WordCamp Vancouver 2012

There is a lot of talk these days about taping into the resources available through external APIs (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc). Much of the functionality needed to interact with APIs is already included in the core through the HTTP class. In this session you will learn the concepts behind pulling data from an external API, sending data to an external API, how to utilize WordPress caching to increase speed and functionality, etc.

Session overview
Companion tutorial
Presentation Slides
Source code

If you do any reading about caching you will undoubtedly come across the following quote frequently attributed to Phil Karlton: “There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.” When writing WordPress applications, this certainly holds true. In my talk, I would like to discuss techniques for regenerating and invalidating cached objects. With WordPress’ transients API and WP_Object_Cache class, it is a breeze to cache data; however, without a consideration of how that data will be updated, it can be difficult to develop a robust application that can handle constantly changing data. I plan to discuss topics that include: invalidating groups of data, when to invalidate, and avoiding “race conditions.”

Accompanying article

There are many out there that would have SEO appear to be a source of voodoo magic. The reality, however, is that building great SEO is about hard work, attention to details, community engagement, and understanding how it works. The beauty when using WordPress is that WordPress and many of it’s plugins are designed to help make your site stand out on search engines. In this talk, we will look at the basics of SEO and how you can excel at the search engine optimization for your site.

Link to presentation slides

Staying calm and simple is a great way to avoid common pitfalls on the path to crafting a quality product. During this session we’ll walk through a mindset to consider when approaching new WordPress projects. Pay attention to your assumptions and where you invest your time. Stay unclever, maintain clarity, and act with purpose. Your future self will thank you and your code will remain powerful and useful.

Link to presentation slides

Community is one of those buzz words we often hear. Just like sustainability and green, it might be used a bit too often and what does it mean exactly? During this talk, I’ll show you how one can join the community and contribute on the forums by developing themes, plugins, submitting patches, and joining the conversation on Twitter. There are many of ways to contribute and take part in the community and I’ll show you that it is indeed real.

Link to presentation slides

The top things every user needs to remember about working with WordPress.

Things like: Posts are to Pages as apples are to oranges, a friend indeed is a theme developer you need, plugins are like best friends; best kept to a minimum will be explained in depth and emblazened in your brain.

UBC has supported blogs and wikis for nearly a decade, but the past year has represented a tipping point in terms of their impact at the institution and beyond. With an advanced technical architecture and a vibrant and rapidly growing user community, the inherited benefits of WordPress are manifesting themselves in often unexpected ways. UBC’s WP framework evolved from an under the desk approach to a robust publishing platform with over 15K users. The session will provide an overview of the UBC WordPress framework and will cover topics including the positioning of WordPress within other “enterprise” systems, in regards to the infrastructure, user management, and front end development. The session will also highlight how WordPress can be used to meet academic needs through the creation of e-Portfolios, course blogs, classroom backchannels and microblogging, open educational resource (OER) development, and other learning and web publishing needs.

UBC has supported blogs and wikis for nearly a decade, but the past year has represented a tipping point in terms of their impact at the institution and beyond. With an advanced technical architecture and a vibrant and rapidly growing user community, the inherited benefits of WordPress are manifesting themselves in often unexpected ways. UBC’s WP framework evolved from an under the desk approach to a robust publishing platform with over 15K users. The session will provide an overview of the UBC WordPress framework and will cover topics including the positioning of WordPress within other “enterprise” systems, in regards to the infrastructure, user management, and front end development. The session will also highlight how WordPress can be used to meet academic needs through the creation of e-Portfolios, course blogs, classroom backchannels and microblogging, open educational resource (OER) development, and other learning and web publishing needs.

UBC has supported blogs and wikis for nearly a decade, but the past year has represented a tipping point in terms of their impact at the institution and beyond. With an advanced technical architecture and a vibrant and rapidly growing user community, the inherited benefits of WordPress are manifesting themselves in often unexpected ways. UBC’s WP framework evolved from an under the desk approach to a robust publishing platform with over 15K users. The session will provide an overview of the UBC WordPress framework and will cover topics including the positioning of WordPress within other “enterprise” systems, in regards to the infrastructure, user management, and front end development. The session will also highlight how WordPress can be used to meet academic needs through the creation of e-Portfolios, course blogs, classroom backchannels and microblogging, open educational resource (OER) development, and other learning and web publishing needs.

In 45 minutes I will show you how to build a membership website using WordPress and free plugins. You will learn how to create multiple levels of membership and offer both free and premium memberships. You will also learn how to integrate PayPal so you can charge for premium membership.

You should already be familiar with WordPress basics and already have a WordPress website (or know how to install WordPress)

Link to presentation slides

BuddyPress is often pitched as “social networking in a box”. And, in fact, BP is a great solution for niche social sites. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.  BuddyPress’s modularity and extensibility make it the ideal foundation for any kind of web application with a social flavor. I’ll show off a few BP implementations that demonstrate outside-the-(social-networking)-box thinking. And I’ll gesture toward some interesting use cases that don’t exist yet, but for which BP would be well-suited.

Does updating all your plugins by running “wp plugin update –all” sound too good to be true? Enter wp-cli, an open source WordPress management tool. Learn how to install it locally or globally on your host, perform common WordPress administration tasks, and expand its functionality with plugins of your own.

Link to presentation slides

The mobile web is growing at a rapid pace. It is estimated that by 2014, we will be spending more time browsing the web on mobile devices than on a traditional desktop computer. If your website is not optimized for a mobile screen size, you will be forcing your site visitors to work harder to read the information on your site, and to interact with your business or organization. Users will be required to “pinch and zoom” their way across your website.

In this hands on demo and presentation, we will look at various methods of providing a Mobile friendly version of a new or existing WordPress website. We will explore various plugins and mobile friendly themes, and examine responsive website design.

Link to presentation slides

ds106 is an open course in Digital Storytelling that leverages platforms of open source tools, syndication, and social media in a way that makes it more community than course. At ds106.us is a wordpress powered hub that aggregates and recombines input from 500+ external blogs plus a user contributed assignment bank, daily creative challenges, even a radio station. Built by a team of educator tinkerers, not coders, ds106 is as a model of a community network that is not limited to just courses.

Link to presentation slides

Using jQuery in the past, I’ve made many of the common mistakes. If you’re just starting out with jQuery, or simply want to avoid the same mistakes – this is the talk for you!

Link to presentation slides

For those of us making our living using WordPress to build solutions for clients, there are a unique set issues we tend to experience. This session will help demystify the traits commonly found in successful WordPress businesses of all sizes, and identify common pitfalls to avoid, and actionable best practices you can apply to your business.

Link to presentation slides

If code really is poetry, then documentation is music. I’ll talk about how proper code and end-user documentation are absolutely necessary for open source projects like WordPress, BuddyPress, and bbPress.

Links to presentation