A guide to customizing WordPress administration.
The real meat of the presentation was in the code review. Download the code and learn more at:
http://www.get10up.com/blog/2011/03/customizing-wordpress-admin/
2. Jake Goldman director of client services @ C. Murray Consulting www.cmurrayconsulting.com web developer for 10+ years dozens of highly custom WordPress sites including showcase & VIP sites writer for Smashing Magazine developer of 10 WordPress plug-ins http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/profile/jakemgold @jakemgold jakegoldman.net
6. agenda Making WordPress Admin Reflect Your Client’s or Company’s Branding Refining WordPress Admin for the Clients’ Needs * simplifying, not expanding (for time’s sake)
7. what we won’t cover Stuff That’s Really About the Front End Custom Post Types, Custom Taxonomies, New Custom Meta Boxes Stuff You Need a Dedicated Session For Custom Option and Settings Pages
8. a word on my philosophy Keep it simple. Keep it clean. Keep it compartmentalized.
9. the sandbox WordPress 3.0 running Twenty-Ten child theme child theme & presentation will be posted at cmurrayconsulting.com next week – follow me for notification (@jakemgold)
10. part one Making WordPress Admin Reflect Your Client’s or Company’s Branding
11. part two Refining WordPress Admin for the Clients’ Needs * simplifying, not expanding (for time’s sake)
WordPress admin is already beautiful – big kudos to Jane Wells and the WordPress UX team.That’s why a lot of us are using WordPress, right??But for some users, there’s a lot of noise. The client doesn’t use links. There all these meta boxes they never use on the post editing screen. As much as we love WordPress, most of us don’t want 3 news feeds on our dashboard.So one of the things we love to do for clients is make the admin feel a bit more like home.
Here’s a model for what she should strive for.I kid Drupal.
This is the administrative dashboard for a site we’re launching very soon for the Rhode Island Green Building Council, running 2.9.2.There are a few things I want to highlight.Lighter: Notice the clean dashboard.Focused: Shortcuts in the dashboard to common destinations.Branded: their many authors immediately recognize the logo, despite the very different appearance of the back end.Also: custom menus and settings page. But we won’t get into this today.
These tips really break down into two areas.
You need to add one simple role? Why are you installing Role Manager?You need one simple TinyMCE button added? A few taken away? Why are you installing TinyMCE Advanced?“Don’t use a sledgehammer when it only calls for a scalpel.”
This session is all about digging into the code.The only thing I’ve added to this WordPress 3.0 RC2 install is this very simple Twenty-Ten child theme. It all takes place in here.It’s very well commented, and will be available for download at cmurrayconsulting.com.
WordPress looks beautiful; that’s why lots of people use it. But let’s clean it up to reflect you or your clients brand, and a little less rah-rah WordPress.(turn to functions.php script in code)
WordPress does a lot, and a lot of it is probably in your clients’ way, or just confusing them. Let’s clean things up a bit to make content management a bit more clear, simple, and intuitive for your clients.(turn to functions.php script in code)