Creating a Web Presence

Introduction to WordPressWeek 1

What we’ll cover this week:

Housekeeping

Introductions

Expectations

What is WordPress

.com vs. org

Housekeeping

Class start time? 6:30? 6:45? 7:00?

Contact me – aldavis@aldavis.org

Slides will be made available for download.

Introductions

Who am I, and what makes me qualified to stand up here?

Who are you?

What kind of website do you plan to create?

Course Expectations

My Goal– Turn every one in class into a power user of the

WordPress platform

Finished product– At the completion of this course you will have a

website powered by WordPress that includes a number of elements you will learn throughout this class

Marks

How you will be graded

Attendance/participation= 20%

Exercises= 60%– Each week you will required to complete the

exercises done in class by Sunday at 6pm and email me that you have completed them, so I can go into your site and evaluate

Final Assignment- 20%

What is Wordpress?

WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and content management system (CMS) powered by PHP and MySQL. It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system.

Why Use WordPress?

Ease of use

Large, active community

WordPress version 3.3 has been downloaded 5.5 million times. It was released Dec 12, 2011

Why Use WordPress?

WordPress is used by over 14.7% of the "top 1 million" websites and as of August 2011 powers 22% of all new websites. WordPress is currently the most popular CMS in use on the Internet.

Wordpress.com vs .org

There are two different types of WordPress, commonly referred to as .com and .org

.com is WordPress powered websites hosted ( for free) by Automattic, the company that builds WordPress

.org refers to the downloadable version of WordPress that is used with shared hosting accounts and local installs

.com limitations

Can’t add plugins

Limited number of themes

No Code customization

.org limitations

While the software is free, you will have to pay for a domain name and hosting account

Responsible for your own updates to software and plugins

On your own for support

. Com benefits

Early access to new WordPress features

Email Subscriptions and post by email built right in

Support provided by Automattic

No Cost just sign up at wordpress.com

.org benefits

(almost) complete control

Any plugin

Any theme

Customize the code

What you’ll be using for the course

A platform has been built specifically for this course.

You will be given access to a website that is powered by WordPress

you will be allowed to move your content off the website for up to 30 days after the last class.

After 30 days, the site will be wiped out and you won’t be able to retrieve your work

Installing WordPress

4 methods to installing WP ( .org)– One Click installer

– Via FTP

– SSh

– Using a plugin

Minimum requirements

Minimum requirements for WordPress

• As of version 3.2 ( released July 4, 2011)

• PHP version 5.2.4 or greater

• MySQl version 5.0 or greater

One Click installer

What is it?

An application that installs software for the end user (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal etc.)

Why Use it?

Simple to use

Fast

Why Not to use it

No control of what is installed

No control of how it is installed

Can be tough to go back and change the installation

One Click installer

One Click installer

One Click installer

FTP

What is FTP?

Stands for File Transfer Protocol

Fancy way of saying “moving files from your computer to the server via the internet”

What do you need?

FTP Client. There are many out there for Windows and Mac—some are even free

Why use FTP?

Fine control over what is installedWhen you’ve uploaded your files, you get to use the famous 5-minute install for WP

Why NOT to use FTP

Can be slow depending upon your Internet connectionRequires greater technical knowledge than One-ClickNeed to set up your own database for WP to work

FTP

FTP

FTP

FTP

FTP

FTP

Live demo of the install process

Dallas.introtowp.com/wp-login

SSH

What is SSH?

Stands for Secure Shell

Fancy way of saying “A secure channel to connect to your web server space.” Command line based ( Advanced users)

What do you need?

Command Line Tool-PuTTY – WindowsTerminal - Mac

Why use SSH?

Much faster than FTPGuarantees you always get the latest version of WordPress

Why NOT to use SSH?

Not all hosting providers offer full access (unable to connect to other sites)Requires greater technical knowledgeRequires command line use

SSH

SSH

wget http://wordpress.org/latest.zip

SSHunzip latest.zip

SSH

• Move all the files out of the wordpress folder

cp –rf ./wordpress/* ./

• Delete downloaded filesrm latest.ziprm –rf wordpress/

SSHEdit wp-config-sample.phpthen save it as wp-config.php

SSH

Navigate to yourdomain.com/wp-admin

Backup Buddy

What is Backup Buddy?

A WordPress plugin developed by ithemes ( www.ithemes.com)

Like getting 3 plugins in oneInstallationsBackupsMigration tool

Why use Backup Buddy?

Allows you to develop locally, deploy to a web server

Takes all of your themes, custom CSS, plugins, content over in one smooth move

Why NOT to use Backup Buddy?

No custom installation of WordPress

Backup Buddy

Backup Buddy

Navigate to domain/importbuddy.php after you have FTP’ed the backup file and the import file to your webserver space

Backup Buddy

Backup Buddy

Backup Buddy

Backup Buddy

Account sign up