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These are the slides from a free workshop I gave of April 29, 2009 on using wordpress to manage your website. For more information visit http://downeastlearning.org/
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Downeast Learning Cooperative Matthew Baya
SECTION I – INTRODUCTIONS
This section has the following information: About this class Who is presenting? Who is organizing this?
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.
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: [email protected] Personal Blog ‐ http://matt.baya.net/
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>
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.
SECTION II – BACKGROUND INFO
This section includes a REALLY quick overview of : computers the internet websites web servers networks. Other geeky terms
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
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.
Network
A communication medium that allows computers to transmit and receive data from each other. Wired Wireless
Internet
A network of networks.
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.
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
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
<html> <head> <title>This is the page title</title> </head> <body> The body of the message. </body>
</html>
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.
The World Wide Web in Plain English
Videos in ‘Pla makes ‘in Plain English’ videos http://commoncraft.com/
(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
What’s in a (domain) name?
TLD – Top Level Domain .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .me New ones all the time
URL Syntax
http://subdomain.domain.TLD/foldername/filename.suffix&variable=value
Filename Suffix & Variables .txt .html .php .asp
Variables ‐ &otherinfo=walrus&A=B&C=…
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.
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.
DNS “Tree”
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/
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 ‐
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
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
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.
Free vs commercial
Commercial – Hire a select few experts, they do all the coding & testing. Pros – Tight control over changes. Support Cons ‐ $$$
Open Source Community – Anyone can 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.
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
Old Web Publishing model
Create HTML on local machine. Save. Upload (FTP) Load via web browser. Note problems Change code locally. Save. Upload. Repeat
Static HTML website
User requests a page Server finds that HTML file Send file to user’s browser.
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.
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.
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
Large Remote Apps examples
These are private custom applications Facebook, Myspace, friendster, livejournal, linkedin
Blogger, wordpress.com ‐ Blogs flickr ‐ photos youtube – video Twitter
Installable Server Applications
Forums / Bulletin Boards – Discussion boards ‐ phpBB, punBB, SMF
Photos – Gallery of Thumbnails ‐ Gallery2, Coppermine
Blogs – Moveable Type, Wordpress (more later )
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.
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.
Blog – What?
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!
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.
Wordpress.Com Signup
Wordpress.com Signup 2
Wordpress.Com Signup 3
Wordpress.Com Confirmation
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.
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.
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)
SECTION III ‐ INSTALLATION
This section covers the basics of installation of wordpress including; Downloading & uploading Setting up wordpress Initial configuration
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.
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.
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/
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.
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.
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.
cPanel Database Section
• Use the “MySQL Database Wizard” to create a database and a MySQL user with permissions to access that database.
MySQL Database Wizard
MySQL Database Wizard 2
MySQL Database Wizard 3
MySQL Database Wizard 4
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.
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.
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.
Permissions & wp‐config.php
It will try to auto‐create the wp‐config.php file but this doesn’t always work.
Welcome to Wordpress
Set database information
Run the install
Set title and contact e‐mail
Confirmation
You’ll get an e‐mail too
cPanel & Fantastico!
cPanel includes a utility called Fantastico! that has quick installs for a number of utilities, including wordpress.
Fantastico! WP Install
E‐mail confirmation
/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
Login
SECTION IV – Basic Configuration
The Dashboard
Dashboard Top
Dashboard – Top Right
Profile
Contact Info (mostly optional)
About Yourself (optional)
Set new password
What your site looks like
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.
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
Dashboard – left sidebar
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.
Settings
General Settings
Writing Settings
Remote Publishing
Post via e‐mail
Update Services
Reading Settings
Discussion Settings 1
Discussion Settings 2
Discussion settings ‐ 3
Comment Moderation
Comment Blacklist
Avatars
Media Settings
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.
Permalinks
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks
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.
Custom Category & tag path
Miscellaneous Settings
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
Creating a Post
Add New Post
Visual Editor Bar
Visual Editor w/ Kitchen Sink
Format
Excerpt
Trackbacks
Discussion
Publish
Tags
Categories
Adding Images to a Post/page
Add An Image
Add An Image – Waiting for upload
Image Properties
Insert Image Into Post
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’
Install Plugins
Install Plugins 2
Install Plugins 3
Currently Active Plugins
Upgrading Plugins
Upgrade Plugin Needed
Upgrade Plugin Summary
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.
Akismet is almost ready
This warning will appear at the top of all your dashboard pages until you give it a valid key.
Akismet Configuration Menu Option
Note the new addition under your Plugins Menu for Akismet Configuration
Akismet Key Needed
Akismet Valid Key
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
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.
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.
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.
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’
Wordpress Theme Directory
Manage Themes
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)
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 )
All‐In‐One‐SEO Plugin
This plugin adds some useful functionality to wordpress to allow for adding summary, descriptions and keywords to each post/page, as well as the entire site.
There is more info about this plugin and how to best leverage it at it’s website ‐ http://semperfiwebdesign.com/portfolio/wordpress/wordpress‐plugins/all‐in‐one‐seo‐pack/#more‐59
All‐In‐One Options for Post
SEO Basics
Links Matter – Get clients, friends, business partners to link to your site, ideally using some keywords you want searches to reflect. In return link to their sites.
Don’t Lie – Your summary, description and keywords should reflect the real content of your page. Trying to put keywords or other content that doesn’t match will cause you to be penalized in rankings
Hubspot Website Grader
RSS in Plain English
SECTION IX – Q & A and Demos
Happy to field questions.
Depending on time we can look ‘under the hood’ at some live wordpress sites I have access to to see how they are setup and what they are using.
Recommended Reading
Launching A Wordpress Blog EBook
http://www.genealogy‐web‐creations.com/launching‐wordpress‐blog.html
Youtube Video Tutorials
Search for Wordpress or “Wordpress 2.7” on Youtube and you’ll find all sorts of ‘screencasts’ that will walk you through various tasks.
SECTION X – Wrap‐up
Thanks for attending this workshop. Feedback appreciated, either in person or e‐mail me ([email protected]).
Copy of this powerpoint will be available on downeastlearning.org
Donations accepted
Did you appreciate this class?
We incurred some costs making this event happen and would appreciate anything you feel you can spare.
There is a box for donations located near the front of the room.
It’s not over…
This class can be continued online at http://downeastlearning.org/
Forums Mailing lists Polls & discussion about future classes
Learn from each other. Happy to answer questions.
