WordPress is the DADDY! I’ve been using it now since Jan 07 and it has been brilliant. For someone like me who is not chiefly a web developer it has taught me how to think with regards to developing sites. The infrastructure of how it works is quite brilliant really.
Here’s the low down: Wordpress is an open source free bit of software that is very much like a Content management system. Because it’s open source this means that anyone who uses it gets access to the code.This in turn means that anyone can edit/adapt the code for their needs. It was originally designed to run peoples weblog sites but has now become so much more:
It can be broken down to 3 main areas: The main code, Themes & Plugins
- The main code are the basic set of files that make the site run, communicate with the database, give the user interface and so on. It’s the backbone if you like.
- Themes are the look / visual design of the site and its layout.
- Plugins- This is where the real genius happens. These are add-ons. They effectively add on extra functionality to your website.
The use of plugins is encouraged by the developer so much so that on the website they give yo all the tools you need to create your own plugins. When you create a plugin you can then upload it to their site and it becomes available t anyone. That’s not to say that you HAVE to do so – i appreciate some will work hard on these and wouldn’t want to just give it away. Effectively this means that io stead of having one developer working on your site, you have the knowledge of thousands.
I just think it rocks!
