• To maintain open source licensing,
you’re paying for access to the
download and support
• More trustworthy than free plugins

47. Themes
• Themes are a package of visual design
templates that display content on a
WordPress website
• Free and paid themes
• Can embed plugin functionality within
the theme files

48. Common Templates
• Blog home page/index
• Single blog post page
• Archives (category, tag, date, author, etc.)
• Single page
• Comments area
• Site search results

49. Free Themes
• 1,400+ free themes at WordPress.org
• Support most core features
• Aesthetic quality and support vary

50. Premium* Themes
• Marketplaces like ThemeForest.com
• Dedicated companies/sites, like:
• WooThemes.com
• iThemes.com
• ElegantThemes.com
• Quality can vary greatly: speed,
functionality, compatibility with plugins

51. Theme Frameworks
• Theme Frameworks also exist
• Typically a platform that sits on top of a
platform
• Include base sets of plugin functionality
like SEO and visual/template options
• Thesis and Genesis are two popular

52. What Can WordPress
Do For My Business?
• Power your blog and/or website
• Make it easier to publish content
• Optimize your site for organic search
• Make it easier to evolve your website
with your business/publishing needs
• Anything with the right designer or

53. Security
• Core team is obsessed with security
• Mark Jaquith, lead developer & security despot!
• Entire WP community has eyes on
security issues and bugs
• Security issues tend to spawn from
negligent administration
• Best practices and tutorials for coders

54. Software Updates
• Notices given in the admin interface for
plugins, themes & WP core updates
• Released early and often
• Typically bug fixes, security
enhancements and speed optimizations
• Free

55. Questions?
Comments?

56. Thank You.