First off the welcome message, and pointer tips, though not needed for my experience of WordPress would most definitely enhance the newbie’s experience. And the ability for developers to hook into this feature with their own tips and helpguides takes the ease of use of WordPress to another level.

The reductions of clicks in using the interface which include instant flyout menus and drag & drop uploader for media, as well as media detection during upload shows that the developers at WordPress are pushing further and further to make it the ultimate user experience.

Quoting Matt Mullenweg at one of his state of the Word addresses.

“So easy even a caveman can do it”

They’ve really put their actions behind this statement, integrating a number of help features including an enhanced help slideout menu with contextual tips and guides to make the user’s experience pleasurable.

You need look no further than the WordPress.org homepage to know that ease of use, and minimal distraction free content creation is a fundamental part of the direction they’re moving in.

WordPress does certainly keep us WP professionals on our toes though, especially so those developing training materials and guides, their regular UI updates means we need to re-create our materials regularly to reflect the changes.

I’m generally more trusting of the upgrades so I wildy go about upgrading this site specifically as soon as upgrades appear.

One of the important aspects of the course is the Learning theme which I’ve labelled Training Wheels. It builds from a simple HTML template, and over the next few lessons will grow to contain all the major functions and templates required of a fully fledged theme. The Template will be fully commented to facilitate a slow transition into understanding the purpose of each WordPress function added to the HTML.

If you’ve got HTML skills and have been wanting to learn WordPress Theme development this is gonna be just the tutorial series you’ve been looking for. I personally struggled from the beginning with tuts that merely dump huge chunks of code on you and say, “Paste Here”. This is going to be a step by step guide.

I’m also working on setting up my offline WordPress Theme Development course located at wpbedouine.com.

Let me know what you think of the presentation and if there’s any specific areas you feel I should fill in on the presentation site.

Also read my brief Interview with Lightspeed on the topic of WordPress training.

I will be conducting various WordPress training courses covering the very basics of WordPress Content & Site Management, Basic WordPress Theme Development and Intermediate Theme Development. For more info on this visit www.wpbedouine.com

Congrats to Ashley Shaw and the team at light speed for pulling off a spectacular event. Many of the top designers & developers were there including some people I’ve only interacted with via the interwebs. I finally got to put a face to quite a few names and got to meet a few guys I’ve personally worked with on projects but never met in person. I was absolutely stunned at the amount of sponsors who came to the party.

If you wanted to overdose on WordPress enthusiasm WordCamp would have been your ideal opportunity.

The speaker schedule was quite varied with both a publisher(non dev) track & a dev track for the hardcore guys. I was slotted in on the last minute to stand in for a cancellation. That was 2 days before the event, so the run up to WordCamp for me had a couple of sleep deprived days on coffee overdose which left me in a semi twilight zone type state on the morning of the event.

I arrive around 7am, still not 100% done with my presentation and only second to one of light speed’s interns from the Netherlands, a newbie to WordPress, but like with many others grabbing onto it quickly.

The Lineup for the Day.

The WordCamp website was a really excellent piece of communication and I think the most outstanding part of it was the schedule, designed to put the spotlight on the main attraction, The Talks.

WordCamp Presentations I Attended

Jason Bagley - Responsive Web Design

First up on the developer track was Jason Bagley of whitespace focusing on the ever popular topic of responsive web design. His slick slides are viewable on slideshare and he’s also put together a cool list of resources at http://responsive.jasonbagley.com

I watched jason’s presentation while finish off mine.

Byron Rode - Improving Ease of Use with the WordPress Admin Dashboard

Next up was Byron Rode, a developer I’ve hired for some tricky customizations in the past and someone who openly speaks out against the overuse of plugins and unnecessary features. His Presentation was about only giving your clients what they need in their dashboard and ruthlessly stripping out everything else.

Byrone mentioned a plugin at his talk which helped with some admin customizations and has shared it here.

Dan Milward - WP-eCommerce

Dan’s présentation focused mainly on the growth of Instinct’s wp-ecommerce plugin, it’s growth from the very early days of being the first WordPress commerce plugin, of hacking the core to make it work, on the process of finally going GPL and the attention that brought to the project. I’ve used wp-ecommerce some time back to develop a software product site which earned my client 1 million Rand in it’s first 6 months in new product sales. Back then setting up a site using wp-ecommerce was a slight challenge, but the project has come a long way and with WordPress’ new custom post types Dan & his team have completely repurposed the plugin and made a really powerful yet easy to use and mostly Free product.

Dan also discuss some of their other projects form an Arcade style game builder running on WordPress to the drag & drop WordPress theme builder they’ve been delving into pushing WordPress to it’s limits to produce some really amazing solutions. Another proof for me that WordPress is truly a CMS, and in many cases it could even be used as a base Application Framework.

After Dan’s presentation I had to take a little break and escaped the presentation rooms until the lunch break, took a breather, did my mid day prayers and prepped myself for my own presentation. I had only just finished adding some bits and pieces to mine the morning of the event.

My Presentation – WordPress IS a CMS

There’s been a debate on the go for as long as I’ve been using WordPress about whether it’s a true Content Management System(CMS) or not. In fact at the last WordCamp in Cape Town which I believe was held 3 years ago the same issue was discussed.

Generally those who use WordPress have been satisfied that it is a true and in many cases superior CMS for the majority of today’s web needs, though some development die hards and other old-school non WordPress users still argue the point.

There’s also been a ton of articles, presentations & talks been given around the world on using WordPress “as” a CMS. I wanted to make a case for putting the final nail in the coffi.

Jeff Pearce – Using WordPress as a development framework

@jeffikus gave a very exciting, though somewhat technical presentation on the merits of using WordPress as an application development framework with an example of a Task Management App which completely bypasses the regular WordPress admin. We’ve seen the rise of quite a few application style implementations of WordPress and I believe this is only the beginning.

Most Memorable Presentation

Adii Pienaaar – The Business of WordPress: Making Money in more ways than one

The presentation which stood out the most for me was Adii’s WordPress Ecosystem. Not that Adii’s in need of any more ego boosting if you know what I mean, but really we have to give credit where it’s due.

Adii is a really interesting character, someone who can only be admired for what he has achieved in the last few years. It’s clear when you listen to him speak he’s got a business brain. I’ve seen Adii rise up through the WordPress ranks from the time he was selling his first theme and have to admit I sometimes feel really lousy about myself for not taking the same kind of chances and putting in place the same kind of strategies to achieve something more significant.

His dissection of the WordPress Ecosystem was such an apt metaphor for the way the WordPess community operates, which reminds me of a similar talk given at Heavy Chef on the New Media Eco-system. Same concept on a much wider scale.

Adii unpacked the various spheres where people are forging niches and tapping into the economy of WordPress, making a living or a killing in some cases.

Some of the Interesting People I chatted with at WordCamp

• Dan Milward – WP Ecommerce/Get Shopped
• Byron Rode – Tangram
• Matt Geri – wpgeeks.com
• Fred Roed – WorldWide Creative
• Justin Slack – @urbanrenewal
• Zaheed & Zugdi – Zedduo
• Angelique & Jamie (WordPress students of Mine from Last year)
• Handre (a WordPress student of mine from many years ago)

Sorry if I left anyone out. I know I did, not intentionally, there were just so many cool conversations.

Everyone seemed to be really inspired, not only by the technical workings on our favorite web publishing platform, but by the sense of community which resulted in such an exciting event. Others were just there to show their absolute obsession with their favorite publishing platform.

Experiences

For me the presentations were secondary to the networking & connections. No doubt what was presented was inspiring and created lots of energy and ideas in many directions, but those connections made, putting faces to names, establishing potential partnerships was the most beneficial part of the whole thing.

A few moments stood out for me. I managed to catch up with some people I’d never met in person but have had some meaningful interactions with via the web.

1. I had a really good conversation with Fred Roed, someone who I’ve interacted with only via the web and twitter. We discussed our own challenges going forward in our businesses and social contributions towards improving society.

2. I finally got a chance to meet Dan Milward who I’ve known online for a few years and we had a coffee just after the event with some really good conversation both on issues of WordPress and community and outside of that. Justin Slack joined us for a bit. What was so interesting for me was, I was leaving to escape the after party as a non-drinker, when Dan caught me and asked me where I was going, suggesting we have a quite coffee. I really appreciated that gesture. We spoke about some potential working together on one of his projects. Dan is a really nice guy and very forward thinking.

3. Last but not least, Matt Geri(wpgeeks.com), who I’ve been working with online for a while now and who I’ve only ever spoken to via Skype was there and we got to speak in person and get to know each other a bit better. Matt’s gt some really great WordPress dev skills and

What I took out of it

We’ve come a long way. I went on a bit of a nostalgic hunt for some info on some of the very first WordPress meetups we had in Cape Town even before WordCamps hit our shores and found the following article I wrote on the success of the 3rd WordPress Meeting in Cape Town which I hosted back then.

http://www.techleader.co.za/nurahmadfurlong/2008/05/29/wordpress-meet-3-was-huge/

You’ll see some of the same faces were attending back then, including Host of this WordCamp, Ashley Shaw who spoke about BuddyPress back then. We have to go back to the source and thank Callum Macdonald who came to Cape Town on his still continuous World tour with a bag full of WordPress and the clothes on his back quite a few years ago and instigated the very first WordPress Meetup.

A bit about that meet up here - http://www.nomad-one.com/2008/02/18/first-wordpress-meetup-post-mortem/

It just shows, with enough positive energy and enthusiasm and a community spirit, we can take things a lot further, and with people committed to making things happen, it benefits everyone around them. We’ve come a long way in Cape Town, and this year’s WordCamp is something we can all be proud of.

Once again thanks go out to Ashley & The team at Lightspeed.

So 15 September at the Atlantic Imbizo V & A Waterfront is the day.

As far as I can tell from the event site it’s a sell out with no more spaces for speakers or attendees. There’s going to be some really interesting presentations covering a raneg of topics in 2 Tracks for users and for developers which should be interesting.

I’ve scored a ticket for FREE by being the first person to signup for the event via Facebook, it pays to be a geek sometimes yes.

I hope to see you there as well, the facebook page has 116 likes and I believe way more are attending so it sounds like it’s set to be a winner. Check out all the details at http://2011.capetown.wordcamp.org

It’s sad yes, I know, I should have properly secured my site years ago. I assume one of the reasons my site was hacked was due to a large portion of my print design portfolio containing Pharmaceutical Ad Campaigns. The hack was spotted by a good friend @mozami who noticed my google listing had loads of Pharma keywords which had nothing to do with my site.

This hack has cost me dearly with regard to my site’s SEO health which dropped dramatically as soon as it hit. I haven’t been taking care of this site much for some time though so I only noticed it way later which is even worse for the SEO ranking points I’ve lost over an extended period of time.

I reported the incident to Google via their webmaster tools but it took quite some time after they acknowledged my report until the Pharma keyword listings were finally removed. The Pharma hack is one of those which are particularly nasty in many cases is hidden files many times undetectable at a glance are added which means your entire WordPress installation needs to be cleaned out and restored with a fresh copy. This includes your theme’s files, plugins, the works.

Security Plugins are Dime a Dozen

I’ve since tested and implemented quite a range of plugins, some extremely simple but hardly effective at all and other’s extremely complicated and sensitive to the extent that I even managed to block myself from access my dashboard.

Secure WordPress with Website Defender

One of the plugins which seems to work really well currently is Secure WordPress, which applies a few initial fixes and then linked to a Website Defender account tracks additional vulnerabilities and hack attempts and reports them via a highly intuitive dashboard. The system even tracks when your site goes down and reports it to you as soon as it detects downtime.

In the dashboard you’ll see possible vulnerabilities listed according to their urgency level, and clicking on each one gives much mroe detail of what the problem could be, how it may affect your site and how to resolve this issue. Of course not all the files and problems detected are “real” threats, so you have the option of setting the issue as resolved or to ignore. This allows you to keep a realistic view of what remains to be fixed and what the threat level of your site currently is.

The plugin also provides the solution, with additional links to external sites which discuss the particular security threat posed by the issue being viewed.

After applying some of the fixes and marking them as completed the Website defender Dashboard reflects the current updated threat level so I always have a good idea of the security health of my site. When new issues are detected I get emails notifying me of these new possible threats and my security level changes accordingly.

These fixes are by no means exhaustive and there are many ways of hardening the security level of your WordPress site.

A few simple security tips include:

• Use a non-standard database table prefix when setting up your site in the beginning. wp_ is the standard one
• Don’t use “admin” as your default admin username, choose something unique
• Keep your WordPress updated to the latest version. This should include plugins as well. Hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in older versions of WordPress to get into your  site.

John Hoff at securemyblog.com has some excellent advice, video tutorials as well as an E-Book covering the topic of website security.

Custom Post Types

Though Custom Post Type’s existed pre-3.0, it’s only really been fully embraced now that people have started writing tutorials and guides on how to make use of these sometimes difficult to explain new content types. A Custom Post Type(CPT) is basically a unique type of content which can be given it’s own definition, it’s own Taxonomy(ie. basically a labelling system) and it’s own set of templates to govern how these content types are used and displayed.

Custom Post type: Unique Data type like Subject, Product, Book, Movie, Software etc

Taxonomy: Subject Label, Product Label, Book Tag, Movie Genre, Software Type etc

Write Panel/Meta Boxes: Interface to insert the various custom data via custom form fields other than the standard post or page editor

I’m not about to rehash another tutorial on how these new beauties work as many have already done the job way better than I could, though I just wanted to mention a few ideas and thoughts and how I think this new feature changes the way we use WordPress.

Below are a few excellent tutorials covering what Custom Post Types are:

• Straight from the WP Codex Documentation
• One of the first by Justin Tadlock
• A How to by WPbeginner.com

And some plugins which make creation and management of these super easy:

Recently I’ve been fiddling around with various ways of using CPTs in order to streamline the way different types of content snippets are displayed as well as to simplify how the site administrator manages these content snippets. Alongside CPTs is another widely used feature allowing the ability to add Custom Write Panels. You starting to wonder what’s with the use of the word “Custom” now I can imagine.

Custom Write Panels

Custom Write Panels allow for setting up of special(customised/customisable) editor forms, to make adding and managing content which may be made up of connected bits of data much easier. Plugins like Flutter & PodsCMS have been around for a while allowing WordPress users to build their own write panels. Recently I had a situation where a client website which was making use of the Flutter plugin was upgraded to WordPress 3.0, rendering the flutter write panels inactive as the Flutter plugin is no longer under active development. This forced me to start taking a look at building write panels into the Theme’s Template files itself.

Here are a few tutorials covering how to setup built in write panels into your theme using functions.php

• Write Panels guide by Sitepoint.com
• Step By Step tutorial on Setting up Meta Boxes(Write Panels)
• Your First Custom Post Type with Write Panel by ThinkVitamin(excellent visual guide)
• WordPress Codex Add Meta Box Function
• A Two Part tutorial on creating Custom Write Panel meta boxes

Taking it Further

The next step in my exploration of these newer features is to allow site users, meaning those visiting the (front end)website, to interact with these custom content types by submitting their own content and updating the site via front end forms. There are a few plugins which cover user submitted content but the main contender here is Gravity Forms. It’s a paid for plugin but notwithout reason. This plugin has a wide range of advanced features. Unlike other forms plugins it allows complete control over the markup of the HTML form elements, backend functions and styling of the forms.

Forms can be built for mere feedback submission or more advanced functionality. I’m looking at using this to build in user submitted content for a Business Listing website as well as a questions and answers website. The plugin also has add-on integration with 3rd party services including Mailchimp( email newsletter management), Campaign Monitor (email campaign management) & Freshbooks(Online invoicing service).

The plugin also supports inclusion of additional HTML content into forms, conditional form fields which can be activated depending on which other form fields are selected, Advanced email notifications, Dynamic form field population and a whole range of other customized features not found in most other form building plugins.

Want a $80 Off Gravity Forms Developer License?

If you’re interested in purchasing the Gravity Forms Developer License which I highly recommend, you can get a discount of up to $80 by using these 2 discount codes when purchasing:

• Gfdev50 – $50 off
• Seodenver – 20% further off

So after that shameless promotion, lets continue. A quick search through the wordpress plugin directory will reveal just how many Custom Post Type related plugins are currently in circulation, making this one of the favourite current features for customizing wordpress display and functional characteristics.

GD Taxonomies Tool

GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools is a plugin that can be used to expand custom taxonomies and custom post types support. Plugin adds many tools including custom post types and taxonomies management and widget for taxonomies terms cloud.

Post Type Switcher

A simple way to change a post type in WordPress.

This plugin lets you take advantage of the WordPress 3.0 custom post type feature, and create your own post type. The plugin allows you to add a set of fields attached to your new post type, so that in the edit and add new windows a new box will show with the fields defined. Each field added will be saved in the WordPress Database as a custom field, so that you can take advantage of the standard WordPress query rules to list your content on the page template.

Custom Post Type UI

Last but most certainly not least in Custom Post Type Management is the “go to” plugin for easy creation and management of Custom Post Types and their associated Taxonomies.

This plugin provides an easy to use interface to create and administer custom post types and taxonomies in WordPress.

It’s compatible with wordpress 3.0.1 and includes settings for controlling the finer details associated with each post type.

Verve Meta Boxes (custom write panel builder plugin)

Once you’ve got your post types created you’ll need a tool to manage custom data fields. As mentioned previously Custom Write Panels can be built into your theme but they’re notoriously hard for the newbie and can be really time consuming to setup. I prefer the quick fix in most cases and Verve Meta Boxes provides a clean and simple solution for building Meta Write Panels and associating them with Custom Post Types.

Now go change the Web the easy way

So what are you waiting for, go on and dive into Custom Post Types and change the way WordPress can be used. We’ve seen people make some really crazy things with WordPress in the past and the potential for experimentation has increased so much more now.

Take a quick look Design and I’ll explain a bit about what’s under the hood of this one.

Homepage of the fani.am fan accommodation site

I really enjoyed designing this one and also trying out a few CSS3 features like rounded corners & Text Shadows. IE6 users, there’s a special treat for you as well.

Custom Fields

The most hectic part of this site by far was the wordpress wrangling which takes place in the background. Using loads of WordPress custom fields, some for data and some for associating certain post types like matches, with accommodations and with the teams playing the matches, we were able to weave separate categories of posts into an intuitive mixture of information. Custom field have been managed entirely by the flutter plugin’s write panels, which helped make this site extremely easy for novice user to populate with content.

Fan i am Team Facts sidebar widget

Conditional Statements

Using WordPress conditional statements, as well as some conditional Custom field statements we were able to easily pull the correct set of posts for each team, venue or accommodation. The sidebar also gets populated with related widgets displaying content for each type of page you arrive on.

Associated Matches, accommodations & attractions

Dealing with images

I was a little disappointed about the current state of the built-in WordPress gallery system. You’re still not able to easily pull individual images based on their order in the gallery and can only really pull an entire gallery. The attached image plugin helped pull the first gallery image which was great. Flutter’s image management and upload functionality was ok but could do with the auto generation of thumbs & other sizes which the built in WordPress image uploading performs. Flutter’s image crop & resize functionality just doesn’t work at the moment, though the rest of it’s functionality, mainly write panels played a hige role in this website’s configuration.

This site relies heavily on plugins for various features, which is one of the great things about WordPress. I know some geeky developers who swear they never use plugins, and that’s fine with me, though I or one love the fact that so much freely available functionality is just lying around ready to take advantage of.

Plugins I’ve used & abused Include:

• Flutter – custom write panels
• Live Coundown Timer – counting down time to the Kickoff
• My Favourite Posts – allows user to add their favourite accommodations to a sidebar bucket
• Send to a Friend
• Tweet News – Footer feed of tweets about FIFA
• Google News – feed of news about the world cup from google
• Twitter Widget Pro – Worked better than Twitter Tools
• IE PNG fix – no need to fiddle with code
• Sidebar Login – check the login panel top right
• Cforms II – contact & booking forms
• DISQUS – Advanced commenting system
• WP Table Reloaded – Check the Match Schedule (quick & easy manageable tables)

So far it’s been a really great project and Phase 2 promises to include some even more exciting social media additions. What do you think of this one?

So who are these WordPress Heavyweights?

Adii Pienaar – @adii

Adriaan Pienaar, better known as Adii made a huge leap into WordPress stardom when he released his first Premium News theme. Adii has since gone on the establish the highly successful woothemes.com along with a few partners, as well as radiiate.co.za and is doing great things in the WordPress world. Adii is based in Cape Town, South Africa. I’ve met Adii a few times and interacted over the last couple of years and find him to be an extremely resourceful and highly entrepreneurial character. Find him online at www.adii.co.za where he blogs and also vlogs about his journeys as a entrepreneur. Adii’s most used twitter hashtags are #wordpress #wtf

Nathan Rice – @nathanrice

Nathan hails form the South Eastern US and is a freelance web designer, developer and blogger. He has been extremely active in developing both free and premium wordpress themes and regularly writes on topics related to WordPress on a number of sites including www.wordpressthemes.com. Nathan spent a while as lead developer for ithemes.com and has recently launched his very own premium themes development company called Mod Themes. Nathan has developed a number of really useful WordPress plugins (eg. wp-cycle) and also developed the Prodigy Theme Frame work. You can find Nathan online at www.nathanrice.net where he blogs about WordPress and web development in general. Nathan’s twitter tagline reads – “I do stuff with WordPress. Not kinky stuff, just normal “code” stuff.”

Ptah Dunbar- @ptahdunbar

I still don’t know how to pronounce his name, so luckily this is not a Video post. Ptah is a web designer & developer also based in the US. He is currently developing a well known WordPress theme framework called wpframework.com. Like most of the guys on this list, Ptah is quite young but has made quite an impact on the WordPress developer community. Ptah is a bit of a hacker and seems to be alot more of a hardcore developer than a front ender. Apparently he loves cooking as well. Find him online at ptahdunbar.com/ where he blogs about some really geeky WordPress and web development stuff.

Ian Stewart – @iandstewart

The man behind the highly successful Thematic WordPress theme framework and child theme evangelist. Ian is a real star in twitter, always replies and is generally helpful and down to earth. He’s a self-taught Graphic designer and confesses: “I don’t play sports but I can juggle and play harmonica. At the same time.” Ian has an extreme passion for WordPress and has single handedly spear-headed the WordPress framework game. You can tell he has a knak for really great web typography as well when you look at www.themeshaper.com. Ian blogs at upperfortstewart.com and is also responsible for setting up www.wpazo.com which is a blog about all things WP.

Jason Schuller – @jschuller

I’m not too familiar with the personal side of Jason as we haven’t really interacted much, but I’m a real fan of his work at www.press75.com. Jason is responsible for developing some of the slickest and most unique Premium WordPress themes available online including some really awesome video themes. You can tell Jason is a really particular graphic designer as well as his themes are real works of art.

Darren Hoyt – @darrenhoyt

Another one of those typographic geniuses as you’ll see when you visit www.darrenhoyt.com. Darren has been around in the WordPress world for a while and recently released a helpful WordPress front end system called Gravy – www.darrenhoyt.com/products/gravy which acts as a framework of sorts to help WordPress front enders with the task of rapid theme development. Darren is an Interface designer based in New York. He’s contributed to a number of popular websites with his tutorials and has been featured for a number of his designs. Most notably Darren is responsible for the well known Mimbo theme series which was one of the first advanced magazine style themes released. Darren’s website is a real typographic feast. Enough with the Bios, here’s the questions.

The Questions:

1. 3 reasons why you chose WordPress

Adii Pienaar

1. It’s the only platform I know how to use.
2. My whole business is built around it.
3. And oh – I started using it, because it was free and simply awesome.

Nathan Rice

1. It was the easiest CMS to install
2. It had the easiest theming method to learn
3. It was hands-down the best blogging software I ever used

Ptah Dunbar

1. open source,
2. great community
3. & easy to learn

Ian Stewart

1. All the cool kids were using it. I started out with Blogger and quickly realized that the majority of professional bloggers were using WordPress.
2. It seemed like it made web design “easy”. Of course, that’s not true in a complete sense but with so many awesome free Themes, it’s hard not to think that WordPress is the shortcut to easy web design.
3. It was free. It’s the tool of choice of professional bloggers AND it’s free. It’s really a no-brainer.

Jason Schuller

1. Flexible – If you put your mind to it, you can do almost anything with the platform.
2. Simple & Efficient – I can typically take any theme concept and have a fully functional WordPress theme in a matter of hours.
3. Fun – I truly do have fun developing on WordPress. I discover great new ways to implement functionality with every theme I develop.

Darren Hoyt

1. For front-end designers and PHP novices, it’s an easy and flexible platform to learn
2. The Codex is a great resource
3. I enjoy online publishing in all its forms and WordPress/Automattic has a great formula

2. How much time did it take you to go from beginner to advanced in your WordPress skills.

Adii Pienaar

I’d estimate probably around 12 – 18 months. Depends on what you really mean with advanced skill though… Also – I’m definitely still learning every single day. So I think that being an “advanced user” means you’re in the WP Function Reference on a daily basis keeping up with what’s happening with WP and learning new ways of coding things within the WP environment.

Nathan Rice

It took about 1 month to become proficient in WordPress theming, but it took about a year to become what I consider an “expert”. Advanced techniques and skills necessary for plugin development is a skill that isn’t easily acquired by someone who primarily works on the front end of web development.

Ptah Dunbar

Depends on how you define “advance” as I’m still learning the ins and outs of the WordPress core. But from a theme authoring perspective, I’d say ~3 months coming from no PHP knowledge.

Ian Stewart

I don’t think I’m “advanced” at all so it’s hard to say. How about, it didn’t seem like it was a long time until I felt comfortable taking on challenges in WordPress? In fact I was quickly surprised at just what I could do.

Jason Schuller

I started developing on WordPress just to see what all the hype was about and was instantly addicted. I want to say that it took me a good 6 months to become an “advanced” user and then another 6 to really hone those skills.

Darren Hoyt

I wouldn’t consider myself advanced in terms of writing innovative code. I always design interfaces first and then experiment with the code until I can get it to do what I want. To get to that point, it took me about 6 months of reading the Codex and testing out ideas.

3. Where would you say WordPress is in terms of it’s Life Cycle?

Adii Pienaar

I’d guess that it’s pretty mature at the moment, even though I still expect it to continue growing; at least in terms of becoming a more generally accepted CMS of choice for corporates / enterprises.

Nathan Rice

That’s a tough one to answer. I really think that 2.7 was a major step forward in the UI, and having one-click updates is a feature that will keep users upgrading for years in the future. I think WordPress has finally reached a level of maturity that will likely make it a permanent fixture in the world of Content Management Systems.

Ptah Dunbar

an 18 year old teenager.

Ian Stewart

I hope it’s still in it’s infancy and think it’s got a lot of life in it. It certainly shows no sign of slowing down.

Jason Schuller

I would say that WordPress is still climbing and has a good few years until it peaks (if it peaks at all). As of now, there seems to be no end in sight, but who knows what the future holds and who the next “Matt” is sitting in his/her bedroom coding up the next best thing.

Darren Hoyt

I couldn’t make that prediction, especially when web publishing is still young and unpredictable.

4. Your thoughts on what should be the next major step in WordPress’ development.

Adii Pienaar

I’m still hoping that WP will become a fully-fledged CMS system, instead of a blogging platform which can play-pretend like a CMS. So maybe something a little closer to ExpressionEngine?

Ptah Dunbar

custom post types!

Ian Stewart

Appeasing people who want it to be a full-featured content-management system. It sorta is now but just isn’t quite there. Best-case scenario: WordPress adopts a suite of plugins—much like what happened with BuddyPress—that add the functionality folks are looking for. Stuff like content-type management. I know there’s plugins out there that can help with this but I don’t like trusting make-or-break content management to them. Throw the weight of the WordPress community behind a plugin project—again, like BuddyPress, or Drupal’s CCK & Views Plugins—and you’ve got a contender.

Jason Schuller

This is a hard question to answer. I really wish there was a bit more flexibility (without the use of a plugin) as to where, when, how posts can be displayed without a ton of work hacking the loop.

Darren Hoyt

I’d love more built-in options when it comes to building forms and implementing custom-field data. More and more people are using WordPress as a CMS, not a blog.

5. Have you ever Used WordPress for anything other than a traditional blog or site.

Adii Pienaar

Sure. Look at WooThemes.com.

Nathan Rice

Of course. It’s a great system for use outside its traditional purpose.

Ptah Dunbar

Totally, it’s my day job.

Jason Schuller

Nearly every theme I have designed for WordPress has been intended for something other than just a standard blog. People need to realize that WordPress can be used for so much more.

Darren Hoyt

I recently used it as an aggregator (WPTopics.com) and with the use of custom fields, found it pretty easy to put together.

6. What’s your top 5 plugins.

Adii Pienaar

I’m not really a plugin man at all. Apart from Akismet, I only install plugins on new WP installs if I actually need them. The new Analytics360 by Alex King is kinda awesome though.

Nathan Rice

1. Akismet
2. Contact Form 7
3. Subscribe to Comments
4. WP-Super-Cache
5. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)

Ptah Dunbar

backtype connect, theme test drive, filler, svnup, akismet

Ian Stewart

1. Akismet
2. WP Super Cache
3. Clean Slugs
4. Contact Form 7
5. Subscribe to Comments

Jason Schuller

I actually very rarely use any plugins/widgets (other than askimet) for any of my own WordPress powered sites. For me… it’s so much easier to build the functionality I am looking for directly into the theme.

Darren Hoyt

More Fields, Super Cache, Google Syntax Highlighter, Subscribe to Comments, Tweetbacks

7. Your idea of what a WordPress Framework should be like.

Adii Pienaar

Frameworks? Pfff… Not my cup of tea.

Nathan Rice

Prodigy, http://prodigytheme.com/. Abstracted, Extensible, Lightweight, Feature-Rich, and in constant development. Ideally, a theme framework should be as easy to use for regular joes as it is for hardcore developers.

Ptah Dunbar

An easy to use, flexible, extensible, skin-able, well-documented CMS that provides the infrastructure and basic set of functionality towards building any type of website or online publishing application.

Ian Stewart

There’s a WordPress Developer named Dan Cole who really gets this. He breaks “Framework” Themes into two categories: Starter Themes and Modular Themes. Starter Themes are sometimes called “blank” themes. They don’t have any graphics and minimal CSS. They’re meant for hacking up. Open up a template file, move some code around, add on to the existing CSS and boom, you’ve got a custom WordPress Theme. I think Starter Themes are great. But I don’t consider them true Frameworks. I think a WordPress Theme Framework should be a Modular Theme. One you can interact with via a Child Theme just like Plugins interact with WordPress. Modular Themes typically use the WordPress Hook System to give you way more control than your typical Parent-Child Theme relationship and make WordPress Theming ridiculously easy. Really.

Jason Schuller

The best “framework” in my opinion is a blank template. One folder containing a foundation of blank files (header.php, index.php, footer.php, etc.) and empty folders (images, scripts, css, etc.) necessary to create any WordPress theme. Yes, I have templated styles, functions and code that I reuse and modify for each theme that I make, but for the most part, I can crank out the “basic” groundwork for any theme concept I have made within about 30 minutes using my template. I guess what I am saying is that if you have a relatively solid understanding for WordPress theme development, there really is no need to use a “Theme Framework” developed by someone else simply because it will never be perfect for your specific needs.

Darren Hoyt

I think it depends on the audience. I’m in the process of releasing something that’s part framework, part baseline theme. It’s tough not get bogged down in the terminology. Mine is geared toward front-end designers who want to rapidly build client sites, but others geared toward more ambitious developers (Thematic, Hybrid) are incredibly useful. It all depends on the project.

8. Do you use any framework and so why, if not why?

Adii Pienaar

We use a development framework – with a generic themes backend – over at WooThemes, but it’s not a framework to the extent that Thematic, Prodigy or Hybrid is… I guess I just don’t like the framework + child theme approach.

Nathan Rice

My site, NathanRice.net, is built on Prodigy.

Ptah Dunbar

When I started creating WordPress themes back in the 2.0 days, there weren’t any concrete standards for themes, everyone just pulled code from kubrick. So overtime I developed a blank state WordPress theme which I would use for all my WordPress projects that had all the bells and whistles of the latest offerings of WordPress. I figured others could benefit from this and that’s how WP Framework came into fruition.

Ian Stewart

I tend to use the Thematic Framework a lot. I don’t know why, there’s just something about it I like. (ok ok of course thematic, silly question, LOL)

Jason Schuller

I use the same base template (as explained in the previous question) for all my themes. I really can’t see myself using one specific framework for all my development needs. I don’t like being limited to the boundaries of the framework.

Darren Hoyt

I use the same baseline PSDs and baseline/theme framework (codenamed ‘Gravy’) for every project.

9. Your WordPress Plugin Wishlist.

Adii Pienaar

See my top 5 plugins response.

Nathan Rice

I don’t really have one. Most of the time, if I want a particular piece of functionality, I just make a theme or plugin myself.

Ptah Dunbar

A WordPress fork of cck that’ll integrate with WordPress custom post types (when that’s available). A comprehensive security plugin that has all the bells and whistles needed to keep your blog secure.

Ian Stewart

Drupal’s CCK for WordPress. With some community oomph behind it.

Jason Schuller

I really don’t have any. Plugins are way overrated in my opinion and used in the wrong way for the wrong reasons quite often by the typical WordPress user.

10. Your take on how the GPL affects theme & plugin development.

Adii Pienaar

I think it probably affects plugin development a little more, as plugin authors can learn from each other. On the themes front, I think all of us learned how to code WP themes by looking at other WP themes, which would’ve been difficult had it not been GPL’ed and freely available.

Nathan Rice

Thankfully, there hasn’t been much impact on the market. I think that adopting the GPL is a great thing to do, if for no other reason than to honor the values of WordPress itself.

Ptah Dunbar

My views on the GPL are nothing but positive. I fully support it and I think that if you’re going to try and build a sustainable business around it, you’ll just have to come up with some creative business models, that’s all. It’s changeling but rewarding.

Ian Stewart

The GPL throws a hyperspace warp-drive behind WordPress Theme and Plugin development. It’s as simple as that.

Jason Schuller

Currently there seems to be an influx of people redistributing unmodified GPL code (themes in particular) which is disturbing to me. I realize that redistribution of unmodified code is well within the rights of the GPL, but I would love to see a little more community interaction with GPL’d themes in particular. Take a theme… customize it… make it better… then redistribute it. I realize that some people might disagree with this position, but I honestly do not see the value in redistribution of unmodified GPL’d code.

11. Your all time favourite WordPress based site

Nathan Rice

Probably FITSNews.com. It’s a news site for my home state of South Carolina and I was fortunate enough to get to build the theme for it. It gets tons of traffic, and WordPress + WP-Super-Cache holds up really well.

Ptah Dunbar

None in particular.

Ian Stewart

That would have to be WordPress Bits (http://wpbits.wordpress.com/). I wish it was still around.

Jason Schuller

This is like asking “what’s your favorite song or movie?”… There are just way too many to choose from to pick just one.

Darren Hoyt

I like WP Tavern and the Tavern forums because Jeff genuinely seems to love what he does and the crowd there are productive and helpful.

12. Your WordPress dreamteam.

Adii Pienaar

I’d take Ian Stewart, Nathan Rice, Alex King, Lester Chan & Joost de Valk any time.

Nathan Rice

The theme developers I respect the most are:

• Brian Gardner, for his uncanny ability to strike gold in everything he does
• Ian Stewart for being a pioneer and continuing to do great work
• Chris Pearson for his slick minimalism and serious code skillz
• Justin Tadlock for his unbelievable knowledge of all things WordPress, under the hood.

I also admire the coding style of Ozh from PlanetOzh.com. I learned plugin development by dissecting his plugins and copying his style. You can see his handywork all over my code.

Ptah Dunbar

All the influencers in the community (theme/plugin authoring, ma.tt and core devs).

Ian Stewart

http://wordpress.org/about/

Jason Schuller

I would love to work with some of the WordPress heavyweights to dream up 1 “Dream Theme” (I just checked and that domain is already taken). It would be fun to work with Adii, Brian, Nathan, and the rest of the guys to see what we could come up with.

Darren Hoyt

I would love to design a theme idea, build the HTML/CSS and let Justin Tadlock build the functionality. And then let Jeffro hype it.

13. Do you use any other CMS type systems other than WordPress? If so why & for what?

Adii Pienaar

Not at the moment. If I had more time, I’d probably spend it learning how to develop for ExpressionEngine, because of it’s more advanced CMS functionality (compared to WP’s).

Nathan Rice

Nope.

Ptah Dunbar

I’m dabling with Radient, but that’s only to learn more ruby on rails. I’ve also played with habari which is great stuff (on a technical level), but WordPress is my thing for the moment.

Ian Stewart

I’m a really huge fan of Drupal. It’s an amazing system. Most notably I used it to create a custom private intranet for tracking project status. It lets 3 companies across Canada keep track of where their jobs are at, as they’re being produced. It’s really super-cool but here’s the kicker: it took me less than a day of work to get a working demo ready.

Jason Schuller

Not anymore. I used to use Joomla, but gave it up long ago for WordPress. Everything else just seems so bloated at this point.

Darren Hoyt

I use Expression Engine, but less and less. I’m doing less production these days and trying to just focus on design and interface.

14. Anything you would change about WordPress if you could.

Nathan Rice

Probably. But nothing major. Most of the things I would like to see changed are already on the roadmap for future versions of WordPress.

Ptah Dunbar

I’ve got a few nit picks here and there, but nothing that warrants any mentions. WordPress is in a transitioning period so I’ll wait and see.

Ian Stewart

A non-janky WordPress solution to managing page menus that didn’t involve weight. WordPress needs to take a load off Fanny and get that happening.

Jason Schuller

Twitter.com limits users to 140 characters or less. I think WordPress should limit users to 4 plugins or less.

15. With twitter stealing the show and Google wave on the horizon, where do you think WordPress fits into the picture?

Adii Pienaar

I don’t think that WP is related to either of those, but I also think that WP will benefit from the growth of both. The thing is, that if WP is used as an aggregation space for what we’re doing online, on other networks / services, then there’s real value in the content / activity that one can aggregate on one’s own domain.

Nathan Rice

With Twitter and Google, you’re entirely dependent on 3rd party networks. The great thing about WordPress, and blogs in general, is that you own the space. That’s something that Twitter and other social networking sites can never duplicate.

Ptah Dunbar

Where it always was, on your domain. If you like owning your own data and having complete control over it, WordPress fits the bill.

Ian Stewart

Twitter hasn’t stolen anything and Google Wave won’t swamp blogging. Simple online publishing from a single, authoritative point will be even more important as the web becomes more and more fractured and cacophonous. WordPress helps you get a voice out there. Something that gets over the din. It’ll fit in nicely.

Jason Schuller

There will always be plugins & widgets bringing the functionality of both into WordPress or content from WordPress into twitter and wave. These things will always be connected in one way or another.

Darren Hoyt

There will always be a need for longform or freeform publishing on the web. It may go through periods of unpopularity, but I’ll always be glad to know platforms like WordPress exist to make it possible.

16. Where is Small Potato?

Adii Pienaar

At home?

Nathan Rice

You’d have to ask him. I’m sure if you asked around, someone has his email address.

Ptah Dunbar

Where is Waldo? I have no clue. He’ll make his grand appearance when the time comes. WordPress & it’s community is just too awesome to be easily forgotten. As for Waldo, well, I’m still looking for that guy…

Ian Stewart

He’s somewhere out there fighting the elephant in the room gladiator style. Keep him in your prayers lest he fall and we all become wamboozled.

Jason Schuller

Hopefully wherever he wants to be enjoying life to the fullest. I think he left the scene for a reason, and he seems to be sticking to his guns.

Darren Hoyt

Shangri-La Me: Yeah I know, silly question, just couldn’t resist and honestly, I’d really like to know where he dissappeared to as he was instrumental in helping me get into using WordPress back in the day. If you’re out there Small P, we miss you and would like a shout.

17. Your favourite new feature in WP 2.8

Adii Pienaar

The widget interface definitely.

Nathan Rice

Definitely the Widgets API. Building Widgets has never been easier. Plus, the new widget interface is much improved as well.

Ptah Dunbar

The WP_Upgrader class.

Ian Stewart

I love the new widget experience. And the Theme installer. Anything that makes getting upgrades out to users—like the new Theme installer—is appreciated.

Jason Schuller

Hands down… the new Widget interface. Finally, widgets have a purpose.

Darren Hoyt

I’m glad they finally included dynamic <body> classes.

18. Your thoughts on HTML5 and how that might affect WordPress development.

Adii Pienaar

Where am I gonna find the time to *really* have a look at HTML5? Dunno, but when I have found the time, I’ll answer that question.

Nathan Rice

Ask me in 2-4 years, when HTML5 is actually relevant. As long as IE dominates the browser market, all the cool HTML5 features are useless. And without those new features, HTML5 isn’t that much different from previous versions.

Ptah Dunbar

HTML5 and CSS3 will open up a slew of new innovations for the web. It’s only natural that WordPress will get some of that action. We just have to wait until they’re fully supported (or at least a good portion of it) in all modern browsers.

Ian Stewart

I think it’s sort of a non-issue at this point. It’s not like XHTML is broken or anything. That said, HTML 5 promises a lot of cool stuff and adds some tags that make your content more semantic. That’s always a good thing.

Jason Schuller

By the time HTML5 is widely adopted, who knows if WordPress will even still be around. Consider how long it has taken IE6 to die. I think the worldwide adoption/support for HTML5/CSS3 is a long ways off.

Darren Hoyt

It will be nice to see HTML 5 tags logically

19. What’s your favourite place to get info about WordPress

Adii Pienaar

There’s no one website / blog, so I tend to follow all the main peeps. WPTavern as however emerged as one of my favourites.

Nathan Rice

WeblogToolsCollection.com is still the go-to resource for all things WordPress. Other than that, I can think of 9 other places that are pretty cool: http://www.nathanrice.net/blog/10-sites-that-produce-quality-wordpress-content/

Ptah Dunbar

WP Tavern and twitter tidbits.

Ian Stewart

The WordPress Tavern. I think it should be in the official dashboard news. It has a real voice and never stoops to bland pointless posting of lists or parroting of rehashed official news. And get this: the posts aren’t built around driving affiliate sales. It’s a must read if you want a handle on the WordPress community. The WordPress Tavern Forum is great too. There’s real live WordPress nerds in there. Approachable ones even. There’s nothing like it. And when Matt Mullenweg needed to get the skinny on Commercial GPL Themes, where do you think he went first?

Jason Schuller

The WordPress.org codex. Anything you need is right there waiting for you. For some really cool code bits, Nathan Rice is starting to provide some great info as well. http://www.nathanrice.net/

Darren Hoyt

WPTopics.com

20. Last Words?

Adii Pienaar

Shot for including me as a WP heavyweight!

Ptah Dunbar

WordPress is in exciting times. You should get involved and join on in the fun!

Ian Stewart

Thanks for letting me take part in this.

Jason Schuller

WordPress has changed my life in more ways than one. I never expected my career to be based on something like WordPress, but things just kind of turned out that way. I have played around with other platforms, but in my opinion, the the community that has been built around WordPress is irreplaceable.

Me: I’d like to thank the guys for their time and their insight. My apologies for some of the silly questions. I hope the readers benefit from some of their points. We’d like to know what you think. Who did we miss out here, anyone you think needs to be on this list. Bear in mind I have contacted quite a few well known WordPress developers and designers. If you like this interview please share, retweet or share your thoughts. I hope to do another few rounds with a few more strategic questions so will be hunting down a list of willing participants. Seeyall next time WP freaks.

The Event will take place at the Bandwidth Barn in Buitengracht street in Cape Town’s CBD.

Date: 28 September 2009

Time: 16:30

Talks: offer to speak

• Talk about the next WordCamp in SA
• The evolution of BuddyPress & Child Themes – Ashley Shaw
• WordPress & SEO – Rafiq Phillips
• Intro to WordPress Coding – Nur (depends on interest)

Still Need:

• Projector
• More speakers
• Any sponsors (snacks etc)
• Ideas for talks & activities
• Help spreading the word

We know there’s very little time left so we’re hoping you’ll all pitch in with the promotion over the next few days and also attend yourselves. Loads ave been happening in the WordPress world over the last year and there’s tons to talk about so it looks like it’s gonna be a real fin event once again.

Add your name to the wiki – http://wiki.geekdinner.org.za/wiki/WordPress.org.za_Meetup_4

Come join the fun and meet the community, have your say and maybe learn a thing or 2.

Having designed the Jayz Corporate Identity a while back, and then styling his previous site, it was a welcome experience taking it another step further with this latest re-brand. This re-design focused much more on personal branding, something which I think I need to pay a little more attention to myself, but which Jayz does really well.

So what do you think of the Jayz new look?

Look & Feel

I suppose explaining where I’m going with this desert scene might help for starters. The nomad concept has been with me for some time, though not in this form. As you may know, I’m no city slicker. I’m also very much set on remaining as independent as possible, something the Bedouin values extremely highly. I’m a traveler at heart. So this is partly where the desert scene comes in.

Saving Space with some Ajax/Design Patterns

Regarding the layout and general interface, there’s a few space saving design patterns I want to build into the homepage, which include using some jquery tabs, a slider and an accordion to fit everything into a smaller space. My current design is way too long and lacks a few features above the fold. I don’t want to loose anything but feel I need to tuck lots of excess away in a more logical manner.

Integrating Social

I definitely need to integrate my social links into the interface much higher up the page, as well as include a twitter feed, what would we do without twitter. I like the idea of a user generated feed or post wall but am uncertain how this might impact the space on the homepage.

Showing my Portfolio work

Something I have failed hopelessly at s keeping an up to date portfolio area. I don;t even have a latest work feature on my current site so this is a must have i think. Of course it needs to be coded in such a way that it’s easy to maintain as well me always being pressed for time.

Quick Contact & Chat widget

I’d also like to include a few quick ways of getting in touch, like a mini form as well as skype me & gtalk widgets which allow people to chat with me directly when I’m online, which is like all the time.

My Blog area will remain pretty much the same in terms of it’s location and general functionality, but of course in needs some space saving neatening up. I also need to get a featured post sorted. I’ve been toying with the idea of having 3 main areas of featured posts, and running titles of these in the header area somewhere but haven’t fully embraced this idea yet.

Menu with Subtext

I really love the idea of menu links with sub text explaining the links in more detail so these are almost definitley going to be part of my next menu. I also need to rework the way I display my pages, what stays, what goes and what needs to be added. Lots of information-architecture work lies ahead, and the dreaded writing!

Header Message

My header will have to have a brief explanation of where you are and who i am, some kind of elevator pitch style slogan. I’m considering having a few messages, one for first timers and a few others for returning visitors. I like the way yoast.com addresses the visitor based on where they have come from.

What do you think? Want to earn your own design/redesign?

I’m thinking of turning this into some kind of competition, asking for feedback and awarding the best advice a design of their own. What you you think? Would you be interested in participating in something like that?