Books for intermediate WP user?

  • Toni

    (@tools4toni)


    8 years, 10 months ago

    Hi, I’m looking for a WordPress reference book. Definitions and diagrams or something. I have books but they are too basic or for developers. I’ve used WP for 4 years**. I love it! I don’t understand the documentation for some reason. It’s never been helpful despite hours I’ve looked thru it at various points for help.

    Does it matter if the books are outdated? Many of ones listed here are.

    I want to understand and reference how the back-end/files effect the front-end/functionality. A reference to see how things work, as I learn thru more thorough processes. Maybe that doesn’t make sense?

    Example: if something goes awry, I have no clue why. So I’m not a lot of use in the Support Forum when I need help. I either can’t explain effectively, can’t provide info when asked, or I can’t test/implement solutions. Sometimes I can.

    You can stop unless you’ve got questions…do see ** below.

    Admittedly, I’ve signed up for courses that I have not yet done. It’s similar to the books – too basic or too advanced. Both are tedious. From Build a WP site to Intro SQL. I know, I just have to start from the beginning of everything and do it. Meantime I have active WP sites to maintain. I have WPMU to help with that along with their courses.

    Experience
    I first built websites manually with HTML long ago, in the bare beginnings of JavaScript, then CSS and XML. Literally played a few moments with PHP, Pear, Python, etc don’t recall. Did the set-up to host and build my own live site at home to practice. I worked with CMS based sites from the pretty side – HTML. I’m familiar but not knowledgeable at all.

    ** I’ve been using WordPress for MultiSites for 4 years – I have 2, for my own purposes. I’m stuck as a WP user in the Admin interface – I can only work from within the Admin and with plugins. I’m awesome and lethal with plugins, I use tons of them. I separate plug-ins into subsites in my MultiSites like bbPress, BuddyPress, educational: quizzes, puzzles, words games, etc. – interactive stuff.

    I’ve touched, “edited”, files with code/PHP manually in WP and plug-ins. And CSS. I’ve done so manually but primarily and almost exclusively with plug-ins. I do not ‘know’ how to code or read it – I can only follow directions from gracious fellow WP users. SQL I avoid except for routine maintenance.

    The last WP I installed and (maybe) set-up WP locally on Linux Mint with the command prompt. A few months ago. I had no idea what I was doing – followed sets of directions I found online. Got stuck on checking/configuring the database, I know it starts and stops on command. I don’t know how useable the install is. Looks okay. I had installed WP locally before via the 5 Minute thing, maybe, I never found the home page to login. Bizarrely stupid…there is a lost WP install on every PC I’ve owned for years.

    I’ve never installed anything manually via FTP or otherwise on a live server. Not WP, a plugin, or theme. I don’t know how to FTP “upload and unzip” something into place. I only know how to FTP to edit files.

    APOLOGIES FOR THE LENGTH OF THIS. I’m thinking out loud and I’m a bit overwhelmed perhaps. Frustrated.

    Thank you for your time and any input!

    • This topic was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by Toni.
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Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Moderator Jan Dembowski

    (@jdembowski)

    Forum Moderator and Brute Squad

    8 years, 10 months ago

    *Wipes tears of joy from eye*

    You’ve put a lot of effort into this post. Thank you. 😉

    For intermediate try this book.

    I’ve not heard about this one but I’ve found the missing manual series to be OK for other things.

    If you can get to a book store that has one to leaf through then that may work for you to see if these are what you are looking for.

    Moderator bcworkz

    (@bcworkz)

    8 years, 10 months ago

    Does it matter if books are outdated? Yes and no. Some things persist and are still valid many years later. Of course recent features would not be covered in older books. The worst thing about older books is when they suggest you do something that is no longer accepted practice. Core devs place great importance on reverse compatibility, but some things do change. I’d say the newer the better, but if the current version used in the book is not at least 4.x, I’d keep looking.

    I’m a big proponent of learn by doing. If finding out how to initially do something is for you best obtained from books, then great. But reading about something and not applying it to a real world situation is just abstract knowledge with no real meaning IMO. But everyone learns differently, do what works best for you.

    I think the best thing you can do at your stage is to push yourself to understand coding to some extent, especially PHP. To me, this means actually writing some code. If you don’t already have one, setup a reliable, working local WP installation on your favorite computer where you don’t have to worry about breaking anything. I would recommend not doing multi-site just yet, no need to introduce complicating factors. It doesn’t matter if you cannot replicate the process. What ever it takes to get one working installation. Installing is not the point here, learning PHP is the point.

    Make a simple plugin in which you can place your practice code. You just need the framework initially, it doesn’t need to do anything until you’re ready to try writing some code. Understanding filters and actions is a really important concept in WP development. A simple exercise to add a filter and demonstrate your plugin works is to add the line “Hello world!” to the end of all post content by using “the_content” filter.

    Next time you need to do a little something to a site, consider if it’s something you might be able to code yourself instead of using yet another plugin. In most cases it will be no. But consider why not. If it’s because you don’t know how to do one thing, maybe that’s something you should learn how to do. Once you’ve acquired a number of these skills, they can be put together to do even more complex things.

    A common coding task I keep encountering is the need to place something in either the header or footer that must occur either on one specific page or on all but one specific page. A Google Analytics conversion script in the footer for example. This is something you should be able to do yourself within your own plugin. (the key is using get_queried_object_id() and the “wp_footer” action).

    Once you understand a little PHP, a lot of documentation will begin to make more sense and eventually you’ll be able to figure out some things merely by looking at the source code itself.

    Even though I’ve largely not addressed your question (books are not useful for the things I need to know, so I cannot make any recommendations), I hope this is still helpful in some way. In any case, may you enjoy learning and find it rewarding 🙂

    birdy

    (@ozum)

    8 years, 9 months ago

    Relatively newish book (December 2016) for beginners with positive feedbacks:

    birdy

    (@ozum)

    8 years, 9 months ago

    Also there is a discount for “WordPress 4.x Complete” ebook. (However it seems an intermediate level book)

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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