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WordPress 4.0 Site Blueprints (Second Edition)
WordPress 4.0 Site Blueprints (Second Edition)

WordPress 4.0 Site Blueprints (Second Edition): Create a variety of exciting sites for e-commerce, networking, video streaming, and more, using WordPress

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Profile Icon RACHEL MCCOLLIN
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Paperback Sep 2015 324 pages 1st Edition
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon RACHEL MCCOLLIN
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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.5 (4 Ratings)
Paperback Sep 2015 324 pages 1st Edition
eBook
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Paperback
€36.99
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Renews at €18.99p/m
eBook
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WordPress 4.0 Site Blueprints (Second Edition)

Chapter 2. Creating a Social Media Site

WordPress has a buddy that makes it much more powerful and lets you create social sites to engage with a community, allowing your community's members to talk to each other. It's called BuddyPress.

BuddyPress lets you create a powerful community site with a range of features you can turn on and off. There's a library of themes designed for BuddyPress, and you can also integrate it into the theme you're already running on your site.

In this chapter, you'll learn how to:

  • Install BuddyPress
  • Set up your theme
  • Configure the BuddyPress settings
  • Manage your site

So let's get started!

Introducing BuddyPress

BuddyPress is a plugin that you install as you would any other plugin, but it gives you much more functionality than some plugins. In this chapter, we'll work through all of the BuddyPress' features, configuring each of them in turn so that your site works as you need it to.

One of the great features of BuddyPress is that you can turn its features (or components) on and off according to your need; this means that you don't have to worry about anything that isn't relevant for your site. But in this chapter, we're going to look at all of it!

Uses of BuddyPress

BuddyPress has plenty of potential uses, but here are just a few:

  • A network for a business or organization, letting colleagues communicate with each other
  • A tool for coordinating a project or collaboration
  • A community network for people interested in a specific topic
  • A network to support a meetup group, letting its members keep in touch between meetings
  • A network to promote a product or service...

Designing your social media site

Before you get started creating your site, it's worth taking some time to think about its design. This isn't just the visual design, but the user interface (UI) and components too. Think about the following:

Do you have an existing theme for your site that you want to use?

Is there a theme designed for BuddyPress (at https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/buddypress) that would work for your site?

What plugins are you already running on your site? Check whether they're compatible with BuddyPress; most well-written plugins should be, but any relating to membership or similar could cause a conflict.

What structure do you want your site to have? Will it include other elements that aren't part of BuddyPress, such as a blog and extra static pages?

What information do you want to include on each page using widgets? You might want to include a mix of BuddyPress-specific widgets and other widgets or just BuddyPress widgets.

What will be on your home page...

Installing BuddyPress

It's time to roll your sleeves up and install BuddyPress. This takes a matter of seconds and is no different from installing any plugin. Follow these steps:

  1. In the WordPress admin, go to Plugins | Add New.
  2. In the Search Plugins box, type BuddyPress and hit Enter.
  3. Select the BuddyPress plugin and click on Install Now.
  4. Once the plugin has installed, click on the Activate link on the page that appears to activate it.
  5. Once BuddyPress has been activated on your site, you'll see the BuddyPress welcome screen:
    Installing BuddyPress

    Fig 2.1: The BuddyPress welcome screen

  6. Click on the Get Started button to start setting BuddyPress up.

Configuring the BuddyPress settings

Now that you have BuddyPress installed, it's time to set it up.

Activating components

Before you can start working on your new BuddyPress site, you'll need to choose which components you want to activate.

This isn't the last chance you have to activate components; if you want to add (or delete) a component at a later date, you can do so.

If you haven't already clicked on the Get Started button or you're not in the BuddyPress welcome screen, go to Settings | BuddyPress to view the BuddyPress Components screen:

Activating components

Fig 2.2: The Components screen

Tick the components you want to activate and click on the Save Settings button. I've ticked them all, I'm just greedy!

Now that you've got your components activated, the next step is to configure the pages BuddyPress will use.

Configuring pages

Click on the Pages tab to see the Pages settings screen:

Configuring pages

Fig 2.3: The Pages screen

As you can see, BuddyPress has created some empty pages in your...

Installing a theme

Having set up BuddyPress, you now need to install a theme that will work well with the design of your site. You may already have a theme you're using on your site, or one you're planning to install, which is great. If you're like me, you haven't identified a theme yet as your site is brand new.

If you've installed BuddyPress in a brand new WordPress site, your site will be running the default theme (currently Twenty Fifteen). Now I don't know about you, but I'd like something that's a little less generic and better suited to my site. So we have two options:

  • Install a theme designed for BuddyPress
  • Use BuddyPress with an existing theme

Let's take a look at each of these two options in turn.

Choosing a theme designed for BuddyPress

On the WordPress theme repository, you'll find themes that have been specifically designed for BuddyPress. If you visit https://wordpress.org/themes/search/buddypress/, you'll see all the themes...

Introducing BuddyPress


BuddyPress is a plugin that you install as you would any other plugin, but it gives you much more functionality than some plugins. In this chapter, we'll work through all of the BuddyPress' features, configuring each of them in turn so that your site works as you need it to.

One of the great features of BuddyPress is that you can turn its features (or components) on and off according to your need; this means that you don't have to worry about anything that isn't relevant for your site. But in this chapter, we're going to look at all of it!

Uses of BuddyPress

BuddyPress has plenty of potential uses, but here are just a few:

  • A network for a business or organization, letting colleagues communicate with each other

  • A tool for coordinating a project or collaboration

  • A community network for people interested in a specific topic

  • A network to support a meetup group, letting its members keep in touch between meetings

  • A network to promote a product or service and encourage customers...

Designing your social media site


Before you get started creating your site, it's worth taking some time to think about its design. This isn't just the visual design, but the user interface (UI) and components too. Think about the following:

Do you have an existing theme for your site that you want to use?

Is there a theme designed for BuddyPress (at https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/buddypress) that would work for your site?

What plugins are you already running on your site? Check whether they're compatible with BuddyPress; most well-written plugins should be, but any relating to membership or similar could cause a conflict.

What structure do you want your site to have? Will it include other elements that aren't part of BuddyPress, such as a blog and extra static pages?

What information do you want to include on each page using widgets? You might want to include a mix of BuddyPress-specific widgets and other widgets or just BuddyPress widgets.

What will be on your home page? This could be a static...

Installing BuddyPress


It's time to roll your sleeves up and install BuddyPress. This takes a matter of seconds and is no different from installing any plugin. Follow these steps:

  1. In the WordPress admin, go to Plugins | Add New.

  2. In the Search Plugins box, type BuddyPress and hit Enter.

  3. Select the BuddyPress plugin and click on Install Now.

  4. Once the plugin has installed, click on the Activate link on the page that appears to activate it.

  5. Once BuddyPress has been activated on your site, you'll see the BuddyPress welcome screen:

    Fig 2.1: The BuddyPress welcome screen

  6. Click on the Get Started button to start setting BuddyPress up.

Configuring the BuddyPress settings


Now that you have BuddyPress installed, it's time to set it up.

Activating components

Before you can start working on your new BuddyPress site, you'll need to choose which components you want to activate.

This isn't the last chance you have to activate components; if you want to add (or delete) a component at a later date, you can do so.

If you haven't already clicked on the Get Started button or you're not in the BuddyPress welcome screen, go to Settings | BuddyPress to view the BuddyPress Components screen:

Fig 2.2: The Components screen

Tick the components you want to activate and click on the Save Settings button. I've ticked them all, I'm just greedy!

Now that you've got your components activated, the next step is to configure the pages BuddyPress will use.

Configuring pages

Click on the Pages tab to see the Pages settings screen:

Fig 2.3: The Pages screen

As you can see, BuddyPress has created some empty pages in your site for use by the specific BuddyPress...

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Description

WordPress is the world’s most popular Content Management System (CMS) and you can use it to create any kind of site you or your clients need. Using free plugins and themes for WordPress, you can create a store, a social media site, a review site, a video site, a network of sites or a community site, and more. Wordpress makes your job of creating your own website simple and hassle-free! If you’ve started using WordPress to create a blog or simple website, you’ll have had a taste of the opportunities offered by this massively popular CMS. This book will take you through the process of creating ten popular kinds of site using WordPress with free plugins and themes, each chapter covering various functionality of the web. After having learned how to migrate from your static site to Wordpress in the first chapter, you will then explore the world of social networking websites followed focusing on e-commerce. Without writing too much code, you’ll be able to create a store, a video streaming site, a team communications site, a jobs board, and more. This book is a one-stop solution to resolve all your worries about creating a website that will give the best experience to your users.

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Sep 23, 2015
Length: 324 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781784397968
Vendor :
WordPress Foundation
Concepts :
Tools :

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Publication date : Sep 23, 2015
Length: 324 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781784397968
Vendor :
WordPress Foundation
Concepts :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

11 Chapters
1. Migrating a Static Site to WordPress Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Creating a Social Media Site Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Creating a Network of Sites Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Creating an E-commerce Site Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Creating a Video Streaming Site Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Creating a Review Site Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Creating a Jobs Board Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Creating a Team Communications Site Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Creating a Gallery Site Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Creating a Membership Site Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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(4 Ratings)
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1 star 0%
wavon Nov 22, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book is well organized, thorough, and clearly written. It's helpful for learning what you can do with WordPress without needing to code. The step-by-step instructions are easy to follow, even when you need to make minor edits to php files.Chapter 3, Creating a Network of Sites, is fantastic. Activate WordPress Multisite, and you can use one WordPress installation to create as many sites as you like, or let users create their own. Each site can have different themes and plugins and its own domain name. This setup is ideal for hosting a portfolio site with multiple project sites. It allows updating WordPress, themes, and plugins in a central place rather than for each site separately. If you want to charge users to register a site in your network, you’ll learn how to use PayPal to manage paid memberships.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Amazon Customer Nov 18, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I've always liked cookbooks for software, because the best way to learn is from example. This book has excellent examples, with a minimum of mistakes or omissions. Using it, I already fixed a faulty website a friend of mine created, and I had never used Word Press before!
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Amazon Customer Nov 18, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
Interesting, well presented and dug me out of a problem very quickly as I wanted to combine features from old word press activities and update themI have been through the publication once but need to reread the other elements - however I found what I needed and got the job done quickly because the book was easy to read, follow and implement.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Jay Dec 21, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
product as described
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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