User:Jgregorymcverry.com/getting-started-with-WordPress-for-beginners

Welcome to IndieWeb WordPress
The IndieWeb is about controlling your own identity by writing and building on a domain that you own. Your content is yours.

If you use a blog or website, even if it isn't on your own domain like a wordpress.com site you are part of the #IndieWeb.

The IndieWeb is also about connecting with people who have a set of shared values about owning your content and controlling your identity. A suite of special tools, which are available for people who have a Wordpress.org installation, is available.

This tutorial will walk you through setting up the community aspect on your WordPress site. It assumes you have a domain of your own with a version of WordPress running.

A Brief Overview of Themes
People choose WordPress because of flexibility. There are thousands of themes to choose from. Each theme may behave differently.

As you start your IndieWeb journey you will have to think about your theme. Do you want to try and stick with your current theme or try one of four themes we know are 100% IndieWeb compatible?

Both approaches will work, however some functionality of IndieWeb WordPress plugins can be lost on some themes. Using your current theme may work but it will require additional testing and plugins.

What makes an IndieWeb Theme Work?
At the heart of the IndieWeb community is a tiny bit of code, or metadata, that gets added to your html. This metadata is called microformats2.

microformats2

How this metadata gets read by other IndieWeb websites, apps, and tools makes everything work. Sometimes a theme will not properly display microformats2. Other times specific types of posts like photos for example, will not display the metadata correctly once you publish.

This means you either have to edit your theme, which may not be possible for most users, or try a new theme.

Plugins

The WordPress community also connects with the larger IndieWeb using plugins, these are add-ons to WordPress that introduce new functionality. There are a number of IndieWeb plugins you will need to install. Sometimes these plugins can conflict with your current theme.

If this happens you are again left with the choice of editing your theme or choosing a new one.

Post Types

The IndieWeb also uses specific types of post, or post-types, that look follow semantic rules, which basically means how the microformats markup works. IndieWeb WordPress themes handle post types differently.

Each post types have specific rules a user should follow. For example notes should not get a tielte even though there will be a field in WordPress to add a note title.

 Webmentions 

The IndieWeb community is connected together through webmentions. These allow post on your site to show up as comments on somebody elses posts and allows some content on social media like Twitter to show as comments on your WordPress site.

IndieWeb Compatible Themes
SemPress

2016-IndieWeb

ZenPress

Independent Publisher *Please note this theme has bugs and is not under active development. No longer recommended for use*

Looking for community stewards for a fork and touch up project. Users respond to the design.

The developer teams are always looking for them contributors. Please stop by the Wordpress chat channel and offer your expertise.

SemPress
SemPress is a 100% compatible #IndieWeb theme. It also has other metadata from schema.org and the older version of microformats.

 Post Types

The theme uses custom post types for aside, status, gallery, video, audio, chat, quote, link and image.

 Additional Pages 

 Required Plugins 

While each plug-in is described in further detial below it is important to note you do not need to install all the plugins when using a 100% IndieWeb comptaible theme. Install the microformats plugin since the mark up is built in. You also do not need the post-kind plug in because that uses a a different method than SemPress to build the different IndieWeb post types.

To get started you should still install the IndieWeb plugin. This plugin ads functionality and different plugins. Once installed you will need to activate webmentions and semantic linkbacks.

Optional Plugins

If you want to syndicate posts using an IndieWeb plugin you should activate Brid.gy. There are other syndication tools described below as well.

Finally if you want to publish to yoru WordPress site using a third party IndieWeb client, like an Android app or iOS app for example, you will need to activate the micropub plug-in.

There are other additional plugins uses by the Indieweb community and these are included in a later section of the guide.

You can find more in depth directions on setting up SemPress on the wiki (page doesn't exist).

 Setting up your h-card

To setup your h-card in SemPress use the IndieWeb plugin, add to your WordPress profile, then add the h-card widget to your homepage.

You can alos manually add an hcard to your header or footer.

2016-IndieWeb
2016 is one of the most popular out of the box WordPress theme. An #IndieWeb compatible version is available on GitHub. To install the theme you can download the theme. This is a .zip file. You do no even need to open it.

Then in WordPress go to Appearance>Theme>New Theme>Upload Theme>and select your .zip file.

You will need to check GitHub for periodic theme updates. You can star or watch a GitHub repo to learn of updates.

 Post Types

The 2016-IndieWeb theme uses a different approach to including the different post types. It relies on a plug-in called Post-Kinds. this name was used so the post types native in WordPress are not confused with the post types used by the IndieWeb community. The plugin relies on WordPress taxonomies

 Additional Pages 

The theme allows you to set up a static homepage. To do this you need to go to Customize>Homepage>Select static homepage. You may need to create a new page where all your posts will get published.

 Required Plugins  Do not install the microformats plugin since the mark up is built in.

To get started you should still install the post-kind plugin. As stated this plug in creates the taxonomies and determines how the microformats markup is included in each post.

IndieWeb plugin. This plugin ads functionality and different plugins. Once installed you will need to activate webmentions and semantic linkbacks.

Optional Plugins

If you want to syndicate posts using an IndieWeb plugin you should activate Brid.gy. There are other syndication tools described below as well.

Finally if you want to publish to your WordPress site using a third party IndieWeb client, like an Android app or iOS app for example, you will need to activate the micropub plug-in.

You can find more in depth directions on setting up 2016-IndieWeb on the wiki (page doesn't exist).

 Setting up your h-card

In 2016-Indieweb the h-card is included in the IndieWeb plug-in. You install the plug-in and then edit your WordPress profile. Go to users>my profile> and then fill in links to your other websites.

Then you can add an h-card widget to you hompage header, footer, or sidebar.

Independent Publisher
Independent Publisher is an open source responsive and modern WordPress theme that is Indieweb friendly. You can install it by downloading the file in GitHub. Independent Publisher. This is a .zip file. You do no even need to open it.

Then in WordPress go to Appearance>Theme>New Theme>Upload Theme>and select your .zip file.

You will need to check GitHub for periodic theme updates. You can star or watch a GitHub repo to learn of updates.

Note there is an Independent Publisher Theme in the WordPress theme directory that does not have all the IndieWeb features

 Post Types

 Additional Pages 

 Required Plugins  Do not install the microformats plugin since the mark up is built in.

To get started you should still install the post-kind plugin. As stated this plug in creates the taxonomies and determines how the microformats markup is included in each post.

IndieWeb plugin. This plugin ads functionality and different plugins. Once installed you will need to activate webmentions and semantic linkbacks.

Optional Plugins

If you want to syndicate posts using an IndieWeb plugin you should activate Brid.gy. There are other syndication tools described below as well.

Finally if you want to publish to your WordPress site using a third party IndieWeb client, like an Android app or iOS app for example, you will need to activate the micropub plug-in.

 Setting up your h-card

Using Independent Publisher you Gravatar image is pulled into the theme as a circular header image.

The included header image does not work as a functional h-card. You need to add an h-card to the theme. If you use the h-card widget this also uses a Gravatar image which can result in the same profile image appearing twice.

To rectify this situation you can change the header image used in Independent Publisher by going to Appearance>Customize>Header Image. You can also manually add an h-card in the body of your homepage or using an HTML sidebar widget. You can find example h-card on the microformats2 wiki.

You can find more in depth directions on setting up Independent Publisher page.

Testing Your Current Theme
If you love the way your theme looks and want to find out if you can use it to connect to the large IndieWeb community then follow the tutorial below.

Be forewarned many themes, especially ones with all of the bells and whistles, may not be compatible with IndieWeb plugins without theme editing that is beyond the skill level of even the most experienced WordPress users.

When you are done we will walk you through how to test the site or you can stop our chat at https://chat.indieweb.org and ask for help with testing, or at any time during your set up process

Using a Non-Compliant Theme
You may find your theme or plugin set up is not compatible with IndieWeb pulgins. This will happen often. You are now faced with teh choice of changign your theme and design or giving up on the #IndieWeb.

However, there are a number of strategies you can use to keep your theme:
 * Use a subdomain Here you keep you main WordPress for long form writing and then set up a subdomain like https://mystream.myblog.com and install an IndieWeb friendly theme on the subdomain.

Other people may use a different IndieWeb software on the subdomain such as https://micro.blog or https://withknown.com


 * Use a Page Builder A major reason users may shy away from IndieWeb WordPress is the lack of visually driven themes. You can use a page builder on your homepage if you want to design a feature rich splash or homepage for your blog.

First set up your website with a static homepage and publish your posts to a new page. You can do this from your WordPress dashboard by selecting "Customize"

Then on your static homepage install a page builder plugin such as Page Builder by Site Origins, elementor, or Beaver Builder.

Random Theme Notes
2016-IndieWeb: Only include h-card widget on the homepage when using static page. Independent Publisher syndicating to Twitter missing the hentry and your gravatar gets added as image to every post on Twitter.