Professional WordPress [Paperback]

Hal Stern (Author), David Damstra (Author), Brad Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0470560541 | ISBN-13: 978-0470560549 | Edition: 1

An in-depth look at the internals of the WordPress system. As the most popular blogging and content management platform available today, WordPress is a powerful tool. This exciting book goes beyond the basics and delves into the heart of the WordPress system, offering overviews of the functional aspects of WordPress as well as plug-in and theme development.

What is covered in this book?

• WordPress as a Content Management System
• Hosting Options
• Installing WordPress Files
• Database Configuration
• Dashboard Widgets
• Customizing the Dashboard
• Creating and Managing Content
• Categorizing Your Content
• Working with Media
• Comments and Discussion
• Working with Users
• Managing, Adding, Upgrading, and Using the Theme Editor
• Working with Widgets
• Adding and Managing New Plugins
• Configuring WordPress
• Exploring the Code
• Configuring Key Files
• wp-config.php file
• Advanced wp-config Options
• What's in the Core?
• WordPress Codex and Resources
• Understanding and customizing the Loop
• Building A Custom Query
• Complex Database Operations
• Dealing With Errors
• Direct Database Manipulation
• Building Your Own Taxonomies
• Plugin Packaging
• Create a Dashboard Widget
• Creating a Plugin Example
• Publish to the Plugin Directory
• Installing a Theme
• Creating Your Own Theme
• How and When to Use Custom Page Templates
• How to Use Custom Page Templates
• Pushing Content from WordPress to Other Sites
• Usability and Usability Testing
• Getting Your Site Found
• How Web Standards Get Your Data Discovered
• Load Balancing Your WordPress Site
• Securing Your WordPress Site
• Using WordPress in the Enterprise
• Is WordPress Right for Your Enterprise?
• and much more!

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Explore the power and possibilities of WordPress from the inside out

As the most popular self-hosted blogging software in use today, WordPress is remarkably simple to operate and can be extended and tailored for a wide variety of applications. This guide focuses on the internal structure and flow of the core code, as well as the data model on which that code operates, so that you can harness the power of WordPress to meet your specific needs. The author team pulls together developer and deployer expertise, as well as knowledge of popular open source plugins, themes, and tools for WordPress, to provide an in-depth guide suitable for all WordPress users, from self-hosted bloggers to enterprise content management system applications.

Professional WordPress:

• Offers an overview of the WordPress system and describes what happens when a WordPress-generated web page is displayed

• Discusses the core of WordPress, describing internal code flow and data structures

• Demonstrates extending WordPress through plugins and customizing it via themes

• Combines a developer view of user experience and optimization with the deployer requirements for performance, security, and measurement

• Provides practical examples of integrating WordPress with enterprise and social networking tools

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

wrox.com

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About the Author

Hal Stern is a vice president at a technology company and uses WordPress to blog about his adventures in golf, ice hockey, and food.

David Damstra is the Manager of Web Services for CU*Answers, a credit union service organization, where he manages a team of developers to create web sites and web applications for the financial industry.

Brad Williams is the CEO and Co-Founder of WebDevStudios.com. He is also a co-host on the SitePoint Podcast and an advisor on SitePoint Forums.

Product Details

• Paperback: 412 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (April 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470560541
• ISBN-13: 978-0470560549
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #270,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 67 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb, more advanced guide to WordPress May 26, 2010

By M. Erb HALL OF FAMETOP 10 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

"Professional WordPress - Design and Development" is a superb book that will be appreciated greatly by developers looking to WordPress (WP) for the first time or for giving them a more thorough understanding of the inner-workings of WP. WordPress, as I write this, is at the WordPress 3.0 beta 2 cycle of development. This book will still be pertinent even though it was not specifically written as a WP v3.0 book.

The book's chapters are arranged in 3 major sections. Chapters 1 thru 4 are a top-level look at WordPress. The history and development of WordPress is discussed as well as the presentation of a functional overview, discussion of installation (including a valuable discussion of debugging errors you may have during installation), a code overview and a tour of the core. There is good stuff here. For instance if you are unclear of the distinction between tags and categories, this will clear things up for you. Or if you've ever wondered what the Turbo option in the Dashboard is, your answer will be found in these chapters. There is even an excellent discussion of advanced wp-config options that is sure to be helpful to the developer as well as a lot of information on configuring your .htaccess file.

Chapters 5 thru 8 thoroughly explore the Loop, understanding the WordPress database and how to directly manipulate it (database queries, building your own taxonomies, direct database manipulation), plugins development & WordPress integration (shortcodes, widgets, plugin security) and theme development (modifying existing themes, creating new themes.)

Chapters 9 thru 15 cover everything else including content aggregation (how to get information into your WordPress site by various means such as XML feeds, integrating twitter, RSS feeds), creating a user experience through consistent navigation, design elements, how to structure your information, searching your site, mobile access & statistics, cache performance, dealing with spam, using WordPress as a content management system (CMS). For developers considering a new web site with WordPress, migrating an existing site to WP is an important consideration and this is discussed in Chapter 14. Chapter 15 concludes the book with a discussion on the WordPress developer community; how you can contribute, working on the core using Subversion and a look at other WordPress resources.

I am not a hardcore developer by any means. My experience with PHP and CSS is marginal, yet I learned a lot from reading this book. Using the code samples helped further my understanding of PHP and this has given me a new interest in learning more about the "inside" of WordPress.

This is a substantial book on WordPress especially geared to developers and secondarily to enthusiasts who wish to dig into WordPress more deeply and begin to explore what makes WordPress tick and how to extend WordPress. Even though the topics are discussed at an advanced level, the writing is not nearly as dry and cumbersome as other technical books can be.

This is an extremely valuable resource for the developer yet there is a thorough approach taken in the early chapters that even a fledgling WP user would find valuable (but not a non-technically minded reader.) However, it is certainly not an appropriate "first" book for the non-technical person simply desiring to get started with WordPress. There are more appropriate books for the non-technical reader. Having said that, there are certain users who may be inspired enough by the easily readable approach taken by the authors to be propelled to learn more because of the depth of information that is contained in this book. Merely using some of the existing code samples can help you learn more about writing and debugging PHP code and serve as a platform for future growth in your knowledge and skills.

This is a stand-out book on WordPress and anyone doing serious development with WordPress could benefit from "Professional WordPress." Highly recommended.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Just What a Progammer Needs March 29, 2010

By Michael S. Ball

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I just got the book this morning, and I'm halfway through it. It's exactly what I needed, a guided tour that cuts through the mass of undigested information that is [...]. This is the Baedeker's guide for the blog maintainer. I like WordPress, really I do, but how do I find the proper plugin to solve my problem? There are almost nine thousand of them! Knowing the vocabulary and how the system works makes it much easier to sort through them. After reading this, I can probably even use the WordPress Codex without spending a week sorting out what goes where.

What I like best is that it's written for a programmer, without all the gushing about how great a system it is. The facts, with just enough evaluation to say what's important.

Way to go, guys!

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars More for the Professional versus the Do-It-Yourself'er April 20, 2010

By Kim Cantrell

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Having a Wordpress blog, I thought this would be a great book from which to get some tips.

And I got more than I bargained for.

Professional WordPress is an EXTREMELY detailed book, providing TONS of information for the Wordpress designer. However, because of its in-depth content, I have to admit it was a little over my head. (My first hint should have been the word "Professional.")

This would be definite must have reference guide for a web designer focusing on blogs. And even intermediates such as myself can walk away with some helpful information. Novices, however, should steer clear lest Wordpress becomes more complicated than it should be.