Taking WordPress to the Bench Press

Are your WordPress muscles feeling a little flabby? Did you indulge in one too many Sangrias this summer and now your code looks like the "before" picture from a late-night infomercial?

Join us on Tuesday, August 23, 2011, at 7 pm, in our air conditioned Training facilty at 1000 Waverley Street for a WordPress Power-Up Workout!

In this intermediate step-by-step session, you'll learn how to bend WordPress to your will by building a WordPress-powered portfolio. You'll learn WordPress development techniques that boost your productivity and will make your life easier. This session is targeted toward code-savvy designers who are already familiar with WordPress and want to take their skills to the next level, and developers who are looking to strengthen their WordPress chops. The skills and techniques you'll learn on Tuesday will be transferrable to many future projects.

Our trainer Matt Wiebe is a web designer, developer, and WordPress expert. He uses WordPress as a web publishing platform, and molds it in so many innovative ways that he has trouble remembering the last pure blog he built with it. As part of his tutorial on creating a WordPress-powered portfolio he will teach you all the geeky bits you yearn for like:

How to create a child theme from the default WordPress theme "TwentyEleven":

• WP nomenclature between parent/child and template/stylesheet

How to create a “portfolio” post_type:

• Familiarizing learners with WP’s register_post_type() function and its various options
• Setting up your URL structure

Adding the “featured image” capability - where each portfolio item has an associated image:

• Introducing the add_image_size() function

How to add metadata to a Portfolio Item:

• For example: Deliverable, Work Done, Agency, URL of finished work
• Introducing the More Fields plugin & Tribe_Meta_Box as ways to work with metadata easily

Using template files for custom post types:

• bonus points: overriding a template location using the template_include filter

How to build a WordPress template:

• Using the given loop
• Overriding the loop
• Retrieving and displaying metadata
• Single portfolio view

How to infuse JavaScript into WordPress:

• wp_enqueue_script and wp_enqueue_style

If none of this makes sense to you - it's ok! Even though this particular session is targeted toward Intermediate WordPress body builders, there is plenty of useful bits you can glean if you're just starting out. It will be assumed that you have some background in Wordpress development, but all are welcome to attend.

As always we'll have "healthy" goodies and drinks on hand provided you register in advance.