The first presenter was Al Davis who gave a very well accepted talk on choosing a shared host service and solution for WordPress.org self-hosted blogs. The information was generally related to WordPress and also covered feature sets to keep in mind when browsing for a hosting provider. Al has also kindly posted the “slide deck” at his web site, just follow the link to his post.

Our next presenter was Trevor Mills. Trevor is a programmer and developer and shared with us one of his recent projects, an event scheduler/program generator/organizer plugin that is easily implemented into most any WordPress self-hosted blog installation. The working demo Trevor shared with us was located at http://apps.ocff.ca/conference

The balance of the meeting was in various and sundry discussions related to all things WordPress and we were fortunate to be able to make a quick announcement of the next WordCamp Toronto which has been scheduled for May 28 and 29, 2011.

Afterward, several members gathered a short walk down Bloor Street for a few social drinks; and, once again we celebrated a successful gathering of the WPToronto Meetup group.

© 2010, Edward Caissie. All rights reserved.

The whole concept in my opinion is to not really think about what you are writing in as much as make sure you are. A practice to create a habit, a habit to create a skill, a skill to replace a practice.

The opportunity to delve into your own creativeness simply occurs on its own as the thoughts start to flow freely and easily. A great idea or an insightful bon mots are just some of the potential you can, and will, discover.

There will always be more that can be written and there are never-ending streams of ideas to put to digital paper at least in the case of a blog. This method works just as well with the “old school” tools known as pen and paper, too. I believe with living in this digital age the environmental benefits of not using a resource that can better be used elsewhere is a good idea. I’m writing this on my iPhone, as is common for my Sunday posts, and it actually saves me edit time afterward with its auto-correct functionality … stop writing.

Thanks to Alex Frakking for suggesting this idea at the last WordPress Toronto Meetup gathering on August 21, 2010 … just another of the many benefits of the group.

© 2010, Edward Caissie. All rights reserved.

The turnout was quite good with a peak attendance of 15 people. This was another summer workshop session with no agenda or scheduled topics for discussion.

Once again there were many new faces and several returning members as well. We solved some issues, shed light on others, and added insights to ideas being formulated … or in others words a very successful Meetup in my opinion.

Although the concept of more than one monthly meeting is still left up in the air and we did not sort out a major speaker or idea to have for the September Meetup, I believe the group in general would benefit from short presentations on a regular basis.

Andy McIlwain put forward the idea of discussing how to generate content for a blog taking into consideration the general audience that would be visiting and reading it.

I am suggesting as a possible follow-up presentation of what can done afterward, such as using plugins to measure the traffic being generated by what content.

Alex Frakking suggested the premise of a short introduction period followed by some social interactions and then the presentations would be a good general agenda.

© 2010, Edward Caissie. All rights reserved.

Myself and Pi Yizhou

© 2010, Edward Caissie. All rights reserved.

Alfred presented a great overview of Custom Fields and some of their potential uses. There was a great follow-up discussion talking about various uses and ideas how to implement them. Potential issues and concerns were also discussed as part of the presentations Q&A session afterward.

Our second presenter, Martin, was unable to attend due to an emergency which, to my understanding, the situation is much improved … stay healthy, Martin!

With the open session, the group discussed various points in regards to the recent release of WordPress 3.0 as well as helping one of our members work through a manual upgrade of one of their web sites.

Last, and actually first as well as on a personal note, I was given the fortunate experience of meeting a visiting group of Chinese Professors from north of Shanghai on my way to the Meetup.

I like to watch people, and simply could not help myself but smile when I saw this group of people enter onto the subway train and in a very tourist fashion start taking pictures of the various items of interest, such as the route map above the door, the station platform through the door windows … and me. I’m hoping to have copies of the pictures I was in emailed to me for a future post. In the meantime, please visit one of the group’s web site here: http://QQ.com (we exchanged calling cards). It may not be a WordPress site but maybe being a dot-com they will consider it … and QQ, as my new friend says refers to laughing. Enjoy the site, although you may need to brush up on your Chinese (or use a translator).

© 2010, Edward Caissie. All rights reserved.

I am looking forward to this Meetup. We have two presentation scheduled on the agenda. The first will be a short presentation on custom fields by Alfred Ayache; and, the second will be by Martin Hurford on the template hierarchy.

There is also a remote possibility of a guest (via Montreal) invited with a comment on one of his recent blog posts here.

Remember to use the twitter hash tag #wpto when tweeting about the Meetup.

© 2010, Edward Caissie. All rights reserved.

... as presented at the WordPress Toronto Meetup Group May 2010 meeting ...

The 10 steps to go from having no domain to a BuddyPress MultiSite installation:

Presentation Slides: 10 Steps to BuddyPress MultiSite (324)

1. Register (or choose) a domain; and, choose a web host if needed.
2. Start downloading WordPress 3.0 or greater.
3. Enable “Wildcard DNS“.
4. Create a database and assign a user for your WordPress installation.
5. Upload WordPress.
6. Start the WordPress installation.
7. Read this page thoroughly: http://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network!
8. Add define ('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true); to wp-config.php
9. Go to your Dashboard (or refresh the page).
   • Under Tools | Network (now available from above step)
   • Choose your settings; click install.
     • Follow the directions on the page to modify wp-config.php and .htaccess
10. Install the BuddyPress plugin; activate it; and, choose a BuddyPress friendly theme.

Your BuddyPress is Ready!

Enjoy!

NB: These steps are based on my experiences using HostGator Web Services, other web hosting services may vary in their requirements.

© 2010, Edward Caissie. All rights reserved.

The plugin, BNS Category Plus, was created for the HCAS Volunteers group and may be publicly available in the near future. The concept extends the default Categories plugin to allow additional options. The overview will cover some design ideas and programming tips on how this and other plugins can be quickly created to fill a niche. I will also talk about the tools and resources I use to write and research plugin code.

The slides from the presentation are available as a PDF here: Creating a Plugin (126)

A link to the BNS Category Plus code will be provided once it is publicly released; meeting attendees are also welcome to contact me for a copy of the BNS Category Plus code before its release.

© 2010, Edward Caissie. All rights reserved.

This will be another socially oriented meeting as the group continues to work on future themes, agendas, and presentations by WPToronto members … and other interesting people.

Come to the meeting and get to know some interesting people talking about WordPress and other related ideas … I’ll be there!

© 2010, Edward Caissie. All rights reserved.

Also, as a reminder, the first meeting of The Toronto WordPress Meetup Group is scheduled for this Saturday (Jan 23, 2010) at 2:00 PM. We will be meeting at the VSP Grenadier Cafe in High Park.

There will also be an announcement, for members only, regarding the upcoming WordCamp Toronto in March 2010, too.

© 2010, Edward Caissie. All rights reserved.