New Castle County

WordPress Meetup

November 21, 2016 @nccwp

Getting Under the Hood - WordPress File & Directory Structure

Types of Files

● Core WordPress Files

● Files in the wp-content Folder

(your theme, plugins, and uploads)

● WordPress configuration files

● Your WordPress Database

FTP & Text Editors

A text editor is similar to Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac. Most programmers use more versatile tools but if you only have the basic ones installed, they will do just fine.

A few great text editors include Notepad++, Sublime, Coda and Atom.io.

WordPress Top-Level Structure

WordPress Top-Level Structure

Don’t touch these!

WordPress Top-Level Structure

Okay (with some limits)On occasion (be cautious)

wp-config-sample.php

When performing a manual install of WordPress:

1. File needs to be copied and saved as wp-config.php

2. The highlighted areas must be filled in.

Hidden Files

Some files may be hidden

Content Folder

SQL DatabaseDon’t touch this file directly!

Only way you want to manually update the database is with phpMyAdmin

Be cautious and always make a backup first!

Uploads Folder

Plugins Folder

Themes Folder

Theme Folder - Example

Okay to change / modify these two files but…

Best Practice is to Create a Child Theme

Plugin Option for Creating Child Theme

https://wordpress.org/plugins/child-theme-configurator/

http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-wordpress-file-and-directory-structure/

Based on article from WP Beginner:Beginner’s Guide to WordPress File and Directory Structure

Reminder - Get Your Tickets: https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/tickets/

Next Meetup

Monday, December 19: 6-8pm

● Review of WordCamp US● WordPress 4.7