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1. Building Custom
CMS Applications
on WordPress
mitcho (Michael 貴 Erlewine)

2. THIS GUY mitcho.com
DOWN HERE
@themitcho
slideshare.net/mitcho

3. CMS

4. There’s no such
thing as a CMS
success story.
The
Trouble
With
Back-­‐Ends
Erin
Griffith,
Adweek,
August
9,
2011
adweek.com/print/133917

5. CMS
it’s all about the C and M

6. FALSE

7. CC-BY-NC-SA flickr.com/photos/13382424@N00/5216424459/

8. Today:
1. Content
C
2. Management
M

9. 1. Content

10. The essence of man is
discontent, divine discontent...
the essence of web is
content, divine content.
José Ortega y Gasset

11. 1. Content
what is the content?
is the metadata?
where is the data?

12. Text?
That’s so 2000s.

13. Global Shakespeares
MIT Shakespeare Project
globalshakespeares.org

14. Hundreds of productions with video

15. Document Revisions by Ben Balter
wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-document-revisions

16. pressfs by Joseph Scott
josephscott.org/pressfs-a-wordpress-filesystem

17. Build features
not post types

18. In development: Shakespeare scripts

19. Scripts are XML files, not content text in WordPress
No editor needed

22. Registering scripts
register_post_type('script', array(
'label' => 'Scripts', instead of ‘editor’
'public' => true,
'hierarchical' => false,
'supports' => array('title', 'xmldoc', 'comments'),
'taxonomies' => array('post_tag')
));
XML Documents with XSLT stylesheets
wordpress.org/extend/plugins/xml-documents

23. Post Type Features
post type features
title, editor, author, thumbnail, excerpt, trackbacks,
post custom-fields, comments, revisions, post-formats
title, editor, author, thumbnail, page-attributes,
page custom-fields, comments, revisions
attachment comments
default title, editor

24. Check for features
if if ( 'script' == $post_type
// ( 'script' == $post_type ) )
if ( post_type_supports( $post_type, 'xmldoc' ) )

25. Get meta.
Define your metadata.

26. metadata in WordPress
{
taxonomy
organizational
search, sorting
can be hierarchical
post meta
non-organizational
specific to the
content item
like tags, categories like custom fields

27. CC BY-NC-SA flickr.com/photos/w3p706/2432014896/
http://ottopress.com/2011/when-
to-not-use-a-custom-taxonomy/

28. Taxonomy Queries
query_posts( array(
'post_type' => 'production',
'tax_query' => array(
array(
'taxonomy' => 'play',
'terms' => array( 'hamlet' ),
'field' => 'slug'
),
array(
'taxonomy' => 'language',
'terms' => array( 'japanese', 'mandarin' ),
'field' => 'slug'
)
)
);

29. WordPress
is not an island

30. Edgerton Digital Collections
MIT Museum and MIT Edgerton Center
http://edgerton-digital-collections.org

31. 12000 photos, 8000 notebook pages

32. All assets from the MIT Museum database
in MIMSY, a commercial collection management app

33. Edgerton
• Custom post type for museum assets
• Specify ID, get image and metadata
from museum DB
• Site-specific metadata (comments,
tags) in WordPress

34. Remote data
• Hit external APIs with wp_remote_request()
and friends
• Cache results in Post Meta, Object Cache,
Transients, as appropriate

35. Search integration
• Simple trick: put searchable text
versions of custom content in
post_content
• Roll out a separate search

36. 1. Content
what is the content?
is the metadata?
where is the data?

37. 2. Management

38. 2. Management
who contributes/edits/
curates/maintains it?
how will it be managed?

39. Who’s who?

40. Work for the weekend
add_filter( 'user_has_cap', 'workweek', 10, 3 );
function workweek( $allcaps, $caps, $args ) {
$user = get_userdata( $args[1] );
$weekend = ( date( 'N' ) > 5 );
if ( $args[0] == 'publish_posts' &&
$user->user_email = 'jane@automattic.com' &&
$weekend )
$allcaps['publish_posts'] = false;
return $allcaps;
}

41. Keep It Simple,
Smartypants.

42. Shakespeare: rich metadata on each production

43. Production metadata consolidated into one meta box
Use add_meta_box(), intercept data with ‘save_post’ filter.

44. KISS
add_filter( 'default_hidden_meta_boxes',
function( $hidden ) {
$hidden[] = 'myboxid';
$hidden[] = 'anotherboxid';
//...
return $hidden;
}
);

45. The right tool (?)
for the job

46. Shakespeare: some video data
submitted by researchers in Excel format

47. Solution: a simple (custom) CSV file importer

48. Insert the post
$id = wp_insert_post( array(
'post_title' => 'WP Hamlet',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'post_type' => 'production',
'tax_input' => array(
'play' => 'hamlet',
'director' => 'matt-mullenweg',
'language' => 'php' )
) );
Add post meta separately.

49. NING:
WA R
• This is a balancing act
• Moving to WordPress can be a great
way to build new sustainable habits
• Not all traditions are constructive

50. what is the content?
is the metadata?
where is the data?
who contributes/edits/
curates/maintains it?
how will it be managed?

51. kick-ass CMS applications

52. Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or nation...
content is the first concern in the progress of a website.
Oscar Wilde

53. thank you.
Q?
mitcho (Michael 貴 Erlewine)
mitcho.com; @themitcho; slideshare.net/mitcho