With the release of WordPress 3.0, we were introduced to a new feature called custom post types. Since that time, CommAREus has been finding new ways to utilize this functionality to replace what was often handled by plug-ins in the past or simply managed by hand in the post editor. Despite our best efforts, the latter option often required the client to get involved in the HTML directly to achieve a certain layout which we always try to avoid.
For example, a client recently came to us looking to build a page in WordPress to list the members of an organization along with a photo of the member, their bio and contact information as seen below:
This layout could be achieved without the use of custom post types by styling the content by hand in the post editor, importing and aligning the images, applying any necessary classes, inserting the horizontal rules, etc. This approach may work for somebody with HTML experience, but can be an overwhelming task for somebody who does not. In addition, this solution can be prone to break the layout if you’re not careful when making changes or additions to the page.
Here is one situation where custom post types come in handy. We can define a new unique post type to manage this area of the site. This new post type can be managed from a new button with a custom icon in the dashboard as seen below:
This new post type can be custom tailored to accept the different pieces of content that make up each team member:
The post title is used for the team members name, the image is attached as the Featured Image, the bio is the post content and all other information is entered through the custom fields below the post editor:
Now that we have all of this information entered separately into WordPress, we can build a matching page template to describe how it should be displayed. This guarantees that:
the HTML will be formed correctly
the client won’t need to worry about breaking something
making changes will be as simple as modifying the template (rather than pages of previously written HTML)
Butch Stearns of the Pulse Network at the Boston IMS 2011
by Al Morel
For all the ‘Inbound Marketing’ fans out there — and who isn’t these days — many of the presentations given are available on line for your viewing pleasure. The Summit was this past September and was sponsored by The Pulse Network in Canton, MA. Enjoy!
OK, Guy Kawasaki is one of my online buddies, but he’s under suspicion. He’s of Asian decent, born in Hawaii, lives in California and plays hockey. If that’s not suspicious, I don’t know what is!
I loved his new book ‘Enchantment’ but instead of me blathering on about it, here’s a really cool summary of his book. A worthy read, IMO. =Al
Here’s an ad that we’re running on several blogs and websites this month. Good thing we know someone who can do ‘rockstar’ Flash ads! Btw, the ability to create the rockstar quality of this ad was not so much the actual animation, but the fact that the size of the ad is under 50K. Nice job Dan!
So, if you’ve ever had to restore a website because it’s been hacked, lost, or you forgot to pay your web hosting bill, you know the importance of having a backup. With a static website, it’s sort of easy, but now that many sites are being build using Content Management Systems, such as WordPress, it’s more complicated. For a site like this, there may be thousands of files, and they are all over the place.
One of the cool thing about open source software are all the add-on tools that are being developed to the core functionality. In the WordPress world, they call them ‘Plugins.’
When we started building sites using WordPress, there were about 6,000 plugins. Now there are over 13,000 and counting. Wow, that’s traction!
An amazing tool for websites is a plugin that backs your website automatically to Amazon’s S3 service. The plugin is called Automatic WordPress Backup and can be found HERE.
It backs up the entire site including the html, database, themes, plugins, uploaded files and settings files.
It is a totally automated backup and you can set it for daily, weekly, or monthly backup.
If uses Amazon S3, and if you haven’t used it yet, it’s really inexpensive. We back up about a dozen sites, and it costs us less than $5 per month.
OK, it requires certain levels of Linux & PHP to be in place and a few other things but most mainstream hosts offer what you need.
