The Developer's Guide to WordPress/Printable version
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Introduction[edit | edit source]
WordPress rocks and here's why...
- Easy to get started with
- Lots of documentation, themes, and plugins
- Open source and free software
How WordPress Works[edit | edit source]
Wordpress is a contenet management system at it's core. Wordpress uses PHP and a database to manage your content on a server, and to provide a dynamic experience both to internal users (Writers, Designers, Etc) and end users (Readers, Customers, Etc).
Fundamental Goals of a Theme[edit | edit source]
Themes should make the website better for the user. That means easy to use, and aesthetically pleasing.
Themes should be usable for those using assistive technologies. Good contrast and colorblind readability are needed attributes.
Hosting for speed[edit | edit source]
Not all hosts are created equal, and this can impact page load times. Page load times greatly impact the user experience. In general look for the following in a host:
- Good bandwidth
- Close to your users
- Serves content from fast storage, such as an SSD instead of an HDD.
Hosting for reliability and resiliance[edit | edit source]
Reliability is a key, and often overlooked attribute. Some services allow you to take advantage of features which help improve reliabiliy or at least help improve resiliance to failure.
- Automatic backups (Not a replacement for doing your own manual backups, but can be useful in a pinch)
- Geographically distributed
Take the load off with a cache[edit | edit source]
Wordpress is a dynamic CMS, which means it does significant backend processing. For pages which are commonly accessed but do not change, a common practice is to use a cache to speed retrieval. One common solution is to use the open source varnish cache, which has a numbler of existing plugings.[1]