Chapter 1 Getting Started with WordPress Abstract speaks not only of WordPress’s increasing adoption rate by users but also of its permanence as a CMS. Millions Choosing a content management system is a daunting task of individuals across countries and spanning a pleth- because of all the investigation and self-education needed ora of disciplines and website purposes have chosen to truly understand what choice is appropriate. In chap- WordPress over other CMSs such as Drupal, Joomla!, ter 1, the authors assist in that task by providing a clear and ExpressionEngine to house their data, display their overview of WordPress’s history, current state, and future content, and interact with their site visitors. outlook. The chapter also points the reader toward user But to really grasp how WordPress has risen in the communities and explores why WordPress is a successful ranks, we need to look a bit into the past to understand fit for libraries. where the software has come from and how it might develop in the future. Like most pieces of software, especially those that have gone the open source route, Part 1: WordPress for Blogs, CMSs, WordPress has a rich history of development. and So Much More The Fork, Open Source, Matt, and Automattic Section 1: A Brief yet Informative History of WordPress WordPress was not always WordPress. In 2001, b2/ cafelog was created by some aspiring individuals who History saw a need to develop a web publishing system. Their April 2011 April final project was a piece of blogging software that saw The WordPress.org website summarizes WordPress’s a minimal adoption rate. In 2003, Matt Mullenweg history in this way: and Mike Little forked the original b2/cafelog code and began what is now known as WordPress. Both WordPress started in 2003 with a single bit of b2/cafelog and WordPress were built on the same code to enhance the typography of everyday technical foundations of using open source software alatechsource.org writing and with fewer users than you can count tools—MySQL for the database and PHP, a server-side on your fingers and toes. Since then it has grown scripting language—to create dynamic pages built on to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the information stored in a database.3 world, used on millions of sites and seen by tens For the last eight years of WordPress’s existence, of millions of people every day.1 and without much of a doubt for its future, it has con- tinued in the open source tradition by unveiling all Overview the source code it is built on and encouraging com- munity input in its development. From the Codex that Of all the websites built on content management sys- holds its technical information to the flurry of activ- Library Technology ReportsLibrary Technology tems (CMSs), around 56 percent of them are powered ity in the support forums, community involvement is by WordPress.2 That’s an impressive statistic that what drives the innovations within WordPress. These 8 Using WordPress as a Library Content Management System Kyle M. L. Jones and Polly-Alida Farrington Chapter x innovations would not have been accomplished as suc- can be scheduled to publish on a certain day and time, cessfully without the emphasis on open source. they can be set into draft modes for future editing and revision, different draft versions written over time can be compared and contrasted, and posts can be orga- WordPress Codex nized with strictly defined traditional categories, a http://codex.wordpress.org free-form tagging taxonomy, or both. All of these tasks are done in one of the simplest to use and most highly WordPress.org Support Forums regarded user interfaces among competing CMSs. http://wordpress.org/support WordPress.com Forums Gizmodo Liveblog http://en.forums.wordpress.com http://live.gizmodo.com CNN Political Ticker Who owns WordPress? If a project is truly open http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com source, the community takes responsibility. But a rift of sorts has divided the community slightly. Mullen- weg continues as a lead developer of WordPress while The team at WordPress wants to make your blog- at the same time maintaining his founder and devel- ging experience simple and sweet: oper role at Automattic, a venture with over $30.6 million in funding that runs the highly popular Word- We’re never done with simplicity. We want to Press.com blog host, among other popular applica- make WordPress easier to use with every single tions.4 The struggle exists in Mullenweg’s dual role release. In past releases we’ve taken major at WordPress and at Automattic, where his influence steps to improve ease of use and ultimately in the open source organization could be used for his make things simpler to understand. We love financial gain. Moreover, Automattic employs nine to challenge ourselves and simplify tasks in ways developers of the WordPress platform (not including that are positive for the overall WordPress user Mullenweg),5 which raises the question: Do they write experience. Every version of WordPress should code that’s in the best interests of the community or of be easier and more enjoyable to use than the Mullenweg’s commercial venture Automattic? While last.6 it is easy to raise red flags about this question, many WordPress supporters believe that Automattic’s inter- This dedication to the continuous improvement of est in—if not influence on—WordPress can only add to the user interface and user experience is at the core of the stability and improvement of a software package why WordPress is one of the most beloved blogging Automattic relies on for commercial success. systems—and why it acts as a wonderful framework for unique uses of the software. Evolution: Blogs, Specialty Sites, What never fails in the WordPress community is Library Technology ReportsLibrary Technology and a Full-Fledged CMS someone saying, “I think I can do X with WordPress,” where X is a completely untraditional approach to At the root of WordPress’s existence is a firm, consis- what is said to be just blogging software. Two excel- tent focus on the blogging experience. It is the true lent examples of such alternative sites just happen identity of WordPress, and it must be said without hes- to be WordPress community resource sites. The first, itation that blogging is what WordPress does best. In Theme Finder, is an aesthetic wonder for visually fact, WordPress does blogging so well that even when browsing for WordPress themes by screenshots filtered its other features shine and plugins transform it for by color, cost, and layout. In what is still a text-heavy other purposes, we’ve heard folks grumble, “It’s just Web, Theme Finder unleashes the potential of creat- a blog.” To understand WordPress as a CMS, it’s nec- ing an entirely visual content experience with faceted alatechsource.org essary to first identify what makes WordPress such a searching leading the user to exactly what she wants. great blogging system. In a much different vein, WP Questions taps into the Like any good blogging software, WordPress is WordPress hive mind with a question-and-answer site. post-centered, meaning the primary content being The premise: Ask a question with a monetary award published is in post form. Posts are pieces of content— and pay whoever answers your questions most thor- text, media, or a combination of both—that are pub- oughly and effectively. If more than one individual 2011 April lished in a dynamic manner. They could be written adds to the overall answer, you can split the reward and published for up-to-the-minute news, as is the case money across responders. All financial transactions for Gizmodo’s technology liveblog, or in a more tradi- are handled quickly and efficiently through PayPal. tional daily context, like CNN’s Political Ticker. Posts It’s simple to see that these are dramatically disparate 9 Using WordPress as a Library Content Management System Kyle M. L. Jones and Polly-Alida Farrington Chapter x representations of what WordPress can do beyond skill to produce and would not be replicable without blogging. They take distinct approaches in how they the same amount of skill. Others, specifically the CMS define their content, not to mention how they engage examples, include elements of content structure and their users in the consumption and creation of the even design that, with effort and time, can be repli- content. cated. In fact, most of the rest of this text is dedicated to providing the toolbox and resources needed for doing just that. Theme Finder http://themefinder.wpcandy.com The Future of WordPress WP Questions It’s uncertain how WordPress will evolve from here. http://wpquestions.com But if the current trend of innovation in WordPress continues, what will be seen could be defined more as a platform for Web-based content and user engage- It’s ironic that individuals state that WordPress ment. How does this differ from the current state of cannot be used as a CMS, and it then it goes on to win WordPress or from CMSs in general? Even with the Packt Publishing’s 2009 Open Source CMS Award and push for user-generated content, websites—especially its 2010 Hall of Fame CMS Award.7 The “It’s just a library websites—are still very much dependent on blog” mentality has permeated most individuals who their original authors (or owners) for content. As a are on the path to acquiring a new CMS for a project, bona fide platform, WordPress will streamline the and the educative process to rectify this idea does take process for users as content creators while making the some illustrative effort.