A short presentation about the new features in WordPress 3.1 and how they let you control every aspect of a site's content from the admin area including menus, widgets, post types and post formats.

1. Making the most of WordPress.

2. Where does the
time go?
 Static content sucks
 It takes time to maintain
 You’ve got better things to do

3. There’s a feature
for that
 My aim is to give you an idea of what is
possible with WordPress.
 Menus
 Post types
 Widgets
 Post formats

4. Mmmmenus
Lists of links
really are
everywhere
on websites.
Ever hand-
coded one?
Yeah, me
too...

5. Mmmmenus
 Never hand code a menu again
 Don’t worry about changing URLs
 CSS Hooks a-plenty me hearties
 Theme locations for different menus
 Menu widget

6. How-to-menu

7. How-to-menu

8. How-to-menu
Adding links
Check the boxes...
Click “Add to menu”.

9. How-to-menu

10. How-to-menu

11. How-to-menu

12. Theme locations
“Primary Navigation” is the
theme location and “My
menu” is a menu selected
from the dropdown.
The code:
functions.php:
register_nav_menu( 'primary', 'My Menu' );
header.php
wp_nav_menu( array( 'theme_location' => 'primary' ) );
Further reading:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_nav_menu

13. Extending menus
 Custom Nav Walker Class
 Show the description field
 Show featured images from posts/pages
 Access other page/post custom fields

14. Post types, or rather, content
types
 Posts and pages are both post types
 As are attachments
 WordPress is built on its own API
 The same API is available to theme & plugin
developers

15. What problem do
they solve?
 Things that are neither posts nor pages
 Forums – bbPress plugin
 Properties
 Events
 Static blocks
 Landing pages
 Other applications

16. Register the hell out
of that post type
add_action('init', 'codex_custom_init');
function codex_custom_init() {
register_post_type('book', array(
'labels' => $labels,
'show_ui' => true,
'show_in_menu' => true,
'rewrite' => true,
'capability_type' => 'post',
'has_archive' => true,
'supports' => array('title','editor','thumbnail')
) );
}

17. You can always cheat
 Themergency custom post type generator
 http://themergency.com/generators/wordpress-custom-post-types/

18. The post type admin

19. Modifying the
edit screen
Use the
metabox API
to add/remove
or reorder
metaboxes.
Example:
Blobs plugin
http://codex.wordpress.o
rg/Function_Reference/a
dd_meta_box

20. Metaboxes
add_meta_box( $id, $title, $callback, $post_type, $context, $priority,
$callback_args );
 $callback is a the name of a function that
displays the content eg. Form fields
 $context determines where the box appears eg.
‘side’ or ‘normal’
 $priority allows you to control the order boxes
appear in eg. ‘high’ or ‘low’

21. Metaboxes
 Provide user friendly alternatives to custom
fields
 Server side validation for custom fields eg.
sanitize_title_with_dashes( $_POST[‘my_field’] );
 Use the ‘save_post’ action
 update_post_meta($post_id, $meta_key, $meta_value);
 Accessing post meta
 get_post_meta($post_id, $key, $single);
 get_post_custom();

22. More cheating
 Lots of tutorials out there
 http://www.netmagazine.com/tutorials/user-
friendly-custom-fields-meta-boxes-wordpress
 Or if you’re not into coding
 http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/more-fields/

23. Example:
Flickr
Gallery

24. Example:
Landing
Pages

25. Its got a widget
 Typically in a sidebar
 Can be anywhere in a theme – “Widget areas”
 Many plugins provide widgets
 Rapid prototyping of information architecture

26. A widget it has got
Widget
areas on
interconnecti
t.com make
up the home
page and
footer
section
Page widget (+ jQuery)
Text Widget
Posts widgets
Authors widget
Archive widget
Further reading:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Widgets_A
PI

27. Making sidebars
 register_sidebar( $args );
 Can be done programmatically
 Widget area per category, per page etc...
 Could even use a custom menu walker to
show widgets in a menu – mega menus!
Further Reading:
http://justintadlock.com/archives/2010/11/08/sidebars-in-wordpress

28. Post formats
 Differentiate content within a post type
 Think tumblr without the threat of tumbeasts
 Portable between themes
 Custom layouts for posts

29. Post formats
 Supported formats: Aside, Gallery, Link, Image,
Quote, Status, Video, Audio, Chat
add_theme_support( 'post-formats', array( 'aside', 'gallery' ) );
 Per post type:
add_post_type_support( $post_type, 'post-formats' );
 In the loop:
has_post_format( $format );

30. There can be only one

31. Twentyten theme
gallery post format

32. Tumblr style themes
Auld
Wumblr
Shelf

33. In summary
 Menus take the pain out of site navigation
 Post types make WP suitable for many
applications
 Widgets make it easy to refine information
architecture
 Post formats are frickin cool

34. And it’s goodnight from him
Thanks for listening
Robert O’Rourke
http://sanchothefat.com
@sanchothefat