Colin Loretz » Wordpress

Your Web App is in my WordPress!

Colin Loretz — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:07:06 +0000

Below is a talk I gave at Las Vegas WordCamp in Fall 2010 on building web app mashups with WordPress and the options available for doing so.

Reno Tahoe WordCamp 2010 is a wrap!

Colin Loretz — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:00:30 +0000

Reno’s second annual WordCamp was a huge success! Thanks for everyone who came out. Check out pictures from the event!

Reno-Tahoe WordCamp Shirts

Colin Loretz — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:33:42 +0000

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

Colin Loretz — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 17:33:46 +0000

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

Colin Loretz — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:05:47 +0000

Here 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

Colin Loretz — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:54:57 +0000

I 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

Colin Loretz — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:35:39 +0000

It’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

Colin Loretz — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:07:49 +0000

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

Colin Loretz — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:04:06 +0000

Example File:

Reno-WordCamp plugin (save and rename to reno-wordcamp.php)

Slides:

Creating Your First WordPress Plugin

A CMS Theme Framework for WordPress

Colin Loretz — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:11:00 +0000

WordPress 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