10 Cool Things You Can Do with Widgets
- 1. ten cool THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH widgets a ben byrne joint
- 2. INTRODUCTIONS Who am I? Who are you? Why are we here?
- 3. ABOUT ME 10+ years professional web experience everything from strategy to PHP worked with several CMSes firm has contributed plugins
- 4. YOU?
- 5. WIDGETS 101 What they are and where they go
- 6. WIDGETS 101 •wordpress.org says widgets are “things you use to personalize your site” •self-contained blocks of content/functionality •placed into dynamic sidebars* •may be highly configurable (or not) * need not actually be sidebars
- 7. COOL WIDGETS WORDPRESS COMES WITH
- 8. 1. CUSTOM MENUS • new with wordpress 3 • great for sectional navigation • make WordPress a legitimate CMS
- 9. 2. RSS FEED • Leverage RSS: use other people’s content! • Lots of things are RSS, such as a Google News feed of a keyword • Keeps site current, fresh and useful
- 10. 3. ARBITRARY TEXT • As simple as can be • Often overlooked solution • Ultimate flexibility
- 11. COOL WIDGETS YOU CAN INSTALL
- 12. 4. ADSENSE ADS • Make money off your site! • Easy to set up • Example: Easy AdSense Pro
- 13. 5. POLLS • Engage your audience while you learn about them • Used by major sites (CNN, Slashdot.org, ESPN, etc) • Several plugins support polling users, such as UPM Polls and WP-Polls
- 14. 6. FOSTER DIALOGUE • Provide an avenue other than post comments for users to express themselves • Even realtime chat! • Plugins such as Shoutbox, FCChat
- 15. 7. HIGHLIGHT RELATED CONTENT • Avoid “dead ends” and increase page views • Can be done manually but that’s inconvenient • Example plugin: IGIT Related Posts
- 16. 8. BRING CONTENT IN • RSS is just the beginning • Flickr photos • Google Maps • YouTube channel • ...you name it!
- 17. ADVANCED WIDGETRY Okay, so that’s not a word. But it should be.
- 18. 9. ROLL YOUR OWN • If you can theme in functions.php, you can write a widget • Use the codex • Escape boundaries • Whatever you need
- 19. 10. GET FLEXIBLE • Whether in a true sidebar or not, widgets needn’t be everywhere. • Widget Context plugin is your friend!
- 21. CONNECT Ben Byrne ben@byrnecreative.com bbyrne@newsignature.com facebook.com/drywall Twitter: @drywall