Shall we make the Everglades Holy?

Transcript Shall we make the Everglades Holy?

Information Management

Original image* by Moshell et al .

DIG 3563 – Lecture 6

Content Management Systems: Wordpress J. Michael Moshell University of Central Florida Imagery is fromWikimedia except where marked with *. 1

Objectives of this course concerning CMS:

• Be familiar with what CMS are good for • Have brief experience with three CMS - Wordpress - Drupal - Joomla or another system of your choice • Have extensive experience using ONE CMS to build an information management system/website

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What is a Content Management System?

• A 'toolkit' for constructing interactive websites • Written in a scripting language (PHP, Java, Perl…) • Based on a database (mySQL, most often) • Consisting of a core set of code and LOTS of optional modules - some are free - some are purchased

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What CMS will we study?

** Three of them, in this course

• Wordpress – moving up from a Blog platform • Joomla – popular general purpose CMS • Drupal – The industrial-strength Big Boy What are you going to be doing about CMS?

•Installing, demonstrating and evaluating.

•usage statistics http://trends.builtwith.com/cms

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How should we CHOOSE a CMS for our project?

LOGICAL WAY: (1) Identify the FEATURES we will need for our project (2) Download PLUGINS (Modules) for various CMS and see which one sucks the least, for your needs (3) Choose THAT CMS for your project

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How WILL we CHOOSE a CMS for our project?

LAZY but MOST COMMON WAY: (1) I already know how to use XXX (usually Wordpress) (2) So we will de-scope our project as needed to make it work with XXX

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How WILL we CHOOSE a CMS for our project?

LAZY but MOST COMMON WAY: (1) I already know how to use XXX (usually Wordpress) (2) So we will de-scope our project as needed to make it work with XXX

(How does that sound, in the real world? Mediocre!)

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Top 10,000 sites (hits) as of 9/4/13

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(But look at 100k and Entire Web)

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(But look at 100k and Entire Web)

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Top 100k sites

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Top Million Sites

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Wordpress:

• Advantages: - only one version-stream; usually up-compatible (but you still must check modules for compatibility with your version) - simplest system to use Disadvantages: 1) Some security hazards in plugins.

2) Everybody knows how to use it … so … no ADVANTAGE

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Wordpress:

• NOTE: wordpress.com is NOT wordpress.org

• Wordpress.com is a HOSTING SERVICE which lets you set up and run your own blog * Wordpress.org is a SOURCE CODE SERVICE which lets you download, customize, and host your own CMS. (They're

cousins....

)

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Wordpress:Installation

• Download Version 3.6

• Unpack it • Move the wordpress folder into our

docroot

folder (MAMP: htdocs; WAMP:www) * browse to localhost/wordpress or localhost:8888/wordpress This will cause index.php to be executed.

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Wordpress:Installation

http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

Before we start the wordpress setup, we need to create a database and a mySQL login ID and password.

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Note ... this did NOT work for me. I redid it using database name 'wordpress' and it worked.

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Write it down !

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Wordpress:Installation We have a try at the automatic pathway.

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wordpress jmmwordpress (created with phpMyAdmin – previous pages) ditto localhost

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My first attempt failed: DATABASE ERROR I tried several things. Ultimately I deleted the database, created a new one named 'wordpress' and went through the steps again.

This time it worked.

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Write it down !

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The Default Shell (styling) and starter page

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Wordpress: Originally a

Blogging System. Fundamental element = "a post" – dated, signed, with limited format control.

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Wordpress: Evolved into a Content Management System.

In a CMS, the fundamental element is a

page ... e. g.

the startup page.

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Editing the startup page:

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It's a WYSIWIG editor

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But you can also edit the HTML directly, for finer control

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But you can also edit the HTML directly, for finer control

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To see the page you edited, click here

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But it still looks like everyone else's starter page. I want my own style!

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But it still looks like everyone else's starter page. I want my own style!

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Select 'admin'

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Select 'Appearance' then 'Themes'

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Install themes (get them from Internet)

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I searched for themes using keywords

Peanut Farm Rural .... no luck ... but 'Field'  yielded a nice one.

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I searched for themes using keywords So I activated this theme.

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Now I don't have my splash page. And I don't want "Just another Wordpress Site" or the Wordpress logo.

Some things to fix.

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I try to delete the tagline "Just another Wordpress site" I find the Settings option, and try changing the tagline.

Click "Save Changes" and get this error message.

I use the Back arrow to make sure the site still displays... but clearly Wordpress isn't perfect yet.

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I try to delete the tagline "Just another Wordpress site" I find the Settings option, and try changing the tagline.

Click "Save Changes" and get this error message.

I use the Back arrow to make sure the site still displays... but clearly Wordpress isn't perfect yet.

Much of what you learn in this course will consist of "how to struggle with a CMS".

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Wordpress: Control panel =“Dashboard”

new plugins add new plugins here



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Wordpress:Features

• User classification: ("roles") • Administrator • Editor, • Author, • Contributor, • Subscriber You can add taxonomic tools, via plug-in, that create additional roles

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Wordpress:Features

• Content classification: • Pages • Blog Posts • Tags and Categories – how to classify your content • Plugins – Dynamic tools for managing content

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Wordpress:Features

• Fundamental concept: Is a page or a post • Published, or not?

• On the front page, or not?

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Wordpress:Features

• Menu design: Widgets (like small plugins)

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•

Wordpress:Plugins Two defaults:

anti-spam, starter kit

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Wordpress:Features

• Behavioral design:

Plug-ins

(Modules) • This is the BEATING HEART of a CMS • Explore the Job Ticket Quest (Moshell) What's a 'job ticket'? Service organizations (like online support) receive thousands of requests for help. Have they all been taken care of?

* a "To-do list manager"

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