Andy McIlwain & WPUniversity.com @ WordCamp Toronto 2013 October 6, 2013 @ Humber College Lakeshore Campus
Jan 27, 2015
Andy McIlwain & WPUniversity.com
@ WordCamp Toronto 2013
October 6, 2013 @ Humber College Lakeshore Campus
Andy McIlwain, a guy with many hats:
• Co-Organizer, Toronto WordPress Group & WordCamp Toronto
• “Content Guy” (Communications) @ WPUniversity.com
• Lots of players.• Basecamp, Teambox, Huddle, Asana,
Teamwork PM, Ace Project, Zoho
• Trello (a personal favourite of ours)
• …What are you using?
• Incremental costs.
• Features vary from one to the next.
• Lack of control.• Need a feature? “We’ll take it into
consideration” or add yet another service.
• Open Source = Control
• Themes & Plugins
• Free (as in Free Beer)
Objective:
We’re going to play to WordPress strengths by creating a platform for communication and collaboration. This won’t handle time tracking, invoicing, or file storage.
• Over 100 P2 blogs running at Automattic.
• Make.WordPress.org sites now running on P2.
• Completely free to use.
• Create something that is secureand private.
• Every project (e.g. client) has a separate site.
• Every site is locked down with restricted capabilities and access.
Users must log in to get access!We don’t want stuff shared publicly*
*Michael’s methods are still awesome though!
• A good web host like WP Engine.
• The latest version of WordPress.
• P2 theme from Automattic.
• A dozen plugins. (More on that in a moment.)
• SSL certificate. (Optional.)
• Separate service for storing/sharing files. (Sync it up, baby!)
• Members
• Who’s Online
• P2 Check In
• P2 Likes
• P2 by Email
• P2 Resolved Posts
• Backup plugin(e.g. Backup Buddy)
• Custom Login
• Blog Copier
• Install WordPress.• Suggest using a subdomain, e.g.
projects.yoursite.com
• Enable multisite.• Follow the steps in Create a
Network.
• Use the subdirectory option.
• Install the Members plugin.
• Activate it for the network.
• Go to your main network blog. Under Settings, click Members.
• Under Private Site, check the Redirect All Users and Show error message for feed items checkboxes.
• Click Update Settings.
• This forces users to log in whenever they try to access the site.
• From the Network Admin screen,go to Themes > Add New.
• Look for P2 from Automattic. Click Install Now.
• Click Network Enable.
• Who’s Online• Sidebar widget. Shows which users are active on the site.
• P2 Check In• Lets users check into the site. Shows how long they’ve been checked in for.
Useful for real-time collaboration on pages.
• P2 Likes• Adds the equivalent of upvoting/+1 voting to individual posts and comments.
• P2 by Email• Gives you more email notifications than what P2 provides out of the box. Lets
you submit posts and comments via email.
• P2 Resolved Posts• Lets you mark posts as Resolved or Unresolved. Use in combination with
smart tagging to add a task management/bug tracking component.
• It’s like insurance for your site!
• You’re using your multisite network for collaboration, documentation, and other fun stuff. Good backup plugin = worth every penny.
• Backup Buddy from iThemes is one we swear by.
• Create a custom-branded experience for clients.
• Small details like this add to the level of polish.
• Network Activate this plugin.
• Easily copy blogs within a multisite network.
• Network Activate this plugin.
• We’re building a collaboration & communication solution.
• WordPress is not a replacement for file synchronization.
• Plenty of great options to choose from:• Google Drive
• SkyDrive from Microsoft
• SharePoint
• Dropbox
• Box
• Copy.com
• …any others?
• Goal: Set up a dummy P2 site that we’ll replicate for all projects.
• Use the Blog Copier plugin to simplify replication process.
• Log into the Network Admin dashboard.
• Under Sites, click Add New.
• Enter the address and site title. Keep it simple, and make it something you won’t get confused with a project site.
• Enter your email address for Admin Email.
• Click Add Site.
• WordPress might take a moment to set things up. Once it’s done, you’ll see an alert message saying Site Added. Click Visit Dashboard to go to the new site’s WordPress dashboard.
• Click Appearance.
• Under Available Themes, click Activate for P2.
• Under Appearance, explore the Customize and Theme Options screens to see what you can customize.
• Tidy up the design to align more closely to your own brand, so you have a graceful fallback if you don’t customize for each project.
• The pages you use will depend on the work you do.
• Some handy starting points for most projects:• Contacts: A list of all team members and any other important people.
• Project Overview: Scope of the project, deliverables, and a timeline.
• Links: Important links to other websites, assets, resources, and so on.
• Introduction: A welcome message for project members.
• These pages are placeholders. You’ll flesh them out in more detail for each one of your projects. Simply create the pages and add some subheadings or placeholder text for now.
• Under Appearance, click Menus.
• If your pages aren’t on the menu, add from the Pages dropdown.
• From the Links dropdown, use the # symbol for the URL. This will be a placeholder for each of your projects.
• The links will depend on your project. Good standbys: Calendar (e.g. Google Calendar), links to files on Google Drive or Dropbox, etc.
• Have a lot of links? Consider using dropdown menus for quick access.
• Click Save Menu.
• Click the Manage Locations tab. Set the Primary Menu to the menu you just created.
• Under Appearance, click Widgets. We suggest:• Search: Quickly search the site for information.
• P2 Filter Posts: Toggle between Resolved and Unresolved posts.
• P2 Recent Comments with Avatars: See the comments that have been left recently, along with an avatar for each user.
• Archives: Jump to a specific month.
• Calendar: Jump to a specific date.
• Who’s Online: Listing of users who are also logged in and viewing the site.
• Use whatever widget setup that makes sense for you.
• Go to your Network Admin dashboard.
• Mouse over Sites, click Blog Copier.
• Choose the source blog – this is the template site you created.
• Enter a URL for the new blog. Use only lowercase numbers, letters, and hyphens.
• Enter a title, e.g. the project or client name.
• Click Copy Now. It may take a moment for WordPress to create the new site. When completed, you’ll see a “Copied” status message.
• Site won’t load? There’s a known bug with Blog Copier.
• On the sidebar, click Sites. Find the new blog and click Edit.
• In the Info tab, update the Path field and click Save Changes.
You’re good to go!
• Four post formats: Status Update, Blog Post, Quote, and Link.
• You can add tags, embed media, and use HTML.
• You can also use the normal Add Post screen.
• Just click Reply next to any post to toggle the comment box.
• Click Toggle Comment Threads to show/hide comments below posts.
• Need feedback or a decision to be made?
• Click Flag Unresolved to highlight the post in red.
• Click Unresolved to change the flag to Resolved in green.
• Click the flag again to reset to blank.
• You can filter posts using the widget we set up earlier.
• Mouse over your name in the toolbar and click Edit My Profile.
• At the bottom of the page is the P2 By Email section.
• Customize your notification settings to suit your preference.
• Click Update Profile to save your changes.
• Customize the site even more (e.g. custom login).
• Add users. Add content!
Read/Watch:
• Michele Mizejewski: The Power of P2 (Video)
• Beau Lebens: Taking WordPress to the Front End with O2 (Video)
• Sign up for the O2 trial (Invite Only)
WPUniversity.com
Twitter: @WPUni / Facebook: WPUniversity
WordPress Training Resources: wpuniversity.com
Our Plugin, Sidekick for WordPress: sidekick.pro
Personal Stuff
Twitter: @andymci
Blog: andymci.com
Photo Credits
• David Goehring
• Dinner Series