Tag: conference

WordCamp Atlanta 2018 – I’m Speaking on Processes for Development Teams

Posted on by Evan Mullins

I’m happy to be contributing to the WordPress community as a speaker at WordCamp Atlanta 2018.

I submitted a few topics and have been selected to speak about development process for teams. Here’s the short description:

Overview of some processes used at an agency level. Version control, code standards, database migrations, environment aware config files and automated deployments. From local development setup to multiple environments, version control to automated deployments, content migration to modular mentalities. With some how-to talk and some how-not-to talk, we’ll discuss some ways to “soup up” our process to work for us when it comes to web development and WordPress.

Let me know if there are any topics you’d like to hear me cover and I’ll do my best to work it in.

I’ve also been asked to help out during the developer workshop day. Details are still to be ironed out, but it will be an introduction for newer developers and help them get up to speed on development best practices. It will also be a specific look at the development updates on WordPress 5.0, more specifically the Gutenberg editor.

After contributing to the presentations at the Atlanta meetup about Gutenberg I’m excited to again help out in preparing the community for the new editor experience.

Presenting at WordCamp Atlanta is exciting for me because I’m from Atlanta and it is the first WordCamp I attended back in 2012, it was also my first time speaking! Six years have passed- the industry has changed and I have learned a lot in the past 6 years! I have learned so much about working within WordPress and have led multiple teams in different agencies. I’ve invented and iterated on process and workflows for myself as well as the team. I’m excited for the opportunity to take a step back and detail some of these procedures I’ve found most helpful.

 

Speaking at the Inaugural WordCamp Greenville

Posted on by Evan Mullins

I was excited to hear about another WordCamp being held close to my home base in Atlanta. Greenville announced their first WordCamp and I was happy to apply as a speaker with a few presentation ideas. I was excited to hear that I was selected as a speaker. Today it dawned on me that as I’m preparing to head to Clemson tomorrow, that I hadn’t even posted that I would be there. So here’s the announcement that I’m speaking at the Inaugural WordCamp Greenville 2018, tomorrow. 🙂

There’s the official announcement from @WordCampGVL.

I’ll be presenting a quick introduction to all things development. While I have presented this topic a couple times now, I still enjoy it. Each time I have a handful of attendees come to thank me and say they had never seen the big picture so simply before. I remember (and still am sometimes) a beginner with certain technologies and getting a quick overview sweep of the whole landscape is helpful and grounding so I can know how it all fits together. I joke when talking about being a web developer/engineer that I started more on the design side. Heck, I even have a BFA, bachelor’s of fine art degree. So, what you might ask am I doing programming sites. I started more on the design side but have since joined the dark side. I have found a more fun and creative outlet writing code than I did actually visually designing things. I still feel that web development is a creative exercise and enjoy the technical side as well as the process and the creativity required. I enjoy helping others grasp this complicated landscape we call web development because I was there and still get lost sometimes myself. So, this talk is called:

Beware the dark side, or an Intro to Development

Crash course introduction to web development for WordPress covering acronyms, buzzwords and concepts that often leave outsiders mystified. Overview of primary development processes and what software and tools are needed to play the game. We’ll cover what you need to go from zero to developer and hopefully how to have fun on the way. WordPress development tools explained for beginners: ftp, git, svn, php, html, css, sass, js, jquery, IDEs, themes, child themes, the Loop, hooks, APIs, CLI, agile, bootstrap, slack, linting, sniffing … etc.

If you’re in the area, sorry for the late notice, because the Conference is sold out, but I’ll update you with slides once they are complete on my WordPress page and the presentation will be up on wordpress.tv eventually.

Speaking at WordCamp Wilmington about the WordPress API

Posted on by Evan Mullins

I am speaking this weekend in North Carolina at WordCamp Wilmington. I thought I had posted this weeks ago, but apparently not, so as I finish my slides for the talk, I’m also announcing that I’m giving it. I have never been to Wilmington and am excited to check it out!

I was asked after my presentation in Raleigh to share with Wilmington as well, and they selected a topic I submitted about the API. I’m happy to share what I know and help others grasp what a cool tool this is and how it will change the landscape of the web.

Here’s the talk description:

It’s here, what can I do with it now? A couple case studies on how to use the API and code samples to get you started. It allows us to further separate the data from the code. Use WordPress as a CMS and then via the API easily access or update that data to power whatever we like. We’ll touch how to set it up and a handful of examples and then explore an iOS app pulling all it’s data and assets from a WordPress site via this API.

I’m discussing the API history and roadmap a little as well as how to use it and what for. I’ve got some usage examples with code to show that it’s not very hard to get started and it opens up many many possible uses of WordPress. In a nutshell, rather than getting your content or data via a webpage as part of a website (php, html, css and javascript), you can retrieve your data via the API.  You’ll get json data that is compact and fast to transfer and then you can do endless things with it. Create an app, load it into another website, analyze it as data…

Here are the example uses:

  1. Mobile App – Content via API
  2. Mobile App – Custom endpoint to API
  3. WordPress Plugin – POST content to API
  4. External site – GET Content via API
  5. WordPress Plugin – using js client

Come check it out, my slides and other presentations (most with videos) are listed on my WordPress page at circlecube.com/does-wordpress/

WordCamp Asheville 2017 Speaker – Intro To Web Development and Modular Web for WordPress

Posted on by Evan Mullins

I’m pleased to share that I’ll be speaking at WordCamp Asheville, not once, but twice! I’m presenting an Intro to Web Development for beginners as well as a lightning talk about Modular Web practices for WordPress.

wordcamp asheville 2017

My first talk will be the same as the one I presented at WordCamp Raleigh, but after having presented the content once and taken questions and discussing things with attendees, I hope it will be even better and more helpful. Overall the feedback was very grateful and the audience seemed to have learned a good bit. There were even a few people that came up to me to say it was the best presentation they had seen at the conference. So I am happy to present it again. Here’s the abstracts for each presentation:

So you wanna dev? Join the team!

WP Dev/tools for beginners: ftp, git, svn, php, html, css, sass, js, jquery, IDEs, themes, child themes, the loop, inspect element, hooks, APIs, CLI, agile, bootstrap, SEO, slack… etc. We’ll discuss the language and various acronyms and buzzwords used by devs in this crash course introduction to the developer’s world. Overview of primary development processes and terms and what software is needed to play the game. We’ll cover what you need to go from zero to developer and hopefully how to have fun on the way.

Takeaways:

  • Learn to speak dev
  • Get familiar with concepts (and acronyms) you’ll need to dev
  • Learn about tools that will help you

Modular Web for WordPress (Lightning)

WordPress the CMS, meets the Modular Web. We need to stop thinking about a website as a collection of pages and templates, but as a set of modules and a system to manage them. Modules, like Legos, are interchangeable and can be combined fairly quickly to create an infinite number of results all while both showing variety and remaining consistent. With this modular paradigm shift, our workflows improve, our websites improve and our very well-being improves. Let’s explore how to use WordPress to manage site content using modules. We’ll see what this does for our development process and programming as well for our content management via the admin. We’ll discuss how to build and maintain a module library, and use it for every site you build. These principles have been immensely helpful in each team or project where I’ve put them into practice, so we’ll even take a look at a few examples and point out where to learn more.

Takeaways:

  • Learn the basics of Modular design for web
  • Understand the advantages to building sites modularly
  • See how to do it with WordPress

The second talk will be one I submitted as a full talk, but was asked to present it as a lightning talk. It will be tricky to squeeze everything into 15 minutes, but I’ll do my best. Developing modularly is something that I am passionate about. I think a lot of sites use WordPress as a CMS, and forget the system part of that. We should use the CMS to help us build flexible systems that are flexible. I’ve been preaching this idea of “Building Systems not Pages” for a long time and hope to inspire others to work smarter. There is a lot to cover, but having only a few minutes to do it in will force me to present the main and most important points only. I’m excited for the challenge!

Tickets are on sale now, so if you’re in the area, I hope to see you at WordCamp Asheville 2017. It will be the best $40 you spend!

WordCamp Raleigh 2017 Speaker – WordPress Devevlopment for Beginners

Posted on by Evan Mullins

Although the schedule is not yet out(The schedule is here), I’m happy to announce that this year I’ll be speaking at WordCamp Raleigh 2017 . I’m preparing an intro to Web Development for WordPress users talk. We’ll cover all the crazy acronyms people forget to ask what they mean and help (I hope) attendees at least test the waters in the development pool. There’s a learning curve which some would say is increasing with all the complexities in the Web world these days. This will be my second trip speaking at WC Raleigh, since speaking last year as well as WordCamp Raleigh 2016. I’m excited to see some familiar faces.

So you wanna dev? Join the team!

WP Dev/tools for beginners: ftp, git, svn, php, html, css, sass, js, jquery, IDEs, themes, child themes, the loop, hooks, APIs, CLI, agile, bootstrap, SEO, slack… etc.

We’ll discuss the language of programming and various acronyms and buzzwords used by devs in this crash course introduction to the developer’s world. The session will be an overview of primary development processes and terms as well as what software is needed to play the game. We’ll cover what you need to go from zero to developer and hopefully how to have fun on the way.

 

Why do I want to talk about this?

fortran- the original hanging chadI know what it feels like to be drinking from the firehose. I remember all too well how mystical the development world looked from the outside. I studied Art throughout high school and college. While I have a Fine Art degree from UGA, I was always interested in technology as well, but more along the lines of what I could do with Photoshop. I wasn’t (and still am not) into building computers or fortran coding or spending much time in my terminal. I was studying digital media art and computer animation and ended up taking a web design for artists course – and it changed my life.

I was introduced to HTML& CSS, WordPress blog, and ActionScript in Flash. I enjoyed the flash days and that experimentation really helped spark my interest in programming. I continued to update my WordPress site and learned a lot programming just from wanting to make my own site better. Then eventually, until I was took the plunge into development full-time.

love actionscriptI still remember feeling elated when I loaded up a project in the browser to see it live. Also when I finally understood for loops and the other weird symbols and keywords in programming. It’s great how you can build something and moments later, have it online and accessible to the whole (connected) world. A lot has happened to/in web development and there is a much larger more complex puzzle to sort out when getting started today vs a decade ago. It really is like learning a new language, along with a whole way of thinking. I am hoping to help guide you through it .

Get your ticket

Last year, at WordCamp Raleigh 2016, I presented in the developer track discussing the WP REST API. This year it will be interesting to present to the non-developer attendees and see if I can bring any into the fold. So, go get a ticket for this year! I’ll see you there!

Speaker at WordCamp Birmingham – More WP REST API

Posted on by Evan Mullins

I am excited to be a speaker at WordCamp Birmingham 2016. I’ll be speaking on October 29th – just a couple weeks away and now that they have announced the #wcbhm schedule I’m announcing my participation as well. I’ll be opening up the developer track for the day at 10am. I will be presenting more about the WP REST API. A lot will be taken from my WordCamp Raleigh presentation on the same subject, but as usually happens, once you do present, you realize a few holes in your slides and have some additions, suffice it to say, this won’t just be a repeat presentation.

wordcamp-birmingham-badge-speaking

WP API, What is it Good For? Absolutely Everything!

I am very excited about the WP API and am tracking it’s progress closely. There are big discussions as to when it will be rolled into core and all and we’ll discuss these details in the presentation, we’ll also discuss things we can do with the API. It allows us to further separate the data from the code. Because WordPress is a great CMS we can use it to manage our data and then via the API access that data to power whatever we like. We’ll touch a handful of examples and explore an iOS app pulling all it’s data and assets from a WordPress site via this API. We’ll discuss authentication and terms to bring API beginners up to speed on what it’s all about!

So if you’re anywhere close, I encourage you to go get yourself a ticket (just $20) to WordCamp Birmingham and check it out. There will be many other presentations worth checking out as well. I hope to see some familiar faces in Birmingham!

Speaker at WordCamp Raleigh – WP REST API

Posted on by Evan Mullins

I’m pleased to be a Speaker at WordCamp Raleigh as well this year. It will be all about the WordPress REST API! WordCamp has been a quick turnaround in Raleigh, it’s already coming up this weekend, September 24-25th, and my speaking time is Saturday afternoon at 4pm. I’ll discuss the forthcoming API, which is partly integrated into WordPress core, but in order to use still requires we install the feature plugin. I’ll recap the history so we know where the API came from, talk about what it means to the WordPress ecosystem, and the web as a whole, that every site will have an API built-in. We’ll talk about routes and endpoints and authentication as well as look at some brave examples that are using this beta feature in production! Get your tickets (there are still about a dozen available) and come out out to Raleigh, North Carolina for WordCamp 2016.wordcamp-raleigh-hero-2016

WordCamp Presentation

WP API, what is it good for? Absolutely Everything!

See the Power of the WP API. Now that every WordPress website has (or will have) an API built-in, what can you do with it? It allows us to further separate the data from the code. Use WordPress to manage our data and then via the API easily access or update that data to power whatever we like. We’ll touch how to set it up and a handful of examples and then explore an iOS app pulling all it’s data and assets from a WordPress site via this API.

banner-772x250

This will be geared for developers with some “how to” but also for everyone interested in the power of WordPress and where things are heading.

  • Learn how to spell WP-API
  • Learn about the power and flexibility it brings to WordPress
  • See it working in a live app

I’ll update this post with slides and links and notes and maybe one day even a video of the presentation as WordCamp Raleigh. I’m excited to meet the Raleigh WordCamp enthusiasts and share what I can with them as well as the WordPress community as a whole. It’s been quite a busy year as far as speaking and especially this fall, as in 2 weeks I’ll be down in Orlando for another WordCamp.

Speaker at WordCamp Orlando – Intro to WordPress Development

Posted on by Evan Mullins

I’ll be a WordCamp Speaker in Orlando this year. WordCamp Orlando is October 8th and my speaking time is Saturday afternoon. My presentation topic will be a crash course intro to development for beginners. I’ve given some presentations similar to this at work and have even had pieces of this presentation in parts of other talks I have given, but it will be nice to just focus the whole time on the intro for attendees that feel dev presentations get too deep too quickly.orlando-wordcamp-hero

So You Wanna Dev? Join the Team!

“WP Dev/tools for beginners: ftp, git, svn, php, html, css, sass, js, jquery, IDEs, themes, child themes, the loop, hooks, APIs, CLI, agile, bootstrap, SEO, slack… etc.
We’ll discuss the language and various acronyms and buzzwords used by devs in this crash course introduction to the developer’s world. Overview of primary development processes and terms and what software is needed to play the game. We’ll cover what you need to go from zero to developer and hopefully how to have fun on the way.”

I’ve been a WordCamp Speaker in the past, but it’s been specific to Atlanta. Orlando will be fun and I’m excited about the KidsCamp sessions they have going too!

WordCamp parents can now usher in the next generation of WordPress builders at our first annual KidsCamp! Parents attending WordCamp can bring their junior builders along and enjoy a day of parent-child learning under the tutelage of some of our WordPress Master Builders!

WordCamp Orlando 2016 will be at the UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management in south Orlando! So get your tickets and bring the kids. I may or may not be stopping in to Harry Potter World while I’m in town. =)

Speaking at WPCampus

Posted on by Evan Mullins

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be speaking at WPCampus! It’s the conference “Where WordPress Meets Higher Education”. My presentation is titled ‘The Modular Web For WordPress’.

WPCampus 2016 is the inaugural conference for the WPCampus community, a gathering of web professionals, educators and people dedicated to the confluence of WordPress in higher education. The concept for WPCampus is an education focused, non-profit event which will allow people to share and learn about WordPress in the world of higher education. So if you’re into WordPress and/or higher education and/or the web in general, it’s the place for you come July. Get a ticket to a wealth of knowledge and ideas.

wpcampus-speaker-confirmation

I will be presenting on a topic that I’ve thought a lot about and have become pretty passionate about. I’ll discuss Modular Web Development and specifically how to integrate a modular development mindset into a WordPress development workflow.

Here is the official session description:

WordPress the CMS, meets the Modular Web. We need to stop thinking about a website as a collection of pages and templates, but as a set of modules and a system to manage them. Modules, like Legos, are interchangeable and can be combined fairly quickly to create an infinite number of results all while both showing variety and remaining consistent. With this modular paradigm shift, our workflows improve, our websites improve and our very well-being improves. Let’s explore how to use WordPress to manage site content using modules. We’ll see what this does for our development process and programming as well for our content management via the admin. We’ll discuss how to build and maintain a module library, and use it for every site you build. These principles have been immensely helpful in each team or project where I’ve put them into practice, so we’ll even take a look at a few examples and point out where to learn more.

legos

While this may not be a topic specific to higher education, I think it very relevant in that having a smart process helps projects be more flexible, more on time and more on budget. I’m happy to be able to contribute to WordPress in education as well as WordPress ideas in general. I will be speaking on Friday, July 15th (I’ll try to update this with a time once it’s decided and announced). As I said, tickets (early bird even) are available now so go get yours. And if you’re interested check out my other presentations.

Recapping WordCamp Atlanta 2016 – Day 0 – The Dev Workshop

Posted on by Evan Mullins

Just off a busy but enjoyable weekend of WordCamp Atlanta @wordcampatl. I was able to attend the friday developer workshop and the Saturday sessions of the conference. Though I was a speaker at WordCamp Atlanta in 2012 (From Photoshop PSD to WordPress Theme), 2013 (Your firstborn child theme. Child themes 101+2), and 2014 (Custom Post Types or Choose Your Own Adventure), I couldn’t make it in 2015, I wasn’t selected this year as a speaker. However, I was also able to volunteer to help out and to take some photos and staff the Happiness Room. I also volunteered a couple weeks ago to speak at a WordPress meetup group (Modifying Your Theme’s Design – Learning CSS), so I feel like I was able to still give back.

2016-03-18 12.46.19

Overall

TLDR; It was a great conference and like always, talking to people was the best part, though there were some great informative and even entertaining sessions I attended.

Beginner WordPress Development – Workshop

Micah Wood & Aaron Reimann

2016-03-18 09.16.25

The workshop was a great way for many to get started with WordPress development. Micah and Aaron went over from the basics of development through child-theming. I stepped up to help others get started, since we were all installing mamp to get a local wordpress install setup. Even with the famous 5 minute install it was taking most people a long time to get setup, though we can blame the wifi for most of the issues I believe. We then cloned Micah’s child theme demo from github into our theme dir and he get started through the demo. Follow along by reading his blog post length commit messages. It was great to help out! I even learned a few tricks about some WordPress hooks, the loop and template hierarchy.

I’ll share one tip many might not have realized when dealing with child themes. The difference between get_template_directory_uri and get_stylesheet_directory_uri.

I’ll post an update on Day 2 when I’ve had time to digest some more of the great presentations.