Nobody came to the Happiness Bar to ask me anything last year. Most of my hour was used to discuss the pros and cons of external fonts with a fellow who was drinking coffee at a table.
I enjoyed WordCamp. I am looking forward to attending it again. WordPress is popular on the Web, but not in the real world. This is the only time I meet people who understand what I do on my job at The World Yacht Group. My colleagues expect me to make everything work. They never ask how I fix bugs or add features.
I was hoping to answer questions this year.
WordCamp notified me that my application was received, and I would be receive an confirmation the following day. Unfortunately, I never received a confirmation. I will find out this morning.
The Future of WordPress
WordPress has too many internal features. I write plugins at work, and download more plugins to remove features.
However, WordPress deliberately lacks useful features. The WordPress community relies on independent plugin authors to add features.
I wrote my first plugin to add a meta description to pages and posts. I wrote the Quick Mail plugin, because I wanted to send emails with attachments to authors, without leaving the WordPress Dashboard.
WordPress plugins are awesome, but they are limited to one site. Plugins must be manually installed and activated, too.
A WordPress site is a computer program. Administrators should be able to manage multiple sites with another program.
Infinite WP is a client / manager system to manage multiple WordPress sites. Infinite WP saves me lots of time. It improves a single plugin, by incorporating it into a system.
WordPress needed a system to manage sites remotely. Perhaps, I want to change a administrator’s email. Or I want add a paragraph to the privacy statement on several sites.
I want to automate these tasks.
WordPress REST API
WordPress created WP REST API to access a site remotely. For example:
Update user with ID 4? Send a POST request to /wp-json/wp/v2/users/4
I hope to learn more about the WP REST API at WordCamp today. Josh Pollock of CalderaWP will discuss Extending the REST API at 11:30.
WP CLI
WP CLI is a group of programs that manage WordPress sites from the command line.
WP CLI commands are PHP Classes. These are easier for me to understand than the JavaScript used by the REST API.
I hope to learn more about WP CLI from Shawn Hooper at 12:20.
WP-CLI: Save Time by Managing WordPress From the Command Line is an introduction to this system. Hooper said:
I will teach you how to get WP-CLI running, and show some of my favorite time saving features.
Thank You WordCamp Volunteers
Attending a WordCamp is a great way to increase your WordPress knowledge and get help with problems. I am glad that we have a WordCamp in Tampa.
Thanks to all the volunteers who brought WordCamp to Tampa, Florida.