Pods + WordPress = Cool Fun!

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volomike
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Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:04 am
Location: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA

Pods + WordPress = Cool Fun!

Post by volomike »

Been having fun with this lately. I recommend all PHP developers invest time in learning WordPress Codex, Template Tags, and this new thing called the Pods Plugin. I'm working with a client right now and it's been a lot of fun.

I first started with the design on Ubuntu Linux using Inkscape and Gimp. I took product images into Gimp and cut out backgrounds, imported into Inkscape, and got the client satisfied with how the site was going to look. I let that sit awhile so that the client had plenty of time to request changes in the design.

Next, over the past year I've been able to create XHTML/CSS of anything I see thanks to the support I received here on this website. I can now do stuff in record time. Plus, if there's anything that's just plain impossible, I can fix it with jQuery. So, I took the design out of Inkscape and created XHTML/CSS pages.

From there, I used the Jestro tutorial, as well as other tutorials on Smashing Magazine and other places on how to convert an XHTML/CSS template into a custom WordPress theme.

Next stop, I installed and learned this new thing called the Pods Plugin (http://pods.uproot.us/) where my custom theme now has an easy admin backend where my clients can add, remove, and update content without much fuss.

Last, I downloaded the Fluency Admin plugin and reverse-engineered how it worked. Within a day, and without much hassle, I created my own admin theme plugin just for clients -- hiding things that they don't need to mess with and so that they focus basically on the Pods control panel in WP. WordPress also has a short tutorial on their site on how to make your very own custom WP theme. Basically it's a process of learning the add_action() function and tacking on some extra code under various events. From that code, I was able to load some jQuery and/or CSS and start hiding things on the admin pages, renaming them into something more presentable to the client, restyling them, etc.

This sort of thing is great for turning out corporate websites. I've eliminated Pages, Posts, and Comments because the model doesn't apply in some cases to some business websites, and then make everything run through Pods. But by using WordPress, I don't have to build the admin pages, and I get a rich set of WP Plugins that I can add in, including a forum. And if they ever want to add a blog-like feature to their site, we're already in a great platform for that.
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