This document contains a question and answer session between someone using the name Nicole and various other people regarding WordPress. Some of the key topics discussed include:
- The downsides of using plugins in WordPress that add unnecessary CSS and JavaScript files.
- Recommendations for what to include on a WordPress cheat sheet, such as referring to the WordPress codex which documents many core functions.
- How to create PHP files using a text editor and how PHP code is parsed and executed by the server.
- Different ways that pages are linked together in WordPress templates, including through template files and page naming conventions.
3. Q: My group has a slideshow on the
website and we found one using a
plugin but the plugin has many
different external sheets. Is there a
simpler way to create a slideshow or
should we just keep it the way it is?
4. A: Just keep it the way it is, this is a
downside of WordPress, almost every
plugin you install often adds its own
Javascript and CSS files and these
add up fast. It is important remember
that if you edit or change a plugin you
can not updated it or you will loose all
your work.
5. • Q: If I were to create a cheat sheet for
WordPress for things that I absolutely
must know and remember, what
would be on it? For example, if I were
to have a cheat sheet for coding, I
would have the different tags and
what they meant on it.
6. A: Wordpress is a very large and
complicated codebase, there are
latterly hundreds of functions and
methods that you have access to
while building your site. That said the
best cheat sheet is actually the codex
[http://codex.wordpress.org/] almost
everything has been laid out for you
in there.
9. • Q: Are there ways to create PHPs ? Or
is all the coding found just on the
internet?
10. • A: PHP files are text files that the
server recognizes and parses, they
can be created in any text editor.
They do require that the the very first
line before you add code use a ( <?
php ) this tells the server to parse this
section of code and replace it with
the desired result. At the end of the
code block you will need to close the
block with a ( ?> ) tag.
11. • A: An example and exercise is to open a
text editor and create a new file and
copy this code into it:
<?php ! echo ‘Hello World’;! ?>
then save the document as hw.php upload
it to a server running php and then open
it up in a browser by going to http://
thewebsitename.com/hw.php.
12.
13. • Q: My footer is stuck at the top of my
pages, how do I fix it?
14. • A: There are lots of ways but few
really work. Most Devs often figure
out with trial and error. You can
achieve this with jQuery, Css hacks,
Frameworks like Bootstrap &
Foundation (have built it methods).
There is no easy way, and often what
works for one site does not work on
another.
15. • Q: How do I remove the "posted by
### at #:##" on all pages?
16. • A: This is created by a template tag
http://codex.wordpress.org/
Template_Tags, to remove it you will
need to find it in the template and
delete it or comment it out. For this
particular one you would goto ->
index.php and in the loop look for
posted by <?php the_author(); ?> on
at <?php the_time() ?>
17. • Q: How does CSS work with PHP?
Some styling that we (my group and
I) put in worked on the HTML, but
does not on PHP. For example, if we
want to style something specifically,
we would use and id, but what is the
equivalent of id in PHP?
18. • A: CSS is specific to html (they are not the
same but complements of each other) and only
affects php after its parsed into an html output,
So there are no php equivalents. That said,
WordPress uses function calls (these are
prebuilt blocks of php that perform specific
functions) these functions do not aways work
with css called from the document but these
functions usually have the ability to supply an
argument that can include css id or class.
<?php the_title(‘<h1 class=“page-title”>’, </h2>’ , true) ?>!
19.
20. • Q: If I was to add media to my
website, how could I podcast it using
Wordpress?
21. • A: How to podcast with Wordpress
http://codex.wordpress.org/Podcasting
22. • Q: What are some tips for learning
PHP and how do you link a PHP
document correctly in Wordpress?
23. • A: Google! Find an intro to CS and
Intro to programming theory class.
Lynda.com (best resource in the
world tons of video classes that will
take you through php, html, css,
wordpress). Just get in and play
between google and maybe a cheap
php for dummies book.
24. • A: You don’t really link php documents in
WordPress most everything that you will do
inside a theme or plugin will be recognized
by the WordPress engine. In the case of
theme any functionality you would want to
add should be done in the already existing
functions.php, or if you are creating a new
page template i.e. page-fullwidth.php you
will need to add a comment to the head of
the document that declares it:
<?php! /*! * Template Name: page-homepage!
*/! ?>
for a plugin you will do about the same but it
will be a much more complex declaration.
25.
26. • Q: Are there any useful PHP reference
websites?
28. • Q: What’s the line of code that
connects each page together? I've
noticed that sometimes when we
copy and paste our code into the
WordPress code and we accidentally
delete the wrong code, then the
pages don't connect properly.
29. • A: There are a variety of different ways
WordPress pages link together in the template
system
• based on the pages document name:
– 1) a loop in the index.php page will only pull posts
related to the post section
– 2) a loop in a page.php or a template that has a
template name: declaration will only pull content
related to that page.
– 3) documents are named specifically for specific
functions and are a major part of the linking process.
I.e. archive.php is for search and category requests
on a site, while page.php is for pages created in the
dashboard.