Beginning WordPress 3

Beginning WordPress 3

by Stephanie Leary
Released June 2010
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781430228950

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Book description

One of the most popular open source blogging and content management systems, Wordpress lets you create a website to promote yourself or your business quickly and easily—and better yet, it's free. WordPress is a flexible, user-friendly system, and it can be extended with a variety of themes and plugins.

Beginning WordPress 3 is a complete guide for the beginning developer who wants to start using WordPress. You'll learn how to publish and manage online content, add media, create widgets and plugins, and much more.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents at a Glance
  5. Contents
  6. About the Author
  7. About The Technical Reviewer
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Introduction
    1. Getting Involved in Development
    2. A word of caution
  10. CHAPTER 1: About WordPress
    1. Why WordPress?
      1. Easy to Set Up
      2. Easy to Use
      3. Easy to Extend
      4. The Business Benefits of WordPress
    2. Sites Built with WordPress
      1. Personal Blogs
      2. Blog Networks
      3. Social Networks
      4. Colleges and Universities
      5. Small Businesses
    3. WordPress Tour
      1. Anatomy of a post
    4. Summary
  11. CHAPTER 2: Installing and Upgrading
    1. System Requirements
    2. One-click Installation
    3. Installation Using the Web Interface
    4. Logging In
    5. Editing and Uploading wp-config.php
    6. Troubleshooting
    7. Installing Themes
    8. Installing Plugins
      1. Plugging the gaps: Essential Plugins
      2. Upgrading Plugins
    9. Upgrading WordPress
      1. Automatic Upgrades
      2. Manual Upgrades
    10. Moving a WordPress Site
    11. Summary
  12. CHAPTER 3: Dashboard and Settings
    1. The Dashboard
      1. QuickPress
      2. Incoming Links
      3. WordPress Development Blog
      4. Plugin dashboard widgets
      5. Dashboard Widgets and Users
    2. Settings
      1. General
      2. Writing
      3. Reading
      4. Discussion
      5. Media
      6. Privacy
      7. Permalinks
    3. Summary
  13. CHAPTER 4: Working with Content
    1. Posts
      1. Content
      2. Permalinks
      3. Publish Settings
      4. Categories
      5. Tags
      6. Featured Images
      7. Excerpts
      8. Comments and Trackbacks
      9. Revisions
      10. Custom Fields
    2. Pages
      1. Page Attributes: Parents, Templates, and Order
    3. Posts vs. Pages: Same, but Different
      1. Posts are Pages; Pages are Posts
      2. Editing Posts and Pages
    4. Media Files
      1. Images and Galleries
      2. Video
      3. Audio
      4. Other File Types
      5. The Media Library
    5. Links
      1. Basic Link Attributes
      2. Link Relationships: XFNTM
      3. Advanced Link Attributes
      4. Link Feed
    6. Feeds
    7. Summary
  14. CHAPTER 5: Importing Content
    1. Before Importing
    2. Importing Blogs
      1. Importing from WordPress.com
      2. Importing from Blogger
    3. Importing Joomla or Mambo Sites
    4. Importing Other MySQL-based Sites
      1. Drupal
    5. Importing HTML Files
    6. After Importing: Fixing What's Broken
      1. Link URLs
      2. Paths to Linked Files
      3. Truncated or Garbled Content
    7. Summary
  15. CHAPTER 6: Creating a Basic Theme
    1. Using Widgets
    2. Using Menus
      1. Creating a Menu
      2. Editing Menu Items
      3. Creating Multiple Menus
    3. Using Header and Background Images
    4. Turning HTML into a Theme
      1. Header
      2. Body
      3. Footer
      4. Stylesheet
    5. Template Tags
    6. Theme Files
    7. Theme File Hierarchy
      1. The Home Page
      2. Single Posts
      3. Pages
      4. Custom Content Types
      5. Category Archives
      6. Tag Archives
      7. Custom Taxonomy Archives
      8. Author Archives
      9. Date-Based Archives
      10. Search Results
      11. Error 404 (File Not Found) Page
      12. Attachment Pages
    8. Listing Comments
    9. Including Additional Files
    10. Styling Content
    11. Changing Appearance Based on Context
      1. Conditional Tags
      2. Posts vs. Pages
      3. Categories
      4. Author Archives
      5. Search Results
    12. Creating Navigation Menus
      1. Custom Navigation Tag
      2. Page Lists and Page Menus
      3. Category Lists
    13. Theme Functions
      1. Enabling Widgets
      2. Enabling Menus
      3. Enabling Featured Images
      4. Enabling Custom Backgrounds and Headers
      5. Enabling Shortcodes in Text Widgets
      6. Changing Excerpt Length and Ellipsis
      7. Other Uses
    14. Child Themes
      1. Child Theme File Hierarchy
    15. Troubleshooting Themes
    16. Summary
  16. CHAPTER 7: Creating an Advanced Theme
    1. Modifying the Loop
      1. Excluding a Category from the Home Page
      2. Showing Only One Category on the Home Page
      3. Showing Most Recent Pages Instead of Posts
      4. Looping Through All Children of a Page
      5. Listing Attached Files
    2. Multiple Loops
      1. Resetting the Query
      2. A Loop for Each Category
      3. Showing the Author's Other Recent Posts
    3. Accessing Post Information Outside the Loop
    4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
      1. Improving the Title Tag
      2. Using Categories and Tags as Keywords
      3. Using the Excerpt as a Description
      4. Short Links and Canonical URLs
    5. Adding Scripts and Stylesheets
      1. Using JavaScript Libraries
      2. Adding Your Own Scripts
      3. Conditionally Adding Scripts
      4. Adding Stylesheets
    6. Outside the Theme Hierarchy: Database Errors and Maintenance Messages
    7. Theme Options
      1. Adding an Options Page
      2. Registering Options
      3. Creating an Options Form
      4. Adding a Stylesheet to the Options Page
      5. Putting it All Together
    8. Theme Frameworks
    9. Distributing Themes
      1. Theme Checklist
    10. Summary
  17. CHAPTER 8: Creating Widgets
    1. Basic Widgets
      1. Examining the Calendar Widget
      2. Creating Your Own Widget
      3. More Widget Examples
    2. Dashboard Widgets
      1. Configuration Screens
    3. Summary
  18. CHAPTER 9: Creating Plugins
    1. Getting started
    2. Creating a Template Tag
      1. Creating Template Tags with Arguments
      2. Making Room for Options
    3. Adding an Options Page
    4. The Settings API
      1. Registering Settings and Creating Defaults
      2. Creating the Options Form
      3. Updating Options
      4. Deleting Options
    5. Wrapping Up
    6. Plugin Possibilities
      1. The Shortcode API
      2. Checking for Capabilities
    7. Hooks: Filters and Actions
      1. Actions
      2. Filters
      3. Prioritizing and Troubleshooting Actions and Filters
    8. Variations on Option Pages
      1. Adding Other Submenus
      2. Adding a Top-level Menu Item
      3. Adding a Section to an Existing Options Page
    9. Publishing a Plugin
      1. Readme Files and Screenshots
      2. Subversion (SVN)
      3. Localization and Internationalization
    10. Summary
  19. CHAPTER 10: Users and Roles
    1. Users
      1. Displaying a User's Information
    2. Extending User Profiles
      1. Changing Contact Fields
      2. Creating More Profile Fields
      3. Displaying All Users' Information
    3. Roles
    4. Roles in Action: Notifications, Moderation, and Workflow
      1. Improving Workflow with Plugins
    5. Changing, Creating, and Removing Roles
      1. Modifying Roles
      2. Creating Roles
      3. Removing Roles
      4. Managing Roles with Plugins
    6. Summary
  20. CHAPTER 11: Performance and Security
    1. Caching
      1. Setting up Super Cache
      2. Caching and Mobile Stylesheets
    2. Permalinks and Performance
    3. Tracking Down Performance Problems
    4. Securing Logins
      1. Login Lockdown
      2. SSL
    5. Removing The Meta Generator Tag
    6. File Permissions
      1. Securing .htaccess and wp-config.php
    7. Changing File Locations
      1. Moving wp-config.php
      2. Giving WordPress Its Own Subdirectory
      3. Moving wp-content
    8. Database Security
      1. Changing the Table Prefix
      2. Backing Up the Database and Files
    9. Monitoring Security Problems
    10. Summary
  21. CHAPTER 12: Custom Content Types, Taxonomies, and Fields
    1. Custom Taxonomies
      1. Non-hierarchical Taxonomies
      2. Hierarchical Taxonomies
      3. Using Custom Taxonomies
    2. Custom Content Types
      1. Non-hierarchical (Post-like) Content Types
      2. Hierarchical (Page-like) Content Types
      3. Custom Taxonomies for Custom Content Types
      4. Changing Edit Screen Columns
      5. Including Custom Content Types in Your Theme
      6. Feeds for Custom Content Types
    3. Custom Fields in Custom Content Types
      1. Creating the Custom Fields
      2. Verifying and Saving User Input
      3. All Together
    4. Summary
  22. CHAPTER 13: Setting up the Network
    1. Network Requirements
      1. Subdomains
      2. Subfolders
    2. Activating the Network
    3. Configuring the Network
      1. Operational Settings
      2. Dashboard Settings
      3. Registration Settings
      4. New Site Settings
      5. Upload Settings
      6. Menu Settings
    4. Creating Additional Network Sites
    5. Network Users
      1. Splogs
    6. Network Plugins and Themes
      1. Plugin and Theme Options
    7. Upgrading the Network
    8. Mapping Domains
    9. BuddyPress
      1. Features
      2. Installation
      3. Using BuddyPress
    10. Summary
  23. APPENDIX A: Plugin Index
  24. APPENDIX B: Theme Functions
  25. APPENDIX C: Plugin Recipes
    1. Wiki
    2. Document Sharing
    3. Project Management
    4. Newsroom
    5. Twitter Archive
    6. News Clipping Archive
  26. Index

Product information

  • Title: Beginning WordPress 3
  • Author(s): Stephanie Leary
  • Release date: June 2010
  • Publisher(s): Apress
  • ISBN: 9781430228950