August Meeting

[Mike Little]

Folks,

I've just announced the August meeting on Meetup.com http://www.meetup.com/ManchesterWordPressUserGroup/events/73997042/  Please sign up to let me know you are coming. It helps us plan the seating.

For some reason Meetup duplicated the meeting and we ended up with two! I've deleted the duplicate, so if you signed up to say you were coming to the one I deleted, please sign up to the proper one (http://www.meetup.com/ManchesterWordPressUserGroup/events/73997042/ ), sorry for the confusion. I sent you each an email.

As discussed at the last meeting, we want to change things around a little and split the evening into two sessions: one more techie aimed at developers (or aspiring developers) with the main one aimed at everyone else (from beginners to more experienced users).

My initial thoughts are we have the main session run 6.30 - 7.45

with the techie session after, perhaps 8.00 - 9.15

Those from the main session who wish to stay for the techie session can do so, of course. The rest might consider popping across the road to continue chatting in the pub.

What are your thoughts? I'm open to suggestions. This first time will be an experiment to see how it goes, we may change around afterwards. So please pitch in with suggestions.

Also pitch in with suggestions for what we could cover for either session. As usual, if anyone wants to present something to the rest of the group please shout up here. It doesn't have to be long and fancy (it doesn't even need slides!). Just come up front for 10 minutes and show us a great new theme you found or tell us about a super plugin and how you used it. Or anything else. 

Don't be shy, we're here to help each other.

Mike

--
Mike Little
http://zed1.com/

[Doug Lawrence]

Thanks for the notification Mike

With all the help the community has given me I'd be happy to contribute in any way I can.  

I could talk about a very small plugin "Meta Tag Manager" which allows me to add more meta tag ownership verification codes than I could with WordPress hosted

The plugin is very simple, but for me it means I can register my sites with Google, Bing, Yahoo! (huh?), Yandex, Majestic SEO and Alexa. Which ought to help with SEO.

I think for beginners the plugin is easy to understand and for the more advanced it might be interesting to discuss whether this could be done with Joost's plugin (I couldn't see a way to do this) and whether it really helps with SEO

I could also talk about 

- Why I moved to self hosting

- Why I moving to WordPress (from a mixture of Drupal, DreamWeaver and Expression)

- My work with UKTI work with exporters and how web developers can help them (this is a longer presentation though I guess)

- Anything to do with multi-lingual / multi-locale websites I have a mix of ccTLDs, sub-domains, geo-targeted directories and in-country hosted sites (but again that might be a bit too long)

If there is anything else you might like me to talk about please let me know

My friend Lone, who attended your excellent training course :)  also plans to attend on the 15th she has a mixed Danish/English/Farsi site which people might be interested to see

I'm not sure how much of this is helpful, but I feel a bit guilty seeing you have to do everything ...

Thanks again for all your help I really appreciate it

Best regards

Doug

--
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[Philip Valentino]

Mike, All, sadly could not make this months meeting.

I do think its a good idea to have two streams for sure.

eg I would be interested in a "Security for Devs" session / contribute to agenda setting

regards

phil

[John Logsdon]

Folks

First sorry I was not able to be there on Wednesday - I was otherwise engaged
but had spent a very useful weekend up in Edinburgh at WordCampUK so I don't
feel that deprived! And I will be away all of August so the next meeting for
me is in September :-(

The two-session idea sounds good as long as it will fit in with MadLab and is
not too onerous on Mike. I suppose he will get a break in between ....!

I may not make the earlier part but then I am mainly interested in server
areas and the more techie stuff anyway. This also may avoid the venue from
overflowing.

Security and things like that are important, as is server configuration and
stuff, even if most people don't have server admin access.

I am also interested in optimising the web server, different web servers and
server hardening.

One of the best attended talks in Edinburgh was by Kieron O'Shea's Secure from
the Start talk which revealed the average time before people realise they've
been hacked is 167 days - almost 6 months. By a show of hands, probably 50%
of the (expert) people in the room had been hacked at some time - and that's
counting those who know they've been hacked! (He showed us an actual hacking
on a Raspberry Pi which was interesting!)

Anyway the extended session idea gets my vote....

> --



--
Best wishes

John Logsdon

[Sue Lawson]

Hi

I think the two session idea is a good one. Makes sense to me!

Sue (@shedsue)

[Osama bin Murphy]

Hi Mike,

As a newbie with wordpress and coming from playing about with concrete5 I love the idea of a twin track event as it would enable me and other non pro SRV types to get the most from wordpress and in turn help others along the way too.   Coupled with the existing transcripts that get posted it would mean if the second talk was on say security, one could research the missing parts to come up to speed with the speaker and later if needed share their progress!!!!

Dependant on northern rail for meetings  :(

Mick

[Rhys Wynne]

Sounds great :)

One thing I'd be keen to learn about is styling Administration Menus in WordPress Plugins. I've had a play with add_meta_box and can't get it to work unfortunately, so keen to learn. (Advanced topic, I'd assume!)

[Richard Tape]

Hey Rhys,

What is it you're trying to do? add_meta_box() will allow you to add a new box within which you can add extra inputs for the user to enter (i.e. text boxes, text areas, checkboxes etc.) You add those to the add/edit post/page (or CPT) screens.

"Styling the administration menus" is where I'm a little uncertain as to what you mean. If you give me an example of what you're trying to do (just in words, not with code) then I'm sure between us we'll be able to point you in the direction. And then, when Mike reads it, he'll be able to tell you the real answer :)

Rich

[Richard Tape]

Hey folks,

Just a suggestion for the 'dev' part of August MWUG. How about a relatively quick session on how to actually add a patch to WordPress. There's a few assumptions you can make with this

1) A user has already written code to enhance WP

2) They have the modified core file(s)

So, I guess what I'm suggesting is how to create the .diff files and then upload them to trac.

Especially with the current momentum post-wordcampUK with regards to accessibility I think if we were to go through this at MWUG and someone was to write up the whole process (I'd happily do this) - perhaps even making a screencast, this could be something that really helps plenty of people out - not just those that attend MWUG.

I know a few people who want (and are capable) of helping improve WP but are put off by trac.

I really like the idea of having 'two streams' - I really hope we start seeing people migrate from the early session to the late - that would be a fantastic sign of progress.

Rich

[Mike Little]

Thanks everyone for the feedback so far. Some great ideas coming in.

Please keep it coming.

[Azizur Rahman]

Hi Mike,

I really appreciate the idea to split the seasons.

I wonder how many people would be interested in theme development.

I would like to take people from say a photoshop/wireframe design to a fully functional theme. Along the way they will learn the how to develop theme from scratch in a WordPress theme repo recommended ways. As a bonus they will also learn basic Git tools/commands.

I would be doing the theme for a local charity so the entire process have a goal. Almost like a real project for people to follow the development.

I am interested to hear from you and everyone else.

Azizur Rahman

ProDevStudio

http://prodevstudio.com

"If you are running east looking for a sunset, you'll never see it no matter how hard you try."

Sent from my iPhone

[Philip Valentino]

Aziz, Theme Development for sure

It might be good to do "Themes" in one evening

Session 1) Concepts & Usage for site owners / managers - what themes do, templates & hierarchy, commercial themes etc (Mike i might present this)

Session 2) Developing your own theme / using a framework theme (eg http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/toolbox )

(ashamed to admit it...) I really do need to Git my ... together and learn that too.

Phil

[Azizur Rahman]

Thanks Phil for your input.

My idea is not go after any theme framework since they don't always have most of what I need and usually have tones of things I am not going to need for the purpose. Perhaps creating a child theme of say twentyeleven or even twentytwelve which is planned to be released in WordPress 3.5.

Keep the ideas coming people.

Kind Regards,
Azizur Rahman

----
Do you need cost-effective web hosting solution and Domain name try http://prodevstudio.com

Missed the last Friday Khutbah, try catchup a Khutbah on-line now at http://fridaykhutbah.com

[Neil Valentine]

I think the 2 session idea is good.  Here's my suggestion for the techie one.
How about what must be a very common and very useful requirement?

Requirement Summary:
Add service/product review to a web site.
Reviews need to capture extra info - including date / time service used, rating (choice from 1-5)

Proposed Method
From what I have read so far (I'm probably wrong) I have come up with the following.
Please excuse my ignorance if I do not use the correct jargon - new to wordpress.

1/ Create custom fields including a radio button group or list box for rating.
2/ Create a custom post type containing the custom fields that will capture the required data.
3/ Add a link to the product/service page to submit a review.
4/ Create a modal form that will pop-up and capture the rating data using the above custom post type.
5/ Create a template that will display just the review text and rating filtered on the
   product or service. 
6/ Use above template on appropriate product pages to show recent reviews with option to see all.
7/ Use above template to show all reviews for a product.
8/ Restrict review users to only being able to post review post types.

Though this might be too big to do over one session I think it would be good to do
as it does involve a number of WP techniques that would be useful to understand.
If it's not considered to be suitable for a meeting topic then would anyone be
kind enough to offer a best practice guide and/or further reading for this?

I would rather do this myself rather than get a plug in as it would help me to get to know WP.  Any advice will be much appreciated.

[Azizur Rahman]

I am quite excited by your plan Neil. Unfortunately I can make it for Aug.

I'll be preparing for the theme session in Sept. I hope that's OK Mike.

Kind Regards,
Azizur Rahman

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[Mike Little]

That does sound like a good idea for a session, I'm not quite sure I could squeeze it into one session and unless it was to just talk through something already written.

What does everyone else think? Would this be a good session for August?

Mike

[Mike Little]

On 22 July 2012 18:10, Azizur Rahman <prodev...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Mike,

I really appreciate the idea to split the seasons.

I wonder how many people would be interested in theme development.

I would like to take people from say a photoshop/wireframe design to a fully functional theme. Along the way they will learn the how to develop theme from scratch in a WordPress theme repo recommended ways. As a bonus they will also learn basic Git tools/commands.

I would be doing the theme for a local charity so the entire process have a goal. Almost like a real project for people to follow the development.

I am interested to hear from you and everyone else.

This sounds like a good idea, but I don't think you could cover this in (a portion of) 75 minutes! Maybe an overview.

Perhaps a presentation on the ins and out of the Theme review process and why it's relevant to everyone who makes themes.

[Neil Valentine]

Mike,
Re session for adding a review to a web site:

> That does sound like a good idea for a session, I'm not quite sure I could
squeeze it into one session and unless it was to just talk through
something already written.

I am in the midst of finding out how best to do this so maybe you could do a talk on best practice or suggested method?  Further investigation has lead me to think I still need a Custom Post Type but capture the information via a form first so I avoid getting reviewers to log in. An admin/editor user would then post the review via the CPT.  BTW I've seen that gravity forms will do this including map the form data to a CPT; creating it with Draft status.  Unfortunately this costs and there is no budget for this.
I then need to display just parts of the review data on a reviews page so there are two parts to this - capture and display - maybe do the display bit another session.

Once I get this done I'm quite happy to show it the group.
Lots of other topics from other group members may follow on from this such as rich snippets from reviews etc.  So maybe we can link some sessions together.