WordPress Words: The Loop

The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post.
WordPress Codex: The Loop

The loop will start with code that checks to see if the current page is supposed to display a listing of several posts or just one post. If a page is supposed to list blog posts, then it will list out a title and excerpt for each post. If the page contains only a single page or a single post, then the loop will display the content for that page.

WordPress Words: Template Tags

Template Tags: A template tag is PHP code that dynamically creates and displays design choices on a WordPress Site. Template tags are found within Templates and Plugins.
WPBeginner

Example Usage: We’ve updated the post title template tag in the single post template file to be in an h1 heading not h2.

About the Word

WordPress Themes set the design for a WordPress site. Themes include template files for different aspects of a WordPress Theme, i.e., the text colors and fonts for a heading. Inside of each template file are WordPress code blocks represented by template tags, PHP code that specify the parameters of those design decisions.

WordPress Word: PHP

PHP is a recursive acronym for Hypertext Preprocessor. Its main focus is server side scripting which is specifically suited for web developers to write dynamic pages quickly.
PHP Manual – What is PHP?

How Does PHP Work?

When someone visits your PHP webpage, your web server processes the PHP code. It then determines which parts it needs to show to visitors. This includes content and pictures and hides file operations.  Then translates your PHP into HTML. After it translates into HTML, this sends the webpage to your visitor’s web browser. This means that PHP is a powerful behind the scenes scripting language that your visitor’s wont see.

All WordPress sites use PHP to process the data and generate a web page. Code snippets created with PHP, JavaScript, and other web programming languages used in the core of WordPress for redundant and frequently accessed programming are called Template Tags.

How to Backup and Restore WordPress Theme Options

Read on if you are an advanced WordPress user. 

You set up your WordPress Theme just the way you want with Theme options, all set, now you need to backup or restore. What do you do?

There is a plug-n-play snippet to create if your theme isn’t set up for backup and restore. The snippet called Backup/Restore Theme Options that can be seen in action if you look at the ShapeSpace Theme.

Installing WordPress on Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services  (AWS) offer a way to host your own WordPress sight with no hardware and little to no expense on a small WP blog site. This is ideal if you want to start working with a self hosted WordPress site for developmental purposes, monetization of your blog, or just good ol’ bragging rights.

In this article I will go into an overview of the EC2 service and the various Virtual Machines (referred to as instances from here on out) that are free and paid. Some may be free to download and initially spin up but may incur an additional cost to the AWS price tier even if you are in the Free Tier. Even though I discuss the free tier exclusively and micro-instances it should be mentioned that the AWS allows for scalability of your WordPress site so it can grow as your site(s) grow.

There are various pre-made instances for use with your AWS account that are configured for just about “one touch” configuration. Some are free, others are free to upload to AWS but incur a usage cost, and others cost for upload and usage. A few of the providers are; Bitnami, JumpBox, and Turnkey Linux. If you do choose to go with these “one click” solutions be sure to read all the print to verify if there are any charges for the instance or use of and how the charges are calculated.

Interview with Robert Hughes, Computer Technology (CTEC) Department Chair

Recently I visited with Robert Hughes, the Clark College Chair for Computer Technology (CTEC) to ask about how it is he came to sponsor the first WordPress degree programs to be offered in the country and what he sees for the Information Technology future.

Robert Hughes has a long tradition at Clark where he currently serves as Chair for Computer Technology, CTEC Department at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington. Mr Hughes has been faculty at Clark for over 20 years, where he also attended as a student, earning degrees and certifications in Scientific-Technical Communications and Electronic Publishing. Mr Hughes came to Clark to explore a range of educational programs with a prior degree in the mid 1980s. His mission at CTEC (Computer Technology) is threefold:

An Abstract (and brief) Look Into WP Theme Development

Introduction

This article is first and foremost written to give insight on what comprises a WordPress Theme. Though I will be touching on many things needed this is not intended to be a how to on theme development. It is more so an insider look at the processes involved and the code needed to achieve various functionalities within the themes themselves.

What We Will Be Covering

For this article, we will be using a theme I am currently developing as a case study. We will be covering the basics of the theme as well as some of the more advanced features such as custom shortcodes, custom post types and various functions used throughout the theme.

Theme Basics

First off, if you don’t want a primer into themes, please skip to the next section.

The following are the basic constants when developing WordPress Themes, the core items and methods to turn what otherwise would be plain static HTML into a dynamic template file in a WordPress Theme.

The most important thing to understand about WordPress Themes is that they are modular. When talking WordPress, that means that parts of the templates are broken down into modules that are called in template files rather than hard coding them into every file. So, what does that look like? Lets take this extremely basic example static HTML5 page and break it down into WordPress modules.

Interview with WordPress Developer Corban Cloud

I got the chance to sit down with my close friend Corban Cloud, who works at Gravitate Studios here in Vancouver, Washington. He had some interesting things to say about WordPress:

Nate Shoemaker: How long have you worked with WordPress?

Corban Cloud: Two years.

NS: Do you consider yourself a WP developer?

CC: Yes.

Website vs Blog: Never Has So Much Been Said About So Little by So Few

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill

The headline quote is blog sarcasm based on Churchill’s 1940 Battle of Britain address ‘Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.’

The blog sarcasm, attributed variously to English professors in the UK and US, is uninformed. Read why.

Here are some of the most common myths around websites and blogs:

What Do You Need to Learn to be a WordPress Expert?

In “Wanna Create Dynamic Websites? Learn JavaScript” by Daily Blog Tips, Daniel Scocco says:

If you want to become an expert programmer and make a living developing software you’ll need to learn a wide range of stuff, from logic gates to how the hardware works, from algorithms to data structures and programming paradigms (if this is actually what you are looking for I suggest you peek at the curriculum of the Computer Science degree on some good university and follow along).

Luckily, Clark College’s degrees for Web Development, Web Programming, and Computer Graphics Technology degrees include the skills you need.

What do you need to learn to be a WordPress expert?