In the articles about the best developers, we already talked about Joomla, Magento, and now it's WordPress's turn, one of the most used content management systems (CMS) for creating dynamic web pages that need periodic updates.
What is WordPress?
WordPress has been developed in PHP for environments running under a MySQL database and Apache (server). The CMS was mainly used for creating blogs, although nowadays it is used to create all kinds of web pages. Its community is so large that 20% of web pages on the Internet use WordPress (figure from late 2013).
Like Joomla, WordPress allows us to create content from its administration panel (creation of entries). And from this panel we can modify and update the entire website in a modular and simple way without needing knowledge of programming languages.
The History of WordPress
In 2002, Matt Mullenweg used the content manager “b2/cafelog” to upload photos from a personal trip. But in 2003, after the closure of b2/cafelog's development, he published on his blog the creation of a fork that would meet web standards. Together with Mike Little, they created the first version of WordPress (months later, the creator of b2/cafelog, developer Michel Valdrighi, joined them). The different versions of the CMS have as code names different names of jazz musicians, such as version 1.0 named Mingus or version 1.5 named “Strayhorn” (Billy Strayhorn).
The Company Behind WordPress
Automattic is a software company created by Matt Mullenweg and its main focus is developing applications for the content managers WordPress, bbPress, WordPress MU, GlotPress, and BuddyPress. It also offers free server services for its WordPress.com platform or the Blo.gs ping service.
Main Features of WordPress
One of its main advantages is that WordPress places a main interest in design, usability, and that it complies with all web standards. (W3C, TwentyTen "(X)HTML Traditional and CSS"). The CMS facilitates the administration of web pages outside chronological order (this was the first step from a blog manager to a complex content management system).
Structure of WordPress
If we talk about the structure of the manager, we could summarize that it is a web publishing system based on date-ordered entries; these articles belong to a category (generally a menu element). But it also has a manager for static non-chronological pages. We could say that this point brings it closer to Magento than to Joomla.
The visual structure of the page is determined by the template we install; the blocks (modules) are published through 'widgets', giving the visitor more information. And the components or plugins are that added value that expands the site's features (going from being a simple blog to becoming a portal). If we talk about development languages, the design runs under CSS and the content under XHTML.
WordPress License
One of WordPress's successes is its GPL license (the user has the freedom to use, study, share, copy, and modify the software) and modifiable code. Undoubtedly, WordPress offers us a platform to create powerful websites easily and with the option to view and modify content from any desktop or mobile device.
