Mods: Please let me know if this post is appropriate here or not. I don't want to break the rules.
I'm looking for an eBook on WordPress customization, and then another on TextPattern CMS customization. If you know a lot, can write the PDF, can pitch it to me briefly in a paragraph and give me a link back to the site where I can see the price (no discussion of prices here in this thread), I'll consider purchasing it.
Or, if you know of something listed on Amazon.com, I'll consider that as well.
I have done some WordPress customization, but I want to ensure I do it by recommended practices going forward. Specifically I am interested in the following customizations:
- Remove the Comments feature both in the Admin and the front-end.
- Remove the Posts feature both in the Admin and the front-end. (Leaving the Pages feature.)
- Resort Pages.
- Hide a Page.
- Retheme a page in various common formats.
- Add in my own custom widget such as my own AJAX-based Contact Form with a captcha (rolled from scratch, but glued in via the proper way to make a widget in WP.)
- Secure WP so that even if I customize one's WP (such that I break their upgrade functionality), hackers won't be able to break in because nothing will be standard, such as renaming /wp-admin to something else.
- Speeding up WP tremendously
- Friendly URLs via .htaccess and WP customization
Looking for 2 eBooks on WordPress and TextPattern CMS
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- JAB Creations
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Re: Looking for 2 eBooks on WordPress and TextPattern CMS
Well I suppose if the mods were being really strict they might move the thread to client side but I think this is general enough. 
I have been running a WordPress blog (for now) on my site for almost a year now. When I was customizing it I discovered their code was an utter nightmare. They create functions to do simple things like echo and I mean...it's just...you know build your own CMS or blog or find something better. The bloat is just too much to tolerate.
I messed a little with MySQL about one year ago...but didn't really start getting in to it until about half a year ago. I've already learned relational databases and have created a basic blog, forum, polls, and a chat room all using the same CMS system (which of course is written by me) all nicely integrated together...in about half a year while learning it all in the process. Granted I have a lot of time to do so though if you do too or at least two or three hours a day you'll end up kicking yourself for relying on third party modules. Oh and don't forget we have this nifty web developer community here where we help each other out.
I have been running a WordPress blog (for now) on my site for almost a year now. When I was customizing it I discovered their code was an utter nightmare. They create functions to do simple things like echo and I mean...it's just...you know build your own CMS or blog or find something better. The bloat is just too much to tolerate.
I messed a little with MySQL about one year ago...but didn't really start getting in to it until about half a year ago. I've already learned relational databases and have created a basic blog, forum, polls, and a chat room all using the same CMS system (which of course is written by me) all nicely integrated together...in about half a year while learning it all in the process. Granted I have a lot of time to do so though if you do too or at least two or three hours a day you'll end up kicking yourself for relying on third party modules. Oh and don't forget we have this nifty web developer community here where we help each other out.
- greyhoundcode
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Re: Looking for 2 eBooks on WordPress and TextPattern CMS
If you take a look at this link you will see a few books, two of which I have used to get me off the ground with WP (the 'theme design' and 'plugin development for beginners' titles).
Nothing revolutionary about their content, however as an insight into best practices etc with WP they're pretty good. For example, the plugin dev book covers a number of points regarding the standards expected of any plugins intended for external distribution.
Although I'm not sure every point you listed is covered in these books you'll certainly come to a rapid understanding of how you can remove comments (can be done theme-side for example) and rolling your own widgets.
Nothing revolutionary about their content, however as an insight into best practices etc with WP they're pretty good. For example, the plugin dev book covers a number of points regarding the standards expected of any plugins intended for external distribution.
Although I'm not sure every point you listed is covered in these books you'll certainly come to a rapid understanding of how you can remove comments (can be done theme-side for example) and rolling your own widgets.
Regarding the above, I would content that the number of situations where you actually need to go hacking through the WP codebase are minimal. If you've got a good handle on plugins and themes you can get WP to do pretty much whatever you like, and pretty quickly too.JAB Creations wrote:When I was customizing it I discovered their code was an utter nightmare.
- volomike
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Re: Looking for 2 eBooks on WordPress and TextPattern CMS
Thanks Greyhound on your other suggestions. On the issues of plugins, however, I've found trouble. The plugins aren't as varied as I liked. Some are quite the hack. Some slow down the system (like the tab resorter). Some of the contact form tools could use a good bit of restyling to catch up with the modern world. So, for the most part, I like to roll my own plugins unless some plugin out there is just too good.greyhoundcode wrote:If you've got a good handle on plugins and themes you can get WP to do pretty much whatever you like, and pretty quickly too.
- greyhoundcode
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Re: Looking for 2 eBooks on WordPress and TextPattern CMS
In total agreement with you there - when I say you can get it to do almost anything with plugins I don't necessarily mean other people's plugins, rather it often comes down to coding your own.
Saying that, there are a number of very well written plugins you can download from Wordpress Extend, I'm sure you're finding that out if you haven't already.
Something else I might add to my prev post is that I have been very disappointed in the lack of info on putting together good dashboard admin panels - granted it's easy enough to knock something basic looking together - but taking advantage of the new WP 2.7 look can be awkward to say the least - neither the books I mentioned previously nor the official developer docs cover this adequately.
Finally, regarding some plugins slowing down the system (and I appreciate this won't work with every plugin, certainly not plugins that are required to do work on every page load), sometimes I have found that breaking up single-file plugins into two separate files (the code that hooks, and the code that does the work) can prevent a massive slow-down.
(Edit) Quick edit to make my last paragraph clearer - many of the plugins available on Extend are single files - and it is (some of) those that I refer to.
Saying that, there are a number of very well written plugins you can download from Wordpress Extend, I'm sure you're finding that out if you haven't already.
Something else I might add to my prev post is that I have been very disappointed in the lack of info on putting together good dashboard admin panels - granted it's easy enough to knock something basic looking together - but taking advantage of the new WP 2.7 look can be awkward to say the least - neither the books I mentioned previously nor the official developer docs cover this adequately.
Finally, regarding some plugins slowing down the system (and I appreciate this won't work with every plugin, certainly not plugins that are required to do work on every page load), sometimes I have found that breaking up single-file plugins into two separate files (the code that hooks, and the code that does the work) can prevent a massive slow-down.
(Edit) Quick edit to make my last paragraph clearer - many of the plugins available on Extend are single files - and it is (some of) those that I refer to.