A guide to the WordPress Codex
Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Hi, here is a quick list of important Codex pages for the WordPress blogs:

For bloggers, the posts info is definitely the most important of the topics. And for beginners of WordPress, knowing about the SEO optimization of the blog will definitely be important (Intro to Blogging).

Admin Panels discusses the the use of the admin area. Not all of these panels will be seen by the bloggers, as WP restricts admin privileges at our discretion. 

Pages are the static content of a WP site, and most likely require custom theme templates. You will see some code in the Pages codex. That is only for development purposes and might confuse new bloggers.

Quite a bit of the WordPress Codex is devoted to development of sites, as WordPress becomes more of a CMS. To delve more deeply into the code here are some of the most important areas for us designers and developers:

Knowing the template structure and how the Loop works are really the most important. With the help of the Template Tag index, an intelligent person can make a pretty cool, dynamic WP site quickly.

I’ll leave the thorny, weird programming to the programmers:

It is pretty easy to just write a “functions.php” file and leave it in the theme directory. Sometimes this amounts to writing a plugin, but it is probably wiser to put a plugin in the “plugins” directory, as a functions file may break over the upgrading of the site….

Rock On!!

Jeff

What is Web 2.0? And why is it dead already?
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

Well, Web 2.0 is not dead in the sense that Web 1.0 died, like in a flaming fart bubble from ‘ol Silicon Valley.

Rather, it is no longer taking over the scene from any other type of web. Most web developers agree that it is now time to move onto to something more 3.0, now that there is a Web 2.0 standard.

For all of you out there (and this included me until not too long ago) that are worrying if you are not geeky enough to understand what Web 2.0 was all about (and still is,) then check out this great lecture from Bruce Sterling on the Rise of 3.0 and the Demise of the 2.0:  What Bruce Sterling Actually Said About Web 2.0 at WebStock ’09.

PhotoBlogging on WordPress
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

WordPress is a great platform to create your first photoblog with, whether you need an advanced magazine format or a basic portfolio.

Below is a list of links for the broadest of topics, plugins, and themes for WP photographers.

1. basic: media library subpanel

2. shortcode

3. NextGen shortcodes

4. Grain Theme for WP

5. Yet Another Photo Blog

6. WordPress and EXIF data

As for photoblog SEO stuff: use the image file name. If your image does rank well on an image search the file name will normally be displayed below the image. So it’s a good idea to match the file name with the image. Use the ALT and TITLE attributes.