Brazell - WordPress bible: Description based on print version record. - Includes index

WordPress Bible

WordPress Bible

Aaron Brazell

WordPress Bible

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.10475 Crosspoint BoulevardIndianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com

Copyright 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-56813-2

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at (877) 762-2974, outside the U.S. at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009943644

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. WordPress is a registered trademark of Automattic, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

To Devin, my only son, for giving me something to think about even when I don't realize I need to be thinking about it.

Credits

Senior Acquisitions Editor

Stephanie McComb

Executive Editor

Jody Lefevere

Project Editor

Katharine Dvorak

Technical Editor

Mark Jaquith

Copy Editor

Lauren Kennedy

Editorial Director

Robyn Siesky

Editorial Manager

Cricket Krengel

Business Manager

Amy Knies

Senior Marketing Manager

Sandy Smith

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Project Coordinator

Lynsey Stanford

Graphics and Production Specialists

Andrea Hornberger
Melissa K. Jester
Ronald G. Terry

Quality Control Technicians

Rebecca Denoncour
John Greenough

Proofreading

Susan Hobbs

Indexing

BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services

Media Development Project Manager

Laura Moss

Media Development Assistant Project Manager

Jenny Swisher

Media Development Associate Producer

Shawn Patrick

About the Author

Aaron Brazell is the Lead Editor of Technosailor.com and the CEO of Emmense Technologies, LLC, a WordPress consultancy company located in the greater Washington, D.C. area. He has been an active member of the WordPress community since 2004 as a developer, user, and consultant. He advises small- and medium-sized businesses (and on occasion, an enterprise or non-profit organization) on innovative WordPress solutions and guides them in strategy and business decisions pertaining to their online endeavors.

He is a frequent public speaker, engaging with the WordPress community at WordCamps around the United States, as well as at marketing, social media, and other industry events. He is the lead organizer of WordCamp Mid-Atlantic, a WordPress community conference catering to the Greater Capital region, which includes Maryland, D.C., Delaware, and Northern Virginia. He believes in challenging conventional thinking and assumptions, and as a result, often takes actions that are provocative, strategic, and unconventional in an effort to move dialogue and popular opinion forward.

In addition to his work with WordPress and social media, Aaron is an avid photographer and sports fan (his favorite teams are the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Ravens), and has one son, Devin Michael. He currently lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

About the Technical Editor

Mark Jaquith is a lead developer on the WordPress project and does full-time WordPress consulting and development through his company, Covered Web Services ( http://coveredwebservices.com ). He specializes in custom plugins, performance, scaling, and security. Mark has been contributing to WordPress since 2004, and proudly dropped out of college in 2005 to do what he loves: enabling millions to easily publish their content on the Web. When he's not working on WordPress or Web publishing projects, he enjoys photography, philosophy, and films.

W hen Aaron first mentioned he was writing the WordPress Bible, I immediately offered him a hand in editing. I figured it was a safe bet. After all, I'm a PHP guy with five years of Drupal experience and zero years of WordPress. In fact, my only involvement with WordPress was attending WordCamp Mid-Atlantic; I'd never even installed it before. I had to open my mouth....

Fast-forward a couple months and suddenly chapter after chapter fill my inbox. So I started digging into this alien environment from two different perspectives: first, from the community perspective and second, from a developer's perspective.

For open source projects, the community is important to understand. Not only do you need to know how to get involved, but also you also need to know how healthy it is. Is this project going to be active a month or year from now? Therefore, I started reading with the intent to learn about the WordPress community. I wanted to know its motivations, how it interacted, how decisions were made, and how information flows within, into, and out of the team. Delving into the community and help chapters, I learned quite a bit. I found myself dropping into IRC, exploring a mailing list or two, and hitting WordPress forums to see how new voices were welcomed. To be honest, I appreciated the perspective and guidance from someone who gets it.