November 2013 Meetup Notes

Here are some links and tips that came out of the discussion at the November 2013 East Bay WordPress Meetup.

Icons

• If you’re looking for icons, try Medialoot.
• If you’re looking for an icon font, FontAwesome is now GPL and WordPress plugin/theme repository compatible.

CSS Frameworks & Theme Frameworks

It can be confusing for newcomers, but Twitter Bootstrap and Zurb Foundation are CSS frameworks, not Theme frameworks. You can find WordPress themes based on these CSS Frameworks, such as Shoestrap and Spine, and use these as parent themes or starter themes, but any CMS or even an HTML site can use a CSS framework. Only a WordPress site can use a WordPress theme framework.

The WordPress Codex defines theme frameworks as either drop-in code libraries for facilitating development or starter themes meant to be used as parent themes. Hybrid Core is the former. Thematic is the latter. Genesis, one of the most popular commercial theme frameworks, is both.

You can make a child theme from almost any theme; that doesn’t necessarily make the parent theme a framework. Usually the parent theme in a framework has only structure and function, very little styling, but with additional hooks and actions to make life easier for developers.

Hooks, Actions, & Filters

• Genesis Hook Reference (requires login)
• Genesis Visual Hook Guide
• WordPress Actions & Filters

Fonts

• Google Web Fonts (629 font families and counting)
• TypeKit (Adobe fonts for web use, pricing starts at free with badge display)

Best Demo Content

• WP Test

Sticky posts, post formats, embeds, more tags, menu items, lists, image captions, headings, and all the rest. Download the data and import to test themes you’re developing.

Fix Your Open Graph Images with Yoast SEO

I had no idea you could do this, but it’s true: you can use Joost deValk’s WordPress SEO plugin to set the image size used in Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn when you push your posts out through Jetpack’s Publicize feature or other tools.

Using Full-width Background Images

If you’re using a full-screen background image, you can choose whether the background scrolls or stays in place with the background-attachment property in CSS.

Some Recommendations for CMS Sites

• Address Geocoder Plugin (stores locations and maps)
• Hierarchy (lets you organize your content types in the admin)
• add_menu_page (to add options pages)