WordCamp Scranton 2015

As browser compatibility with WebGL grows in support, rich 3d interfaces are more in demand with each successive year.

Moreover, even if a browser has no support for WebGL, we can degrade gracefully, and show the user an alternate site view with no more hassle than enqueueing modernizr.

This talk will initially showcase a few examples of using 3D environments in WordPress.

I’ll then go over helpful tips about WebGL and the relevance to WordPress, and discuss frequently-used JavaScript libraries that make our lives easier, followed by how to use them properly within WordPress.

I’ll then provide an example – along with links to more thorough guides – on how to pull in data from WordPress into JavaScript as globals, and make it available for use in your 3D application.

This will be followed by briskly picking apart a basic WebGL ‘Hello World’, looking at each component:

• The _s theme
• A custom page template
• The 3.js library
• Custom js for the page template
• WP ajax functionality

If all goes well, attendees will conclude the talk having a good understanding of the features and caveats of 3d application development in WordPress.

When I started making websites 7 years ago, WordPress was the hip new thing all the cool kids were using. So I used it too.

But then time went by, and the web changed. The tools and techniques that I used changed too. I moved away from WordPress.

Now I’m back. Let me show you why I’ve returned, and why I believe that what WordPress has become over the last 7 years has ensured its continued success.

Are you using a theme on your blog or website that is almost what you’re looking for but that could use a bit of customization? Don’t want to look like everyone else using the twenty fifteen theme? Child themes let us inherit the functionality of an existing theme, while adding our own custom functionality and style to suit our tastes and needs. In this session we’ll look at how to create a child theme and some ways which we can make that baby our own.

We’ve all built a ton of WordPress sites. We’ve also managed them all too. You’ve probably heard about WordPress Multisite Networks, and all the awesome things it can (and can’t) allow you to do.

With great power, comes great responsibility. During this talk, Taylor will step through the do’s and don’ts of Multisite Networks. He will share how WordPress Multisite can be your best friend or worst enemy… but usually both… at the same time.

Expect pro-tips, eureka moments, and hard lessons learned from his experience setting up and running multisite networks for small private company intranets, all the way to global enterprise brands.

By the end of this talk you will know the pros and cons of WordPress Multisite Networks, best practices for setting up and running a multisite, and know about alternatives if multisite isn’t a fit for your next project.

Want to learn how to up your development skill set by developing locally with WordPress? Well things just got a whole lot simpler with ServerPress! Learn about how easy it is to develop locally WordPress sites locally using this amazing tool.

Learn about the 19 plugins that I think are essential to having a well functioning (and even fun) website! Learn more about some plugins that give your website more functionality and help make client’s websites pop.

We all know about Responsive Design. But most mainstream techniques rely on the browser to call the shots and determine what and how the content gets displayed, typically using media queries.

This reliance can be taxing to poor, overworked devices. Doesn’t it make more sense to let the server, with it’s beefier processors, compile the page and send the content to the device so that the page is lighting fast regardless of the device?

This is where RESS(Server Side Responsive) steps in.

Learn how this is different from what you thought of as responsive design as well as techniques that you can use right away to significantly reduce your render time.

I’ll discuss the different scenarios that we encounter when teaching WordPress to our clients, friends, and students. I’ll offer strategies for optimal sharing of our knowledge to others.

Let’s say somebody built you a WordPress site and then left you in the lurch to fend for yourself. Maybe they told you how to add content, use headings, and add images. But you forgot that stuff pretty quickly.

Get past the fear of breaking the internet. You CAN do this! This session will help you figure out what you think you can’t.

I recently replaced a proprietary SaaS CMS for the largest school district in the state (Newark, NJ). We launched our 70+ schools sites on Aug 29, 2014 on top of WordPress. Our district site is 30,000 pages and 300,000+ media assets. In the end, we cut our annual web site management budget in half and have beautiful new web sites powered by WordPress that ease the pain points our content owners, administrators and technology coordinators have when managing their school web sites. This presentation will cover how this was achieved using WordPress, how it has solved many of the problems we were facing with our vendor-controlled proprietary system, and how we have embraced the concept of WordPress as an Application Framework, allowing us to create all kinds of sites, applications, and mobile apps directly from WordPress.

In this session we’ll discuss some of the history of open source software, look at how subdivisions take hold, how we can all be better about working toward the common interests of all, and the all-important nature of treating one another with kindness and not leaping to conclusions.

WordPress upgrades, they bring us new features, faster sites, and better security. But pushing that upgrade button can be a scary moment, unless you’ve ensured your site is ready and compatible. I’ll show you the best practices for ensuring your site is ready including a simple strategy that works whether you manage one site or hundreds.