WordPress – open source blogging tool and a content management system

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WordPress is web software that can be used to create a beautiful website or blog. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time. It started as just a blogging system, but has evolved to be used as full content management system and so much more through the thousands of plugins and widgets and themes. WordPress is world’s best free platform to build websites.

Steps to install

  • Download latest version of wordpress
  • Create database
  • Install wordpress through url

Install WordPress Theme

  • WordPress is template driven website development cms
  • Copy the new theme into /wp-content/theme folder
  • Select the new theme from the WordPress backend. Appearance => Theme

Define Custom Home Page in WordPress

  • In the Settings panel on the left navigation select Reading
  • To change the front page to your new home page, select “A static page” for Front page displays.
  • Select  desired “HOMEPAGE” from the Front page drop down menu.
  • Select any page as blog page in Post pages drop down.

URL Re-writing with .htaccess

  • From the left side navigation select Settings=> Permalinks
  • Choose Post name as Re-write rule.
  • Save changes

WordPress Plugins

  • Easy plug n play
  • Plugins are tools to extend the functionality of WordPress.
  • Copy plugin to wp-content/plugins folder
  • or Install direct from Wordpess backend
  • Plugins offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs.

WordPress Sidebars

  • A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content.
  • It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme.
  • It can also be used to display advertisements from third-party websites.
  • Users can drag and drop items into sidebars from Appearance » Widgets in the admin panel.
  • We can create any numbers of sidebars and call from the page template as required.

WordPress Widgets

  • A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars.
  • You can find the list of available widgets and widget areas by going to the Appearance » Widgets section in your WordPress dashboard.
  • Widgets in WordPress allow you to add content and features in the widgetized areas of your theme which is mostly the sidebar.
  • The available widget areas that you have in your theme will vary from theme to theme.
  • Widgets are mostly standalone areas of code that perform a certain function.

WordPress Shortcodes

  • Shortcodes in WordPress are little bits of code that allow you to do various things with little effort.
  • Most powerful feature of wordpress
  • Shortcodes are the small codes to call any functions.
  • Shortcodes can be used anywhere in wordpress such as Page, posts, widgets, sidebars, template…
  • Most of the plugins use shortcode for functioning

WordPress Custom Taxonomy

  • Custom taxonomy are custom post type
  • Used for posts other than regular blog posts
  • Eg. Portfolio, team, clients, testimonials etc.
  • Can contain categories and attributes.
  • Different template page can be defined for custom taxonomy category and single item page.