For fun and profit - PSU 2011

a PSUWeb 2011 workshop

FOR FUN AND PROFITthe sake of your sanityFOR FUN AND PROFIT

TODAY

1. Us, our projects, and WordPress2. Features, installation, and setting up the network3. Plugins and customization

• Borking sites since 1994.• Since 2005 only Web staff on campus of

~3500 students & 400 faculty/staff. • Fifth year on the HighEdWeb conference

program committee; chaired regional HEWEB event last 2 yrs.

• HigherEdExperts presenter – OpenSource CMS Fair: WordPressMU, April 2010.

• Technical reviewer for Apress book Beginning WordPress 3.0 by Stephanie Leary released in June, 2010.

• Launched WPMU in May 2009. Alone.

ME, A NAME I CALL MYSELF

I’M JUST A GIRL

• NOT a web expert– But I play one sometimes

• Director of Communications– Web, print, PR,

marketing, videos– blah, blah, blah

• Presenter for CALI, HigherEdExperts, #heweb10 – video strategy, email newsletters

• Master’s in Applied Communication Studies

THE SAU PROJECT CIRCA 2005

• Zero dedicated web staff• No budget• 16,000 html files• Rampant duplication

– Headers and navigation files (template)– Images

• 4700 broken links• No search• No site map• No process• No hope• MS FrontPage

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

BABY

WE’VE ALWAYS DONE IT THAT WAY

THE SAU PROJECT CIRCA 2011

• WordPress 3.1.3• 435 Users• ~ 55 Sites• 5700+ Pages• Site search• Analytics

I WAS UP

ABOVE IT…

NOW I’M DOWN

IN IT

THE BOWEN PROJECT CIRCA 2009

• Zero dedicated web staff• No budget• 474 html files• No naming convention• No recognizable information

architecture• 95 percent of pages with

errors• Version upon version of the

same page or document• PDF toxicity• Accessibility issues • Dreamweaver is not my

friend

BOWEN MIGRATED

THE BOWEN PROJECT CIRCA 2011

• WordPress 3.1• Still 1 User

– Working on that though

• 237 Pages• News items as

posts, not individual pages

• Site search• Analytics• PDFs going the way

of the Dodo Bird

GETTING HERE

MAJOR WEAKNESSES

– Lacks native reusable content & site-wide internal linking system

– Requires plugins to optimize speed– Critical plugins can conflict or become

unsupported as WP versions advance– Disjointed and incomplete advanced

documentation– Heavy use of pages can be problematic– Lacks native workflow

MAJOR STRENGTHS

– Easy setup & theming– Shallow end-user learning curve– Spread responsibility for maintenance of

content– Highly flexible– Huge user community– There’s a plugin for that…– Standard server requirements– Extreme RSS capabilities– Low cost startup

COSTS – YEAR 1

• Premium Themes (supported) - $150• MUSupport.net (paid support forum) - $100• WPMUDev.org - $420/yr or $79/1 month access to

supported premium plugins• GravityForms - $39• Custom plugins - $300• VPS - $45/month• Total ~ $1879

BIG PICTURE

– Supports all basic requirements of our campus– Empowers others to maintain information– Able to heavily customize each department

independently (themes & plugins)– Rapid deployment– Significant improvements at every major

release. – Possible to implement and admin in single

person office with no internal support and within limited budget

CORE FEATURES

• Posts, pages, links• File uploads• Widgets• 1-click upgrades• Flexible theming

– Custom header & background support

• Accessibility support*

• Custom menus• User management

– Unlimited users• Comments• Trackbacks/Pingbacks• RSS feeds

http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_3.0

• Requirements:– PHP 5.2+– MySQL 5.0.15– Apache or Nginx

TECHNICAL INFO

“THE FAMOUS 5-MINUTE INSTALL”

• No, really. It’s that easy.1) Upload the files2) Create the db3) Run wp-admin/install.php

INSTALL

Voila!

SETTINGS

General Settings

SECURITY

• Don’t use “admin” username• Don’t use “wp-” db table prefix• Move wp-config.php• Keep WP and plugins current*• Security plugins

– WP Security Scan– WordPress Exploit Scanner– WordPress File Monitor

Source: WordPress Security by Brad Williams

Zombie homepage

SPEED

• Speed Test• Cache

– WP Super Cache– W3 Total Cache

• CDN– CDN Tools

• Compression– WP HTTP Compression– WP HTML Compression

THE NETWORK

• Subdirectory vs. subdomain– www.site.edu/subdirectory– subdomain.site.edu

• Users• .htaccess

– Permalinks (mod_rewrite)– Security– Cache (mod_rewrite, file expiration)

• wp-config.php– Pimp your wp-config.php

• /wp-content/blogs.dir

HANDY NETWORK PLUGINS

• Login As±

• Editor Log• New Blog Defaults• Global Header ±

• Google Analytics*• Login Image ±

• Domain Mapping• Multi-Site Site List

Shortcode• Content Monitor

*Premium, ± Unsupported

HANDY SITE PLUGINS

• Enable Media Replace• List child pages• List child attachments• Exclude Pages• Gravity Forms• KB Advanced RSS Widg

et• TinyMCE Advanced• WP Subtitle• Widget Logic

• Content Audit• Edit Flow• Editorial Calendar• Custom Post Type UI

CUSTOM POST TYPES & TAXONOMIES

• Default post types:– Posts, Pages– Attachments– Revisions– Menu Items

• Potential uses– Course descriptions– Media database– Seminar series– Employee Directory

• Default Taxonomies– Categories– Post Tags– Menus– Link Categories

• Potential Uses– Video– People

PRO TIPS

• DO BACKUPS! A lot…for real…not kidding.• Check your error logs regularly.• Plan your plugins, consider expected future

features and your timeline. Sometimes the cleanup isn’t worth it.

• Theme frameworks. You’re welcome.

…NOT TOO DISTANT FUTURE

• Multi-DB• CDN• Multi-domain• Custom post-types/taxonomies• Plugin audit• Custom menus• Content audit, editorial calendar

WORDPRESS QUESTIONS?

Confused?

Tonya Oaks-Smith@[email protected]/tosmith/

Shelley Keith@[email protected]

CONTACT INFO