Presented as a pre-conference workshop at HighEdWeb 2010.

1. a HighEdWeb 2010 workshop

2. For fun and profit For fun and profit the sake of your sanity

3. Today Me, my project, andWordPress Features, installation, and setting up the network Plugins and customization BuddyPress

4. Borking sites since 1994. Since 2005 only Web staff on campus of ~3500 students & 400 faculty/staff. Fourth year on the HighEdWeb conference program committee; just chaired regional HEWEB event. HigherEdExperts presenter – OpenSource CMS Fair: WordPressMU, April 2010. Technical reviewer for Apress book Beginning WordPress 3.0 by Stephanie Leary released in June. Launched WPMU in May 2009. Alone. ME, a name I call myself

5. The 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

6. Welcome to the Jungle Baby

7. We’ve always done it that way

8. The project circa 2010 WordPress 3.0.1 402 Users ~ 55 Sites 5500+ Pages Site search Analytics

9. Getting here

10. Getting here 2005 - .asp template files. Cleaned up navigation, duplication, and revoked access for all content editors. 2007 - Individual WP installs on external server. Started giving access back to departments. 2009 – WPMU matures with 2.7, install in January, launch with 10 sites in May.

11. 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

12. Major strengths Easy setup & theming Shallow end-user learning curve Highly flexible Huge user community There’s a plugin for that… Standard server requirements Extreme RSS capabilities Low cost startup

13. 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

14. Big picture Supports all basic requirements of our campus 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

15. 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

16. Technical Info Requirements: PHP version 4.3 or greater MySQL version 4.1.2 or greater Suggestions: PHP 5.2+ MySQL 5.0.15 Apache or Nginx

17. Intermission

18. “The famous 5-minute install” No, really. It’s that easy. Upload the files Create the db Run wp-admin/install.php

19. Install Initial configuration screen.

20. Install Voila!

21. Settings General Settings

22. 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 Zombie homepage Source: WordPress Security by Brad Williams

23. Speed Speed Test Cache WP Super Cache W3 Total Cache CDN CDN Tools Compression WP HTTP Compression WP HTML Compression

24. 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

25. Handynetwork 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

26. Handy site plugins Enable Media Replace List child pages List child attachments Exclude Pages Gravity Forms KB Advanced RSS Widget TinyMCE Advanced WP Subtitle Widget Logic Content Audit Edit Flow Editorial Calendar Custom Post Type UI

27. 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

28. 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.

29. …not too distant future Multi-DB CDN Multi-domain Custom post-types/taxonomies Plugin audit Custom menus Content audit, editorial calendar

30. Wordpress Questions? Confused?

31. Buddypress Instant social network for WordPress

32. Buddypress? Plugin that adds a social network layer over WordPress. Groups Public Private Blogs Group Individual Forums Profiles Friends Status updates Activity streams Private messaging BuddyPress specific plugins

33. Install & Setup Plugins > Add New > Search “BuddyPress” > Install Choose theme Activate components Establish profile fields

34. Component setup

35. Profile fields

36. / Awesome Resources Sites & Books The WordPress Bible Beginning WP 3.0 WPMUDev.org BuddyPress For Dummies MUSupport.net WordPress on LinkedIn People on Twitter @andrea_r @wpmuguru @sleary @jimgroom @donncha @lisasabinwilson @ohz @yoast