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WordPress Complete, Sixth Edition
WordPress Complete, Sixth Edition

WordPress Complete, Sixth Edition: A comprehensive guide to WordPress development from scratch , Sixth Edition

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WordPress Complete, Sixth Edition

Getting Started with WordPress

This chapter will guide you through the process of setting up WordPress and customizing its basic features. You can choose between a couple of options regarding where your WordPress website will live. WordPress is relatively small (less than 10 MB) as well as easy to install and administer.

WordPress is available in easily downloadable formats at https://wordpress.org/download/. WordPress is a free, open-source application and is released under GNU General Public License (GPL) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License. This means that anyone who produces a modified version of the software released under the GPL is required to maintain the same freedom and that people buying or using the software can also modify and redistribute it. Thus, WordPress and other software released under the GPL are maintained as open source. In this chapter...

Building your WordPress website – start here

The first decision you have to make is where your blog is going to live. You have two basic options when creating your site:

  • Do it at https://wordpress.com
  • Install on a third-party web server (usually hosted by an external company)

Let's look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of each of these two options.

The advantage of using WordPress.com (https://wordpress.com/) is that they take care of all the technical details for you. The software has already been installed, and it will be upgraded for you whenever there is an upgrade available. You're not responsible for anything else but the management of your content. A major disadvantage is that you lose almost all of the theme and plugin control you'd have otherwise. The other advantages and disadvantages are as follows:

  • WordPress.com will not let you...

Using WordPress.com

WordPress.com (https://wordpress.com) is a free service provided by the WordPress developers, where you can register a blog or non-blog website quickly and easily with no hassle. However, because it is a hosted service, your control over some things will be more restricted than it would be if you hosted your own WordPress website. As mentioned earlier, WordPress.com will not let you edit or upload your own themes or plugins. Apart from this, WordPress.com is a great place to maintain your personal site if you don't need to do anything fancy with your theme or the source code of your site in general. To begin, go to https://wordpress.com and click the big Get Started button:

Right away, WordPress will take you through the step-by-step wizard that makes the setup process super easy. First, you get asked about the type of website that you want to build....

Installing WordPress manually

The WordPress application files can be downloaded for free if you want to perform a manual installation. If you've got a website host, this process is extremely easy and requires no previous programming skills or advanced blogging experience. Some web hosts offer automatic installation through the host's online control panel. One of these automatic installation methods is described later in this chapter.

Preparing the environment

A good first step is to make sure you have an environment setup that is ready for WordPress. This means you need to ensure that the server meets the minimum requirements and that your database is ready. For WordPress to work, your web host must provide you with...

Installing WordPress through an auto-installer script

Some web hosts provide their customers with access to a range of auto-installer scripts for various web platforms, including WordPress. Most of these auto-installers have quite similar functionalities, and the actual process of installing a new WordPress site is similar as well. Here, we're going to focus on one of these scripts, Softaculous (https://www.softaculous.com/).

This is yet another way of installing a WordPress site, and we're covering it here to make this book as complete as it can be. However, if you've already managed to install your site using the methods described earlier, then this section won't be of any use to you at this point.

Softaculous is the preferred method of WordPress installation for many professional developers and bloggers. In some cases, it's the fastest method when dealing...

The wp-admin panel

WordPress installs a powerful and flexible administration area where you can manage all of your website content and do much more. Throughout the book, this will be referred to in shorthand as the wp-admin or WP Admin.

Now that you've successfully installed WordPress, it's time for our first look at the wp-admin. There are some immediate basic changes that are recommended to make sure your installation is set up properly.

You can always get to the wp-admin by visiting http://yoursite.com/wp-admin/ (this URL is also the reason why we're calling it the wp-admin). If it's your first time there, you'll be re-directed to the login page. In the future, WordPress will check whether you're already logged in and if so, you'll skip the login page.

To log in, just enter the username and password you chose during the installation. Then...

Getting a Gravatar

One final point that's worth discussing in this chapter is the matter of WordPress avatars. Although WordPress provides a number of possibilities in this area, the most popular one revolves around an external service, Globally Recognized Avatar (Gravatar). Gravatar started as a tool meant to provide people with the capability of using the same profile picture (avatar) across the entire web.

What this means in plain English is that whenever you sign up for a web service, and if the service is Gravatar-compatible, so to speak, then it will fetch your profile picture from Gravatar automatically, instead of forcing you to upload it manually from your computer. Apart from the profile picture, Gravatar also gives you a personal online profile that anyone can see whenever they click on your (Gravatar) profile picture or something called Hovercard. Now, what does...

Summary

You have learned a lot in this chapter. Now, you can install WordPress on a remote server, change the basic default settings of your website, write posts, and comment on those posts. You also have a basic understanding of how WordPress.com works, and how to handle your online image or brand via Gravatar.

In the next chapter, you will learn about all the other aspects of a blog post that you can control, additional ways to add posts, as well as the intricacies of managing and controlling comments and discussions on your blog.

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Key benefits

  • 1. Learn how to build a WordPress site quickly and effectively, and how to create content that's optimized for publication on the web.
  • 2. Learn the basics of working with WordPress themes and plugins, and even create your own.
  • 3. Beginner-friendly layout and advice you can apply from day 1. Packed with screenshots and examples.

Description

WordPress Complete, Sixth Edition is a practical guide for everyone who wants to start their journey as an online publisher, website owner, or even a website developer. It takes you step-by-step through the process of planning out and building your site, and offers loads of screenshots and examples along the way. It's also a beginner's guide to theme and plugin development. This book begins with the basics of WordPress, followed by the different components that you as a developer will need to use to work swiftly and efficiently. The book starts by introducing WordPress to new readers in this field. You are then shown how to set it up, implement a blog, and use plug-ins and widgets. You'll use themes to make any website look and feel better and more original. You also learn how to create your own themes and perform testing to ensure your website is bug-free. You will also acquire some idea of how to use WordPress for non-blog-like websites. By the end of the book, you will feel confident enough to design high-quality websites and will be familiar with the ins and outs of WordPress

Who is this book for?

This book is for anyone who wants to learn how to create a functional website, without having to hire a developer or a designer. The best thing about WordPress—the open source software that we're going to be using—is that it has a minimal learning curve and that everyone can master it quickly. No specific website building experience is required. Having said that, this book will also appeal to everyone who wants to get a bit more in-depth with WordPress development and start working on their own plugins and themes.

What you will learn

  • 1. What WordPress is, where to get it, and how to launch your website quickly using it.
  • 2. How to publish your first content (a blog post or article).
  • 3. What the most important sub-pages of a quality website are, and how to create them in WordPress.
  • 4. How to upload multimedia content such as images, audio, and video.
  • 5. How to install and work with plugins and widgets.
  • 6. Where to find quality themes and how to install them.
  • 7. How to develop your own WordPress plugins and themes.
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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Aug 31, 2017
Length: 412 pages
Edition : 6th
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781787285705
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Publication date : Aug 31, 2017
Length: 412 pages
Edition : 6th
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781787285705
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Table of Contents

13 Chapters
Introducing WordPress Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Getting Started with WordPress Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating Blog Content Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Pages, Media, and Importing/Exporting Content Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Plugins - What They Are and Why You Need Them Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Choosing and Installing Themes Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Customizing Your Website Appearance/Design Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Developing Your Own Theme Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Social Media Integration, Podcasting, and HTTPS Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Developing Plugins, Widgets, and an Introduction to the REST API Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Community Blogging Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating a Non-Blog Website Part One - The Basics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating a Non-Blog Website Part Two - E-Commerce Websites and Custom Content Elements Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.1
(7 Ratings)
5 star 57.1%
4 star 14.3%
3 star 14.3%
2 star 14.3%
1 star 0%
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Tom Burke Jul 02, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Nice small chapters. Easy to read and search. Will keep close as a reference. Very informative. Step by step guide.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
user1 Mar 06, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is the most comprehensive and the best written beginning WordPress book that I have seen. It offers a well illustrated walkthrough of all basic WP features in functions. It also dives into theme and plugin development (although it can't possibly cover as much as theme development- and plugin development-specific books). The book is up to date as of this time and is well edited (typos and errors do occur but are minimal).For more info, see my comment to Alexandr's 2-star review (https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1EGZSQ7TI12C1/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1787285707).
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raghav Dec 16, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Excellent
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John Murtari Mar 06, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Working with latest version of WordPress -- this is the perfect book! I'm an experienced web programmer, but hadn't used WordPress in quite a few years. I wanted a book that covered the latest version and give me good tips on configuration, themes, plugins, and all the other stuff WordPress is known for. This book is great. Plenty of good examples that agree with what I see on my screen when doing a new install.I especially like the recommendations he offers for useful configuration options. It has saved me hours of work and frustration! Very happy!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Foxybabeboudoir Aug 19, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
Came on time, brand new condition. However, does not look like picture.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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