The Enterprise Approach to WordPress Security

When developing themes and plugins for WordPress, it’s inevitable that you’ll get a report of a security flaw, or worse, that one of your clients’ sites has been hacked. Right? Well, not quite.

In this session you’ll learn about the approaches enterprise agencies use to prevent a panicked phone call from a client reporting a flaw. Learn why the White’s Local Family Business site gets hacked but the White House does not.

Just as there’s no one plugin that will make a site secure, there’s no one trick to prevent it either. This session will help you understand the holistic approach required to keep your client’s sites secure.

WordPress Repository on WordPress.org: Pros and Cons

WordPress.org is owned and controlled personally by Matt Mullenweg.

What are the pros and cons of one person having control of this essential repository containing plugins and themes?

We’ve seen some developers and companies start to host plugins on their own repository.

Users can’t tell from the WordPress dashboard if a plugin has been abandoned or not updated in a while.

Is this going to cause security issues? How can the community tell what is the “source of truth” for plugins?

Are there any alternatives?

Host: Wil Brown.

The Post Thumbnail Paradox

The Gutenberg project has ushered in a new era for WordPress theme development, opening up many new opportunities, but also creating new challenges as well.

In the good old days of WordPress, things were simple. You had your theme, you had your content, and sometimes some custom fields.

Things aren’t so simple anymore.

One particular challenge is how the line between content and layout has been blurred so much that it might not even be there at all. Nothing exemplifies this quite as much as the humble post thumbnail.

Join us as we take a deep dive into the WordPress template structure as we try to untangle the layout from the content, and find a solution to the Post Thumbnail Paradox.

Slides

Layouts in the block editor: how they work and what’s next

The layout feature is most visible in the Group block variations: Row, Stack and the brand new Grid. But it’s also used in other core blocks, and it can be added to any custom block. To a limited extent, it can also be customised in a theme’s `theme.json` file.

This talk walks through what can currently be done with layouts in core, what new features can be expected in 6.7 (TBC) and how you can help shape the future of layout by trying it out and giving feedback!

We’ll also showcase a few different ways of creating cool and useful layouts for both templates and content. No plugins required!

Accessibility: Benefits Beyond Compliance

Many people find the whole concept of web accessibility intimidating, but we’re here to show you that it can be approachable and rewarding (not to mention, necessary).

In this talk I’ll discuss the real risks website owners, designers, and developers face when they overlook accessibility.

Ignoring these issues can lead to lost opportunities and frustrated users, and we want to help you avoid that. It’s crucial to educate ourselves and implement accessible practices in our projects, and I’ll share why it’s worth the effort, and how you can get started.

By the end of our session, you’ll have a practical plan for how you can start tracking, testing and improving accessibility on your own projects, and I’ll provide a bunch of tips and resources to help you create more inclusive websites.

Let’s work together to make the web a better place for everyone!

Design for Devs: Making the most of Patterns

* How to build a page layout with patterns
* Sharing pattern developer sites to show the breadth of selection in the community
* Discuss latest core features for working with pattern styling
* Discuss latest core features for working with patterns (syncing, editing, etc)

How I went from a PHP Shortcode guy to a React / Block Guy

Learn Javascript deeply, This was said by Matt and WordPress in 2015.
I wasn’t that excited about that. I ignored that advice.
I continued on my Merry Way with PHP, which is both good and bad. WordPress is made with PHP.
I like PHP, I like server side code and have spent a lot of time in it.
Now blocks came out and I was kicking myself.
I was terrified to dive into the block editor because change can be so daunting, and it’s always so much more comforting to stick with the familiar.
I struggled to understand the code inside WordPress docs and I got stuck. Fast.

How do I get this new block stuff to talk to PHP?
In this talk, I will show you how to go from hating blocks to loving them with these development techniques.
In this presentation we are going to make a PHP Shortcode, and then make a dynamic block to show how this works.

Let’s do this.

Slides

https://www.mrkwp.com/2024/11/wordcamp-sydney/

How to Not Hate WordPress as a Junior Dev

“Ugh, I hate WordPress.” and “Why would you use WordPress, anyway?” These were just a few of the comments I heard as a fresh-faced developer entering the industry. So, why does WordPress have this reputation, and how can we change it?

I graduated from She Codes Bootcamp in early 2024, where I discovered my strengths in HTML/CSS and React. Eager to start my development career, I landed my first junior software developer role two months before the end of the boot camp. That’s when I encountered the reality of working with WordPress in the developer world. The experience I had as a graphic design student creating a website with a theme builder did not prepare me for the steep learning curve I faced.

There’s a lot to learn about WordPress, and as a junior developer, it can be daunting. I’ll guide you through my journey of navigating WordPress, sharing the humorous pitfalls I encountered and the lessons I learned. I’ll provide practical tips, walk you through debugging basics, highlight common knowledge gaps, and offer resources that helped me work with WordPress more effectively. If you’re a junior developer feeling overwhelmed by confusing interfaces, unexpected bugs, and the platform’s complexities, you’re not alone. My goal is to help you avoid the frustrations I faced and shift away from the negative perceptions of WordPress.

By the end of this talk, you’ll leave with a toolkit to streamline your workflow, avoid common pitfalls, and boost your confidence in tackling WordPress projects. If you are starting your dev journey and looking to refine your skills, I hope my story will help you navigate WordPress with greater ease and confidence.

Slides

https://www.sandzstudio.com.au/index.php/2024/11/10/wordcamp-talk-sydney-2024

The Problem With WordPress

WordPress powers a large part of the web, but anyone who’s ventured into its database knows there’s a hidden cost lurking beneath its familiar interface. In this talk, we’ll dive deep into the challenges posed by WordPress’s database structure – especially its infamous postmeta table.

Sort Ya Systems: a practical guide to setting up processes for your website projects

This talk/workshop will help attendees establish or improve the systems and processes for WordPress website projects. It will cover:
– The importance of systems and processes
– The secret sauce to creating systems and processes that allow you to breeze through your projects with ease
– A guided walk of the systems and processes I use in my WordPress website projects, from onboarding to offboarding (and everything in between!)
– A practical workshop section where participants will be guided through taking the first and hardest step to building their systems and processes. (Make sure you bring something to write on and with!)
– Where to from here? Practical next steps to take to get the most out of your systems and processes and set yourself up for project success.