WordPress Developer 101

Introduction to WordPress Development

by Cindy CullenStarted programming in 1983

AS in Computer Data Processing, NSTI 1987BS in Computer Science, APSU 1989Corporate World – General Electric

Information Services, American Chemical Society, Iostudio

Freelance since 2003WordPress Health Insurance Protection –

wpHIP.com

What is WordPress?WordPress is a free and open source

blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. Features include a plugin architecture and a template

system. WordPress was used by more than 22% of the top 10 million websites

as of August 2013.

Why am I using WordPress?

If you can’t beat ‘em,

Join ‘em!

ProsO Fast, easy DevelopmentO Designers LOVE it! – Easy theme

developmentO Low CostO Easy to use for non-programmersO Many features built-inO Plugins (expansion, customization, add-

ons)O CommunityO Available on most Shared Hosting LAMP

Platforms with easy install

Cons

O Open Source – open to hackers – security

O Bloated? Maybe a little

O Slow and inefficient in some cases

O Requires lots of maintenance

Themes

Free Themes

Free Plugins

Content Management

Media Management

User Management

Posts

Posts are entries listed in reverse chronological order.Posts have categories and

tags.

Think: Blog

Pages

O StaticO Not listed by dateO Don’t have Categories or

tags

Think: ‘About Page’

WordPress Under the Hood

How it works

WordPress Files

wp-content folder

WordPress Database

Posts Table

Theme Development

Multiple Themes

Templates

page.php

Child Themes

My Theme

Changes to my Theme…

Won’t get Overwritten with Theme Updates

Installing Premium Themes

Hooks: Actions and Filters

Hooks are functions that allow you to ‘hook’ into the WordPress core.

Actions: Functionality (add or remove code from core)

Filters: Manipulate existing data (replaces code from the core)

functions.php

Plugin Development

Functions: Separate Files and Folders for Actions and Filters

ShortCode API

ShortCode in a Post

Widgets

Sidebars

Footer Widgets

Footer Blocks

For More Info:

Cindy CullenCullen Web Services

Cullenwebservices.comwpHIP.com

cindycullen@gmail.com615-509-1528