Stern Hal Jane - Professional WordPress: design and development

Professional WordPress: Design and Development

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

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-56054-9

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To Toby, Elana, and Ben, whose support is unequaled.

Hal Stern

To my beautiful wife Holly and my sons Jackson, Justin, and Jonah for their love and support.

David Damstra

In memory of my mother, Royce Jule Williams.

Brad Williams

About the Authors

HAL STERN is a Vice President with a major technology company where he focuses on cloud computing, security, large-scale data management, and building technical communities. Hal began blogging about five years ago as a way to share customer interactions and technology observations, and eventually began using WordPress as an outlet for more personal thoughts on music, food, life in New Jersey, ice hockey, and the flailings known as his golf game. You can follow Hal online at porkrollandfriends.com and snowmanonfire.com.

DAVID DAMSTRA is the Manager of Web Services for CU*Answers, a credit union service organization. David manages a team of developers to create web sites and web applications for the financial industry. David's team uses WordPress as the foundation for many web projects. David is also a Zend Certified Engineer for PHP5. You can find David online professionally at ws.cuanswers.com and personally at mirmillo.com.

BRAD WILLIAMS is the CEO and Co-Founder of WebDevStudios.com. He is also a co-host on the SitePoint Podcast and an Advisor on SitePoint Forums. He was one of the original co-hosts on the WordPress Weekly Podcast and still joins the show on occasion. Brad has been developing web sites for over 14 years, including the last four, where he has focused on open-source technologies like WordPress. You can follow Brad online on his personal blog at strangework.com.

About the Technical Editor

MIKE LITTLE is the co-founding developer of the WordPress project. He started WordPress in 2003 with Matt Mullenweg (now of Automattic Inc.) and has been developing with and using it ever since. He now runs zed1.com, his web development and consultancy company, which specializes in WordPress. He recently worked on a number of government WordPress sites, most notably a Law Commission consultation site, and now develops and supports a site for a large Cabinet Office client. He is a published author and a member of the Usability Professionals Association.

Credits

Executive Editor

Carol Long

Project Editor

Brian MacDonald

Technical Editor

Mike Little

Production Editor

Daniel Scribner

Copy Editor

Kim Cofer

Editorial Director

Robyn B. Siesky

Editorial Manager

Mary Beth Wakefield

Associate Director of Marketing

David Mayhew

Production Manager

Tim Tate

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Associate Publisher

Jim Minatel

Project Coordinator, Cover

Lynsey Stanford

Proofreader

Publication Services, Inc.

Indexer

Robert Swanson

Cover Designer

Michael E. Trent

Cover Image

Karen Phillips/istockphoto

Acknowledgments

THIS BOOK IDEA STARTED WHEN Jonathan Dingman remembered a conversation we had about this book idea at WordCamp NYC 2008, and connected me with Carol Long at Wiley. Thanks to Carol for agreeing to endure another project with me, and to editor Brian MacDonald for turning meandering streams of thought into something powerful. Mike Little's technical review of the book was equally insightful and invaluable. Various co-workers in the MySQL and Sun Microsystems communities contributed to my passion for blogging and understanding how things work, among them Tim Bray, Rich Zippel, Dave Douglas, Brian Aker, Bob Sokol, Jeremy Barnish, Hansjoerg Klimetzki, and the divas, Candace LoMonaco and Maria Buoy. Co-authors Brad and David have made this project as much fun as a challenge, and their ability to edit as a group is only one small artifact of their immense developer talents. Finally, my wife Toby, and children Elana and Ben stopped asking why my laptop was appearing at odd times like weekends and vacations, and I appreciate the time and space given to me to finish my scribbles.

Hal Stern

I'D LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE at Wiley, particularly Carol Long for putting her faith in a first time author and encouraging me to join this writing team, and editors Brian MacDonald and Mike Little for their valuable insights, suggestions, and quick responses to our changes. I am also indebted to my co-authors, Hal Stern and Brad Williams, who were able to turn this book around on such a tight schedule. Thanks to my family, specifically, Holly, Jack, Justin, and Jonah for their love and support while I was writing away. I'd also like to thank my parents, family, friends, and coworkers who have all helped in some way and encouraged me to write this book. Finally, I would like to thank the entire WordPress community for creating such a robust and powerful application.