Tag Archives: Bangalore

Using WordPress as a platform

Published Jan 30, 2010 | In Events/Camps, RoloPress, WordPress

Using WordPress as a platform

I just gave a talk in Bangalore PHP Meetup about ways in which we can use WordPress as a platform. The following is the slide I used and a little write up about the talk.

Using WordPress As a Platform

View more presentations from Sudar Muthu.

Okay, we have seen various tutorials, blog posts etc about using WordPress as this, WordPress as that and even a definite guide to using WordPress as a CMS ;)

What I am going to talk about is how we can use WordPress as a platform to develop PHP applications on top of it.

There are basically two ways in which we can write apps using WordPress.

  • As a Plugin or a Theme
  • As a standalone app

As a Plugin or a Theme

This is the most common way of writing apps using WordPress. You basically write a Plugin or a Theme that uses WordPress API. (This is how RoloPress is developed)

Check out the slide for some examples apps using this technique.

As a standalone app

In this technique, we can make use of our knowledge about WordPress functions and API in our non-standard WordPress PHP-based web applications. The easiest way to use this technique is to use BackPress.

BackPress

So what is BackPress. Here is the official definition

BackPress is a PHP library of core functionality for web applications. It grew out of the immensely popular WordPress project, and is also the core of the bbPress and GlotPress sister-projects.

Using BackPress, you can include the necessary files and you will get the WordPress utility functions. My most favourites are the security functions. In additions to using the utility functions, you will also be able to get the following features.

  • User role management
  • Complete Plugin API
  • XML-RPC Server and Client
  • Object Caching
  • Database Abstraction
  • Pseudo-cron functionality
  • Full HTTP library
  • KSES: Full security filtering for HTML content

You can see the full list in the BackPress documentation.

I also go about discussing the scenarios where it is advantages and where it is not so advantages to use BackPress. (You can see those in the slides)

So in a nutshell, if you are a WordPress developer and want to use the familiar WordPress functions in a non-WordPress PHP-based web application that you are developing, then you can use BackPress to get those familiar functions.

I am going to use BackPress in a couple of projects, which I am going to start and so stay tuned. :)

Posted in Events/Camps, RoloPress, WordPress | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

It’s been 30 days since I abandoned TV

Published Aug 13, 2009 | In Random/Personal

It’s been 30 days since I abandoned TV

.. and I am really happy about it now. :)

Like my role models, I thought of abandoning TV as a 30 day experiment and it worked out wonders. :)

It all started after I moved to Bangalore. I rented a new house and I needed to buy a set-top box to watch TV. I was slightly busy getting settled in the first week and so was not able to do it immediately. After about a week of not watching TV, I thought of continuing it for a month, to see how things turn out.

Now, after a month, I am very happy that I took the decision to abandon it. I was able to save at least 3-5 hours a day and I tried to put in those hours to other things that I always wanted to do, but didn’t had time to do. Following are some of the things that I did in the hours that I saved.

Concentrated more on my blog

I concentrated more on my blog with the extra time I got and it has yielded very good results. Here are some stats.

  • In July alone, I have written 16 posts, which is the highest number of posts in a given month in the entire existence of my blog.
  • On July 24th, I received the highest number of page views on a single day in the entire existence of my blog.
  • In July, I have received the highest number of page views on a single month.
  • In July, the traffic to my blog has increased by more than 40%.

WordPress Plugin

Next within these 30 days, I have created and released more than 5 Plugins for the WordPress Plugin competition and have updated around 3 of my old Plugins. Ohh, by the way, do vote for my Plugins ;)

Gym

The next best thing, I did during this period is that, I have started going to the gym regularly, which I always wanted to do (but didn’t) for the last 10 years. I could feel that my stamina has increased tremendously after just one week of regular workouts.

Books

I was also able to finish reading around 5 books, which were lying in my bookshelf without reading for quite some time.

Other projects

I have also invested the extra time in a couple of other projects (which I will talk about soon). I am also working on enhancing the theme that I am using for my blog and you will see it in action with in a week.

Future plan

I am planning to continue abandon TV and planning to go to theatres to watch movies. May be I will relax this rule a bit, when cricket matches take place.

Overall, I was able to achieve, what I wanted to achieve for years, by just switching off the TV for 30 days. More than achieving things, I am very happy and much relaxed now. No wonder why they say that people who don’t watch TV are very happy. ;)

So what are you going to do for your 30 days experiment? :)

Posted in Random/Personal | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

Joining Yahoo

Published Jun 13, 2009 | In Random/Personal

Joining Yahoo

Well guys, got some good news for you all. I am joining Yahoo Research, Bangalore next week.

I am relocating to Bangalore and may not be available online for a couple of days, so if you have sent an email, you may have to wait for some more time for reply.

This is the first time in my entire life, I am leaving the comfort of my home and Chennai, so a little nervous about it. But I guess everything should be fine once I get settled there.

So Bangalore, here I come ;)

Posted in Random/Personal | Tagged , , | 16 Comments