Development

In a previous video and post Code Blog in HTML and CSS, we worked on a HTML and CSS Blog. The blog was very basic. So in this video we are going to add PHP to the blog so posts will be loaded from a database. This means, instead of modifying the files of your website over and over again, you can insert a post into a database.

There are a few requirements you need for this tutorial. You need PHP, Apache or other web server software, MySQL and PHPMyAdmin if you are not sure how to code in SQL. These usually come with all hosting companies that you buy from. But if you wish to do this for free, you can download XAMPP or LAMP, there are other options.

If you ever wanted to make a website, starting off can be confusing. David creates a website using Notepad along with HTML and CSS right in front of your eyes. This video isn’t as much as a tutorial as it is a visual display of how websites are made.

If you are interested in learning how to create a website, the first steps are to learn HTML and CSS. Make sure you learn CSS because it will save you time in the future and make your websites much more appealing. A great tip on learning how to program is to look at other’s code and modify it to see what does what (don’t release or share it). Also never copy and paste code, always type it manually. Typing it allows for you to fully understand everything that is going into the code.

After updating or installing a plugin, theme, or WordPress itself, you may notice your site is just a white page. What caused this? Is my data still there? Did my lack of backing up my database finally catch up to me? Don’t worry! Most white screen errors are simply because the updated resources no longer work with the current version of WordPress.

When WordPress does an update, it adds and changes functions, but most of the time the functions they want to remove will stay as “deprecated” functions until developers have enough time to update their plugins. Now because of this, when the functions are finally removed or changed, and a plugin incorrectly updated their code or lacked updating their code, it throws an error. WordPress hides the error, and PHP kills the execution of the site. Another reason for the white screen could simply be an error in coding in the plugin or theme, and nothing to do with a WordPress Update. Any PHP error will most likely cause a white screen to appear.

WordPress CMS is much more than a blogging platform once you start installing plugins. I’ve once had a Q&A Website built from WordPress, Community Forums, Listing websites and more. And I’ve seen sites built on WordPress that you couldn’t even tell were originally WordPress because the plugins changed it so much.

But to get to my point, installing plugins is very important. Either it be to prevent spam, add contact forms, new media types, or anything else; you need to know how to install plugins.

When having your own site, displaying your style to your visitors is important. Either it be a dark punk rock style for your band website, or a bright cheerful template that your future daycare clients will see. Picking the right template or theme is very important, and can make or break the success of your website.

WordPress and it’s community of users have created thousands of templates for you to use for free. You can surf around various sites finding the perfect one for you. Although there are thousands of free WordPress templates out there, you should also look at some premium templates that are not free also, if it’s in your budget. A lot of premium themes add nice features such as easy advertisement management and more.