Recap for May 31, 2016 Meeting – DocsWP

Slack Log (Requires Slack login to view. Set one up if you don’t have a Slack account)

Welcome
Lesson Plan Updates
- @toniaslimm – “Keeping WordPress Sites Secure” is ready for copyediting.
  - @melindaheldt offered to train how to add images
- @chanthaboune gave lessons back.
- @melindaheldt is still working on selected lessons
- @c3zh plans to complete selected lessons this week
- @bethsoderberg – Troubleshooting Workshop Update
  - For those who missed the first part of this conversation, there was a troubleshooting workshop that was put together years ago by some awesome people in the community: https://learn.wordpress.org/workshops/
  - Prerequisites
    - For this course to make sense, students need to have the following experience:
    - Currently the admin of at least one self-hosted WordPress site (i.e., not on WordPress.com), with access to your hosting account and domain registration.
    - Know how to edit settings, manage widgets and menus, update WordPress/themes/plugins, add themes/plugins — in other words, you manage a site vs. just creating content on a site managed by someone else.
    - Able to recognize CSS and HTML, and know at least some of the basic tags/attributes (like href, strong, etc)
    - Have a WordPress.org username (can be new account, doesn’t need to be super active).
    - Have used FTP before.
    - If you have any experience with SQL (phpMyAdmin is fine), SSH, and/or manually installing WordPress, that’s a plus, but not required.
    - You do not not need to know PHP or JavaScript for this workshop.
  - What We Have
    - Local Install
      - breakfix.elftest.net/tutorial/mamp/
      - https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/theme-school/local-install/
  - Backing up Your WP Site
    - https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/user-lessons/backing-up-your-wordpress-site/
- How to Create a phpinfo() Page for Debugging
  - include material from http://breakfix.elftest.net/tutorial/how-to-create-a-phpinfo-page/ and http://breakfix.elftest.net/tutorial/output-buffering/
Basic Troubleshooting Process
- Where is the problem? Is it in a plugin, a theme, or somewhere in core?
- What is the full error message?
- If plugin or theme is from the rep/download it and look at the code to see if it matches the code on your site. https://wordpress.org/plugins and wordpress.org/themes.
- Look at the error and the file, see if things match.
- How to report a problem in the forums
Exercises: Debugging Theme and Plugin Issues
Fixing a Broken Theme with Syntax Error
- breakfix.elftest.net/exercise/syntax-error/
Fixing a Theme Where CSS Changes Are Not Visible
- clearing browser cache
Debugging Basic CSS Problems in Themes
Recovering from the White Screen of Death
- turn off all plugins & bring back one by one
- switch to default theme
- use a maintenance mode plugin
Recovering from Changing the URL of the Site
- change site URL via PHPMyAdmin, clear cache
Recovering from a Plugin that Triggers a Fatal Error on Activation
- http://breakfix.elftest.net/exercise/footer-fatal-error2/
Fixing Plugin with Headers Already Sent Error on Activation
- http://breakfix.elftest.net/exercise/headers-already-sent2/
- http://breakfix.elftest.net/exercise/headers-already-sent/
Debugging a Fatal Error when Plugin is Activated and Theme is Switched
- http://breakfix.elftest.net/exercise/fatal-error/
Reviewing and Fixing an Intentionally Vulnerable Plugin
- review: http://breakfix.elftest.net/example/review-a-plugin/
- fix: http://breakfix.elftest.net/example/fix-intentionally-vulnerable-plugin/
Exercises: Debugging Hacks
Debugging an .htaccess Redirect Hack
- http://breakfix.elftest.net/exercise/hacked-htaccess/
- http://breakfix.elftest.net/example/htaccess-redirect-hacks/
Debugging a Plugin that Automatically Changes User Passwords
- http://breakfix.elftest.net/exercise/changed-password/
Debugging a Hacked Site that Redirects Non-Logged In Users Elsewhere
- breakfix.elftest.net/exercise/hacked-site/
Some discussion at this point about the formatting of lessons currently and how to fit this set into them. Key points/suggestions:
- This isn’t the type of lesson that can be taught by anyone regardless of level of experience.
- If it requires a fair amount of skill, maybe a script is less necessary.
- Might use this as a pre-fab workshop, but flag parts that can be used separately.
- If it’s a full workshop, will contributors be unable to add additional sections?
Copyediting Updates
- “Keeping WordPress Sites Secure” is ready for copyediting.
- “Creating your WordPress Talk” is still in copyediting.
- Discussed the feedback from Tier 1 here: https://make.wordpress.org/training/2016/05/24/pittsburgh-tier-1-lesson-plan-testing/
  - Quiz questions didn’t translate well to live workshop. Perhaps they don’t need to be required for each module?
  - Suggested that everyone build a single site for clarity.
    - Wapuu’s Lemonade Stand!
    - Also, remember to introduce Wapuu. 🙂
- Discussed the addition of best practice code samples: https://make.wordpress.org/training/2016/05/24/including-code-best-practices-in-lessons/
  - “Since people tend to copy and paste, and these lesson plans will be referenced as from a reputable source, it would be good to include a full-featured example somewhere.”
  - We’ll need to think about how to implement the idea and also ID the relevant plans that would need to be extended.
Questions and Answers!
- @mikemueller has mentioned that the Welcome Wagon copy is a little out of date.
  - Adding: “Right now we are focused on a specific set of user level lessons that will be used for a workshop in the spring that will be given in conjunction with a great organization, Hack the Hood (http://www.hackthehood.org/).
    If you’d like to contribute, we are currently looking for more help writing introductory level “user” plans, providing feedback on those plans, and testing these plans in front of live groups.”
  - Adding: Glossary of terms.