Assignment 2: Build a WordPress site

  • Due Mar 31, 2017 by 11:59pm
  • Points 100
  • Submitting a text entry box

Build a WordPress website based on a topic of your interest and choosing. The topic should be legal, ethical, and moral. If you have questions about the appropriateness of your topic, please ask before you start. You may use the same content used for your Joomla project website if you choose, or you may create a new website.

This project is due March 31, 2017, at 11:59 PM.

90% of your grade includes the following:

  • Site should contain at least 10 pages of content. This could be blog posts, product information, general articles, etc. A “page” should consist of at least a paragraph of information or something similar. “Lorem Ipsum” or similar placeholder content is not acceptable. Do not take content from other websites unless you wrote that content yourself, or unless it’s content for your company, your client, or a site you’re redesigning in some way and you have permission to use the content. (Please indicate as such in the document you turn in with the assignment.)
  • Site should demonstrate that you understand the difference between pages and posts in WordPress.
  • Site should contain images. You do not have to have images on every page, but you should demonstrate that you understand how to insert images into posts and pages in your website.
  • Site should include a blog. Since this is part of WordPress’s core functionality, this should not be too hard. By default, your blog is located on the home page of the website, but this is not required. You may move the blog to another area of the site and make something else occupy the home page.
  • Site should contain a menu visible and accessible on each page of the site. The menu may be styled however you choose, with or without dropdowns. You may include more than one menu if you wish.
  • You need to include two plugins for your site for the purposes of the project. You may include more than this if you wish, so this is a minimum.
    • A WordPress native full-featured calendar, full-featured image gallery, Paypal-based shopping cart, a customized form, online forum, or portfolio of work would count toward this. These plugins should add some interactivity to the site.
      • Special note for those with shopping carts: Please do not plan to configure a shopping cart with your own payment system (i.e. you take your own credit cards online). This is expensive, time-consuming, and will not be covered in class. If you know how to do it, then fine, but we cannot provide support for this. If you are going to include a shopping cart, use PayPal for processing payments. You may leave the cart in “test” mode if desired.
      • Special note on calendars: Integrating a Google calendar into your site would NOT count toward your plugin count. Integrating a WordPress native calendar WOULD count for this requirement. Your calendar should have at least 10 unique events to count as a plugin (repeating events are fine, but each repeating event counts once).
    • Include at least one widget. This is a minor functionality enhancement to your site, generally displayed in a sidebar. It may ship with WordPress, or you can download a specific widget for your site, or it may come bundled with a plugin.
    • A backup utility does NOT count for this requirement. It’s expected that you have this installed as part of previous lectures.
    • Your site includes a custom theme. As described in Week 8, you will build a “custom” theme using a blank starter theme. One basic custom theme is required. As shown in the video, you will base your custom WordPress theme on an approved blank starter theme. Please do not use any other starting theme without permission. There is a discussion thread where you can submit themes for approval. Basically, I’m looking for the minimum amount of CSS supplied, along with basic structural PHP and minimal HTML. Some themes that meet these requirements include:
    • If you are an experienced WordPress themer, and you wish to use a different starting theme, please run it by me first. Use this discussion thread to ask for approval. What I want to see is a very basic starting theme, with as little styling as possible, which provides the template structure to assemble a theme. I’m not interested in themes that already have the majority of styling in place. There are many downloadable blank themes available, and perhaps you’ve even coded one yourself.
      • If you want to build your WordPress theme from nothing on your own, that’s acceptable as well. (Counts as instructor's choice)
      • You are not required to use Bootstrap, Foundation, or any other responsive design template. If you choose to use one of these, that’s fine. If you choose to make your design responsive, that’s fine. If you choose to make your design work on a desktop configuration only, that’s fine.
      • If you have a PHP background and wish to dive into the various template tags, by all means, have a wonderful time! If you don’t understand template tags, then work with the code that comes with one of the blank themes listed above. (Extra template tags = Instructor's Choice)
      • You should apply basic styling to all relevant templates for your site. For the example from class, this included header, footer, index.php, pages, single posts, and the search results. You may have different templates that require styling for your site.

Instructor's Choice: 10% of your grade might include:

  • A particularly lovely color scheme or professional-looking layout 
  • Nice use of type in the design
  • Well-structured, interesting, engaging content (not eligible if you use existing content)
    • NOTE: These first three items may be used on assignment 1 OR assignment 2, if you are using the same content for your websites
  • Making the site mobile-compatible using responsive design (a great option for DGMD E-27 students)
  • Stretching beyond what's covered in class, digging a little deeper. Examples might include: use of several extensive plugins, excellent styling, lots of functionality that is relevant -- don't load your site up with a lot of crap just because!
  • Building a WP theme from scratch, without a starter theme
  • Manipulating multiple template tags -- document these when you turn in your site to explain what the extra work was
  • A full-featured theme with lots of available styling -- don't just style a minimum number of templates, style them all!
  • Something else that catches our eye

What Jen Cares About

  • You have demonstrated that you know how to research and identify a quality plugin or widget.
  • You have installed that plugin/widget successfully.
  • You have spent time configuring that plugin/widget to work with your site.
  • The plugin/widget compliments the content on your site. Including a calendar in a site with one event per year does not make sense, for example.
  • You have demonstrated that you can create a custom theme and get it installed, successfully, in WordPress.
  • Your theme is at least minimally styled so parts of the page are recognizable: site identity (like logo or text identifier), navigation, main content, supporting information (like columns, widgets, etc).
  • You understand the difference between posts and pages, and you can manipulate this to create content for your website.
  • You post “real” content for your site. The C in CMS stands for content, so show that you know how to create some and make it work in a website.

What Jen doesn’t care about

  • You are an awesome graphic design with great color choices and beautiful layouts. This is not a graphic design course. Your site should be recognizable as a web page and should be navigable. It does not have to be beautiful.
  • The plugin isn’t “pretty” or the colors don’t match. I’m interested in functionality more than anything else.

How to turn in your assignment

Create a comment in your Canvas assignment. In this comment, include:

  • Your name.
  • Your URL for the front end of the website.
  • An administrator login for the back end of the website. It’s suggested that you create a separate login for this. You may delete this login as soon as you get your grade.
  • Your site must be online and available for our access through April 30, 2016, or when you receive your grade, whichever comes first. After that, you may make any additional changes to your site that you wish (like swapping out themes, adding/removing functionality, etc).
  • Detail your plugins added to the site. Include the plugin name and a link to its listing in the Plugin Directory. Indicate where on the site this plugin is in use. For example: “calendar” link in main navigation, or right column on “about” and “contact” pages.
  • Indicate which widget you used and where it is located.
  • Indicate what starting theme you used. If you started with a theme other than those listed above, please provide a URL for the theme’s download. If you have created this starting theme yourself, please provide a copy of the starting theme in the dropbox.
  • Detail your Instructor's Choice item(s).

Oh no! I can’t make the deadline!

This project is due on March 31, 2017, at 11:59 PM Eastern time. It is expected that you will turn the assignment in on time.

You have one "free pass" to turn in one assignment late for this class. You may use this pass with assignment 1 or 2, but not assignment 3 (due to Extension timelines and end of term). 

Should you choose to use this late pass for this assignment, your assignment is due on April 3, 2017, at 11:59 PM Eastern time. You do not need to do anything special to activate the pass. Simply turn the assignment in late, exactly the way you would have done earlier. We will mark that you've used your free pass in the grade book. 

If you don't turn in Assignment 2 by April 3 at 11:59 PM, you will receive a zero for this assignment.

Exceptions: In our experience, the #1 reason students need a late pass is due to poor planning. The lectures may look easy, but once you start working on your site, you may hit snags along the way. You need to plan for bad things to happen, both personally and professionally. If you have the assignment done early, that's not a tragedy!

However, we know that life happens when you are in graduate school, and we are willing to work with you in extreme cases if you need an additional extension beyond the one provided. These exceptions include things like being in the hospital (or having a significant other or children in the hospital), a car accident or other debilitating accident, and so forth.

Traveling for work or pleasure is NOT an exception -- budget your time to get the assignment in on time. 

Being sick is NOT an exception, either for yourself or your children or significant other, unless this is an extreme case (like being in the hospital).

I used my late pass in Assignment 1, now what?

Your assignment is due on March 31, 2017, at 11:59 PM. Late submissions are not accepted and will receive a zero. Please budget your time accordingly.

Grading timeline

Grades will be posted online in Canvas. Jen will send an email to the class when these are ready for viewing. When this email is sent, Jen will indicate the date that regrade requests are due. Typically it takes 1-2 weeks to grade all assignments.

Regrading of assignments

You are permitted a regrade for either assignment 1 or assignment 2. Regrades are not permitted for assignment 3 due to the timing at the end of the term.

Should you wish for a regrade on your assignment, submit your regrade within 3 days of the completion of grading. Jen will send an email when grading is complete with the due date for regrades. A courtesy email to Erin Schroeder is appreciated, to indicate you'd like a regrade.

Typically, regrades take longer than the first round of grading, because these are fit into our schedules as possible. If you have not received your regrade within 2 weeks of submitting it, email Erin Schroeder to check on status.

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