WordCamp Orange County 2011 Wrap-up

ByJohn Hawkins

I've sorta lost track, but I think WordCamp Orange County 2011 was either my 21st or 22nd WordCamp. After that many events all centered around WordPress, I still manage to come home with a list of things to research. The best part is, my note taking abilities can sometimes be… less than stellar, so when I get back it's important that I do the research right away or else I'm in trouble.

Here is how I take notes, on the iPhone I open up the Notes app and start a fresh page. I don't bother typing the name of the event as the top line, because it would be too easy if looking at the list I could just go directly to “WCOC 2011″… Instead, I can find it listed with something file name or obscure function.

Here is my entire collection of notes from this weekend:

install.php
internationalization
wp_http
shutdown
imockups for ipad
restricted site access
wp site stack

Excellent. This should be simple…

The first 4 items came from Beau Lebens' (pronounced BeYow by the waitress, much to the delight of the rest of the table) talk about JetPack as a case study. In order:

install.php – apparently, if you do a BUNCH of WP installs, you can include a install.php file that will be run automatically upon completion of the install. So, if you wanted to pre-set a bunch of settings, this would be a good way. I haven't found a good tutorial on it yet, but if one doesn't exist, Beau said he'd write one. (hint hint)

Internationalization – This was just a note to myself that I should really start thinking about adding internationalization to plugins earlier in the process as it will make things easier.

wp_http – This should be used any time you're trying to connect to remote data as it will auto-handle the connection protocol.

shutdown – Some processes that may take time to run and are not critical to the current page load can be attached to the shutdown hook and will be run after WP has done the rest of it's business. Something to keep in mind.

The rest of the notes were from random parts of the day.

imockups for ipad – (h/t @codyl) This sounded like a pretty cool tool for doing site mockups on the iPad. Gonna have to check it out.

restricted site access – (h/t @jeffhester) This was a plugin mentioned for limiting access to sites that sounded like it may be something I could use for an upcoming project. You can check out the plugin here.

WP Site Stack – (h/t @glennbennett) During a discussion about running multiple WP sites, this plugin was mentioned and figured I'd check it out as well. Available at wpsitestack.com

So, that's what I personally took away from the event. Well, that and a ton more. I had a blast hanging out and chatting with a bunch of really cool people and I can't wait for #WCOC12.

Did you attend WCOC? What notes did you come away with?