JavaScript Workshop » WordPress 101

"A blog (short for web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order" Wikipedia. There are many blogging engines available such as Expression Engine, Movable Type, TextPattern, and WordPress among others. Most are open source (free), provide almost unlimited customizable features and take only minutes to install.

WordPress is customizable through themes and extendable through the use of plug-ins. To use WordPress you can either use your own web host and install it (assuming your web host does not already have it pre-installed) or use the hosted site of WordPress.com which provides a hosted login for you. Of course, hosting it yourself gives you more flexibility of having access to the source code.

Background

WordPress was developed by Matt Mullenweg and Ryan Boren and the name "WordPress" was proposed by one of Matt's friends Christine Selleck. Codex, the official helpdesk for WordPress is very rich and it documents almost every piece of functionality delivered by WordPress with a lot of good examples. The appearance and content of your WordPress blog depends on the code in the theme applied to it.

WordPress uses the instructions in the theme's files to display and format your blogs contents. Your posts and related information are stored in a MySQL database. The database also stores links, user information, page content, and WordPress settings. When visitors access a page in your blog, the database provides the correct content.

Technical

When you use your Web browser to administer your blog, your browser sends commands to add and modify entries in the MySQL database. in fact, the content for your entire blog is stored in a single MySQL database file.

When readers visit your blog, their Web browser send PHP commands to your MYSQL database. The database contents are returned to their browser for them to read. To display blog contents and administration screens properly, WordPress uses theme files which include templates for displaying various kionds if information and pages. These plain text files combine PHP, XHTML, and CSS code to control how content is presented on your site.

WordPress uses PHP to create template tags which are special commands that it uses to find and retrieve data from the MySQL database. These template tags work with a template's HTML to assemble and display blog pages. You don't need to know how to write or edit PHP to modify a theme (though it would help), but you do need to be able to recognize which parts of a template file you should leave intact.

Although the appearance and features in a WordPress blog can vary depending on the theme file that determines its appearance and any plugins that may be installed, there are several basic features that can be found in most WordPress blogs.

1. Header:
The header appears at the top of each page and normally contains the name of the blog and a brief description.

2. Links to static pages:
WordPress enables you to include static pages in your blog. Most bloggers use them to provide information about the blog or themselves, but they can be used for any content. Links to static pages can appear in the header, sidebar or elsewhere.

3. Posts:
Posts are individual entries in the blog. Each post normally includes the post title, the post date and time, post author. Posts can be as long or short as you like. My blog uses a Read More... link so readers can read the entire article. This makes it possible to keep the home page short or display many posts without getting too long. Posts can include images, videos, and other links to other pages.

4. Footer:
A footer appears at the bottom of each page. It normally includes copyright information and additioanl details about the blog.

5. Sidebar:
The sidebar appears on every page and usually includes a variety of navigation links and other features like search, category, archive, links and RSS feeds.

Getting Started

You can either use the free hosted service or manually install it on your own web host. Using the free hosted service does not allow you access to the code and you cannot upload your own themes without paying for them. So installing it on your own web host is the best option normally.

Installing it on your own web server: (go here for more instructons)

1. Download at http://wordpress.org/download
2. Minimal requirements are PHP 4.2 or later and MySQL 3.23 or later
3. Extract files and FTP to web server
4. The wp-config.php has the database and server settings that you will need to configure for your own web host
5. Create a blank MySQL database
6. Open install.php on your web server and start the installation process. You will go through a few pages that will setup your blog. The final page will create the necessary MySQL tables and configuration settings.
7. Start blogging!

Themes

Changing the look and feel of your blog is done though themes which are freely (usually) available at different websites. The main site for themes is at http://themes.wordpress.net.

After you download a theme, all you have to do is upload the files to the /wp-content/themes folder. Then you can view the themes within the administration panel.

Plugins

Plugins are special files that make it easy to add extra functions and features to your server-installed WordPress blog. They include PHP code that adds functions or performs other tasks. For example, a plugin may trap comment spam, show post headlines from other blogs, or display all the photos you've uploaded.

To install a plugin, all you have to do is download it and upload the files to the /wp-content/plugins folder and activate it within the administration panel.

Developing Your Own Theme

As you use WordPress for a bit, you probably will want to modify a theme you are using or even create your own. Creating your own can be a time consuming task, but it is easier if you disect an exisiting theme's code and then learn how to take your own html and css and convert that to a theme. You will need to know a little PHP and some basic web design skills. But of course the more you know the easier it will be.

Here are some links to get you started:

Theme Development
Template Tags
Function Reference
Developer Documentation

Recommended Reading

If you need to have something tangible to read and use as a reference off-line, here are the books that are available:

WordPress 2, Visual QuickStart Guide
WordPress Complete
WordPress for Dummies