Using Wordpress 2009 04 29

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Slide 1: Downeast Learning Cooperative Matthew Baya Slide 2: SECTION I – INTRODUCTIONS This section has the following information:   About this class   Who is presenting?   Who is organizing this? Slide 3: About this Class   “Using wordpress to manage your website” was created after a number of people asked the presenter about how to use & best leverage wordpress for their websites.   This is a ‘rush’ intro, you wont leave this class knowing how to do everything, but we’ll point you in the right direction and help you get going.   Followup class? If there is demand for more, a followup presentation could be arranged. Slide 4: Matthew Baya   Lifelong computer geek.   BS Computer Science, Antioch College 1992   Unix SysAdmin at The Jackson Laboratory   Manager of Svaha LLC   President of Downeast Mac Users Group – http://demug.org/   E‐mail: matt@baya.net   Personal Blog ‐ http://matt.baya.net/ Slide 5: Svaha LLC <plug>   Web Hosting, Design & Consulting since 1995   Svaha LLC provides internet consulting and design services for artists, small businesses and non‐proﬁt & community focused organizations. We enable our clients to focus on their projects and goals while we focus on the technology behind the curtain.   We host hundreds of websites, including many in this area.   http://Svaha.Com/ </plug> Slide 6: Downeast Learning Cooperative   Purpose is to enable its members, who are interested in technology, both digital and mechanical, to learn from one another and share what they have learned with the wider public.   This is the third presentation in a series by Coop members that will continue over the coming months.   http://downeastlearning.org/ ‐ Go sign up!   Links to this presentation and other content shared here will be on this site. Slide 7: SECTION II – BACKGROUND INFO   This section includes a REALLY quick overview of :   computers   the internet   websites   web servers   networks.   Other geeky terms Slide 8: Definitions   Starting simple and getting more complex. Not trying to insult anyone but it’s important we’re using the same vocabulary so when we start getting more complex you can (hopefully) follow me   Peeling the Onion Hopefully tear free Slide 9: Computer For purposes of this presentation it's any device capable of receiving input and transmitting output of information. Personal Computer, iPhone, Cell Phone etc. Slide 10: Network   A communication medium that allows computers to transmit and receive data from each other.   Wired   Wireless Slide 11: Internet A network of networks. Slide 12: More definitions   Client / Viewer/User – A human @ a 'computer’ (PC,           Mac, tivo, wii, iphone, blackberry, cell phone) connected to the internet. Web Site – A collection of data available by request. Text, images, video, audio, etc. Web Server ‐ A computer dedicated to serving up ﬁles from a website to a client. Web Host ‐ Company that manages one or more web servers Download – Retrieving ﬁles from another computer Upload – Sending ﬁles to another computer. Slide 13: Yet More Definitions   HTML – Hyper Text Markup Language   Using only text it encodes the content (data) and the formatting (design) so that they can be displayed by a …   Web Browser   Software that runs on a computer that can request ﬁles           from websites hosted on a webserver. It then translates the HTML and displays text and graphics together. Firefox Internet Explorer (IE) Safari iphone, blackberry, cell phones Wii, xBox, webTV Slide 14: HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) <html> <head> <title>This is the page title</title> </head> <body> The body of the message. </body> </html> Slide 15: So what happens when…   Someone views a web page   A Client downloads a web page   A client connected to the internet that is running a web browser application downloads the text (HTML formatted) and images associated web page from a web server that is managed by a web host. Slide 16: The World Wide Web in Plain English   Videos in ‘Pla makes ‘in Plain English’ videos http://commoncraft.com/ Slide 17: (My name is) URL   URL – Universal Resource Locator   A way to reference an address for speciﬁc web page.   Used when linking   Protocol   http, ftp, rtsp, itts?(itunes)   http://domain‐name.TLD/   Gets more speciﬁc from left to right Slide 18: What’s in a (domain) name?   TLD – Top Level Domain   .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .me   New ones all the time Slide 19: URL Syntax   http://subdomain.domain.TLD/foldername/ ﬁlename.suﬃx&variable=value   Filename Suﬃx & Variables   .txt   .html   .php   .asp   Variables ‐ &otherinfo=walrus&A=B&C=… Slide 20: IP address – What’s your #?   IP = Internet Protocol   IP address – Every “computer” on a network needs an IP address.   xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx – where xxx = 001‐256   Would be pretty tedious memorizing numbers.   Oh wait, we already do that for phones!   But why not make it easier?   Since we’re on a network we can have a way to associate a “Domain Name” with an IP address. Slide 21: DNS (Domain Name System)   Basically a big list of domain names & IP addresses.   So when you type in a domain it knows where to go. Slide 22: DNS “Tree” Slide 23: DNS continued   Distributed   Root Servers – On the internet   Name Servers – At your web server/host   DNS Cache – On your local client   What is my IP ? http://whatismyip.com/ Slide 24: Domain Name – Why get one?   why ‐ (ﬁnd old presentation?)   ‐ branding ‐ You want people to remember your website   ‐ Mobility ‐ Analogy to phone number having phone company name in the number   ‐ Centralization ‐   ‐ Control ‐ Slide 25: Domain Name – How do I get one?   Registrar – Cheap (~$8) to expensive ($35+). Some TLD’s (.tv) cost more.   All they do is point DNS to your host   Diﬀerence? Value added services in addition, but base service the same.   Domain Redirect   E‐mail Redirect   Hosting packaged with   Privacy Protect Slide 26: TLD (Top Level Domain)   .com / .net / .org / .biz / .info / .me   .com still most popular.   Not enforced:   .org for non‐proﬁts   .net for networks, like ISPs etc.   Only ones that are policed;   .edu – for higher ed (though some secondary)   .coop – for oﬃcially registered coops   .tel – brand new. Like a directory Slide 27: More definitions   Open source software (OSS) ‐ is deﬁned as computer software for which the source code and copyright are provided under a software license that permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modiﬁed or unmodiﬁed forms. It is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Slide 28: Free vs commercial   Commercial – Hire a select few experts, they do all the coding & testing.   Open Source Community – Anyone can   Pros – Tight control over changes. Support   Cons ‐ $$$ participate and suggest changes. Entire community (websites, lists, etc) focused on each product. Learning from each other. Evolving to meet the needs on the ﬂy.   Pros – Free. Quick updates. Part of something   Cons – Sometimes lack of support. Docs/training only online. Slide 29: Open Source Software we’re using   Linux OS (CentOS, Red Hat, BSD)   Programming languages   PHP   Perl   Ruby On Rails   MySQL‐ Database. Think of an Excel spreadsheet that’s searchable/sortable.   Apache httpd – Web Server software Slide 30: Old Web Publishing model   Create HTML on local machine.   Save.   Upload (FTP)   Load via web browser. Note problems   Change code locally.   Save.   Upload.   Repeat Slide 31: Static HTML website   User requests a page   Server ﬁnds that HTML ﬁle   Send ﬁle to user’s browser. Slide 32: More old model html problems   Static content. Every link, image, header, footer are all ﬁxed.   Everytime you make a change you have re‐ upload.   So if you had your phone number on every page, you’d have to edit all of them to update.   Not searchable. Not dynamic. Slide 33: Server Side Applications   Paradigm Shift ‐ This isn't your father's         website Not just static text ﬁles, it’s a program running that is serving up data it’s pulling from a database. Content (data) is separate from design Cake vs Icing Dynamic. Searchable. Interactive. Slide 34: Server Side Example   User requests a page   Server queries database   Database returns results   Application converts data to HTML   Automatically adds sitewide footer/header/etc.   Sends HTML to user’s browser Slide 35: Large Remote Apps examples   These are private custom applications   Facebook, Myspace, friendster, livejournal,         linkedin Blogger, wordpress.com ‐ Blogs ﬂickr ‐ photos youtube – video Twitter Slide 36: Installable Server Applications   Forums / Bulletin Boards – Discussion boards ‐ phpBB, punBB, SMF   Photos – Gallery of Thumbnails ‐ Gallery2, Coppermine   Blogs – Moveable Type, Wordpress (more later  ) Slide 37: Content Management Systems (CMS)   Large website management tool   Multi‐author   Content organized by topic, date, etc.   Searchable   Some static content, some dynamic   Customizable:   Themes – Designs   Plugins/Modules – Adds new features. Slide 38: CMS Options   Commercial   Lots of choices, I’m no expert on this front.   Some custom from places like Sephone   Free           Drupal Joomla Mambo Plone Help manage online communities where users have logins, interact with each other. Slide 39: Blog – What? Slide 40: What is Wordpress?   Blog publishing tool         For posting lots of entries Views organized by topic, date, etc. Searchable Multi‐author   Static pages and dynamic content   Customizable:   Themes   Plugins   Wait… déjà vu! Slide 41: Wordpress.org vs wordpress.com   Wordpress.org – Has downloadable script (application) that you can install on your account on a webhost.   Wordpress.com ‐ lets you get started with a new and free WordPress‐based blog in seconds, but varies in several ways and is less ﬂexible than the WordPress you download and install yourself. Slide 42: Wordpress.Com Signup Slide 43: Wordpress.com Signup 2 Slide 44: Wordpress.Com Signup 3 Slide 45: Wordpress.Com Confirmation Slide 46: Wordpress is a CMS   While not engineered originally to be as robust and customizable as the ‘BIG’ CMS applications, Wordpress can do all the basics.   K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple Stupid – Why use a sledge hammer to pound in a tack?   Great for individuals, small businesses as a web publishing tool. Still best for ‘pushing’ information out, not as good for interaction & community building. Slide 47: Just to be clear…   From here on out I’m talking about the script you can download from Wordpress.org and installing it on a web server.   In order to do this you will need an account on a web host that has a server that meets the technical requirements for installing and running wordpress. Slide 48: Wordpress Requirements   http://wordpress.org/about/requirements/   PHP version 4.3 or greater   MySQL 4.0 or greater   The mod_rewrite Apache module   (as of 04/28/09 for Wordpress 2.7.1) Slide 49: SECTION III ‐ INSTALLATION   This section covers the basics of installation of wordpress including;   Setting up wordpress   Initial conﬁguration   Downloading & uploading Slide 50: Download & FTP   The Hard Way: Download and FTP   http://wordpress.org/ ‐ Follow links for download.   You’ll end up with latest.tar.gz or latest.zip on your desktop. You should be able to double click on this to uncompress.   You’ll end up with a folder named ‘wordpress’ with a number of ﬁles and sub‐folders in it. Slide 51: FTP Client   Mac   CyberDuck ‐ http://cyberduck.ch/   Or command line: /applications/utilities/terminal   Windows   FileZilla ‐ http://ﬁlezilla.sourceforge.net/ Upload the contents of the wordpress folder to wherever you want your wordpress install to resolve to. Slide 52: Your Web Hosting Account   You’ll get a username & password.   They should tell you the ‘path’ where your website resolves to:   PATH = The folder where your website is located, usually something like: /home/accountname/public_html/   If you have an existing website and want to experiment with wordpress elsewhere you can put it in a sub‐folder: /home/accountname/public_html/testfolder/ Slide 53: Upload the files   Use your ftp client to upload (aka PUT) the contents of the wordpress folder you have on your computer to the “PATH” where your website resolves to.   Note – The above says ‘THE CONTENTS’ of the wordpress folder. Don’t upload the folder itself. Slide 54: MySQL   You may need to contact your web host on how to set this up since it varies from host to host.   You need a MySQL database name and an MySQL account name that has permissions to write and setup that database. Slide 55: cPanel   Many web hosts oﬀer a web management system to control options for your account like e‐mail addresses, ftp accounts, and MySQL.   In this example I’ll be using some tools included with cPanel, a popular tool that many hosts oﬀer to set up a MySQL database   Other hosts oﬀer plesk, Hsphere and other tools that basically do the same thing. Slide 56: cPanel Database Section • Use the “MySQL Database Wizard” to create a database and a MySQL user with permissions to access that database. Slide 57: MySQL Database Wizard Slide 58: MySQL Database Wizard 2 Slide 59: MySQL Database Wizard 3 Slide 60: MySQL Database Wizard 4 Slide 61: cPanel video tutorials   cPanel actually has free video tutorials for a number of options – These are available to anyone.   My SQL ‐ A guide to creating and modifying MySQL databases in cPanel.   MySQL Wizard ‐ Create and manage MySQL databases with this step by step wizard. Slide 62: Initial Configuration   For tonight’s workshop I’m using:   http://wordpress.downeastlearning.org   I just created this for this workshop, just happened to call it wordpress, it could be anything.   The web interface is just a shortcut to editing the wp‐conﬁg.php ﬁle. You can create this by just copying the wp‐conﬁg‐sample.php to wp‐conﬁg.php and manually entering these values. Slide 63: Configuring via web   In order to start the conﬁguration through a web browser just open the URL where you put your install.   In order for wordpress to create the wp‐ conﬁg.php ﬁle the directory with your wordpress install needs to allow the webserver to be able to create & edit ﬁles. Slide 64: Permissions & wp‐config.php It will try to auto‐create the wp‐conﬁg.php ﬁle but this doesn’t always work. Slide 65: Welcome to Wordpress Slide 66: Set database information Slide 67: Run the install Slide 68: Set title and contact e‐mail Slide 69: Confirmation Slide 70: You’ll get an e‐mail too Slide 71: cPanel & Fantastico!   cPanel includes a utility called Fantastico! that has quick installs for a number of utilities, including wordpress. Slide 72: Fantastico! WP Install Slide 77: E‐mail confirmation Slide 78: /wp‐admin for admin login   To login to the admin part of your wordpress install just use the url with /wp‐admin appended to it   For our examples :   http://wordpress.downeastlearning.org/wp‐ admin   http://wordpress2.downeastlearning.org/wp‐ admin Slide 79: Login Slide 80: SECTION IV – Basic Configuration Slide 81: The Dashboard Slide 82: Dashboard Top Slide 83: Dashboard – Top Right Slide 84: Profile Slide 85: Contact Info (mostly optional) Slide 86: About Yourself (optional) Slide 87: Set new password Slide 88: What your site looks like Slide 89: Wordpress Terminology   Posts – Blog entries, news. Time stamped.   Pages – For static content. Date not important   Categories – For organizing content by diﬀerent topics. Example – Blog entries, news, press releases, photos, family. Can have multiple for each post.   Tags – like categories but more casual. Slide 90: Wordpress Terminology 2   Links – For list of URLs of other sites   Link categories – For organizing your links into groups   Widget – Small tool for displaying custom content in sidebar columns (sometimes header & footer)   Plugin – Add‐on scripts. TONS of choices   Theme – The design, look & feel of your site Slide 91: Dashboard – left sidebar Slide 92: SECTION V ‐ Settings   The following is a quick overview of the settings options and my suggestions for ‘Best Practices’.   Other books & tutorials will suggest otherwise. Find what works best for you. Slide 93: Settings Slide 94: General Settings Slide 95: Writing Settings Slide 96: Remote Publishing Slide 97: Post via e‐mail Slide 98: Update Services Slide 99: Reading Settings Slide 100: Discussion Settings 1 Slide 101: Discussion Settings 2 Slide 102: Discussion settings ‐ 3 Slide 103: Comment Moderation Slide 104: Comment Blacklist Slide 105: Avatars Slide 106: Media Settings Slide 107: Privacy Settings Google & Yahoo WILL ﬁnd your blog if you leave the above public. You may want to wait until you are done setting up before it starts referring people to your site. Slide 108: Permalinks http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks Slide 109: Permalink Options   Simple ‐ /%postname%/   Organized ‐ /%category%/%postname%/   Chrono ‐ /%year%/%month%/%day%/ %postname%/   Structure for growth. Assume you will be adding pages later so plan a heirarchy. Slide 110: Custom Category & tag path Slide 111: Miscellaneous Settings Slide 112: Posts and Pages   Posts are for blog entries, announcements, news, etc. Time stamped, date sensitive stuﬀ. Categorized and tagged for easy sorting.   Pages are for ‘permanent’ content. About Us. Contact Us. Directions.   Pages can be nested in a heirarchy   /press‐kit   /press‐kit/biography   /press‐kit/reviews /press‐kit/photos Slide 113: Creating a Post Slide 114: Add New Post Slide 115: Visual Editor Bar Slide 116: Visual Editor w/ Kitchen Sink Slide 117: Format Slide 118: Excerpt Slide 119: Trackbacks Slide 120: Discussion Slide 121: Publish Slide 122: Tags Slide 123: Categories Slide 124: Adding Images to a Post/page Slide 125: Add An Image Slide 126: Add An Image – Waiting for upload Slide 127: Image Properties Slide 128: Insert Image Into Post Slide 129: SECTION VI ‐ Plugins This section includes how to ﬁnd, install, activate and conﬁgure plugins. Plugins add additional functionality to your wordpress install. Thousands are available ‘There’s an app for that’ Slide 130: Install Plugins Slide 131: Install Plugins 2 Slide 132: Install Plugins 3 Slide 133: Currently Active Plugins Slide 134: Upgrading Plugins Slide 135: Upgrade Plugin Needed Slide 136: Upgrade Plugin Summary Slide 137: Akismet • If you are going to have comments you NEED akismet. • Comment spammers are EVIL. • They WILL bother you, no matter how small your site. • If you are going to take comments then require account (with veriﬁed) e‐mail address &/or Captcha. • Also require admin approval. You don’t want stuﬀ on your site without knowing what it is. Slide 138: Akismet is almost ready This warning will appear at the top of all your dashboard pages until you give it a valid key. Slide 139: Akismet Configuration Menu Option Note the new addition under your Plugins Menu for Akismet Conﬁguration Slide 140: Akismet Key Needed Slide 141: Akismet Valid Key Slide 142: My Favorite Plugins                     Akismet 2.2.3 All in One SEO Pack 1.4.91 Auto‐hyperlink URLs 3.0 Google Analytics for WordPress 2.9.1 Google XML Sitemaps 3.1.2 NextGEN Gallery 1.2.1 Search Everything 5 ShareThis 2.3 ShiftThis \| Order Pages 0.3 WordPress Database Backup 2.2.2 Slide 143: Backups   Remember, all your data is in the server and in         the database. Your webhost may do backups but they may not be available on demand, just in case of server crash. Don’t assume others are taking care of this. Better safe than sorry. Wordpress Database Backup – Weekly DB dumps via e‐mail. Get a gmail account. FTP down the wp‐content folder to get all plugins, themes, uploaded media. Slide 144: SECTION VII ‐ Themes “Icing on the cake” Themes are the design of your website. Since this is separate from the content you can change themes without changing the content of a page. The theme design ﬁles are shared site wide, so any change aﬀects all pages. Slide 145: Themes Basics   No automatic installation of WP themes (yet)   FTP the uncompressed theme folder into / wp‐content/themes/   You can have a number of themes installed and switch easily, don’t be afraid to get a bunch to try out. It’s free. They aren’t that big. You can always delete later. Slide 146: Finding Themes   Free & Commercial themes are available. Searching for ‘wordpress theme’ will ﬁnd thousands of results   WordPress theme directory – Free theme directory available on wordpress.org. 743 themes as of today.   If searching elsewhere ‐ Look for themes 2008 or later. Make sure they are ‘widget ready’ Slide 147: Wordpress Theme Directory Slide 148: Manage Themes Slide 149: Widgets   “Widgets” are tools to customize the sidebar(s) of your website.   Some plugins add new widgets   Common widgets are the search box, recent posts, tag clouds, etc.   Text widget can be anything (but you have to use HTML to format it) Slide 150: SECTION VIII ‐ SEO   SEO – Search Engine Optimization   This is just a very very brief overview of this. Entire books have been written on this subject and people who are experts in this make huge amounts of money.   I am NOT an SEO expert (and thus am giving a free presentation  )