Building Web Apps with WordPress: Jan 2015 meetup

We talked about Building Web Apps with WordPress at our Jan 15, 2015 meetup. Below are the notes.

WordPress as a Web App

Presented by Brian Richards

1. Components
   1. Custom post types
   2. Custom taxonomies
   3. Custom meta: post meta, user meta, comment meta
   4. User roles & restrictions
   5. Post relationships (via Posts 2 Posts)
2. Methods
   1. WP_Query
   2. pre_get_posts: can be more specific than above
   3. $wpdb: can be even more specific than above
   4. AJAX: save users time and reduce server load
3. Tools
   1. zapier.com: like IFTTT, but with more options
   2. AppPresser.com: Convert your WordPress website into a mobile app, publish on the app stores
   3. WP-API (coming soon): Access your WordPress site’s data through an easy-to-use HTTP REST API

Misc.

• Ask: who is your core audience? What are they trying to do with the data? Answers help with information architecture.
• BadgeOS: free plugin that lets you easily create achievements and issue sharable badges as your users succeed
• Why start with WordPress? You can build very quickly because of the tools available in WordPress.
• Caching: use transients, Varnish, memcached

Using WordPress to Power an Application: How we built a rewards platform in just a few weeks

Presented by Bob Orchard

1. Choose Your Features
2. Plan Your Development
3. Install WordPress
4. Create Your Plugin

Announcements

We’ve started planning WordCamp Grand Rapids 2015! We’ll have our first volunteer meeting after the next meetup (Feb 19). You’re welcome to join us!