GDI WordPress 3 January 2012

Plugins, Widgets and Themes

Today's Plan●Review● Plugins●Widgets● Themes and extension - "child themes"

Goals●You will understand what widgets are and how to use them●You will know the 'definition' of a plugin●You'll have the basics of child themes down, and might have one

of your own!

Review Exercise

●Name the two ways we can add a theme to our site

●What's a permalink?

●How do you get to the WordPress backend?

Review Exercise (Answers)

●Name the two ways we can add a theme to our site

Searching for it within the backend & file transfer

●What's a permalink?

The 'permanent' location of something on our site; ex /about

●How do you get to the WordPress backend?

MYSITE/wp-admin

Plugins extend the functionality of WordPress.

Exercise: PluginsComplete/Answer the following:● Toggle the activation of the Hello Dolly plugin. What does it

do?●Delete the Hello Dolly plugin. What are the two components

of deletion you're warned about?●Go to Featured plugins and install and activate the Stop SOPA

Ribbon plugin.

Gold Star! [Extra Credit]●Add the Hello Dolly plugin back. You miss it.●How can you find the lines that Hello Dolly

choses from?● Search and add the WP PHP widget to your site.

Activate. [You'll have more to play with in the Widgets exercise!]

Widgets are a form of plugin that can add functionality to different areas of your site, without needing to code.

Exercise: WidgetsComplete/Answer the following:●Use a widget in your site's theme●How can you remove a widget but keep its settings?●Can you use a widget more than once?

Gold Star! [Extra Credit]● If you installed the PHP widget, play with running

"Hello World" PHP code in a widget area●Does the PHP widget support HTML?●Change themes - did widget support change?

Widgets.

Child Themes: The What

●A Child Theme is a theme based on another theme (the parent)

● It uses all components of the parent theme unless you specify otherwise

Child Themes: The How

A folder and a style.css file

Exercise: Child Themes

Make a Child Theme.

Gold Star! [Extra Credit]● PLAY

(start customizing the theme!)

Lessons LearnedCan you ...●Define what plugins (and widgets) do?

Are you ...●Able to install and activate plugins?

Are you ...●Able to customize your site with widgets?

Do you ...●Understand the concept of child themes?

Are you ...●Able to make and activate a child theme?

Homework!

● Search for and implement plugins and widgets on your site

●Make a child theme of a theme you'd like to modify (if you haven't already)

● If you have hosting, download FileZilla and install it on your machine