Due Date: Last Day of the Term by Midnight
This project will serve as the final project for both WMDD 4835 and 4840.
Note: in some years, this has been a team project. This year, the project must be done individually. This will better prepare everyone for the final exam.
Content
The subject of your site is up to you. Pick something you are interested in, so you will want to spend time on it.
No content can be lorem ipsum. Use real text. This text can come from wikipedia. Or chatgpt.
Any explicitly non-copyrighted source.
If a site does not explicitly allow you to use its text content, you may not use it.
If your text is from wikipedia, clean the text up: don’t include footnotes or links, etc.
Images
Each post must have a feature image. Make sure that you have consistent image dimensions.
Make sure that no images are scaled up in preparation, or are scaled up in the site itself (ie a small image set to display large).
To minimize file sizes, consider using the webp format for photographs. Make sure you balance visual quality and file size.
Resource: Loom series on Web Graphics Production
Technical Considerations
- You must create your own theme, starting with a blank one from the Create Block Theme plugin.
- Your site must have a logo. It can be created by you, or with AI resources like Adobe Logo Maker. It must, of course, suit the design of the site.
- You must have at least 24 “regular” posts and at least three categories.
- You must have a static front page that includes both static and dynamic content (ie a Query Loop or equivalent).
- That front page content must be in a Page, not in the template itself. It will, in other words, be loaded by a Content block in the front-page template.
- You must use at least one Custom Post Type in your site. I recommend the Custom Post Type UI plugin for this.
- You must use and output at least two Custom Fields. These can be attached to Custom Post Types, regular Posts, or particular categories, etc.
For creating Custom Fields, use the Advanced Custom Fields plugin.
Note: to output Custom Fields you will need to use the Kadence Blocks Pro plugin, which the developer has allowed us to use.
You must agree not to host the site anywhere but the WMDD server (unless you purchase a licence for Kadence Blocks Pro).
You must also agree not to use our academic-use license on any other project.
Theme.JSON Characteristics
- Your site must include and use at least one Google font.
- Your site must turn off the default WordPress color palette.
- Your site must have at least five colors defined. You do not have to use all five in the site, but your theme must make them available for use.
- Your site must turn off the default WordPress gradients
- Your site must have a least two gradients defined. You do not have to use either in the site, but your theme must make them available for use.
- Your site must have have at least five defined font sizes
- Your site must have at least one clamped defined variable font size.
Some of these settings will require editing of the theme.json file in your theme. With some settings, you can also modify theme.json by making changes in the editor, then saving changes to the theme.
Deployment
The site must be deployed to your account on the WMDD Server.
Keep in mind that you have a minimal quota of space (800 MB) on the server, so before deploying this project, delete any projects that are currently deployed there.
Other considerations for keeping within your quota:
- keep image dimensions reasonable: you shouldn’t need images that are wider than 2560px if they are being used full-width. Anywhere images are not full screen, consider using one of the smaller sizes WordPress generates with each uploaded image.
- for photos, consider using a file format like webp.
- delete unused themes, keeping one “twenty” theme for fallback
- delete unused plugins, or plugins that are used only for a single use, such as Duplicator or All-In-One WP Migration.
- if you have a lot of unused images, delete them
- make sure that your backups are going to a cloud service such as Google Drive or Dropbox — and not being stored on WMDD’s server. If they are being stored on the WMDD server, you will likely exceed your quota.
Security
Two Factor Authentication must be enabled for your account, but a grace period for a second admin account must be set for one month after the project due date.
All Plesk security settings and general security best practices must be followed: review the deployment exercise and the marking rubric for that assignment.
Automated backup to a cloud service must be set up.
Posts must be published from a non-admin account.
Plugin usage should be carefully evaluated.
FAQs
- Can your project use Patterns? Yes.
- Can your project use videos? Yes.
- Can your project use any of the other blocks in the Kadence Pro plugin? Yes, definitely.
- Can your project use any of the Kadence AI features?
No. We do not have the credits to do that.
Written Documentation
Please submit a text document listing the following:
- Your Name
- The URL of the Site
- The login credentials for the second admin user described above (one for whom the one-month TFA grace period applies).
The document must also list the custom fields created—and where and why they were used.
This document will be called site-documentation.
What to Hand In
- the site-documentation document. A text file please. No PDFs, no MS Word, etc.
- a Duplicator archive of the live site (two files: installer.php and zip file with long file name, both put into a folder named yourname-finalproject and then zipped).
If you are doing this project, please do not hand in anything to WMDD 4835.
How You Will Be Marked
The usual considerations will be assessed. These include things like:
- Security: is the site as secure as possible, or could more be done?
- Development considerations such as those listed above
- Performance issues: are image sizes kept reasonable, etc
- Design considerations discussed below.
Design Considerations For Marking:
- Is type readable at all screen sizes?
- Are text line lengths reasonable?
- Does text touch edges of boxes?
- Are the graphic design principles of contrast, white space, repetition, and alignment used to enhance the presentation of the content?
- Does the presentation support the content or distract from it?
- Does the use of color add to the site, or take away from it?
- Are image quality and reasonable file sizes maintained?
- Are “effects” and “showing off” avoided?
- Does the content work at any device size, or are there issues on some?
- Is there consistency in design between different parts of the site?
- Is the site usable? Does it have search? Is there a helpful 404?