1 - What is a CMS?

Sometimes a Web site needs more than pages. When you're trying to develop a site that offers your clients extensive control and collaboration, a content management system (CMS) is the way go. In this course, you'll learn how to develop powerful Web solutions with the most popular CMS in the world: WordPress. In the first lecture, you will identify the fundamental principles and features of major content management systems and explore the history of WordPress. As you build your knowledge of WordPress development, you'll apply it to a course-long project: researching and designing a WordPress-based site for a small local coffee shop.

Project - Site plan and visual mockups

2 - WordPress: A Closer Look

Lecture Two offers an overview of all things WordPress. In this lecture, you will explore fundamental WordPress features, including posts, pages, widgets, themes, and plugins. You'll also learn how to install WordPress on your server and brush up on the PHP knowledge you'll need to harness WordPress's full potential.

Project - Applying themes and plugins

3 - The Anatomy of a Theme

At this point in the course, you'll have a working understanding of WordPress's basic features. Now, it's time to look under the hood and learn the anatomy of WordPress themes. In Lecture Three, you'll explore the directory structure, important files, and template hierarchy of WordPress themes. You'll learn how to modify theme stylesheets and templates, and you'll analyze "The Loop", WordPress's core function for displaying content.

Project - Custom themes

4 - Child Themes and Theme Frameworks

Expanding themes without breaking them is a key idea in WordPress development. In Lecture Four, you'll learn how child themes provide an efficient system for implementing new functionality and styles to a site while retaining parent theme autonomy. You'll also explore how theme frameworks offer a streamlined solution for building new themes without reinventing the wheel every time.

Project - Building a child theme

5 - Hooks and Custom Post Types

One of the reasons WordPress is so popular is that it offers a robust application programming interface (API) that allows developers to talk to WordPress without the need to edit core functions. In Lecture Five, you'll learn how to hook into WordPress and add your own actions and filters. You'll apply this knowledge of hooks to the creation of custom post types, which allow you to expand how WordPress organizes and delivers content.

Project - Custom post types

6 - Widgets and Resources

As you reach the end of the course, you'll have an extensive grasp of how to develop fully-featured WordPress sites that look and act the way you want. In the final lecture, you'll wrap up by learning how to build widgets that make your feature customization portable and powerful. You'll also explore popular third party widgets that offer useful solutions for search engine optimization and more. Finally, you'll survey a handpicked selection of additional resources—WordPress development is a deep subject, and the learning never stops!

Project - Final site design

• Identify the fundamental principles and features of major content management systems.
• Install WordPress on your server and customize its settings.
• Use fundamental WordPress features, including posts, pages, widgets, themes, and plugins.
• Recognize the directory structure, important files, and template hierarchy of a WordPress theme.
• Analyze the main and auxiliary WordPress content templates and content display loops.
• Install and configure a custom WordPress theme.
• Use HTML and CSS to modify the stylesheets and template files of a custom theme.
• Add new features and sidebars to custom themes using PHP.
• Create a child theme that expands theme functionality and design options.
• Identify the principles of efficient theme frameworks.
• Use hooks, actions, and filters to modify WordPress events with PHP.
• Create custom post type plugins with properly configured style and template files.
• Build and implement a widget for use with a custom post type.
• Install and configure third party WordPress plugins.

Interested in this course? Scheduled and self-paced enrollment options are available. Ask Admissions about taking this course as part of a degree or certificate program.

Software and Supplies

To take this course you'll need:

• Computer with Internet connection.
• Adobe Dreamweaver or equivalent Web page design program.
• An account with a WordPress compatible Web hosting service (free services are available).
• Basic experience with HTML and CSS, and familiarity with File Transfer Protocol (FTP) programs.