Create a local environment, and develop your own child themes

Local development.

A presentation by Zuzana Kunckova and Ben Attenborough.

Zuzana Kunckova is a web developer at Twin Dots with background in psychology, passion for accessibility and love for everything WordPress Ben Attenborough a web developer for a local lifestyle/tourism magazine Eastlife.

If you want to begin on your journey to becoming a WordPress developer the place to start is developing locally.
Developing locally means that the code of your website is stored on your computer and this code is also run on your computer. It means you are free to experiment and only make changes to your live site when you have safely tested them locally.
Having a local copy of your website is useful even if you are not a developer because it lets you experiment by adding plugins and changing settings, safe in the knowledge that you can only ‘break’ your local site.
It also means if you make changes which ruin the look of your site no one will see it on your live site until you are happy. Some of the advantages of developing locally include:

* Safely test new themes and plugins, without your visitors noticing;
* Update WordPress Core, plugins and themes safely. If something goes wrong locally you have saved yourself breaking your live site;
* Develop without an internet connection;
* Higher performance. You can make changes to code and see the result instantly without waiting.

Fortunately developing locally is also super easy! There are many programs out there that make the process a doddle.
These include Desktop Server, Vagrant, XAMPP and the one we shall be using Local by Flywheel.
In this talk we will take a look at why and how to develop locally. The aim will be:

* To install a local development environment
* Create a demo WordPress site
* Add a child theme
* Make changes to the child theme

If you would like to bring your laptops along we can also install a local environment for you to get you started!

This meeting is sponsored by Twin Dots (http://www.twindots.com/) the leading branding, design and development agency in Newmarket. Twin Dots has clients like Cambridge Marketing College, 450 GSM, Racing Welfare, and Devam the jewellers.

The usual format:

18:45: Roll up for a couple of beers in the foyer, & chat, mingle etc.

19:15 start: Everyone introduces themselves: 20 seconds max, mainly describing their involvement with WordPress.

2. Up to 3 * 3 minute pitches. Share discoveries, useful tips, requests for help with charitable projects.

3: WordPress News with our star reporter Ben Attenborough.

4. Presentation Local Development

5. Clinic: Bring along a problem, and the audience will offer advice. If we can't, maybe we'll have a solution by next meeting.

Kinda aiming to finish the formal part by about 21:00, depending on everyone's enthusiasm to chat & discuss.

6. Beer & networking: We should leave by about 21:45 at the latest.