consider the content life cycle: wordpress cms strategies and code

Consider the Content Life CycleWordPress CMS strategies and code

mitcho (Michael 芳貴 Erlewine)http://mitcho.com, @themitchoJune 4, 2011

http://mitcho.com

@themitcho

Hi! I’m mitcho.

THIS GUY

Slides will be posted later on http://slideshare.net/mitcho

WordPress as a CMS

• Easy to manage• A solid foundation• Faster development cycle• Cohesive structure and navigation• A great community• Plugins and themes you can use

CONTENT

CONTENT

CC-BY-NC-SA flickr.com/photos/bikeracer/6740232/

who contributes/edits/curates/maintains it?

The Content Life Cycle

what

how

is the content?is the metadata?

will it be managed?where is the data?

who

The Content Life Cycle

what

how

is the content?

where

What is the content?

• What are they to you and your visitors?• Not just blog posts and pages...• People, events, locations, times...• What format are they?• Text? Documents? Images? Videos?• A particular data format?

Global ShakespearesMIT Shakespeare Project

http://globalshakespeares.org

Hundreds of productions with video

In development: Shakespeare scripts

• Productions and scripts are semantically distinct• Also have blog posts and pages• Custom Post Types!

Custom Post Types

• WordPress comes with posts and pages• Internally, all called “posts”• Add other “post types”• register_post_type()

Custom Post Types

register_post_type('production', array( 'label' => 'Productions', 'public' => true, 'hierarchical' => false, 'supports' => array('title', 'editor', 'comments'), 'taxonomies' => array('post_tag')));

More info at http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Types

Custom Post Types

• There are also plugins to administer and tweak custom post types• Plugins can also implement custom post types...

Educational Collaboration SpaceMIT Dept. of Mathematics, NSF

http://ecs.mit.edu

File Groupshttp://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/file-groups/

File Groupshttp://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/file-groups/

who

The Content Life Cycle

what

how

is the content?is the metadata?

where

What is the metadata?

• Define your metadata• Aim for structured data• Structured data can be organized and reused neatly

Rich metadata on each production

Metadata in WordPress

• What do you want to group by?• This type of “organizational metadata”:• Custom taxonomies• Just like tags and categories for posts

Custom Taxonomies

register_taxonomy( 'region', array('production','post'), array( 'hierarchical' => true, 'label' => 'Region', ) );

More info at http://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies

Metadata in WordPress• Flags, properties not used for organization:• Postmeta! As seen in Custom Fields• “bits of information specific to the post item itself”

• Learn more at http://codex.wordpress.org/Custom_Fields• http://ottopress.com/2011/when-to-not-use-a-custom-taxonomy/

who contributes/edits/curates/maintains it?

The Content Life Cycle

what

how

is the content?is the metadata?

where

Consider your audience

• Your audience is not just your visitors!• Content management must be sustainable• Whose responsibility will it be?• What is their technical background?

Permissions

• Who submits, publishes, edits?• Learn more: http://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities• Can be customized via plugins or code• With Custom Post Types, can be controlled per-post-type.

Content from visitors

• Visitors can contribute content too• Gravity Forms plugin lets you create forms and have submissions become posts or trigger other actions

who contributes/edits/curates/maintains it?

The Content Life Cycle

what

how

is the content?is the metadata?

will it be managed?where

The C and the M in CMS

• Think about that edit screen• Simplify and consolidate• Think about common admin tasks

Rich metadata on each production

Production metadata consolidated into one meta boxInfo: codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_meta_box

Simplify, simplify, simplify

• Simplify the edit screen• You can hide things by default• Every meta box has an ID• It’s literally the id attribute...

Simplify, simplify, simplify

add_filter( 'default_hidden_meta_boxes', 'hide_some_boxes' );

function hide_some_boxes( $hidden ) { $hidden[] = 'myboxid'; $hidden[] = 'anotherboxid'; //... return $hidden;}

Simplify, simplify, simplify

New users will see less meta boxesBring them back from the Screen Options

Support familiar tools (?)

• What tools are the maintainers used to?• How do they manage content now?• Can it be integrated into WordPress?

Shakespeare: some video datasubmitted by researchers in Excel format

Solution: a simple (custom) CSV file importer

WARNING:

• This is a balancing act• Moving to WordPress can be a great way to build new sustainable habits• Not all traditions are constructive

who contributes/edits/curates/maintains it?

The Content Life Cycle

what

how

is the content?is the metadata?

will it be managed?where is the data?

WordPress-external data

• The core content data need not even be stored in WordPress proper• The benefits of WordPress: tags, categories, comments, etc. for free• But not without tradeoffs...

Edgerton Digital CollectionsMIT Museum and MIT Edgerton Centerhttp://edgerton-digital-collections.org

12000 photos, 8000 notebook pages

All assets from the MIT Museum databasein MIMSY, a commercial collection management app

External data sources

• MIMSY has a web API for data retrieval• Custom post type for museum assets• Specify ID, get image and metadata from museum DB live• Site-specific metadata (comments, tags) in WordPress

In development: Shakespeare scripts

Scripts are XML files, not content text in WordPressNo editor needed

Registering scripts

register_post_type('script', array( 'label' => 'Scripts', 'public' => true, 'hierarchical' => false, 'supports' => array('title', 'xmldoc', 'comments'), 'taxonomies' => array('post_tag')));

XML Documents with XSLT stylesheetswordpress.org/extend/plugins/xml-documents/

instead of ‘editor’

Data considerations

• Performance• XSLT rendering and external API calls are costly• Cache site of front-end• Sync content to WordPress?• Requires custom search integration

Integrated search also uses external MIMSY DB API

kick-ass CMS applications

CONTENT

CC-BY-NC-SA flickr.com/photos/bikeracer/6740232/

who contributes/edits/curates/maintains it?

The Content Life Cycle

what

how

is the content?is the metadata?

will it be managed?where is the data?

Thank you!Questions?

Slides will be up on http://slideshare.net/mitcho

mitcho (Michael 芳貴 Erlewine)mitcho.com; @themitcho