I have a real estate agent client who wants a website to list the properties he's selling. Although there are great 3rd party web apps out there that do this, he adamantly demands that I recreate a simple and custom website for him.
I can do this quickly with a php framework like Code Igniter that comes with MVC, data access objects and data bind controllers. The database would be straightforward:
t_page: generic content pages
t_property: for each property on the market, has fields like address, price, #of bed rooms etc..
However, the client has heard many great things about Wordpress, and strongly advises that I build his real estate site with it. I've only used Wordpress to create blogs and relatively straightforward websites. SO I dont know how effective it is as a real estate property content management system or how effective it is for users to search for real estate properties based on attributes such as "# of bedrooms, square footage, is basement finished etc..."
So my question is, is it a good idea to build a real estate agent website with Wordpress? Or should I try harder to convince him to build it with web framework like Code Igniter?
Rather than argue with your client about the future platform or CMS or listen to people for/opposed to WP out of principle, sit down with your client and map out exactly what he/she wants to do in terms of the site. How do they want to add material or blog posts? How easy should it be? How do they they want users to be able to search: by price range, location, etc? Get them to show you on other sites how they want things to work.
Then look at the capabilities of various CMS's, frameworks and the like. Investigate search and MLS plugins, property XML feeds, maps. Determine what other real estate sites use (esp. his/her competitors).
Then explain your decision with evidence as to what they want to do compared to what's possible with different systems. They may talk themselves in or out of systems without your help.
It's called working with a client so they get what they want in terms of usability and end-user functions, not imposing what you want on their project. Sure, you know what you are talking about in terms of getting things to work, but they don't care; they want it to work in a certain way: their way.
(And see what's already out there in terms of Real Estate WordPress Plugins and WordPress Real Estate Themes).
I've developed several real estate sites using Joomla and openRealty, and I have tried to create a decent real estate site for my wife using Wordpress due to it's ease of use for end-users, but unfortunately programming a real estate site in Wordpress is tricky. It's a blogging engine and not terribly good at "directory" based information. So I find that the ease of use goes out the window as you try to hack together real estate functionality. Then you are asking your end-users to create custom-fields, etc and it becomes a pain and you end spending too much time managing your end-users.
I love WP. But, a directory style site is not it's highest and best use.
If the client is so adamant that you use WP for his site then let him do it. Then wait till he comes crawling back to you when he can't get it to do what he wants and you can build in properly in CI.
You wouldn't tell a plumber to fix your toilet with a socket set...
Check out ExpressionEngine, it's perfect for this as you can create custom fields (# bedrooms, square footage etc.) and retrieve content by any of these custom fields using the {exp:channel:entries} tag.
So basically you'd create a channel for these listings and then use "custom fields" for the data about each of these listings (specified by the needs of your client).
If you need design for this site "City Guide" from WooThemes will be available for EE as of tonight ;-)
And since you mention CodeIgniter - EE 2.0 is built on CI and if you need some custom functionality it's all CI so that should feel like home.
Wordpress custom post types would work well for this sort of site.. A custom page template and modified WP_Query would provide the basis of the site.
As mentioned by everyone else, WP probably isn't the absolute best tool for the job, but it would not be a bad choice. I've done weirder things with it.
Old question but still relevant. My opinion is that WordPress is not a good option for creating real estate listing sites. The main reason is that it is designed primarily as a blogging engine so it requires a lot of work to set up and is susceptible to getting hacked. More detailed explanation here:
https://smallbusinessforum.co/why-an-alternative-to-wordpress-is-needed-for-real-estate-websites-ff82de096d93#.j2cduk4xs
I think that using Wordpress is a plus, not because it is the best program to use, but if you make the site properly, and he wants to add/change something, you (and many other people out there) can mold it to his needs.
There are a lot of plugins you could extract some php code from and make a good listing. You also have the option of using post_types (which are saved as posts), custom fields (which all the fields are saved in one table but indexed), or creating your own tables (adding tables function or using a plugin like PODS).
I think you will save time on coding if you go with Wordpress, and customization is pretty okay (not anywhere near decent, but I am pretty sure this site will be the next craigslist). Wordpress is the 1995 Toyota Tercel of CMSs: it won't be great, but it gets the job done, and almost everyone has worked on it at some point in their live.
If the money is good, then try to wow him with a CI demo. But with WP, could probably accomplish your task in a few hours. There are ways to set up CI around Wordpress, but that is beyond me.
Related
We have a Squarespace site (nataal.com) that has been steadily growing over the past 4 years. It now has in the region of 670 pages and is getting quite unwieldy, particularly when trying to scroll through the various page and link menus. Squarespace says 1000 max according to documentation, but < 400 recommended. Creating a user index for the pages is also a problem, ours now runs to about 50 pages in its own right (12 entries per page including thumbnails and captions). That's the way the creative people want it and who am I to argue!
Has anybody had experience, good or bad, of migrating such a site to a better platform? I have some exposure to Drupal and I think it would have worked well had it been used from the start. I have also heard good things about Wagtail, but I've never seen it in operation. Or is there some other platform I should consider?
So, what I'm looking for is a CMS platform that can
Easily handle more pages than Squarespace
Migrate from Squarespace keeping most if not all the structure of each page.
Automate the construction of page indexes.
Fairly east to tweak the layout of any given page to suite the topic.
Both Wagtail CMS and Drupal can support thousands of pages quite easily. In my opinion, Wagtail is MUCH easier to work with than Drupal - and a lot of websites that end up migrating to Wagtail have historically been from WordPress and Drupal (not all, but many!).
I can only give you info on ways to help guide your decision because ultimately the CMS you pick is your decision.
Drupal is a PHP based CMS that typically uses Apache and MySQL. A few pros to using this is the popularity in the tech stack and easy deployment. But the down side is the code gets messy, unruly, and eventually very difficult to maintain due to the structure of PHP as a language (not in all cases, but in most cases this ends up happening).
Wagtail is a Python based CMS that sits on top of a different database called Postgres but it can be swapped out for just about any other database you prefer (Postgres is well known as the "enterprise version" of open source databases). Wagtail also sits on a massively popular framework called Django which has SO MANY great features (too many to list here), but amongst those great features is security. With a Django/Wagtail site you'll have to do more developer work. There isn't really a "plugin" system like in WordPress, but that also means extending the longevity if your codebase and it's easier to maintain your code as it grows (due to the nature of Python, Django and then Wagtail).
I think the biggest downside to migrating such a large site is going to be moving all of your content over. In Wagtail you can structure all your page slugs to be the exact same as your squarespace site which is nice. But there's not an "easy" solution to migrating that much data from Squarespace to another CMS. (But please do make the migration, even if it's painful to do because it'll only get more painful as time goes on and your site gets bigger).
Regardless of which CMS you end up choosing, any dynamic website can create index pages for you very quickly and easily.
With all that said, should you choose to take the Wagtail route, I have a full series that can take you from "zero to hero" on YouTube at wagtail.io/course. We also have a great community where you can get support on the Wagtail Slack as well.
Good luck with the migration!
Wagtail can certainly support those requirements.
If you're in Oxfordshire, UK, you should come and see Torchbox (the creators of Wagtail) to talk about it!
Also you can change your Squarespace account to developer, the downside is that you can't get back to the normal one, but you can change it to developer mode and work it with Angular. I made this www.rudagt.squarespace.com and I will do this, cause the huge amounto of content, but, I have clients so for them SQspace is better interfaz than much others.
Good luck!
So I'm a beginner to coding and I am wondering what is the difference between building a site using wordpress (which I am not familiar with) as opposed to just hand coding from a text editor like sublime and then hosting it. Should I be using Wordpress? What exactly are the benefits? Thank you.
It all depends on what you want the website for.
I've both hand coded and used Wordpress (and before that Moveable Type) over the past 15 years. When I was doing infrequent updates to my website then hand coding was perfect. I could make it look exactly as I wanted, it had only the elements that I needed and nothing heavy in the backend to slow it all down.
When that all changed to being frequently updated Wordpress was much easier. The ability to schedule posts was one of the big things that got me into using it. If you're doing frequent updates, which, say need to post at the same time every day or multiple times in a week, but you're not necessarily available, then it's great. If you're short on time, then it's also useful because you choose once how you want the site to look then type your information and publish it. You don't need to amend any code or use FTP.
What you do lack is the personalisation. Unless you're also going to learn how to make Wordpress themes to properly personalise a Wordpress site, then you're stuck with the templates available for download. Some are great, some are mediocre and some are very simple.
My next project is to get my sports team online properly, and because there are about five or so people who would need to edit it Wordpress works for this. I can give people limited access to allow them to post/edit posts but know that because they're restricted, they're not going to break it all, unlike if I allowed them FTP access, which could be a massive disaster with people who aren't familiar with that.
You need to consider what you're really trying to achieve. If the website is really you and needs to reflect you and you don't update it relentlessly, then hand coding would be my first choice. If other (perhaps inexperienced) people are involved or you need to do things quickly, then I'd choose Wordpress.
If you want to create your first website, you should use a CMS like WordPress, because it will be easiest for you to publish content online and you will find many free plugins and themes at the wordpress website.
The main difference between a CMS like WordPress and a hand coded website is the first is not create for you. WordPress can be used in many way, but you will have to learn the WordPress codex to create your own themes and plugins.
With the hand coded, you will create a website optimized for what you need.
But you have to consider, you will have to code again each time you want to edit something, and for some features it will be a lot of work.
WordPress already include many "must have" features like seo friendly URLs, categories and tags etc..
But you can also look for another CMS, smaller than Wordpress
I have been creating a custom web application using mainly PHP with some Javascript. I have been curious about rebuilding the site using Drupal. I have only produced a 'minimum viable product' and it is functional but not nearly as professional looking or feature rich as it needs to be with using some tailor made modules.
It may be easier just to look at my site, but I will describe it below as well. http://www.localtolocal.ca
Visuals need improving but that is another discussion all together!
I previously felt that it needs to be a custom application but since I want to incorporate things like articles, video content and forums I was thinking using Drupal may be very helpful. What I have so far is the part that I was thinking needs to be written by myself.
I have mostly seen Drupal used for sites that are blog based, content providers or eCommerce focused. My site's main focus is user-provided data. A user creates an account and will either browse and write reviews, favorite pages etc. OR post data about their business or endeavor. A small business would input their contact info, information about themselves and what they provide and that creates a page to display the information on, like this:
http://localtolocal.ca/display_page.php?page_id=23
They are also able to create custom vouchers, add photos and of course update information they have previously input. I will eventually also have paid subscriptions meaning tiered user structure.
Are there Drupal modules out there that can accomplish this? I assume it would need a considerable amount of customization.
Can Drupal be used to create something as full featured as Yelp or a high profile social media site? Asking in terms of evolutionary potential.
Would that learning curve not even be worth it compared to flushing out my custom application?
You can surely use Drupal to create a user generated content driven site as described. True, the learning curve is steep and it'll take some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, it'll be worth the effort imho. With Drupal you can develop a user-testable prototype of your application within days which is a really big win.
The site doesn't seem really complex, so main challenge will be defining the personas and testing that they have the correct permissions. In general I would suggest extending the user profile so they can submit information about their business, using the flag module to favorite pages and a separate content type for reviews (which you can publish direct and moderate later or the other way around).
I need to make a website for my hockey club. My main purpose for this site is allowing people to sign in and post articles and training schedules in their section. Eg Mens, Womens, Juniors and Masters. I want to have some kind of upload manager that will allow them to choose where they post the info too (eg, Mens, Masters and Homepage).
This is the main functionality I'm looking for at the moment.
The clubs previous website used Joombla which I have hated. I found it to be way to restrictive. Its on a old version of it so there are probably many improvements in the new version but from what I've read it seems like it still has a lot of restrictions in how content is managed. I am open to trying it again tho.
I've used Wordpress before and liked it but that was on a small scale projects and I'm not sure it really fits what I'll be trying to do here, since it mostly deals with blog posts and I'll need to have functionality to upload and display files.
I've had a look around at some other ones like Squarespace and Silverstripe. I'm really liking the simplicity of silverstrip(one thing I hate about Joombla is the clutter on the opening page) and am leaning towards it right now if I can find a nice way to have people post news to multiple pages at once.
If anyone has any suggestions they'd be very welcome. I know html, css, javascript and a bit of php. I'm learning Ruby atm so wouldn't be against using it so I could learn more but it might be a bit much for a sports website.
First off, its nice to see someone that likes hockey too :) You can't use Squarespace, you'll need an Apache server for what you want. You will need some way to store information, so you'll need a MySQL database, probably some advanced knowledge of PHP (I'm assuming you don't know how to connect to databases and do some other functions). Wordpress is too limited, so you can't use that. I have never used Silverstripe personally, but it seems like the best of your options here. You'll probably need some more knowledge of PHP before you attempt to make a members system.
A client asked me to redesign her web site, built several years ago in WP by another developer. Although I've never worked with WP before, I'm pretty comfortable with html, css, and php, and I more or less understand how WP stores content and dynamically builds pages. But I'm wondering how to approach these challenges:
My client's site has about 75 pages. There are about 25 that are static (i.e. the content changes infrequently if at all; things like "about us" and "faqs") and there are about 50 pages that are more "blog-like", except that instead of posts, the content contains directory-type info (e.g. 12 DJs in the area) or event-related info (e.g. upcoming shows at local theaters). Both of these categories contain many sub (and sometimes sub-sub) categories (e.g. medical services > pediatric > kid allergy specialists) and the content updates fairly frequently.
I understand the difference in WP between "pages" and "posts". But I need to find out the best way to structure the static content. Should I just set up a parent/child hierarchy of pages, changing the permalinks to something that makes sense? Or is it better / easier to just build the static pages outside WP and somehow link to them from the common navigation?
As a web designer, I want to "wow" my client with a great design. While there are loads of wonderful WP themes available, I really need to create something unique. But I'm wary of breaking something, so what's the best way to take an existing theme and just tweak it enough to make it look a little different?
Finally, other than mounting a massive "copy and paste" effort when the new site is built, is there a way to transfer content from the original site to the new one?
By reading your question, it seems to me that choosing WP for this kind of website was a bad choice.
Redesigning it, though, won't be that hard if it's using page templates for pages.
And yes, there's a import/export tool in WP to tranfer content. (see administration panel)
I, really, advise you to read this great tutorial about creating WP themes.
I've a blog-like WP site myself (contains RPG development articles). Here's what I did. Nested static pages simply have parent-child hierarchy: /about/mingos - that's easy to understand and i value this kind of content organisation (personal opinion).
As for themes, there's a no-brainer tool that, while not exactly apt for real business, has the capability of letting you see how stuff will look in seconds, and can sometimes give you great ideas. It's called Artisteer and there's a demo on its site that you can have a look at. Try your design ideas with it, see how stuff will look like. I'm sure you can come up with some great ideas for a "wow" design :).
Exporting content, as Soufiane Hassou remarked, is possible from within the admin panel.
Don't rule out using categories to create your hierarchy. That way you'd get the benefit of cross categorization of DJs and venues by location to create a robust cross reference system. Pages don't get this benefit without extra work.
To make this in to a directory, though, is gonna either be heavy work on managing the pages or heavy work on creating a solution that will cross reference everything and bring the content together in a usable way on the front end.