The document discusses using Pods as a content management system (CMS) for WordPress. Pods provides more flexibility than using just WordPress by allowing custom content types beyond standard posts. It provides an interface for building custom fields and templates to display content in complex ways. Examples show how to query content, build filters and forms, and output content using Pods templates. This allows building scalable and customizable CMS solutions for complex content needs.

1. Pods
+
WP
=
CMS
Sort
of
…

2. What
do
we
want
in
a
CMS?
• Flexible
–
Does
different
things
• Robust
–
Does
things
well

3. Is
Wordpress
a
CMS?
Yes
• Wordpress
is
really
good
at
publishing
one
kind
of
content:
the
Post
• Its
interface
is
easy
to
learn
and
easy
to
teach.
• Theming
is
especially
powerful.
Design
community
• Plugins
and
custom
fields
provide
addiMonal
flexibility
on
a
post
by
post
basis.

4. Is
Wordpress
a
CMS?
No
• Major
challenges
customizing
backend
UI
• All
post
types
essenMally
the
same
• Custom
fields
difficult
to
work
with
in
complex
ways
• Scalability
issues

5. So
what?
• Time
is
money
• Consultants
need
to
maximize
funcMonality/
Mme
equaMon.

6. Custom
Fields
• Good
for
on
the
fly
customizaMon
• Bad
for
complex
content
types

7. Querying
Custom
Fields
$args
=
“meta_key=airline_name&value=American”;
$args
=
“meta_key=arrives&meta_compare=>=&meta_value=DATE()”
query_posts($args);

8. MulMple
custom
fields?
funcMon
get_post_meta_mulMple($metaDataList)
{
global
$wpdb;
$querystr
=
"SELECT
p.*
FROM
$wpdb-­‐>posts
AS
p
WHERE
p.ID
IN
(
";
$querystr
.=
"SELECT
post_id
FROM
$wpdb-­‐>postmeta
WHERE
";
$innerqry
=
array();
foreach($metaDataList
as
$key
=>
$value)
{
$innerqry[]
=
$wpdb-­‐>prepare(
"(meta_key
=
%s
AND
meta_value
=
%s)",
$key,
$value
);
}
$querystr
.=
implode("
OR
",
$innerqry);
$querystr
.=
"
GROUP
BY
post_id
";
$querystr
.=
"HAVING
count(*)
=
"
.
count($metaDataList);
$querystr
.=
")
AND
p.post_status
=
'publish'
";
$metaResults
=
$wpdb-­‐>get_results($querystr,
OBJECT);
return
$metaResults;
}
Source:
hsp://Mnyurl.com/ldadam

9. Scalability
• Most
wordpress
users
will
never
experience
performance
issues
because
the
number
pages
just
isn’t
enough
to
maser.
• But
consultants
sMll
need
to
be
concerned.

10. Scalability
• All
posts/types
are
in
one
table.
• All
custom
fields
are
in
longtext
format
which
means
they
can
store
up
to
4GB.
• Table
sizes
are
effecMvely
doubled
by
custom
fields
10,000
posts
with
10
cfs
each
is
like
having
100,000
rows.
Add
in
revisions
and
even
simple
queries
become
hogs.

11. So
What
are/is
Pods?
• Not
a
plugin
…
really
• Pods
=
Simple,
scalable,
CMS
soluMon
for
Wordpress.
• UlMmate
flexibility
with
being
too
Mme
intensive.
• Frontend/Backend
CustomizaMon
a
cinch.

12. Example:
Flight
List

13. Example:
Flight
List

14. Example:
Flight
List

15. Example:
Flight
List

16. Example:
Flight
List

17. Example:
Flight
List

18. Example:
Flight
List

19. Example:
Flight
List

20. Example:
TemplaMng

21. Example:
TemplaMng
<?php
$flight
=
new
Pod(‘flight’);
$flight-­‐>findRecords(‘arrives
ASC’,
-­‐1);
echo
$flight-­‐>showTemplate(‘flight-­‐list’);
?>

22. Example:
TemplaMng

23. Example:
TemplaMng
{@field.column}

24. Example:
TemplaMng
{@airline.name}
-­‐
{@name},
{@departs}
<br/>

25. Example:
TemplaMng
hsp://www.yourdomain.com/flights/

26. Example:
TemplaMng
hsp://www.yourdomain.com/flights/?airline=2

27. Example:
TemplaMng
<?php
$flight
=
new
Pod(‘flight’);
$flight-­‐>findRecords(‘arrives
ASC’,
-­‐1);
echo
$flight-­‐>getFilters(‘airline’,
‘Filter’);
echo
$flight-­‐>showTemplate(‘flight-­‐list’);
?>

28. Example:
TemplaMng

29. Example:
TemplaMng
<?php
$form
=
new
Pod('flight');
echo
$form-­‐>publicForm();
?>

30. Example:
TemplaMng

31. Example:
TemplaMng
<?php
$form
=
new
Pod('flight');
$fields
=
array('name','arrive','depart');
echo
$form-­‐>publicForm();
echo
?>
$form-­‐>publicForm($fields);
?>

32. Example:
TemplaMng

33. Example:
TemplaMng

34. Showcase

35. MulMple
custom
fields?
funcMon
get_post_meta_mulMple($metaDataList)
{
global
$wpdb;
$querystr
=
"SELECT
p.*
FROM
$wpdb-­‐>posts
AS
p
WHERE
p.ID
IN
(
";
$querystr
.=
"SELECT
post_id
FROM
$wpdb-­‐>postmeta
WHERE
";
$innerqry
=
array();
foreach($metaDataList
as
$key
=>
$value)
{
$innerqry[]
=
$wpdb-­‐>prepare(
"(meta_key
=
%s
AND
meta_value
=
%s)",
$key,
$value
);
}
$querystr
.=
implode("
OR
",
$innerqry);
$querystr
.=
"
GROUP
BY
post_id
";
$querystr
.=
"HAVING
count(*)
=
"
.
count($metaDataList);
$querystr
.=
")
AND
p.post_status
=
'publish'
";
$metaResults
=
$wpdb-­‐>get_results($querystr,
OBJECT);
return
$metaResults;
}
Source:
hsp://Mnyurl.com/ldadam

36. Showcase
<?php
$di
=
new
Pod('distress_index');
$di-­‐>findRecords('name
DESC',
-­‐1,
"t.un
>
6.00
AND
t.cpi
<
2.00");
echo
$di-­‐>showTemplate('distress_data_table');
?>

37. Scalability
• Using
Custom
Fields:
– 600
rows
x
6
custom
fields
=
3600
table
rows
• Using
Pods:
– 600
table
rows

38. Showcase

39. What
about
Custom
Taxonomies/Post
Types?
• Wordpress
argues
that
custom
taxonomies
and
the
introducMon
of
post
types
alleviates
the
need
for
excessive
use
of
custom
fields.
• But
this
only
increases
the
scalability
slightly,
there
are
sMll
problems
for
large
sites.

40. Pods-­‐nosis
NegaMve?
• Because
pods
data
is
saved
in
separate
tables,
standard
Wordpress
post
features
are
not
available.
(i.e.
comments/akismet)
• Wordpress
does
not
currently
endorse
the
pods
cms
strategy
and
instead
is
pushing
the
“one
post
type
fits
all
strategy”.
• Pods
community
is
considerably
smaller
than
the
wordpress
community.

41. Why
use
pods?
• Learn
one
plugin,
build
anything
you
want.
• Your
site
has
lots
of
relaMonships
between
types
of
content.
• Scalability
is
a
concern.
• Truly
custom,
customizaMon

42. Summary
• There
is
no
RIGHT
way
to
use
Wordpress
as
a
CMS.
• Pods
is
a
tool
for
developers,
not
users.
• Pods
is
the
most
flexible/scalable
CMS
opDon
currently
available
for
Wordpress.

43. More
info?
• www.podscms.org
• www.mikevanwinkle.com
• @podscms,
@mpvanwinkle

44. A
QuesMon?
• Should
Wordpress.org
abandon
it’s
own
asempts
to
make
WP
a
CMS?
Can
WP
be
everything
to
everyone?