Leary WordPress 3 Companion eBook Available this print for content only—size & color not accurate CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK PANTONE 123 C BOOKS FOR PROFESSIONALS BY PROFESSIONALS ® Beginning WordPress 3 Dear Reader, When I began looking for WordPress books, I found plenty of incredibly basic guides for blogging and a few hardcore advanced guides for developers, but nothing in-between for beginners who want to get more out of WordPress. This book fills that gap. It’s a beginning developer guide that treats WordPress like the powerful content management system it has become. If you’re a web devel- oper who already understands HTML, CSS, and maybe a little PHP, but you’ve never used WordPress before, this book is for you. Inside, you’ll learn how to install, configure, and customize WordPress to make it the perfect CMS for your next project. It walks you through the com- plete development of a WordPress site, starting with importing content from another CMS, or creating your own from scratch. You’ll then learn how to cre- ate custom themes that give you complete control over your site’s appearance, including optimizing it for that that all-important search engine optimization. You’ll see how to extend WordPress with widgets and plugins when your needs outstrip the built-in features. Finally, you’ll learn how to secure your WordPress installation and optimize its performance. This book also covers two of the big new features in WordPress version 3: custom content types, which let you take your content beyond basic blog posts and pages, and the network (the integration of WordPress MU into the core software), which lets you build numerous connected WordPress sites from a single software installation. The code samples in this book include two themes that you can customize fully, and several complete plugins that you can work through and modify. By the end of the book you will have the knowledge to create your own plugins and share them with other users on the WordPress Extend site. Every example in this book was taken from a real-world project and has been tested and proven out in the open. I hope that all of the information, examples, and source code provided in this book helps you learn to use and adapt WordPress in your own work, and to create some great sites. I look forward to seeing them. Stephanie Leary Stephanie Leary US $39.99 Shelve in: Web Development/General User level: Beginner www.apress.com SOURCE CODE ONLINE Companion eBook See last page for details on $10 eBook version ISBN 978-1-4302-2895-0 9 781430 228950 5 39 9 9 Beginning 7.5 x 9.25 spine = 0.8125" 432 page count THE EXPERT’S VOICE ® IN WEB DEVELOPMENT Beginning WordPress 3 Make great websites the easy way Stephanie Leary A complete beginner's guide to WordPress that shows you how to create a customized website for yourself, your business, or your social network www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info Beginning WordPress 3 Stephanie Leary www.it-ebooks.info Beginning WordPress 3 Copyright © 2010 by Stephanie Leary All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher. 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You will need to answer questions pertaining to this book in order to successfully download the code. www.it-ebooks.info CONTENTS iii Contents at a Glance Contents iv About the Author xvi About the Technical Reviewer xvii Acknowledgments xviii Introduction xix Chapter 1: About WordPress 1 Chapter 2: Installing and Upgrading 15 Chapter 3: Dashboard and Settings 41 Chapter 4: Working with Content 61 Chapter 5: Importing Content 105 Chapter 6: Creating a Basic Theme 125 Chapter 7: Creating an Advanced Theme 173 Chapter 8: Creating Widgets 205 Chapter 9: Creating Plugins 225 Chapter 10: Users and Roles 271 Chapter 11: Performance and Security 289 Chapter 12: Custom Content Types, Taxonomies, and Fields 309 Chapter 13: Setting up the Network 347 Appendix 1: Plugin Index 373 Appendix 2: Theme Functions 381 Appendix 3: Plugin Recipes 385 Index 389 www.it-ebooks.info CONTENTS iv Contents Contents at a Glance iii Contents iv About the Author xvi About the Technical Reviewer xvii Acknowledgments xviii Introduction xix Chapter 1: About WordPress 1 Why WordPress? 1 Easy to Set Up 1 Easy to Use 2 Easy to Extend 3 The Business Benefits of WordPress 4 Sites Built with WordPress 4 Personal Blogs 4 Blog Networks 6 Social Networks 8 Colleges and Universities 9 Small Businesses 10 WordPress Tour 11 Anatomy of a post 12 Summary 14 Chapter 2: Installing and Upgrading 15 www.it-ebooks.info CONTENTS v System Requirements 15 One-click Installation 15 Installation Using the Web Interface 16 Logging In 20 Editing and Uploading wp-config.php 22 Troubleshooting 23 Installing Themes 25 Installing Plugins 28 Plugging the gaps: Essential Plugins 32 Upgrading Plugins 33 Upgrading WordPress 35 Automatic Upgrades 36 Manual Upgrades 38 Moving a WordPress Site 39 Summary 40 Chapter 3: Dashboard and Settings 41 The Dashboard 42 QuickPress 43 Incoming Links 43 WordPress Development Blog 44 Plugin dashboard widgets 44 Dashboard Widgets and Users 44 Settings 45 General 45 Writing 47 Reading 48 Discussion 49 Media 54 www.it-ebooks.info CONTENTS vi Privacy 56 Permalinks 57 Summary 59 Chapter 4: Working with Content 61 Posts 61 Content 63 Permalinks 70 Publish Settings 70 Categories 71 Tags 72 Featured Images 74 Excerpts 75 Comments and Trackbacks 75 Revisions 77 Custom Fields 78 Pages 78 Page Attributes: Parents, Templates, and Order 78 Posts vs. Pages: Same, but Different 82 Posts are Pages; Pages are Posts 83 Editing Posts and Pages 83 Media Files 88 Images and Galleries 88 Video 94 Audio 96 Other File Types 97 The Media Library 97 Links 98 Basic Link Attributes 98 www.it-ebooks.info CONTENTS vii Link Relationships: XFN™ 99 Advanced Link Attributes 101 Link Feed 101 Feeds 101 Summary 103 Chapter 5: Importing Content 105 Before Importing 105 Importing Blogs 105 Importing from WordPress.com 107 Importing from Blogger 110 Importing Joomla or Mambo Sites 113 Importing Other MySQL-based Sites 116 Drupal 116 Importing HTML Files 117 After Importing: Fixing What’s Broken 120 Link URLs 120 Paths to Linked Files 121 Truncated or Garbled Content 122 Summary 123 Chapter 6: Creating a Basic Theme 125 Using Widgets 125 Using Menus 127 Creating a Menu 127 Editing Menu Items 128 Creating Multiple Menus 129 Using Header and Background Images 130 Turning HTML into a Theme 132 www.it-ebooks.info CONTENTS viii Header 134 Body 135 Footer 141 Stylesheet 141 Template Tags 142 Theme Files 144 Theme File Hierarchy 145 The Home Page 146 Single Posts 146 Pages 146 Custom Content Types 146 Category Archives 147 Tag Archives 147 Custom Taxonomy Archives 147 Author Archives 148 Date-Based Archives 148 Search Results 148 Error 404 (File Not Found) Page 148 Attachment Pages 149 Listing Comments 149 Including Additional Files 151 Styling Content 151 Changing Appearance Based on Context 151 Conditional Tags 152 Posts vs. Pages 153 Categories 153 Author Archives 154 Search Results 155 www.it-ebooks.info [...]... 33 0 Including Custom Content Types in Your Theme 33 3 Feeds for Custom Content Types 33 5 Custom Fields in Custom Content Types .33 6 Creating the Custom Fields 33 7 Verifying and Saving User Input 34 0 All Together 34 1 Summary .34 6 xiii www.it-ebooks.info CONTENTS Chapter 13: Setting up the Network 34 7... wp-config.php 30 0 Changing File Locations .30 0 Moving wp-config.php 30 1 Giving WordPress Its Own Subdirectory 30 1 Moving wp-content 30 2 Database Security 30 3 Changing the Table Prefix 30 3 Backing Up the Database and Files 30 4 Monitoring Security Problems .30 5 Summary .30 7 Chapter 12:... Requirements 34 7 Subdomains 34 7 Subfolders 34 8 Activating the Network 34 8 Configuring the Network 35 0 Operational Settings 35 1 Dashboard Settings 35 1 Registration Settings 35 2 New Site Settings 35 3 Upload Settings 35 4 Menu Settings 35 6 Creating Additional... Sites .35 6 Network Users .35 7 Splogs 35 8 Network Plugins and Themes 35 9 Plugin and Theme Options 36 1 Upgrading the Network 36 1 Mapping Domains 36 2 BuddyPress 36 4 Features 36 4 Installation 36 6 Using BuddyPress 37 1 Summary .37 1 Appendix... Appendix 1: Plugin Index 37 3 Appendix 2: Theme Functions 38 1 xiv www.it-ebooks.info CONTENTS Appendix 3: Plugin Recipes 38 5 Wiki 38 5 Document Sharing 38 6 Project Management 38 7 Newsroom .38 7 Twitter Archive 38 8 News Clipping Archive 38 8 Index 38 9 xv www.it-ebooks.info About the... and Fields .30 9 Custom Taxonomies 30 9 Non-hierarchical Taxonomies 31 2 Hierarchical Taxonomies 31 5 Using Custom Taxonomies 31 6 Custom Content Types 32 1 Non-hierarchical (Post-like) Content Types 32 4 Hierarchical (Page-like) Content Types 32 7 Custom Taxonomies for Custom Content Types 32 8 Changing Edit... thousands of individual blogs These sites use the Network feature in WordPress 3. 0, formerly a separate product known as WordPress MU (Multi-User) 6 www.it-ebooks.info CHAPTER 1 ABOUT WORDPRESS Figure 1 -3 The New York Times blog network 7 www.it-ebooks.info CHAPTER 1 ABOUT WORDPRESS Social Networks Using the BuddyPress suite of plugins, a WordPress site can be turned into a complete social network in just... audience that WordPress is the best blogging platform for search engine optimization purposes, and that choosing WordPress would be a good first step for any small business seeking to build an online presence Sites Built with WordPress These are just a few examples of WordPress sites For more, visit the Showcase at www .wordpress. org Personal Blogs Many of the web’s most famous designers have adopted WordPress: ... .2 23 Chapter 9: Creating Plugins 225 Getting started .225 Creating a Template Tag 226 Creating Template Tags with Arguments 227 Making Room for Options 228 Adding an Options Page . 232 The Settings API 234 Registering Settings and Creating Defaults 234 Creating the Options Form 235 Updating... Laporte use WordPress, too Celebrities using WordPress for their personal sites include Felicia Day, Kevin Smith, Stephen Fry, Martha Stewart, Emeril Lagasse, and Andy Roddick 4 www.it-ebooks.info CHAPTER 1 ABOUT WORDPRESS Figure 1-1 Author Jennifer Crusie’s site 5 www.it-ebooks.info CHAPTER 1 ABOUT WORDPRESS Figure 1-2 Actor Stephen Fry’s site Blog Networks The New York Times, Edublogs, and wordpress. com . Theme 33 3 Feeds for Custom Content Types 33 5 Custom Fields in Custom Content Types 33 6 Creating the Custom Fields 33 7 Verifying and Saving User Input 34 0. Network 36 1 Mapping Domains 36 2 BuddyPress 36 4 Features 36 4 Installation 36 6 Using BuddyPress 37 1 Summary 37 1 Appendix 1: Plugin Index 37 3 Appendix