WordPress 5 Complete - Seventh Edition

WordPress 5 Complete - Seventh Edition

by Karol Krol
Released February 2019
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781789532012

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Book description

An in-depth and comprehensive take on WordPress, covering everything about the platform such as WordPress posts, pages, themes, plugins, and more.

Key Features

  • Get up to date with the latest WordPress 5.0 (Bebo) and all its new features
  • Beginner-friendly layout and advice you can apply from day one with loads of screenshots and examples
  • Enrich your development experience with the new block-based editor Gutenberg

Book Description

Back in the day, when you wanted to launch a new website, you either had to learn web programming yourself or hire a professional who would take care of the whole process for you. Nowadays, with WordPress, anyone can build an optimized site with the least amount of effort possible and then make it available to the world in no time.

Here, in the seventh edition of the book, we are going to show you how to build great looking and functional websites using WordPress. The new version of WordPress – 5.0 – comes with a few important changes, and we tell you all about how to use them effectively. From crafting content pages using the block editor, and customizing the design of your site, through to making sure it's secure, we go through it all.

The book starts by introducing WordPress and teaching you how to set it up. You are then shown how to create a blog site, start writing content, and even use plugins and themes to customize the design of the site and add some unique elements to set it apart. If you want to get more in-depth, we also show you how to get started creating your own themes and plugins. Finally, we teach you how to use WordPress for building non-blog websites.

By the end of the book, you will be sufficiently skilled to design high-quality websites and will be fully familiar with the ins and outs of WordPress.

What you will learn

  • Learn to adapt your plugin with the Gutenberg editor
  • Create content that is optimized for publication on the web
  • Craft great looking pages and posts with the use of block editor
  • Structure your web pages in an accessible and clear way
  • Install and work with plugins and themes
  • Customize the design of your website
  • Upload multimedia content, such as images, audio, and video easily and effectively
  • Develop your own WordPress plugins and themes
  • Use WordPress to build websites that serve purposes other than blogs

Who this book is for

The ideal target audience for this book would be PHP developers who have some basic knowledge of working with WordPress and who want to get a comprehensive practical understanding of working with WordPress and create production-ready websites with it.

Publisher resources

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Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright and Credits
    1. WordPress 5 Complete Seventh Edition
  3. Dedication
  4. About Packt
    1. Why subscribe?
    2. Packt.com
  5. Contributors
    1. About the author
    2. About the reviewers
    3. Packt is searching for authors like you
  6. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
      1. Download the example code files
      2. Download the color images
      3. Conventions used
    4. Get in touch
      1. Reviews
  7. Section 1: WordPress
  8. Introducing WordPress
    1. Getting into WordPress
      1. What WordPress is good for
        1. Starting the journey – what is a blog?
    2. Understanding the common terms
      1. Post
      2. Categories and tags
      3. Comments
      4. Themes
      5. Plugins
      6. Widgets
      7. Menus
      8. Page
      9. Home page
      10. Users
    3. Why choose WordPress?
      1. Who should use WordPress?
    4. Getting to know the WordPress family
    5. Digging into WordPress – the features
      1. Learning more
    6. Learning more with online WordPress resources
    7. Staying updated with WordPress news
    8. Understanding the Codex
    9. Getting support from other users
    10. Using theme and plugin directories
    11. Summary
  9. Getting Started with WordPress
    1. Building your WordPress website – start here
    2. The two worlds of WordPress – the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
      1. Pros and cons
      2. Which one to use
    3. Getting and installing WordPress
      1. Installing WordPress through a web host
      2. How to choose a web host for WordPress
      3. Getting through the installation process
      4. Installing WordPress manually
        1. Preparing the environment
          1. Installing WordPress locally
        2. Downloading WordPress
        3. Uploading the files
        4. Finalizing WordPress's on-screen setup
      5. Learning more
    4. Installing WordPress through an auto-installer script
    5. The wp-admin panel
      1. Changing general blog information
      2. Retrieving a lost password
    6. Getting a Gravatar
    7. Summary
  10. Creating Blog Content
    1. WordPress admin conventions
      1. Lists of items
    2. Posting on your blog
      1. Adding a simple post
        1. Working in the block-based content editor
        2. Understanding the editor interface
        3. Creating your first blog post
        4. Aligning blocks and building a post layout
      2. Common post options
        1. Categories and tags
        2. Images in your posts
          1. Adding an image to a post
          2. Designating a featured image
        3. Controlling default image sizes
        4. Editing an uploaded image
        5. Videos and other media in your posts
          1. Adding videos to blog posts
          2. Adding audio to blog posts
          3. Limited editing possibilities
        6. Using the block-based editor versus the code editor
        7. Lead and body
        8. Drafts, pending articles, and timestamps
          1. Drafts
          2. Pending articles
          3. Timestamps
      3. Advanced post options
        1. Excerpt
        2. Discussion
        3. Working with post revisions
        4. Changing the author of the post
        5. Protecting content
        6. Pretty post permalink
    3. Discussion on your blog – comments
      1. Adding a comment
      2. Discussion settings
        1. Submission, notification, and moderation settings
        2. When to moderate or blacklist a comment
        3. Avatar display settings
      3. Moderating comments
    4. Adding and managing categories
    5. Summary
  11. Pages, Media, and Importing/Exporting Content
    1. Pages
      1. Adding a page
        1. Parent
        2. Order
      2. Managing pages
      3. Setting up a home page
        1. Creating a placeholder home page
        2. Enabling the custom home page
        3. Customizing your home page
    2. Media library
      1. Creating an image gallery
        1. Choosing a post or page
        2. Adding images to Gallery
    3. Importing/exporting content
      1. Importing content
      2. Exporting content
    4. Summary
  12. Section 2: Customizing WordPress
  13. Plugins - What They Are and Why You Need Them
    1. Breaking down plugins – what are they?
      1. Why use plugins?
      2. Where to get plugins?
      3. Finding new plugins
    2. Installing a plugin – how to go about this
      1. Auto-installation
      2. Manual plugin installation
      3. What to do after plugin installation
    3. The must-have pack of plugins
      1. Backing up
      2. Enabling Google Analytics
      3. Caching
      4. Search engine optimization
      5. Social media integration
      6. Jetpack
      7. Comment spam
        1. Working with Akismet
    4. Summary
  14. Securing your WordPress Website
    1. The principles of WordPress security
    2. The best practices for WordPress security
      1. Using strong passwords
      2. Keeping your WordPress updated
      3. Keeping your theme and plugins updated
      4. Avoid installing unneeded plugins
    3. Installing an SSL
    4. Security plugins and which ones to get
      1. SSL plugin
      2. General security plugin
      3. Other plugins to consider
    5. Setting up secure user accounts
    6. User roles and abilities
      1. Administrator
      2. Editor
      3. Author
      4. Contributor
      5. Subscriber
    7. Managing users
      1. Enabling users to self-register
    8. User management plugins
    9. Summary
  15. Choosing and Installing Themes
    1. Finding themes
      1. WordPress Theme Directory
      2. Main types of themes
      3. Finding more themes
    2. The factors to consider when choosing a theme
      1. The structure of a theme
      2. Factors to consider when choosing a theme
        1. The purpose of the theme
        2. Theme licensing
        3. Up-to-date themes only
        4. Themes that are customizable
        5. Themes with a responsive structure
        6. Support, reviews, and documentation
    3. Installing and changing themes
      1. Adding a theme from within wp-admin
      2. Downloading, extracting, and uploading
    4. Summary
  16. Customizing your Website Appearance/Design
    1. Menus
      1. Adding a menu
      2. Displaying a menu
    2. Widgets
    3. WordPress Customizer
      1. Site identity
      2. Colors
      3. Header Media
      4. Background
      5. Widgets
      6. Homepage settings or Static Front Page
      7. Additional CSS
      8. Scheduling your design changes
      9. Customizer previews
    4. Optimizing for mobile and working with AMP
      1. How to enable AMP in WordPress
    5. Summary
  17. Developing your Own Theme
    1. Setting up your design
      1. Designing your theme to be WordPress-friendly
      2. Three paths to theme development
        1. Building a theme from the ground up
        2. Building a theme with a framework
        3. Building a theme with a starter theme
      3. Converting your design into code
        1. Examining the HTML structure
        2. Examining the CSS
    2. Converting your build into a theme
      1. Creating the theme directory
        1. Naming your directory and creating backup copies of your build files
        2. Preparing the essential files
        3. Adding a screenshot
        4. Create a screenshot
        5. Uploading your directory
        6. Activating your theme
      2. How to create basic WordPress content
        1. The functions.php file
        2. The <head> tag
        3. The header and footer
        4. The sidebar
      3. Main column – the loop
    3. Creating template files within your theme
      1. Understanding the WordPress theme structure
      2. Breaking it up
        1. The header.php file
        2. The footer.php file
        3. The sidebar.php file
        4. Your four template files
      3. Archive template
      4. Single template
      5. Page template
      6. Generated classes for body and post
      7. Other WordPress templates
      8. Creating and using a custom page template
    4. Making your theme widget-friendly
      1. Going back to our sidebar
      2. Working with the functions.php file
      3. Adding some widgets
      4. Additional widgetizing options
    5. Enabling a menu in your theme
    6. Making your theme editable in the WordPress Customizer
    7. Creating a child theme
      1. Creating the new theme directory
      2. Creating the style sheet
      3. Using your child theme
    8. Sharing your theme
    9. Summary
  18. Social Media Integration, Podcasting, and HTTPS
    1. Integrating social media
      1. Making your blog social media friendly
        1. Setting up social media share buttons
        2. Setting up social media APIs integration
        3. Setting up automatic content distribution to social media
          1. The Jetpack plugin
          2. The Revive Old Posts plugin
        4. Setting up social media metrics tracking
    2. Podcasting
      1. Creating a podcast
        1. Recording yourself
        2. Making a post
      2. Podcasting plugins
      3. Using a service to host audio files for free
    3. HTTPS – what, why, and how?
      1. What is HTTPS?
      2. Why HTTPS is important for a modern WordPress site
      3. How to set up HTTPS
    4. Summary
  19. Developing Plugins, Widgets, and an Introduction to REST API
    1. Plugins
      1. Building plugins from scratch
      2. Plugin code requirements
      3. A basic plugin – adding link icons
        1. Naming and organizing the plugin files
        2. Writing the plugin's core functions
        3. Adding hooks to the plugin
        4. Trying out the plugin
      4. Adding an admin page
        1. Adding management page functions
        2. Modifying the doctype_styles_new_regex() function
        3. Adding hooks
        4. Trying out the plugin
      5. Testing your plugins
      6. A plugin with database access – capturing searched words
        1. Getting the plugin to talk to the database
        2. Adding management page functions
        3. Trying out the plugin
      7. Building a plugin for the block-based editor
      8. Learning more
    2. Widgets
      1. Custom tag cloud widget
        1. Naming our widget
        2. The widget structure
        3. The widget initiation function
        4. The widget form function
        5. The widget save function
        6. The widget print function
        7. Custom widget styles
        8. Initiating and hooking up the widget
        9. Trying out the widget
        10. Learning more
      2. Bundling a widget with an existing plugin
    3. Shortcodes
      1. Shortcodes and the way they work
      2. Types of shortcodes
      3. Creating a simple shortcode
    4. The WordPress REST API
      1. What is the REST API?
      2. Why use WordPress REST API?
      3. How to get started with the REST API
        1. Creating a plugin that uses the REST API
    5. Summary
  20. Section 3: Non-Blog Websites
  21. Creating a Non-Blog Website Part One - The Basics
    1. The must-do tasks
    2. Static websites
      1. The process
        1. Building your home page
        2. Creating easy-to-grasp menus
    3. Corporate or business websites
      1. Picking a clean theme
      2. Branding elements
      3. Good navigation
      4. Custom home page
      5. Slider (optional)
    4. One-page websites
      1. Picking a one-page theme
      2. Branding elements
      3. High-quality images
    5. Summary
  22. Creating a Non-Blog Website Part Two - E-Commerce Websites and Custom Content Elements
    1. E-commerce stores
      1. Is WordPress a good platform for an e-commerce store?
      2. Getting a good e-commerce plugin
        1. Plugin installation and initial setup
        2. Setting up the main store pages
        3. Your store location
        4. Shipping and payments
        5. Adjusting your store design
      3. Adding products
      4. Stats – orders, coupons, and reports
    2. Video blogs and photo blogs
      1. Exploring themes for video and photo sites
      2. Getting plugins for video and photo blogs
    3. Social networks
      1. Installing a social network
      2. Designing your social network
      3. Extending the functionality
    4. Introducing custom post types
      1. Registering a new post type
        1. Adding labels
        2. Adding messages
        3. Creating book template files
      2. Registering and using a custom taxonomy
      3. Customizing the admin display
    5. Summary
  23. Other Books You May Enjoy
    1. Leave a review - let other readers know what you think

Product information

  • Title: WordPress 5 Complete - Seventh Edition
  • Author(s): Karol Krol
  • Release date: February 2019
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781789532012