BASIC STRUCTURE
WordPress
First and foremost, I got a lot out of this conference. The understanding that most struck me was the ability of a great many tools on the market to deliver a lot of the same functionality based on your understanding of the software. It always comes down to this in the computer industry, negotiating the user interface. WordPress is an open source project with a Front End written in PHP and the backend utilizing MySQL.
The method used to store data is to create a table for each item like a post or a page with 4 fields, the long integer key, a second key as a varchar, a descriptor as a an indexed varchar, and a long text field which is not indexed. The result of this methodology is an index on the first three fields and no indexing of the content. Very flexible.
WHAT IS IT?
Although the WordPress started as a method of blogging it is frequently, and maybe mostly, used for design and development of web sites delivered to customers that want excellent search results and the flexibility of changing their content. The good search results come from plugs ins, tags, and a special relationship with Google due to the open source nature.
The ease of implementing basic web sites with a great look and feel is amazing although many of the menus, even the construction of menus, are less than intuitive because of the original intended use of the product.
1 MILLION DOLLAR QUESTIONS
In what capacity would you, and should you, use WordPress? Does it function best well more than a content provider?
Probably not the best questions to ask at a WordPress Camp but necessary if you are trying to decide what route to take when implementing any system these days. The number one answer is:
We are open source with great access to resources. There are very few things WordPress cannot do and we have stellar performance if you use memcache etc.
I, of course, have heard this before. As a matter of fact, I have heard it for every product I have ever programmed in and with at every convention where others use that product. It is very much like going to a motorcycle rally for Harley Davidson. Everyone will talk Harley. Few will say that the bikes are great for short distances, good sound, and that American iconic look.
GENERAL NOTES ON WORD PRESS DEVELOPMENT
CHILD THEMING – This is nothing new. It is the ability of WordPress to use cascading style sheets having a parent sheet with a child that either inherits the qualities of the parent or overwrites theme. The main point is to definitely use this system when doing development. The tool to for inspection is Firebug.
THEMING – Use a theme that can be modified and is designed for such. The current most useful one is Two Thousand Eleven.
UTILIZE A SERVICE THAT ALLOWS MODIFICATION
Make sure they accept memcache and do not utilize virtual disks which do not benefit from loading into memory from local disks.
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