Docs Information Architecture

Welcome to the official home of the WordPress documentation team.

This team is responsible for coordinating all documentation initiatives around WordPress, including the Codex (moving to HelpHub and DevHub), handbooks, parts of developer.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/, admin help, inline docs, and other general wordsmithing across the WordPress project.

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There are many ways in which you can help the Docs team. Every small contribution counts and helps! You can report an issue or typo you found in the docs, or even help us write new documentation for parts that are still missing. These are some helpful links to find out more about what we do and how to collaborate:

Docs Team Handbook: An overview of what we do and how to collaborate
developer.wordpress.org: The home of the developers’ documentation
wordpress.org/support: The home for all end-user documentation

Weekly Meetings

Join our discussions of documentation issues here on the blog and on Slack.

The documentation team holds weekly office hours on Mondays from 15:00-16:00 UTC in the #docs SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel.

Although we have a fixed schedule of weekly meetings, you can contact the Docs Team at any time through our Slack channel.

#information-architecture

I’ve split the types of people who’ll be approaching the content into two broad groups:

Users: anyone who uses WordPress, from amatuer bloggers to people setting up a complex multisiteMultisite Multisite is a WordPress feature which allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. Available since WordPress version 3.0, Multisite is a continuation of WPMU or WordPress Multiuser project. WordPress MultiUser project was discontinued and its features were included into WordPress core.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network. installation. WordPress users are a very broad group.
Developers: anyone who extends WordPress, i.e. with plugins and themes (or the JSONJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML. REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. in the future).

Below is a diagram which outlines how I envisage the content in the Codex being split up:

I’ll go through each of these sections.

Use

Knowledgebase

https://wordpress.org/support
Priority: High
Goal: to provide WordPress users with a searchable database of answers to common questions.
Target Audience: WordPress users of all levels and ability.
Example content

How do I add an image?
How do I activate multisite?
How do I add a new user?
Can I change my domain?
How do I move my plugins folder?
How do I increase my PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. memory limit?
What is a permalink?

Status: Helphub spec in draft. To be published soon.

Guides

https://wordpress.org/support
Priority: Low
Goal:To provide barebones guides to specific use-cases for WordPress
Target Audience: WordPress users of all levels and ability, though each individual guide will be tailored towards a specific user level (for example, blogging will be less advanced than the multisite guide
Example Content:

Admin Guide
Multisite Guide
Installation Guide
Blogging Guide
Troubleshooting Guide

Blog

The blog can be used for releaseRelease A release is the distribution of the final version of an application. A software release may be either public or private and generally constitutes the initial or new generation of a new or upgraded application. A release is preceded by the distribution of alpha and then beta versions of the software.-related documentation or guides relating to a specific event. For example, whenever we anticipate an issue with a release we will publish an article in the Codex. The blog will provide a platform for that.

Extend

http://developer.wordpress.org

Code Reference

https://developer.wordpress.org/reference
Priority: High
Goal: to provide WordPress developers with an automated code reference that includes explanations and user-submitted examples
Target Audience: WordPress developers of all levels and ability.
Example content

Function Reference
Class Reference
Hook reference

Status: Live. Still actively developed.

Handbooks

https://developer.wordpress.org/handbook-name
Priority: High
Goal: to provide WordPress developers with guides to extending the platform
Target Audience: WordPress developers of all levels and ability.
Example content

Theme Developer Handbook
PluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party Developer Handbook
Intro to developing with WP (including WordPress basics, setting up dev environment)

Status:

Plugin Developer Handbook – v1
Theme Developer Handbook – being worked on
Intro to Developing with WP Handbook – not yet started

Resources

https://developer.wordpress.org/resources
Priority: Low
Goal: to provide WordPress developers with resources
Target Audience: WordPress developers of all levels and ability.
Example content

Dashicons
Other tools

Status: Dashicons live.

Blog

A blog for publishing useful information for developers, for example information they need to know about a new release, or about changes to developer.wp.org.

#information-architecture

Mike Schinkel 5:07 pm on January 13, 2015

“In the wild” I often see people refer to themselves as “WordPress Developers” who install sites and then install and configure themes and plugins, but who do not actually write any code. So we’ve been avoiding the term “developer” and instead using the terms “WordPress Site Builders” for people who build sites and “WordPress Themers” for people who write mostly write HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites.+CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. with some PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php./jQuery sprinkled in, and “WordPress Coders” for people who write PHP/MySQLMySQL MySQL is a relational database management system. A database is a structured collection of data where content, configuration and other options are stored. https://www.mysql.com/./JavascriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. code and build plugins. Something to consider?
- Siobhan 7:48 pm on January 13, 2015
  
  That could get rather complicated when putting together an information architecture for documentation. When we’re breaking down such a large amount of data at the top level it makes sense to break it down into the broadest ways that WP is used.
  
  Besides, we already have developer.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/, and wordpress-coders.wordpress.org doesn’t work quite so well 🙂
  - Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 9:53 pm on January 13, 2015
    
    This.
    
    We could get really nitpicky and point out that WPCOM users are WordPress Users, but they’re user- (they can’t install plugins but they can configure them). We have to start somewhere simple if we want to have a hope of going anywhere.
Gary Jones 9:25 am on January 14, 2015

Any consideration of having the PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. (code and inline docs), JS and eventually CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. / Sass coding standards moved to developer.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org//resources? They are currently in the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. handbook, but are for, and used by, pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party and theme developers too. They should be a community resource that core, as a member of the community, also try to adhere to.
- Siobhan 12:25 pm on January 14, 2015
  
  I can see the virtue in having them in both places, but obviously we don’t want to keep them in two places as we have to maintain them twice. Let me ask around and see what other people think.
  - Gary Jones 1:34 pm on January 14, 2015
    
    I’d rather see them just in the developer resources section, and a signpost left in the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. handbook that expresses “Hey, core generally follows the community code standards, which you can find _here_, but core has the following differences: …”
Normalize 5:50 pm on January 14, 2015

Hi, I’m new, but I want to help. (I’m also on slackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..) I’ve done a lot of tutorials for users of my own sites, so hopefully there’s a place to put that to use.

WordPress.org

Want to get involved?

Weekly Meetings

Use

Knowledgebase

Guides

Blog

Extend

Code Reference

Handbooks

Resources

Blog

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