WordPress Developer Community - Professional WordPress: Design and Development, 3rd Edition (2015)

Professional WordPress: Design and Development, 3rd Edition (2015)

Chapter 16. WordPress Developer Community

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

· Contributing to the WordPress project

· Using the Trac software

· Working on the WordPress core using Subversion

· Exploring valuable WordPress resources for further learning

The WordPress community is what truly makes WordPress. As an open source project, WordPress is continually developed for and by the community, and without community support, the WordPress project would dry up and eventually development would cease. By getting involved, you can help make WordPress the best open source software package on the market.

This chapter discusses the different methods by which you can contribute to the WordPress project. It also covers some valuable WordPress resources to help expand your knowledge of WordPress and how it works.

CONTRIBUTING TO WORDPRESS

You can contribute to the WordPress project in many different ways. The most obvious way is to help with the source code that powers WordPress. Helping with the code can include finding and testing bugs, creating patches to fix bugs and add functionality, and helping test the patches against the latest WordPress trunk.

Understanding Trac

Trac is the open source bug-tracking and project management software used to develop the WordPress project. You can visit the official WordPress Trac website at https://core.trac.wordpress.org/.

Trac is an easy way to create and discuss tickets regarding WordPress. Whether it is a bug report, feature request, or enhancement, Trac helps in creating these tickets and having discussions around them. Have you ever had a new feature idea that you thought would be perfect for WordPress? The easiest way to start that conversation with the WordPress core Developer team is to create a feature request ticket in Trac. Have you ever found a bug in WordPress that keeps appearing in every new version? Creating a bug report is the quickest way to get the issue resolved in the next version. Even if you aren’t a developer, creating tickets and getting involved in the discussions will ultimately help WordPress grow in a positive way!

Bug Reporting

All software has bugs and WordPress is no different. All open source projects such as WordPress need help from the community to identify and fix bugs. Fortunately, by utilizing Trac, WordPress makes it very easy to report any bugs you might come across.

The first step in reporting a bug is to verify that the bug is, in fact, a bug in WordPress and not a plugin or theme issue. The easiest way to accomplish this is to post the bug in the WordPress Support Forums. You can also discuss the bug in the #wordpress or #wordpress-dev IRC channels, or post a question to the Testers and Hackers mailing list. Finally, you can search Trac to confirm that the bug you are reporting doesn’t already exist in Trac. After you have confirmed that the bug exists, it’s time to create a new ticket in Trac detailing the bug.

To report a new bug in Trac, you first need to log in. The Trac login account is synced with your WordPress.org account so you can use the same account to log in. If you don’t have an account, you can create a new one at the WordPress.org Support Forums.

After logging into Trac, click the New Ticket link at the top. You’ll be presented with a form to fill out to submit the new bug ticket. Fill in the following fields on the new ticket:

· Summary—Short but accurate and informative title summarizing your bug ticket.

· Description—Detailed description of the bug. Include steps to reproduce the bug and add an example URL displaying the bug, if possible. Also include platform versions such as operating system, web server, PHP version, MySQL version, and WordPress version.

· Type—The type of ticket you are submitting. In this case, use the default of “defect (bug)” but other options are available.

· Version—The version of WordPress in which the bug was found. This applies to bug tickets only and not new feature requests.

· Component—The component in WordPress where the bug was found.

After you have filled in all of the new ticket information and previewed the ticket to verify that it’s correct, click the Create Ticket button to create a new Trac ticket. If you have any attachments to upload, such as a screenshot of the bug, select the box next to “I have files to attach to this ticket.” On the following screen, you will be allowed to upload any files attachments you would like.

Trac Keywords

In Trac, a number of defined keywords are commonly used for WordPress tickets. These keywords are used for reporting to make finding tickets easier. Following is a list of these keywords and their appropriate usage:

· has-patch—A solution patch file has been attached to the ticket and is ready to be tested before committing to the core of WordPress.

· needs-patch—The ticket has been confirmed and a patch is needed to fix the problem.

· needs-refresh—The patch no longer applies; it needs to be merged and resubmitted.

· reporter-feedback—Additional feedback is needed from the ticket creator.

· dev-feedback—A response is needed from a developer.

· 2nd-opinion—A request for a second opinion is needed regarding the problem or solution.

· close—The ticket is a candidate for closure.

· needs-testing—Someone needs to test the solution.

· ui-feedback—Response is needed from the WordPress UI Group.

· ux-feedback—Response is needed from the WordPress UX Group.

· needs-ui—The ticket requires updates to the visual appearance of one or more items.

· needs-unit-tests—Unit tests needed to verify and test any patch that may exist.

· needs-docs—Inline documentation for the code is needed.

· rtl-feedback—Feedback is needed regarding Right-to-Left language support (RTL).

· needs-codex—Documentation in the WordPress.org Codex needs to be updated or expanded.

· commit—Patch has been reviewed and tested by a trust member of the community and is ready to be committed to WordPress core.

· good-first-bug—Signals a ticket would be a good starting point for a new contributor.

By adding the correct keywords, your ticket will automatically be included in Trac reports created for WordPress. For example, the has-patch report shows all tickets with the has-patch tag: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/report/13. These reports are extremely useful if you want to help contribute to WordPress.

View and Search Tickets

Trac features many different ways to search and filter through the tickets available. To view Trac tickets, click the Tickets link at the top. The next screen displays multiple predefined searches for filtering tickets. To view the most recent tickets in Trac, click the View Tickets link in the Trac menu. The list of all active tickets opened in the last two months can be a bit overwhelming because there are usually hundreds of tickets in Trac.

To make Trac more manageable, some predefined reports have been created to help filter the tickets down. Following is a list of the most commonly used reports in Trac:

· Lastest Tickets—Displays all tickets in Trac created in the last two months

· Next Minor Release—Tickets assigned to the next minor release (4.1.x)

· Next Major Release—Tickets assigned to the next major release (4.x)

· Patches Needing Testing—Lists all tickets with a patch that need to be tested and verified to fix the ticket issue

· Tickets Without a Patch—Lists all tickets needing a patch

· Active Tickets—All tickets active in the past two weeks

· My Tickets—All tickets created by you

· My Patches—All patches submitted by you

You can also create your own custom search queries within Trac. To do so, click the Custom Query link that appears after you click View Tickets.

By default, the Custom Query page displays all open tickets in Trac. To refine this list with your custom query, you are going to add a filter. To the left of the screen is a drop-down select box with different filters. For this example, select Milestone. After you select Milestone, the filter appears under the Filters section across the top of the page. Here you can select the Milestone you want to view tickets for. Select the next version of WordPress to be released to view all tickets assigned to that Milestone, as shown in Figure 16.1.

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Figure 16.1 Custom Query in Trac

The number of open tickets is always a good indication of how close the new version of WordPress is to being released. You can add multiple filters to your custom query. For example, you could add a filter for the needs-testing keyword to filter the tickets to show all tickets that need to be tested for the upcoming version of WordPress.

Trac Timeline

Trac also features a timeline of all recent activity within the system. This is great for a top-level overview of what changes have happened in Trac daily. You can also filter the date range and ticket status. To view the Trac timeline, visithttps://core.trac.wordpress.org/timeline.

Browsing Source

One of the major advantages of the Trac software is how it integrates with Subversion (SVN). Subversion is the version control software used by WordPress to track code changes and commits. Within Trac, you can view the most current version of the WordPress software, which is sometimes referred to as bleeding-edge. To view the current WordPress source, click the <> icon in the Trac menu. The current bleeding-edge version of WordPress is located in the trunk/src folder.

Viewing the WordPress source in Trac is extremely useful for seeing new changes made to WordPress. Next to each file, the Last Change is listed and linked to the Trac ticket that has details about that change. The Age is also listed, showing the date when the file was last edited.

Notice at the very bottom of the page that there is a link: Download in other formats: Zip Archive. Just click this link to download the entire bleeding-edge copy of WordPress. After downloading WordPress from Trac, you can install it on your own server just like a normal installation of WordPress. This is great for testing out new features in the upcoming version of WordPress. Keep in mind that this is bleeding-edge software so bugs will most likely exist. You wouldn’t want to run this version of WordPress on a production website.

Working on the Core

The WordPress software is built by the community, which means anyone can help contribute to the codebase. When someone says WordPress is built by the community, it doesn’t mean that anyone can go edit the WordPress source code. To contribute to the WordPress core, you must create a patch file with your changes and submit that file for review. If accepted, your changes will be incorporated into the WordPress core and will be included in the next version release. Contributing code edits, bug fixes, and additional functionality is done using Subversion.

It was stated rather emphatically throughout this book that you should never hack the core. In this case, you aren’t actually hacking the core of a WordPress installation, but rather creating patch files to submit for inclusion into the WordPress software.

Understanding Subversion

Subversion is used to make modifications to the current codebase and generate patch files. A patch file is a text file that contains the changes that were made to a specific file or files. To work on the WordPress core you will need to generate patch files and submit them for review. Once a patch file has been accepted as the best fix for the issue, it will be committed to the WordPress core code.

Hooking into the WordPress Core

The first step in hooking into the WordPress core is to check out (download) the latest codebase using SVN. To do so, you’ll need an SVN client on your development machine. For the rest of this chapter, you’ll consider examples that use the TortoiseSVN client, which is one of the more popular choices for Windows. The WordPress SVN repository is located at http://core.svn.wordpress.org/trunk/. Checking out a repository creates a copy of it on your local machine. This is the copy of WordPress you will modify when fixing bugs and adding new functionality.

Using TortoiseSVN, right-click the folder you want to download the WordPress codebase to and select SVN Checkout. Make sure to fill in the SVN repository URL for WordPress and click OK to download the codebase. For more information on using Subversion with WordPress, check out http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Subversion.

Creating a patch/diff File

Now that you have downloaded the WordPress codebase, it’s time to make some changes! Pick any file you want to modify and make the appropriate changes as needed. Make sure to save the file after you are finished making edits. Now you need to create a patch file that details the changes you made. To do so, right-click the file you modified and select TortoiseSVN ➢ Create Patch. A dialog box appears, allowing you to select the modified files; in this case, only one file should appear so click OK to proceed. Next, choose a location to save your patch file to and give it a unique name. It’s a good practice to name your patch file the same as the file you edited, so if you modified wp-config-sample.php, name your patch file wp-config-sample.patch, and click Save. You have just successfully created a working patch file for WordPress! This patch file can be submitted to any Trac ticket as a bug fix or feature recommendation. If the patch is accepted, a core WordPress Committer will commit your patch file to the core of WordPress. After a patch you have submitted has been accepted into the WordPress core, you can officially call yourself a WordPress core Contributor!

Submitting Plugins and Themes

Submitting plugins to the Plugin Directory is the best way to release a plugin to the public. This also holds true for submitting themes to the Theme Directory. Ultimately you want as much exposure as possible for any theme or plugin that you release. Adding your plugin and theme to the appropriate WordPress.org directory is the best way to accomplish this. Remember that both directories are hooked in the admin side of every current installation of WordPress. This means anyone running WordPress can easily install your theme or plugin with just a few clicks.

To submit your theme or plugin, visit the official submission page on WordPress.org:

· Plugin submission—https://wordpress.org/plugins/add/

· Theme submission—https://wordpress.org/themes/upload/

Here you’ll find instructions on the proper submission process for both. The submission process is covered in more detail in Chapter 8.

Documentation

Documentation is a thankless job, yet nearly every developer relies on the documentation at some point. A great way to contribute to the WordPress community is to help keep the documentation updated. Assume that every time a new WordPress release comes out, the documentation needs to be updated to reflect the changes, whether new functionality is added, behavior is modified, or certain aspects are scheduled for deprecation.

Keeping the documentation current is a daunting task, and given the volunteer nature of the project, is sometimes neglected. You can often find out-of-date information in the Codex for WordPress releases from long ago that are no longer best practices, applicable, or even supported.

Documentation updating is not glamorous—it is not the shiny new functionality and features that everyone is excited about—but it is one of the best ways to support the community and help new users. Sometimes, solid documentation is what draws new developers in and helps keep them in the community.

If you are interested in helping out with the WordPress documentation, please subscribe to the Documentation Mailing list at http://codex.wordpress.org/Mailing_Lists#Documentation.

SISTER PROJECTS

WordPress has a few different sister projects currently available. These software projects are considered sister projects because they are developed in much the same way as WordPress. Many of the developers behind these projects also contribute to the WordPress project. Sister projects are also built as plugins, which makes WordPress integration simple and easy.

BuddyPress

BuddyPress is a plugin that adds a social networking layer to WordPress. BuddyPress can be themed to match your current website design.

Some of the features available include extended profiles, private messaging, friend connections, user groups and activity streams, status updates, forums, and more! All BuddyPress features are independent, meaning you can enable just the features you want and not the entire BuddyPress suite. For more information on BuddyPress, visit http://buddypress.org.

bbPress

bbPress is an open source forum software plugin. The goal of bbPress is to be lightweight, powerful, fast, and easy to use. bbPress has many of the features you would expect from message board software, including a simple interface, customizable templates, and spam protection. bbPress can also run plugins to extend its functionality just like WordPress. bbPress was originally offered as a separate installation package, but has since been ported over to a WordPress plugin. You can download bbPress at the official Plugin Directory page, https://wordpress.org/plugins/bbpress/, or learn more about bbPress at http://bbpress.org.

Future Projects

WordPress is growing at an amazing rate and new projects are always popping up. It’s hard to imagine what new projects you’ll see in the future, but if WordPress has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected.

RESOURCES

Many different resources are available for WordPress. This section provides a list of the most popular resources that you should be aware of to expand your knowledge of WordPress.

Codex

The WordPress Codex is one of the largest and best resources available for WordPress, and is essentially an online manual for WordPress users. Powered by MediaWiki, the Codex is a wiki-style documentation project, meaning anyone can contribute to the articles and content featured. Featuring tutorials, examples, function references, and much more, the Codex takes you through everything from installation to customization. The official site is http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page.

Handbooks

Some of the newest resources in this chapter are the WordPress Handbooks. The Handbooks are a community created guide to working with various areas of the WordPress project. These guides are created, edited, and published by the WordPress community, and anyone interested can get involved to help expand these resources.

The following is a list of the available WordPress Handbooks:

· Core Developer Handbook—Guide to contributing to WordPress core development (http://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/)

· Plugin Developer Handbook—Guide to proper WordPress plugin development (http://make.wordpress.org/docs/plugin-developer-handbook/)

· Theme Developer Handbook—Guide to proper WordPress theme development (http://make.wordpress.org/docs/theme-developer-handbook/)

· Support Handbook—Guide to participating in the WordPress support forums and contributing to the Codex (http://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/)

· Documentation Handbook—Guide to creating proper documentation for WordPress (http://make.wordpress.org/docs/handbook/)

· Mobile Handbook—Guide to getting involved in the WordPress mobile app development community (http://make.wordpress.org/mobile/handbook/)

Support Forums

The WordPress Support Forum is another great resource. You can visit the support forum at the official URL: http://wordpress.org/support/. The support forum is powered by bbPress, the forum plugin mentioned in the previous section.

The support forum is separated into multiple sections covering many different topics. The quickest way to locate related threads is to search the forum using the Search box. There is also a tag cloud powered by hot topics in the forum. This can be a quick way to see what the trending topics are in the forum.

Forum threads can also be tagged with keywords about the post. Any post tagged with the name of a plugin is automatically added to the plugin’s support forum. The new forum post will be counted under the Support section in the right sidebar on the plugin detail page, as Figure 16.2 shows.

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Figure 16.2 See what others are saying

This provides a support forum section for every plugin in the repository. To create a forum post about a plugin, just add the plugin slug as a tag on your post. For example, to create a post about the WordPress Custom Post Type UI plugin, you would tag your forum post with custom-post-type-ui, which is the slug from the plugin URL http://wordpress.org/support/plugin/custom-post-type-ui.

You’ll also notice the Compatibility section shown in Figure 16.2. This allows users of the plugin to verify if the plugin works with their version of WordPress. If enough people report that the plugin is broken, it is probably not a stable enough plugin to use.

Forum posts can also be marked as resolved. If you post a question and someone replies with a response that helps you resolve your problem, you should mark your post as resolved. This will add the text [resolved] to the front of your post topic to let others know the problem has been resolved. This helps other community members find answers to their questions by viewing the resolved threads.

WordPress Chat

WordPress has some very active chat rooms on IRC (Internet Relay Chat). To join a WordPress chat room, you will need to install an IRC client on your computer. Once an IRC client is installed, you can connect to the Freenode server at irc.freenode.net, and once you have connected, you can join one or more of the chat rooms listed here:

· #wordpress—The primary WordPress chat room. Great place to get questions about WordPress answered quickly and accurately.

· #wordpress-dev—Chat room dedicated to WordPress core development. Topics are restricted to working on the WordPress code itself and not for general WordPress inquiries.

· #wordpress-themes—Chat room for the theme review process.

· #wordpress-ui—Chat room for the WordPress UI Group.

· #wordpress-core-plugins—Chat room for WordPress core plugin development to be discussed. This is not a general support channel for plugin development.

· #wordpress-mobile—Chat room for WordPress mobile app discussions.

· #wordpress-polyglots—Chat room for WordPress internationalization discussions.

· #buddypress-dev — Chat room dedicated to all BuddyPress-related conversations.

· #bbpress—Chat room dedicated to all bbPress-related conversations.

These IRC chat rooms are a great resource for getting real-time help. Many WordPress experts hang out in these rooms regularly and love to help out other WordPress enthusiasts. This is also a great place to expand your knowledge of WordPress.

The WordPress core developers host a weekly development chat in #wordpress-dev. This scheduled chat covers a preset agenda of topics regarding the future development of WordPress, and many decisions are made on features and functionality in these weekly chats. The topics typically cover features being developed for the upcoming version of WordPress, but can also cover additional items.

For more information on IRC and WordPress chat rooms, visit the official Codex IRC page at http://codex.wordpress.org/IRC. This page details how IRC works, how to download and install an IRC client, how to connect to an IRC server, and also how to join a WordPress chat room.

Mailing Lists

WordPress has multiple mailing lists focused on different topics of the WordPress project. Most mailing lists are two-way conversations, meaning that an e-mail is sent to the list with a problem or question, and another member of the mailing list responds with the answer. Anyone subscribed to that mailing list will be able to track the conversation. To register for any mailing list, just visit the corresponding join link.

Available mailing lists include:

· Announcements—List for major announcements regarding WordPress. E-mail is very low frequency and one-way, meaning no conversations can take place.

· How to Join—Edit your WordPress.org profile and select Subscribe to WordPress Announcements under Mailing Lists.

· Accessibility—List for discussing the accessibility of the WordPress administration interface.

· How to Join—http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-accessibility/

· Documentation—List for coordinating and collaborating on WordPress Codex documentation. If you plan on contributing to the Codex, this list is a must join.

· How to Join—http://make.wordpress.org/docs/

· Hackers—Primary mailing list for discussions on extending through plugins or core code modifications. Many discussions revolve around core functionality of WordPress.

· How to Join—http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers

· Testers—Discussions regarding the current nightly, alpha, or beta version of WordPress.

· How to Join—http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-testers

· User Interface—Discussions to improve the interface or user experience of WordPress.

· How to Join—http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-ui/

· Support Forum Volunteers—Discussions involving WordPress Forum Support and providing support to users.

· How to Join—http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-forums

· SVN Updates—List for tracking SVN repository updates. E-mail is sent for every update along with information on the changes made. SVN is the version control system WordPress core developers use to track changes in the WordPress core files.

· How to Join—http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-svn

· Trac—List for tracking changes in Trac, the open source bug tracking system WordPress uses for tracking development on the WordPress core. This is a very high-traffic e-mail list.

· How to Join—http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-trac

Certain WordPress mailing lists can be high traffic, so it’s a good idea to create a rule in your e-mail program to automatically filter WordPress mailing list e-mails to a specific folder. That way, you can review the conversations taking place at your leisure.

To subscribe to any of these mailing lists, or for more information, visit the official Codex mailing list page at http://codex.wordpress.org/Mailing_Lists. To view all available mailing lists, visit the official Automattic mailing list page athttp://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo.

External Resources

There are many external resources for WordPress outside of WordPress.org. Following is a list of the most common:

· WordPress Hooks Database (http://adambrown.info/p/wp_hooks)—Website detailing all hooks (actions and filters) in WordPress by version. Great for referencing latest hook additions when a new version of WordPress is released.

· PHPXref for WordPress (http://phpxref.ftwr.co.uk/wordpress/)—Features cross-reference code library for WordPress. Use to easily view all variables, functions, classes, and constants used in WordPress. Xref shows where each item is defined as well as where it is referenced through the WordPress code.

· Hookr (http://hookr.io/)—A dynamic WordPress Hook/API Index that allows you to easily view all WordPress action and filter hooks by version. This website also includes hook lists for some of the most popular WordPress plugins.

WordCamp and Meetups

WordPress is powered by the community behind it and because of that the community loves to get together and talk WordPress! This can happen in a number of different ways but the two most popular events are WordCamps and WordPress Meetups.

WordCamps are conferences focused on anything and everything WordPress. These events usually have hundreds of attendees and multiple tracks for speakers with a wide array of topics. If you are interested in WordPress at all, these are must-attend events. To find a WordCamp in your area, visit the official WordCamp Central website at http://central.wordcamp.org/.

WordPress Meetups are smaller, locally based gatherings. These are usually informal get-togethers where attendees talk WordPress and share their experiences and knowledge with others. WordPress Meetups are typically held monthly or quarterly. To find a Meetup in your area, check out the official WordPress Meetup Groups page at http://wordpress.meetup.com/.

WordPress.TV

WordPress.TV is a website dedicated to videos about WordPress. The website features tutorials for both WordPress self-installs and WordPress.com. Also featured on WordPress.TV are WordCamp footage and speaker sessions, interviews, and much more. This is a central repository for all videos related to WordPress. WordPress.TV is a great resource for learning more about WordPress through videos. Visit the official site at http://wordpress.tv/.

Theme/Plugin Directories

The first places to visit after installing WordPress are the Plugin and Theme directories. In the Plugin directory, you can download thousands of plugins to add all sorts of amazing functionality to your website. The Theme directory features more than a thousand free themes for WordPress that can be used to give your site a new look. Remember that both of these directories can be browsed from within your WordPress installation:

· Plugin directory—https://wordpress.org/plugins/

· Theme directory—https://wordpress.org/themes/

WordPress Ideas

WordPress.org features an Ideas area for gathering ideas for future features in WordPress. Here you can vote on your favorite ideas and view a list of the most popular ideas based on votes. The most popular ideas are usually reviewed before the development of a new version of WordPress and typically a few of them will make it into the new release. You can visit the official Ideas page at https://wordpress.org/ideas/.

WordPress Development Updates

Staying informed with the development of WordPress is a great resource for tracking upcoming WordPress changes and features. As new versions of WordPress are developed and released, they come with new features and functionality. Understanding what these new features are can help with planning new projects for WordPress. The easiest way to do this is at the official WordPress Development Updates site at http://make.wordpress.org/core/.

The Make WordPress core site uses the popular P2 theme, which is very similar to a Twitter-like theme for WordPress. The site features updates and discussions on the WordPress project. The site is also the location for information regarding the weekly WordPress Developer Chats in the #wordpress-dev IRC channel. The date and time for these meetings is featured in the sidebar. There is also a post detailing the topics for the weekly meeting. Anyone can contribute topics for the meeting by responding to this post.

Make WordPress.org

A new resource is http://make.wordpress.org. This section of WordPress.org is a central hub for official resources to help people develop for WordPress. Currently, there are eight sections that are specific to different areas of WordPress:

· make.wordpress.org/core/—Blog for the core development team of WordPress.

· make.wordpress.org/ui/—Blog for the WordPress UI design group.

· make.wordpress.org/plugins/—Blog for announcements and resources for plugin developers.

· make.wordpress.org/themes/—Blog for announcements and resources for theme designer and developers.

· make.wordpress.org/support/—Blog for support members. This is not a blog for receiving support. Rather, it’s for members who provide support, and it covers how they can improve the process.

· make.wordpress.org/polyglots/—Blog for WordPress translators.

· make.wordpress.org/accessibility/—Blog for the WordPress accessibility group.

· make.wordpress.org/docs/—Blog for the documentation team.

· make.wordpress.org/mobile/—Blog for announcements and resources for WordPress mobile developers.

The sites listed provide an excellent way to get involved in a specific area of WordPress.

WordPress Podcasts

Podcasts are a great way to stay informed on the latest news and information on any topic. There are currently quite a few WordPress-centric podcasts being actively produced with each focusing on different topics around WordPress.

DradCast

The DradCast podcast (http://dradcast.com) is a live weekly podcast hosted by Brad Williams (that’s me!) and Dre Armeda. Each week, the show features a different guest host, who is generally a prominent member of the WordPress community. The show is created and released on DradCast.com. The podcast also streams live video of the shows being recorded so you watch the hosts and guests of the show as they discuss all things WordPress.

WordPress Weekly

The WordPress Weekly podcast (http://wptavern.com/wordpress-weekly ) is a live weekly podcast that talks about all things WordPress. The show is hosted by Jeff Chandler of WPTavern.com and generally includes a guest each week.

WP Water Cooler

WPwatercooler (http://www.wpwatercooler.com/) is a round-table–style weekly video podcast that features multiple hosts each week from the WordPress community. The podcast is hosted by Jason Tucker and features up to ten guest hosts each week.

Matt Report

The Matt Report (http://mattreport.com/) is a business-focused video podcast hosted by Matt Medeiros. Matt interviews different WordPress community members, focusing on entrepreneurs, startups, and freelancers.

Apply Filters

Apply Filters (http://applyfilters.fm/) is a podcast dedicated to WordPress development. The podcast is hosted by Pippin Williamson and Brad Touesnard. The show focuses on development topics, including WordPress core, plugins, and themes.

WordPress News Sites

Many different WordPress-related websites exist. This section provides a list of the most popular WordPress-focused sites for news and information regarding anything and everything WordPress-related.

WordPress Tavern

The WordPress Tavern (http://wptavern.com/) is one of the oldest active WordPress news–focused websites online today. The WP Tavern has a steady stream of in-depth editorials, detailed tutorials, community member interviews, podcasts, and more. It’s easy to see why the WP Tavern is the resource for WordPress-related news.

Postat.us

Post Status (http://www.poststat.us/) is dedicated to informing WordPress professionals and enthusiasts about the industry. Post Status specializes in long-form articles and providing in-depth reviews and commentary on various WordPress topics. The website is run by Brian Krogsgard and features a number of new articles each week.

ManageWP.org

ManageWP.org (http://managewp.org/) is a different type of WordPress news site. Instead of unique articles, the website features user-submitted content, which can then be voted up or down by the community. ManageWP.org is more akin to Reddit- or Digg-style community curated news and is a great resource to see what topics are buzzing in the community.

Torque Mag

Torque Mag (http://torquemag.io/) is described as the WordPress News Core. The goal of Torque Mag is to create a hub for community building and offer a forum for WordPress news. Torque Mag actually goes beyond WordPress news and features news relevant to the WordPress community.

WPEngineer.com

WPEngineer (http://wpengineer.com/) features tips and tricks, news, and improvements for WordPress. The site features more in-depth tutorials that dive into the core of WordPress and its functionality. These tutorials are focused on intermediate-level WordPress users and developers.

WordPress Alltop

Alltop (http://wordpress.alltop.com/) is basically an RSS aggregator for specific topics. The WordPress Alltop page features news and information from the top WordPress-related websites. It also lists important WordPress Twitter accounts that are worth following for news and information.

WordPress Planet

WordPress Planet (http://planet.wordpress.org/) is an aggregation of blogs writing about WordPress. This includes posts from core contributors and very active community members. This is the same news feed featured on the Dashboard of every default installation of WordPress under the Other WordPress News Dashboard widget.

Planet WordPress

Planet WordPress (http://planetwordpress.planetozh.com/) is also an RSS aggregator that keeps track of bloggers who contribute to WordPress. This feed differs from WordPress Planet in that it extends the WordPress Planet feed with even more bloggers. These bloggers are mainly plugin developers and core contributors for WordPress. The news feed is maintained by Ozh Richard, a very respected developer in the WordPress community.

SUMMARY

In this chapter, you learned the different ways you can contribute to the WordPress project, including using Trac bug-tracking software, working on the WordPress core using Subversion, and submitting plugins and themes. You also learned about sister projects to WordPress, including BuddyPress and bbPress. Finally, you learned about the diverse resources available as you work with WordPress.