Reno’s second annual WordCamp was a huge success! Thanks for everyone who came out. Check out pictures from the event!
Archive for the ‘Wordpress’ Category
Reno Tahoe WordCamp 2010 is a wrap!
Thursday, June 17th, 2010Reno-Tahoe WordCamp Shirts
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
Reno-Tahoe WordCamp 2010 is in 9 days! Here are the shirts for this year’s event, designed by Diego Sabogal. Only the first 150 registered attendees will receive a shirt so sign up now!
WordPress as a CMS on WordPress.TV
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
Here is video from the presentation I did at the Orange County WordCamp 2010 discussing specific methods for using WordPress as a content management system, including when WordPress is best for your site and how you can optimize your WordPress use for a complete site.
Video provided by Blaze Streaming Media
OC WordCamp: WordPress as a CMS
Monday, April 26th, 2010Here are my slides from my presentation at OC WordCamp this weekend. It was a great event and I hope everyone learned a few things! If you’ve never been to an event like this and you use WordPress, or are interested in learning more about the platform, look for a WordCamp in your area. The 2nd annual Reno-Tahoe WordCamp is just around the corner on June 12th!
WP Builder: An IDE for WordPress Plugins & Themes
Friday, April 9th, 2010I submitted an application to Google’s Summer of Code last year on building a CMS Theme Framework for wordpress and I’m back at it this year.
An IDE for WordPress Plugins & Themes
My proposal for GSOC 2010 is an integrated development environment for WordPress to allow for integration between the code editor, publishing, developer collaboration and the WordPress codex.
Features
- Open Source: Built on Eclipse
- Code Share: Share and collaborate on WordPress projects with fellow developers using Git or SVN
- Publishing: Setup FTP to allow for publishing your plugin to a WordPress installation to see your progress and test out functionality
- WordPress Codex Autocomplete: Start typing out a wordpress tag and the IDE will display autocomplete options and relevant parameters for each.
- WordPress Codex Wizard: Forgot what codex tags to use when you’re developing a theme or plugin? The Codex Wizard can help you browse the WordPress Codex and build your queries without leaving the IDE.
Example of a WordPress Theme developer’s workflow in WP Builder
- Start Eclipse
- Create New Project
- Select WordPress Theme Project
- WP Builder will create a project with a basic template structure (index.php, page.php, single.php, etc.)
- Edit theme files within Eclipse
- Browse the Codex for template tags within the Codex Wizard
- Enter FTP information for a WordPress installation to see changes live on the web
Example of a WordPress Plugin developer’s workflow in WP Builder
- Start Eclipse
- Create New Project
- Select WordPress Plugin Project
- Select options such as “Include backend admin panel, etc.”
- WP Builder will create a project with an empty plugin shell
- Share project files with another developer across the world using a GitHub repository or SVN
- Enter FTP information for a WordPress installation to see changes live on the web
Future Roadmap Features
These features are a little ambitious for the GSOC program timeline but as future features could include:
- Testing & Debugging
- WYSIWYG editor for theme development
WoW: World of WordPress
Sunday, March 28th, 2010It’s a busy time in the world of WordPress. The Lively Labs crew will be out and about for various WordCamps over the next couple months. We use WordPress heavily as our content management system of choice for most projects and are always glad to be involved and contribute to the community.
April 24th: Orange County WordCamp
I’ll be presenting on “Using WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS)” at the OC WordCamp down at UC Irvine. Come check it out!
May 1st: San Francisco WordCamp
Ed, Chelsea and I attended SF WordCamp last year and it was great to meet a lot of new people in the WordPress community such as our friends over at Shane & Peter and NextSpace. We are definitely looking forward to it again this year.
June 12: Reno-Tahoe WordCamp
The 2nd annual Reno-Tahoe WordCamp is going to much larger than the first. We have already confirmed it will be held in the ballrooms of the university thanks to sponsorship by the UNR Business Student Council. This event is key to the development of Reno’s tech culture. We have a lot of great developers, bloggers and more in this town and we want to continue to help them in any way possible. The call for proposals is now open so if you’d like to speak, make sure you get your presentation submitted! A new website is going up soon but for now, you can find details at www.renotahoewordcamp.com.
Call for Proposals now open for Reno-Tahoe Wordcamp 2010
Friday, January 29th, 2010
The first Reno-Tahoe WordCamp was a great success and we are looking forward to an even better one this year. We have a lot of great things lined up but we can’t make the day a success without your help!
Are you a WordPress guru, blogger, podcaster, writer or community builder? If so, then you should consider submitting a proposal to present on June 12th April 10th.
The official website for Reno-Tahoe WordCamp 2010 will be available soon with more information. If you have any questions, feel free to send an email to renotahoewordcamp@gmail.com.
Building Your First Plugin on WordPress at WordCamp 2009
Saturday, April 25th, 2009A CMS Theme Framework for WordPress
Friday, April 3rd, 2009WordPress as a Content Management System
I currently use WordPress for many of my projects. Want to start a blog? WordPress is a perfect fit. Do you want to build a website on WordPress? WordPress can do that too. However, because WordPress was originally designed as a blogging platform, there are quite a few tweaks that need to happen in order to get the most out of WordPress as a content management system (CMS).
Current State of Content Management Systems
- Most content management systems consist of hundreds of features
- Complex templating systems
- Complicated codebase prevents it from being extended through plugins by anyone less than a computer scientist
Why is WordPress an ideal candidate to use as a CMS?
- Lightweight
- User-friendly administration interface
- Rich, existing developer and user community
- Large number of existing plugins and themes
- Ease-of-use in incorporating media such as images, audio, video
Enter 2009 Google Summer of Code (GSoC)
Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together nearly 2500 successful student participants and 2500 mentors from 98 countries worldwide, all for the love of code. Through Google Summer of Code, accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits. In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.
Building a Theme Framework
My proposal for the 2009 Google Summer of Code is a theme framework that provides a rich feature set of tools right out of the box to manage a website powered by WordPress.
The focus of this framework is two-fold:
For CMS users: If I had to guess, I would say more than 75% of CMS users in most organizations and companies do not have any existing knowledge of PHP, CSS, and/or HTML. Creating or even editing a theme to function as more of a traditional website rather than a blog is a herculean task for this type of user. All the user needs to know is how to install WordPress to their server and install the framework.
For WordPress developers: The real power of this framework comes into play for those individuals who do use PHP, CSS, and HTML. The framework provides documentation on how to create or edit existing themes to work well with the CMS framework and extend functionality through the use of existing/custom plugins and widgets.
Features
- In-place content editor that allows for content updates without using the post or page editor in the administration panel
- Interactive theme/template designer allows for customization without code
- Customizable administration theme created for CMS
- A set of included themes that can be customized using the theme/template designer
- Installer script to easily add the CMS framework to any installation of WordPress
