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WordPress

mrx3
mrx3
8,742 Points
Posted by mrx3
mrx3
8,742 Points

Curious about WordPress, and what WordPress actually is.

I started here on treehouse a few months ago. I've taken a few college courses in web design, and programming. I like the site, the people on these forums are great, knowledgeable, helpful, and very patient. I've been looking into WordPress here and there. Here's a link to video I found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxphj0U5BGc

So I have a few questions about WordPress.

  • What is WordPress, and what can you do with WordPress?
  • It looks like you can design websites with it, but without knowing too much HTML and CSS.
  • Can you add PHP and MySQL to a WordPress, what about JQuery and JavaScript?
  • Is WordPress better to use rather then HTML, and is it more powerful?

These are some questions I have, sorry if it's seems stupid, but I have really know idea. I thought it would be better to ask some pros from treehouse. Thanks in advance for any answers from anyone.

2 Answers

Cameron Cottle
Cameron Cottle
13,742 Points
Cameron Cottle
Cameron Cottle
13,742 Points

WordPress is a content management system, and it is able to do quite a lot. By default you can run a blog an manage pages but you can extend that through the hundreds of plugins available which are all very easy to install. Everything from E-Commerce to Forums can be run on WordPress with very little difficulty.

While you can design websites with WordPress you should have some understanding of HTML, CSS and PHP to do so. Since it is based around templates the structure requires you to use these languages to build your site, but all of your content can be managed through a WYSIWYG editor. Also WordPress has some great documentation though, so you shouldn't have any difficulty learning the ropes.

WordPress is based around PHP and MySQL, so all the content on it is loaded dynamically rather than through an HTML file. I believe that WordPress comes with it's own version of jQuery, but you can add a different version if you want.

WordPress is much better to use than just plain HTML, it allows you to make changes to many of the features without diving into the code, it also prevents you from having a HTML file for every single page, so future changes are much simpler for you.

I hope this helps,

Cameron

mrx3
mrx3
8,742 Points
mrx3
mrx3
8,742 Points

Thank you Cameron the reply great, much appreciated.

Tom Lawrence
Tom Lawrence
8,685 Points
Tom Lawrence
Tom Lawrence
8,685 Points

It is used for blogging mainly, for most users its a free site used to post blogs on, link flickr pictures and styled with themes (free and paid).

It also has many plugins that can add functions to it.

mrx3
mrx3
8,742 Points
mrx3
mrx3
8,742 Points

On accident I posted this before I gave my question. I hit the submit when I wanted to select the category where I wanted to start the discussion. Thanks for your answer Tom greatly appreciated!