The Nashville WordPress developer community is coming together this month. Come out and meetup with some of Nashville’s hidden WordPress talents, enjoy some breakfast, coffee, some code review and a light discussion on what direction the development group should head.

• RSVP » Nashville Dev Breakfast
• Wed, May 29
• 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM

We will have the projector setup as always for 15-20 min of code review and hot topics. Our typical dev meetups are usually more focused on code, but this month we are going to spend the first half discussing the direction of the group then move on the to wp-goodies.

The Breakfast
We will be making pancakes and sausage accompanied by their more health conscience counterparts fruit, bagels and muffins. If you feel the urge to bring a little to pitch in be sure it’s pre-made, the griddles will be occupied!

Our Location
The offices of Ahso Designs, sprclldr & Nashville Geek
440 E Iris Dr Nashville, TN 37204

Our Sponsor – WorkIT Nashville
WorkIT Nashville has graciously sponsored the Nashville WordPress developer meetup and we want to continue to give support to back to them. They are working to grow the Nashville community so please take a some time check them out!

In the near future, the videos from the conference will be available on WordCamp.tv. We will be sure to let you know when they are available.

View on Slidshare

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View on Slideshare

No slideshow, but an awesome webpage with all the files you need to get going! http://www.stevewilkison.com/wordcampnashville2013/

View on Slideshare

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Submissions are due by Tuesday April 16th.

Lastly, please make sure you are signed up for our email list over on the right so we can stay in contact throughout the year.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on April 20th!

I’ll start….

- John

This month we spent about 45mins talking about issues that developers were dealing with. We also briefly covering WP Test by 8Bit. If you’ve not looked over WP Test you most certainly should!

A fantastically exhaustive set of test data to measure the integrity of your plugins and themes. ~ 8BIT

Get involved with the community
We are working hard to bring more opportunities to the developer community of Nashville here are a few we currently have a some that are in the works.

• Opportunities: Present topics to the meetup user group and meetup dev group.
• Looking for: Group input and leadership
• Future Goal 2013: Opportunities for learning to code specifically to WordPress.

Places to Connect

• WordPress Nashville Google Group
• Twitter @wpnashville #wpnash

Meet one of our Sponsors WorkIT Nashville
We are also very excited about our new sponsor WorkIT Nashville. If you’ve not hear of them they are please check them out. They are working hard to good things for the community and they are doing it in large way!

WorkITNashville is the online hub for technology jobs and information about the Middle Tennessee region. ~ workitnashville

Slides

Below you will find an outline of the panel members, a link to their meetup account and the list of plugin they brought to share. I have also included a number of different plugins that were mentioned through out the talk. Let us know if there was something we missed I’m sure we can dig it up for you.

Panel Members Plugin Suggestions

Dale Liszka
http://www.meetup.com/NashvilleWordpress/members/3126734/

1. Quick Cache:
   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/quick-cache/Speed up your site ~ BIG Time! – If you care about the speed of your site, Quick Cache is a plugin that you absolutely MUST have installed.
   • Requires: 3.2 or higher
   • Compatible up to: 3.3.2
   • Last Updated: 2011-12-4
2. Exploit Scanner:
   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exploit-scanner/Search the files and database of your WordPress install for signs that may indicate that it has fallen victim to malicious hackers.
   • Requires: 3.3 or higher
   • Compatible up to: 3.5.1
   • Last Updated: 2013-1-30
3. Facebook Comments:
   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/facebook-comments-plugin/The Facebook Comments WordPress plugin makes it easier for you to setup, administer and customise Facebook comments from your WordPress site.
   • Requires: 2.7 or higher
   • Compatible up to: 3.5.1
   • Last Updated: 2013-1-12

MaAnna Stephenson
http://www.meetup.com/NashvilleWordpress/members/23700871/

1. BackupBuddy:
   http://ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy/Back up your entire WordPress installation. Widgets, themes, plugins, files and SQL database – the entire package! Just like your laptop or desktop computer, you should be doing regular backups of your website.
2. WishList Member:
   http://member.wishlistproducts.com/WishList Member™ is a powerful, yet easy to use membership solution that can turn any WordPress blog into a full-blown membership site.
3. TinyMCE Advanced:
   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tinymce-advanced/Enables the advanced features of TinyMCE, the WordPress WYSIWYG editor.
   • Requires: 3.5 or higher
   • Compatible up to: 3.5.1
   • Last Updated: 2012-12-13

Nathaniel Schweinberg
http://www.meetup.com/NashvilleWordpress/members/13496814/

1. Posts 2 Posts:
   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/posts-to-posts/Efficient many-to-many connections between posts, pages, custom post types, users.
   • Requires: 3.5 or higher
   • Compatible up to: 3.5.1
   • Last Updated: 2013-2-17
2. Developer:
   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/developer/A plugin, which helps WordPress developers develop.
   • Requires: 3.4 or higher
   • Compatible up to: 3.5.1
   • Last Updated: 2013-1-29
3. wpMandrill:
   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wpmandrill/The wpMandrill plugin sends emails that are generated by WordPress through Mandrill, a transactional email service powered by MailChimp.
   • Requires: 3.0 or higher
   • Compatible up to: 3.4.2
   • Last Updated: 2013-2-13
4. Debug Bar Extender:
   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/debug-bar-extender/screenshots/Extends the debug-bar plugin with additional tabs to measure runtimes between checkpoints and lookup variable content.
   • Requires: 3.1 or higher
   • Compatible up to: 3.2.1
   • Last Updated: 2011-9-2

Kenneth White
http://www.meetup.com/NashvilleWordpress/members/12522497/

1. Gravity Forms
   http://www.gravityforms.com/
2. WP Page Navi
   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-pagenavi/Adds a more advanced paging navigation interface.
   • Requires: 3.2 or higher
   • Compatible up to: 3.4.2
   • Last Updated: 2012-8-24
3. CMS Page Tree View
   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/cms-tree-page-view/Adds a tree view of all pages & custom posts. Get a great overview + options to drag & drop to reorder & option to add multiple pages.
   • Requires: 3.4 or higher
   • Compatible up to: 3.5.1
   • Last Updated: 2013-2-13

In Meetup Plugin Suggestions

• Geo My WP
  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/geo-my-wp/
• FoxyShop
  http://www.foxy-shop.com/
• WP Client
  http://wp-client.com/
• Custom Post Type UI
  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-post-type-ui/
• Types – Custom Fields and Custom Post Types Management
  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/types/
• Option Tree
  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/option-tree/
• Options Framework
  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/options-framework/
• IPVenger
  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ipvenger/
• Wordfence Security
  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordfence/

Hosting

• If you are concerned about site speed, security, or plugin compatibility, we recommend using WP Engine

Sandbox development environment

• Use a sub-domain
• Separate Database
• hide it from search – privacy options
• Local install: Mac MAMP, Window WAMP

Outside of WordPress

• Artistdata
  http://www.artistdata.com/us/

Special thanks to John Housholder from Ah So Designs for moderating and Kenneth White from http://sprclldr.com/, Randy Hicks from http://metacake.com/, Joel Norris from http://www.ahsodesigns.com/, Nathaniel Schweinberg from http://fightthecurrent.org/ for being a part of the panel.

Also, here are the slides from the presentation in case you would like to review:

During the Meetup, John, the user interface designer on the project, discussed the reasons why the plugin was released and how to use the plugin.

To install the plugin start using it, go to WordPress Emma plugin page.

To learn more about the plugin, visit the Emma WordPress plugin page on the Ah So Designs site.

Below is John’s presentation from the night.

Also, if you were unable to attend, we uploaded the video of the night or would like a review, you can see the entire presentation below:

Emma Emarketing WordPress Plugin Meetup from Ah So Designs on Vimeo.

For more information on our WordPress Meetups, please visit our WordPress Meetup page.

Our newest location (440 E Iris Dr Nashville, TN 37204) will more than likely become our main location so get acquainted with the address and be sure to join us this month. One of the groups organizer John Housholder has a joint working space with another one of our members Kenneth White, and together they have opened up their office space to host our meetups. If you get a chance find them on twitter and say thanks!

Other places to find WPNashville

Web: http://wpnashville.com
Twitter: @wpnashville
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wordpressnashville
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wpnashville/

WordPress Classes Coming to Nashville

As some of you are aware we have begun collecting names and emails of those who are interested in taking focus, paid classes on WordPress. Currently we are still building the list of interested people through out the Nashville area. At this point it appears that we will have the perfect three choices for you. All three of which are well worth the time, effort and cost.

1. Online
2. Classroom Style
3. Company Training
4. SEO Specific

Please fill out our form at http://wpnashville.com/wordpress-classes to help us build the list of interest. As soon as we have enough interested we will announce class availabilities. If you have specific questions about classes, please email us directly info@wpnashville.com

August Meetups

Standard Meetup

As the year has gone by we have consistently received requests for a variety of presentations and topics which we have not been able to get around too. So, in an effort to bring you all that Nashville has to offer we’ve gathered Nashville’s WordPress professors for a meetup opportunity.

We are going to have the following member give a 5 min talk about what they offer and how it can benefit you and your sites. We believe that as the Nashville WordPress community grows it should not be bound by the just our meetups, so please come out and support you community.

The following member has their own variety of paid classes they offer. Having talked with each one of them I can say there is a great selection to choose from!

John Housholder
http://www.ahsodesigns.com/
http://www.meetup.com/NashvilleWordpress/members/13008060/

MaAnna Stephenson
http://www.BlogAid.net
http://www.meetup.com/NashvilleWordpress/members/23700871/

Judy Wilson
http://www.site-shack.com
http://www.meetup.com/NashvilleWordpress/members/45876982/

Ross Jones
http://www.site-shack.com
http://www.meetup.com/NashvilleWordpress/members/10119159/

August’s Meetup

Developers Meetup Round 3

As many of you saw we had our first two developers meetup in June. Though small they were a great success! The developer meetups are dedicated to those in the community that are actively writing html, css, php and various other languages to build or modify their themes.

We currently have not schedule our next developer meetup though we expect to have one in August. Our next Developer meetup topic will be “Your Latest Work”. Each of us will take about 5 min to show off our latest work or works in progress. This idea is give each of us that 5min to shine in a part of the industry where it’s hard to be seen.

We’ll send a developer specific email when we have our next meetup scheduled. In the mean time please check out the Google Group we’ve started to help facilitate community questions and conversation.

Please, always to your own homework on a plugin before installing it. If possible I suggest installing plugins on a test site before installing on your main site. This will allow you to keep you database clean while testing out plugins. It will also keep you further from harms way if you happen to activate a dangerous plugin.

Here is the text version of the presentation:

WordPress Plugins

5 plugins you be glad to know about, and few you may like.

How to spot a good plugin

1. Check the Plugin Details:
   You will find the plugin details to the right side of the plugin page. Looking at these is a must, you do not want to download an old plugin or an incompatible one.
   • Requires: 3.1 or higher
   • Compatible up to: 3.4
   • Last Updated: 2012-6-19
   • Downloads: 1,564,366
2. Check the Plugin stats
   There will be a stats tab on the plugin page that will allow you to see the monthly or weekly stats of plugin.

Utility Plugins

• WordPress SEO by Yoast
• Jetpack
• Akismet
• Maintenance Mode

Backup Plugins

• BackupBuddy
• WordPress Backup to Dropbox
• WP-DB-Backup

Google Analytics Plugins

• Google Analyticator
• Ultimate Google Analytics

Specialty Plugins

• WP-PageNavi
• Download monitor
• Gigpress

Group suggestions

A few plugins were tossed around in the Q&A. Here they are.

• Foxy Cart & Foxy-Shop

June 1st 3:00pm until 4:30pm

Address:
440 E Iris Dr
Nashville, TN 37204
Google Map to Location: http://g.co/maps/2yzt3

Everyone should bring a 5 minute slide presentation (in PowerPoint or Keynote) on responsive design development.  Ideas of topics are responsive design best dev practices, responsive design WordPress frameworks, and resources.  If you don’t have a presentation, please come with two questions for the group.

There will also be an ice chest so please bring several of your favorite beers to trade and share.

Please RSVP on this Facebook fan page and join WPNashville.com (under the developers tab) for latest updates.

****please note, b/c it is the first developer meetup, it is not being posted on the regular Meetup site.