Hot Scripts - January Newsletter

Sat Feb 2 20:18:40 UTC 2008

Worth a read for the one wanting a blogging engine...
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Subject: Hot Scripts - January Newsletter

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The HotScripts Newsletter - January               [www.hotscripts.com]
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Greetings, all!

It has already been five years since the first version of WordPress
[http://wordpress.org] appeared. WordPress is an open source blogging
platform written in PHP and MySQL. Its underlying code is based on
b2evolution and throughout the years it has grown into the most
powerful blog system used by thousands of blogs and sites. WordPress
has many built-in features and it is extremely customizable through
the different themes and plug-ins available.

WordPress is now evolving into a Content Management Systems (CMS) of
choice for many sites. Given that it is highly configurable, designers
and developers are continuously tweaking WordPress themes and plugins
in order to replace traditional CMS. One such talented designer is
Adriaan Pienaar [http://www.adii.co.za], (aka Adii or WordPress Rockstar)
who has a lot of experience in customizing WordPress and is the creator
of the Premium News Theme, a WordPress magazine theme. In this issue
of our newsletter, we talk to the WordPress Rockstar about WordPress
 and WordPress as a CMS.

- Ahmad Permessur
Newsletter Editor

Interview with Adriaan Piennar (Adii): -------------------------------

>> Adii, tell us more about yourself and your self proclaimed
'WordPress Rockstar' title?

Well, you might find this strange, but I've actually got an Honors
degree in Business Strategy, which means I'm much more of an
entrepreneur, than a WordPress Rockstar!

I've always loved the internet and this fascination eventually got me
interested in new media / Web 2.0 technologies. Whilst exploring the
different technologies available, I decided to get into WordPress. My
title as a "WordPress Rockstar" is really just a marketing strategy.

>> What according to you has accounted for the success and popularity
of WordPress?

I think it's due to the open-source nature of the platform, which
makes it super-customizable and very flexible at the same time.
Also, the fact that WP was essentially built from the ground up,
means that Matt Mullenwag & Co are super-involved in the future success
and growth of the platform.

>> I quote from your blog "I don't believe that any site should be without
some WP love!" Why do you think that all web sites should be WordPress
powered?

Well, I believe that every site should be built on a dynamic CMS of some
kind, and WordPress is simply my platform of choice! Considering the
amount of free plugins that are available, you definitely can't go
wrong when you run a site on WordPress.

I also believe that using WordPress is a long-term (sustainable)
solution, since the developers are upgrading it all the time. I also
believe that WordPress will eventually evolve into being a fully-fledged
CMS capable of the same functions as ExpressionEngine.

>> WordPress is evolving from a blog platform to a CMS platform. Your
Premium News theme is an excellent example of how WordPress can be
skinned and tweaked into a magazine CMS. What makes it better than
other CMS platforms?

I don't think it's necessarily better than say ExpressionEngine, but
I think it does have a lot more potential than most of the other CMS's
currently available. WordPress will only continue to grow and evolve,
which means that ultimately it will be THE best CMS out there. I also
think that the open-source nature and passionate community behind
the platform makes it so easy to find the help you need in customizing
for WordPress.

As you mentioned - my Premium News theme is a prime example of what
can be achieved with WordPress. And if proof is in the pudding, I
guess it comes down to WordPress being so flexible and easy to code for.
Choosing WP over other CMS's is perhaps a personal preference for most,
but in the future it'll become the automatic first choice to many.

>> Does the WordPress development team handle updates, bug fixes and
feature requests properly?

Oh yes! Evidence of this is the regular releases of updated versions
of WordPress, which generally includes bug fixes and new features.

>> Where do you see WordPress going in the future?

I've probably mentioned my vision of where WP is going a few times
already in this interview. But I definitely believe that WP will
become a fully-fledged CMS that will rival the big, commercial
offerings like ExpressionEngine.

>> Finally, do you have any advice or tips to share with our readers
that just got started with WordPress?

Read and explore. Ultimately you need to play around with WordPress
to master it, and, by reading and following top bloggers and designers,
you will get the inspiration you need to push your WP-related skills
to the limit.

Featured Scripts: ----------------------------------------------------

PHP - Email Inviter
Allows you to import contact lists from Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo!
http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/77052.html

JavaScript - Progress Bar
A DHTML progress bar showing actual percentage.
http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/76654.html

ASP - My Little Helpdesk
Browser-based help desk software.
http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/76794.html

AJAX - Webshare
A user-friendly interface for online file management.
http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/73319.html

CGI & Perl - eBackUp Automated
A fully automated Perl based backup solution.
http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/76481.html

Flash - Flash Scrolling Messages
Scroller that interacts with PHP and allows creating a message scroller.
http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/73984.html

Ruby on Rails - Mystic
An open source trouble ticket system
http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/76199.html

UI Design Patterns  -------------------------------------------------

It has long been common practice to reuse, recycle and not reinvent
the wheel unless necessary. This concept is well established in web
development where developers make use of code snippets, classes and
frameworks. Similarly, UI Design Patterns are solutions to common
functionalities in graphical user interface like breadcrumbs
navigation, form layout, pagination and others.

UI-Patterns.com [http://ui-patterns.com/] and Wellie.com
[http://www.welie.com/patterns/] are two popular pattern libraries
that categorize design patterns by the areas of the web site and
provide code examples and implementation notes. While there are no
standards as to how these should be used, these libraries provide
excellent examples for inspiration.

HTML 5 First Public Draft --------------------------------------------

The W3C HTML Working Group has released the  HTML 5 working draft
[http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-html5-20080122/] last week. Many new
features have been introduced in this newer version of HTML aimed at
helping designers and developers build better web applications.
Several new elements have been introduced for layout like <navigation>,
<header>, and <footer> and various attributes have been depreciated
in favor of CSS. Some old features, like frames, have also been removed.

You can find a list of difference between the current version of HTML
and that of HTML 5 in this article
[http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-html5-diff-20080122/]. While it will take
some time for browsers to fully support these new features, the future
of HTML 5 is a very big step forward toward improving interoperability.

Thanks ---------------------------------------------------------------

We'd like to thank HostGator (http://www.hostgator.com) for the use of
their servers in delivering the WebHostingTalk newsletter to your
inbox. HostGator - "Eating up the competition, since 2002."

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