Notepad (Windows)

Notepad is a basic plain-text editor that you can use to write code without the fuss and worry of text formatting; it doesn’t support any special document formatting or characters at all, which is what makes it great for writing code and Web documents.Notepad is the go-to text editor for most Windows users because it’s aMicrosoft product packaged in every Windows operating system. Notepadis typically used for viewing and editing text files with the .txt extension,but many people, including myself, use it to create basic CSS and HTMLfiles as we...

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Choosing the text editor that’s right for you

In this post, you dig into WordPress themes, work with CSS and HTML, andtype template tags and a bit of PHP; this chapter arms you with the tools you need to gather to prepare for a smooth and efficient experience later.Next to good ol’ pen and paper, nothing beats a good, solid text editor. Weadmit, we’re a little old school, so for things like grocery lists and jottingdown ideas, we stick with a pad of paper and a pen. Unfortunately, writ-ing code is difficult with a pen and paper, and it doesn’t translate very wellwhen we need to publish it...

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Editing Files and Testing Performance with WordPress Tools

Over the course of Lisa’s journey with WordPress, which began in 2003,she’s learned a lot of lessons from editing WordPress files, building themes,and using different browsers and browser tools to help her view, test, and diagnose certain problems (such as speed, error messages, and CSS rendering) on her Web site.One important thing she’s learned is that when she sits at the computer to begin to work on any WordPress project, large or small, it’s vital that she have the right tools readily available. Having the right tools makes a world of difference...

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Using plugins to make caching easier

We recommend these two plugins, which provide you with the best and easi-est ways to make sure that your WordPress site has a caching system in place:✦ W3 Total Cache: Install this plugin to easily optimize your Web siteand user experience with page, browser, database, and object caching.W3 Total Cache also includes features like HTML, CSS, and JavaScriptminify, as well as CDN configurations to improve your Web site’s speedand performance (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache).✦ WP Super Cache: This plugin generates static HTML files...

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Editing Files and Testing Performance with WordPress Tools

✦ CacheFly: www.cachefly.com✦ PEER 1: www.peer1.com/managed/content_delivery_network.php✦ MaxCDN: www.maxcdn.comThe benefits of running a content delivery network include the following: ✦ Improved speed of your Web site✦ Improved visitor experience✦ Improved scalability for your Web site and database data delivery✦ Resistant to Web site crashes during times of high traffic volumes                        Book IIChapter 5In the next...

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Using a content delivery network

A content delivery network (CDN) stores your Web site data within different points on a network and can deliver that data to Web site visitors with a decreased amount of bandwidth. A CDN can choose to deliver this data from the nearest geographical location, making the transfer faster. Because of this, visitors don’t access the data from the same place at the same time, which lightens the load on your server significantly.To use a CDN, you need to sign up for a service that provides a networkand a series of computers to store and serve your data...

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Minifying JavaScript, CSS, and HTML files reduces the overall file size,

Minifying JavaScript, CSS, and HTML files reduces the overall file size,making them load faster on your Web site. Obviously, adjusting each of theexisting files on your site to make them smaller would take quite a lot of timeand programming skills that you may or may not possess. Therefore, youmay prefer to use a plugin or program to adjust these files. A good plugin orprogram used to minify files can reduce the file to 30-40 percent of its origi-nal size, which greatly improves the response time of your Web site. The HTML source code from...

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Minifying JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

 You can also improve the speed of your Web site through minifying —making some of the files, like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, smaller. Thisinvolves taking all the files of your Web site and reducing the size bydoing things like✦ Removing all line breaks and spaces in the file.✦ Removing all code comments in the file.✦ Removing unnecessary characters in the file.✦ Using code shorthand, where possible, to decrease the amount ofcharacters in the file.✦ Combining the files into one file, wherever possible; therefore, instead ofhaving ten JavaScript...

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Using a Caching System for Speed and Performance

✦ Page: Builds and stores (in your Web server memory) all the pageson your Web site. Page caches generally have an expiration date. Incase you update content on your Web pages, the cache will eventually rebuild itself to capture changes you make.✦ Database: Reduces Web server overhead by storing and rememberingdatabase tables and queries made by WordPress.✦ Browser: Stores Web pages on the visitor’s local storage so when sherevisits your site, her browser displays the page from her hard drivememory, instead of rebuilding it and calling it from...

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Using a Caching System for Speed and Performance

A good way to improve the speed of your Web site is through caching differ-ent types of content. Caching content means to store it transparently so that itcan be used for future loads of your Web site. A good caching system for yourWeb site collects all the Web pages on your site and copies, stores, and deliv-ers the files to visitors of your Web site. This significantly reduces the serverload because without it, WordPress creates pages on your Web site dynami-cally — each time a visitor loads your Web site, calls are made to the data-base and...

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Increasing PHP memory limits

To help resolve the PHP memory limit errors, within the wp-config.php,define the maximum amount of memory that PHP can use by writing one ofthese three lines of code, depending on how much memory you allow PHP touse on your site, and adding it to the wp-config.php file on its own line:define (‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘64m’); // increase limit to 64Mdefine (‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘96M’); // increase limit to 96Mdefine (‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘128M’); // increase limit to 128MSome hosting providers disable the ability to increase PHP memory limits onyour Web hosting...

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Increasing PHP memory limits

 Most Web hosting providers limit the amount of memory any one PHPscript or program file can use on the Web server at any given time. PHP is at the core of WordPress (see Book II, Chapter 3), and by default, WordPress attempts to set the PHP memory limit to 32MB. However, if you see PHP memory limit errors on your Web site, such as PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted(tried to allocate 6233929 bytes) … The PHP memory limit needs to be increased to run the PHP script or file. That memory limit error tells...

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Template and stylesheet path

Once again, you can significantly reduce the number of calls to the databasefor the template and stylesheet directories by directly defining them in yourwp-config.php file. To do so, add these two lines of code (replace absolute/path/ with your own server path and replace /themefolder with the nameof the theme folder you use currently) on their own separate lines: define(‘TEMPLATEPATH’, ‘/absolute/path/to/wp-content/themes/themefolder’);define(‘STYLESHEETPATH, ‘/absolute/path/to/wp-content/themes/themefolder’); As with the site URL in...

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Template and stylesheet path

 Just as with the site URL from the preceding section, many themes andthe WordPress core code look for your WordPress theme template andstylesheet directory through the following WordPress template tags: <?php bloginfo(‘template_directory’); ?> // template directory<?php bloginfo(‘stylesheet_directory’); ?> // stylesheet direct...

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Site and WordPress installation Web address

 As we discuss in Book VI, one of the most common template tags for use ina theme is the bloginfo(); tag, which has several parameters you can useto call different bits of information about your site (like the site name anddescription, for example). You then can call in different theme template filesand graphics (or images) into your theme. For example, the URL of your Website can be defined in your template files with the following template tag: <?php bloginfo(‘url’); ?> // Site URL In Book VI, we cover template tags and parameters...

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