Author Archive
Beyond Simple Contact Forms: Collecting Data with Gravity Forms
Beyond Simple Contact Forms: Collecting Data with Gravity Forms
WordPress is a great web publishing system, but when it comes to collecting user data through a web-based form you’ll need to turn to a plugin to extend the core WP system. If you just need a simple contact form there are many good options to choose from, including CForms, Contact Form 7 and the Dagon Design Contact Form.
Frequently, though, you need more functionality than a simple contact form plugin provides. You might have more sophisticated data validation requirements, or maybe you want to allow users to upload files, or you might need to schedule your form to only accept submissions during a limited timeframe. While most competent web developers can easily create scripts to meet these requirements, let’s face it — it’s tedious work. Fortunately WordPress developers have a new power tool at their disposal: Gravity Forms.
Gravity Forms makes the creation of complex data collection forms easy. Not only that, it also manages the submitted data for you.
In this video I demonstrate the Gravity Forms plugin by creating a moderately complex job application form. You’ll be amazed at how easy it is.
If you just need a simple contact form, then Gravity Forms probably isn’t for you. It’s a premium plugin — that means you’ll have to pay for it. If, on the other hand, you have even slightly more advanced needs, then Gravity Forms will pay for itself in the time you save by not having to build custom data collection forms.
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WordPress Security Alert and Upgrade Help
Over the past 24 hours we’ve been inundated with questions about a serious WordPress security issue that is reaching a critical mass. It appears that a worm is using old versions of WordPress to replicate and infect blogs around the Internet. If you are using a version of WordPress prior to 2.8.4 (the current version at the time of this alert) you must upgrade immediately.
There are many reasons why a WordPress user may put off upgrading. Maybe you don’t believe an upgrade is necessary, or you’re afraid that an upgrade might break a custom theme. It’s possible that you simply don’t know how to upgrade WordPress. If you’re running an older version of WordPress and you’ve avoided upgrading for any of these reasons, please take a few minutes to watch the video below. The video explains why it’s crucial that you upgrade NOW and walks through many common upgrade scenarios.
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Related Links:
- How to Upgrade WordPress (covers manual upgrades and includes demonstration of the backup plugin).
- Best Practices for Upgrading WordPress
- WordPress Database Backup Plugin
- How to Keep WordPress Secure
- Old Versions of WordPress Under Attack
- WordPress Security Help
Managing Tags
Tags are a key tool for organizing content on your blog. While categories are general, tags are specific. The WordPress tagging system allows you the flexibility of tagging your posts with very specific terms.
This video will show you how to manage tags in WordPress.
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Manage the WordPress Media Library
One of the nicest enhancements in the latest version of WordPress is the new Media Library. This new feature is a significant improvement over the previous method for managing uploads.
This is the tool you’ll use to managing your images, videos, and audio files.
Best Practices for Upgrading WordPress
We’re all understandably excited about the latest release of WordPress. There’s a temptation to download the newest version as soon as it becomes available, and upgrade all of our blogs immediately. New is always better, right?
Well, yes and no. The new version of WordPress is undoubtedly an important upgrade, with an impressive array of new features and usability enhancements. On the other hand, if you don’t take care in the upgrade process you might just find yourself regretting the day you jumped on the upgrade bandwagon.
In most cases, upgrading WordPress is a simple and painless process. Occasionally, though, something goes wrong. This video will guide you through the best practices in planning your WordPress upgrade. The goal is to ensure that your upgrade goes smoothly, and that you remain a happy WordPress blogger.
In addition to watching the video, please take a moment to complete our WordPress upgrade survey. We’re interested in hearing about your upgrade plans, and we’re looking for guidance on how best to present training material during this time of transition.
Resources:
- WordPress upgrade survey
- WordPress 2.5 Plugin Compatibility List
- WordPress 2.5 Theme Compatibility List
- Semiologic forum
- Upgrading WordPress Video — Includes backup plugin
More WordPress Tutorials and Resources
My next batch of WordPress training videos is currently in the planning stages. To be honest, I’ve been hesitant to put a lot of effort into producing a bunch of new videos with the WordPress 2.5 release just days away.
In the meantime, I wanted to take a moment to point out a few other WordPress resources that some of you might find useful:
- The WordPress Training Group on Facebook: The official Facebook group for this website. The group currently has well over 400 members and the discussion forum is turning into an valuable support resource. If you’re on Facebook, be please join us.
- Lessons for WordPress Beginners: A set of lessons designed to help the WordPress newbies get up to speed quickly. The lessons are part of the official WordPress Codex. While the Codex tends to be somewhat technical, these lessons are clearly for beginners.
- WordPress University: Ben Cope’s new site promises to be a valuable collection of WordPress training videos. Ben covers a couple of topics not covered on this site, including inserting YouTube videos to your WordPress post, and installing up WordPress on a GoDaddy account.
- iTheme’s Free WordPress Tutorials: Another collection of free WordPress videos that overlaps somewhat with the videos provided on this site. A few videos deal with issues I haven’t gotten around to yet, like setting up FeedBurner and installing Google Analytics.
- Free eBook – How to develop money making niche sites with WordPress: Based on the early results of our WordPress training survey, it appears that quite a few of you are using WordPress with the goal of making money online. If this describes you, you’ll definitely want to check out Caroline Middlebrook’s free eBook. Even if you’re not hoping to get rich with WordPress, Caroline’s book offers pretty good documentation on setting up WordPress with Fantastico.
And finally, If you haven’t done so already, please take a moment to complete our WordPress training survey. Your feedback will help determine the focus of our future training videos.
Take the WordPress Training Survey
The reaction to our initial batch of WordPress training videos has been extremely positive. It’s great to know that so many of you are finding this site to be a valuable resource.
We are in the process of planning the next round of WordPress videos, and we’d like to know a little more about you and your specific training needs. Please take a moment to complete our brief
WordPress training survey.
Your feedback will help us focus on the training topics that are the most important to you.
Using WordPress Plugins
WordPress plugins allow bloggers to easily add additional functionality to their blogs. There are a huge number of plugins available that extend the functionality of WordPress.
What can you do with a WordPress plugin? Just about anything. There are plugins to block spam, help you publish a podcast, and to improve the performance of your WordPress blog. If you have some specific need that is not yet accommodated by the core WordPress code-base, chances are there’s a plugin to meet your needs.
This video is an introduction to working with WordPress plugins.
Working with WordPress Widgets
In the past, modifying your blog sidebar required mucking around with your theme code, and even knowing a bit of PHP. Fortunately, WordPress widgets eliminate the hassle by allowing bloggers to easily configure a custom sidebar with drag-and-drop ease.
The WordPress community has developed a large and growing collection of widgets that will allow you to plug all sorts of things into your WordPress sidebar. From Flickr photos to your Twitter status, if there’s something you’d like to add to your blog sidebar, chances are there’s a widget to help you do it.
This video is an introduction to installing and using WordPress Widgets.
Installing and Activating WordPress Themes
One of the coolest features of WordPress is the ability to dramatically change the design of your blog by simply activating a new theme.
The WordPress community has created hundreds (possibly thousands) of free, high-quality themes that you can use on your blog. This video will show you how to find, install, and activate themes.
You can download free themes from the WordPress Theme Viewer.
