INF 270: WordPress — Week 1: Introduction
Welcome!
Links and resources:
WordPress basics
WordPress is a content management system (CMS): it helps you create, edit, organize, and publish content on the web without writing code for every change.
It’s also an application platform: you can extend it with themes (how it looks) and plugins (what it does).
Core ideas
- Admin vs. public side: you manage content in the dashboard; visitors see the front-end.
- Content types: posts and pages are built-in; many sites add custom types (events, products, courses).
- Theme: controls layout, styling, and templates.
- Plugin: adds features and integrations (forms, SEO, security, analytics).
- Blocks: modern WordPress editing is largely block-based (content and layout are composed of blocks).
- Users and roles: different permissions for admins, editors, authors, etc.
How a WordPress site is typically “made”
- Pick/define the content you need (pages, posts, menus).
- Choose a theme (or build one) to match the design and structure.
- Install/configure plugins for required features.
- Create the content and build navigation.
- Test on real devices, then launch and maintain (updates/backups).
Mini-glossary
- Dashboard: the admin UI where you manage the site.
- Media Library: where images/files are uploaded and managed.
- Permalink: the URL format for content (important for SEO and consistency).
- Widget/Block pattern: reusable UI pieces used to build pages.
WordPress as a platform: UI vs. filesystem
One of the most useful ways to understand WordPress is as a platform with two “control surfaces”:
- The UI: what you can do in the WordPress dashboard (and the Site Editor).
- The filesystem: what you change in code (themes, plugins, templates, and configuration).
Most real projects use both. Your job as a developer is to decide where a change belongs and why.
What “UI” usually means in WordPress
- Creating and editing content: posts, pages, media, navigation menus.
- Designing with blocks: the Block Editor (Gutenberg) and, for block themes, the Site Editor.
- Managing site behavior through settings and plugins: users, permalinks, forms, SEO, security.
- Theme customization through exposed options (Customizer or theme settings), when available.
UI changes are great when you want non-developers to own updates. The tradeoff is that UI-driven changes can be harder to version-control, review, and replicate across environments.
What “filesystem” usually means in WordPress
- Themes: templates, styling, and presentation logic.
- Plugins: reusable features and integrations (forms, membership, custom APIs).
- Custom post types and fields: modeling content beyond “post/page”.
- Deployment: moving changes through dev → staging → production.
Filesystem changes are great when you need reliability, reuse, performance, and reviewable history. The tradeoff is that they require a dev workflow and can slow down rapid content iteration.
Quick examples: deciding where work belongs
Example 1: “Update office hours on the homepage” → usually UI (edit page content).
Example 2: “Every course page should show a consistent card layout and color scheme” → usually filesystem (theme styles and template structure).
Example 3: “Add a ‘Course’ content type with fields like code, credits, and prerequisites” → filesystem (custom post type + fields), with UI for editing entries.
Example 4: “Add a contact form that emails submissions and stores them” → could be UI (plugin install/config) or filesystem (custom plugin) depending on requirements.