September 23rd | Lewis & Clark College
(Stamm)
Yes, your code works, but is it the best it could be? This talk will guide you through tips and tricks to make your code efficient, safe, and easy to read. It’s a great primer for new developers, and a good reminder for those of us who have developed bad habits over time.
– Understand the WordPress Coding Standard
– Write Short, Reusable Functions
– Understand what Unit Testing & Browser Testing are
– Discuss benefits of code review
The idea of creating a plugin may seem daunting, but to build something basic is very simple. Anyone with some basic knowledge of PHP can improve their site building process today. Plugins can be used for many different tasks, but this will focus on a plugin which creates a simple short code that allows users to both use advanced logic beyond what can be done in the editor and reuse code so as not to constantly copy and paste huge snippets of code from one page to the next.
Most developers have some experience with jQuery, but few of them understand the principles of Javascript and how to write and debug Javascript code. This session will cover best practices for writing object oriented Javascript, benchmarking, and debugging.
Pick up your lunch in Stamm, then elect to either join a Birds of a Feather conversation (see location information below), or have a more free-form lunch wherever and with whomever you want.
The Birds of a Feather sessions are envisioned to augment the WordCamp 
experience and are by no means compulsory – if you are very interested in a topic, however, a Birds of a Feather session is a great way to dive deeper and meet others with aligned interests. Some of the gatherings have featured experts – people our organizing committee have identified as especially qualified to answer general questions and recommend general resources on a given topic. Other gatherings are more free-form discussion, featuring the questions and answers of fellow attendees. Please use this as a forum to engage in discussion, Q&A’s, trade resources, and network.
Accessibility: Featured Expert: David Zulaica: Trail Room
Search Engine Optimization: Featured Expert: Fellene Gaylord Trail Room
Blogging Content Tips: Featured Expert: Eric Mann: Trail Room
Business Development: Featured Expert: Devra Polack: Thayer
Educational Technology: Featured Expert: Melissa Lim: Stamm West
The Future of WordPress – Diversity: General Discussion: Stamm West
Much like online businesses or blogging, higher ed is a world of its own with unique challenges, content, stakeholders, and target audiences. Higher education is WordPress at enterprise level but we don’t worry so much about which e-commerce plugin is best. Instead, we’re more concerned with how to manage a large-scale network of faculty blogs, abide with FERPA regulations, and implement Active Directory single sign-on.
This talk will showcase how WordPress is used in the world of higher ed and how we’re a great candidate for utilizing WordPress to its full potential, whether it’s using the powerful CMS to stretch limited resources or using its new API capabilities to share information and break down silos.
Should a password be long and complex? What about a string of easy-to-remember words instead? Are password managers the best way forward? What about multiple factors? Is there a better way?
These are all questions your users have: learn how to answer them and how to make security easy by moving beyond passwords for your web app entirely with magic link based authentication! Your users just click a link; they don’t have to remember anything.
WordPress’ default dumping ground for all data related to posts (and custom post types) is in post meta. When there’s a lot of meta data, it starts to strain your server performance and resources in ways you may not have realized.
I’ll go through a real-world example of too much meta-data being stored with a post, some hacks to avoid problems, and some better solutions using the meta data API. I’ll explain how you can easily move data, even if your site has already been designed, developed, and deployed.
Use less memory, handle more concurrent visitors, and speed up page loads by only loading what you need, when you need it.
WordPress supports a lot of “aging” ways of developing for it. The Roots.io family of projects attempts to modernize WordPress development by embracing newer tools in infrastructure management and PHP standards adopted by the larger PHP community. If you’re new to using Git, SSH, Vagrant, Ansible, Composer and WPackagist to help manage your WordPress projects, then follow me as we take a look at how the Roots team makes use of these technologies. The results of using these projects are easy to reproduce sites, tracked in version control, and built for modern, high performance needs.
It’s no secret that one of the WordPress core team’s greatest barriers to entry is contributors feeling like they don’t have anything of value to offer; nothing could be further from the truth.
Every potential contributor has something to offer whether they realize it or not, and this session will give them many of the tools and advice they’ll need to succeed in helping to influence the future of WordPress.
Topics covered: entry points for contributors of all levels, whether they’re developers, designers, copywriters, or everyday users. We’ll briefly cover the process of joining the “Making WordPress” community, methods to have your voice heard, submitting patches and keeping trac tickets moving, bringing core down to the local community level, and more.
WordCamp Portland 2017 is over. Check out the next edition!