I've been using Drupal to create websites for about 2 months. I find it pretty easy to create a view or a block which could hold my dynamic content like latest photos, comments and all.
Now, i've started using Wordpress and it puzzles me how to do those things. Like, how to create a site like this:
http://theklaxon.com
Should i create a .php file which does what i want and then include the file in the respective places?
There is a couple of options you can explore. The easiest way to include your own block of content is through page template; to make full use of it, you would have to understand the WordPress loop so you can fetch posts from the DB and format it as you like.
Another method, albeit which involves more coding and setup but more scalable in the long run, is the Pods CMS for Wordpress. Do check the introductory articles there for what you can do with it.
Related
I would like to build a CMS/backend in PHP for my websites to manage different things like photos, albums, news and in general creating dynamic content.
For example I would like to make a website where the owner can create a list of all his products with different attributes (text, images etc).
I know I could make my own CMS with an admin panel and I will have all the problems like users manage, CRUD functions for objects etc.
What I'm looking for is something between a CMS (like drupal or Wordpress) and Yii or Zend Framework.
I don't want to use this (CMS) to build frontend pages in total, like how drupal and wordpress do, because when i will create the frontend i just want to include my cms and use his functions like include_once(cms.php) and then use objects created by this CMS like echo $object->title etc.
What is the best and fastest way to create this?
I like how drupal creates content types where you can choose how to build this content like insert an image field or a text field etc but I think I can't just include Drupal in my frontend and use echo $object->title and also I like how Yii creates modules with CRUD functions.
What do you suggest?
Should I start from Yii or Zend and then use this as an admin panel or should I start from drupal and then try to include and use its functions in "external" pages?
IMHO Fastest way is to get a working system and try to manipulate to make act like you want, add code to your needs. this way you don't have to worry about some common tasks but there is a little learning of how that system works part.
but if you have time, you can always start from the ground up and make your own, just add what you need is making a faster system, but there is a difference between a system that has small team of developers (or you alone), and a system that has large number of users and a community of developers behind it.
for starters I would suggest to work on a reliable system, and build on top of that.
We have many (hundreds) of clients that require basic, content-oriented websites. We are currently using simple WordPress deployments for these clients, but would like to make things more simple.
Is there a tool that exists that will let us white-label, or "re-use", a basic WordPress website and simply injecting some text and images into it to create a whole new website?
The process would look something like:
1. Have new client that needs website
2. Gather some client info (phone number, images, biography, etc.)
3. Inject this info into a previously created WordPress "template" site
(we would use the same template for all clients)
4. Pick a WordPress theme
5. And done. We now have a rebranded WordPress site for this client with minimal work
done.
Step 3 is where we need help? Is there something that already exists that can do this? If not, what is a good method to do this "injection"? We were thinking just creating a small app that would go through the template WordPress site and do a find-and-replace.
Perhaps it would be good to simply write a plugin which would allow you to gather exactly what info you need in a settings panel there, then inject the information into whatever theme you're using from there.
So it would be a relatively simple step as you create new sites to install the plugin, use it to add information, etc. (Perhaps if most of it is client information, it stores the information with admin user information).
Well if you want to be able to re-use your branding, you could do them in your theme's function.php, so its kind of "portable"
For example, when I re-brand a wp site, and customize their wp-login. Change logos and stuff.
and things like, hide menu of theme-editor, plugin-editor, etc
all goes together, and I put the codes in the functions.php
I have made a site using html, css and javascript and is only on my local machine and have not put it onto a server yet, but i was wondering if i could use a cms on this site like wordpress? The site is only 5 pages but i have done all the styling myself.
Would i just have to install wordpress to the server and add the files there maybe? Or is there a lot of changes needed to make this work?
I have very little knowledge of PHP but i am a quick learner if that counts for anything.
Thanks for help.
Simple answer: yes
More complicated answer: why?
If your site is only 5 pages, and you've custom designed and built your layout, then I'm not sure what WordPress will add for you.
That said, if you want to add a blog or the like, WP would certainly be nice to have.
If you want to go that route, you have a few options:
use WordPress for everything, using the 5 pages you made as 'pages' inside of WordPress. You'll have to modify what you built for that to some extent.
leave the 5 pages as-is but add WordPress 'next to it' and run the blog/cms content from there. It can look the same, or maybe you want it to look a bit different.
leave your 5-page site as-is, and use WordPress or another CMS product on a separate server. You can set it up as a subdomain and then either install your own, or leverage something like Posterous or Wordpress.com
The short answer to your question is:
it will take some effort, you won't be able to just drop the files and install wordpress and have everything work immediately. With some work, though, it is definitely possible.
If you've done the styling and you want to incorporate that into wordpress you'll have to go through the process of creating your own theme. http://themeshaper.com/2009/06/22/wordpress-themes-templates-tutorial/ Try this site to see what that requires. Alternatively, google "creating your own wordpress theme" or something similar.
It will require some extensive PHP work, but a lot of these tutorials have already done that heavy lifting for you. In any case, it will be worth it for your to pick up some PHP skills, enough to follow along the tutorials.
I had to do this myself and what you can do is integrate your design into an existing design. You could just create your own theme, which takes some time but it is the correct way to do it.
http://yoast.com/wordpress-theme-anatomy/
I knew 0 php and I was able to create my own theme in a few hours. Best of luck.
I'm not sure what you mean "add the files there", I assume you means that use a WordPress-based website to display your site, then you can simple create a page by WordPress and then link this page to your site.
But if you means to create a wordpress theme which based on your existing site, then you can search a tutorial and follow it to create a wordpress theme by yourself. Making a wordpress theme will needs some PHP work, but not complicate, wordpress has very detailed documations and API.
I would suggest using the Umbraco CMS for it. The advantage is that you start with an empty site, add your css, js, and create your own content types, paste in your HTML for the templates, and you're ready to go. It is a perfect CMS for few page sites to larger sites and also has a great community around it, including lots of documentation and screencasts. Templating is done with the Razor syntax, very easy to learn and lots of documentation. You'll need to have a Microsoft-based server to host it and this may be a barrier depending on your hosting scenario.
I'm new to web design. I basically just jumped into this learning as I went. People recommended CMS's like Joomla & Drupal and I installed them spent a few hours trying to figure them out and gave up. I then proceeded to just design my web site in a text editor b/c it was easier just to learn html, css, js, etc. Well now I've got somewhere between 20 & 30 webpages I need to get published to the web. I have three CMS's installed on my host server and I've sort of decided to use drupal. So I've got drupal open and the example drupal home page. I can not figure out how to just change that page to my html page I've already created.
I feel like this is such a stupid question but I have googled myself into carpal tunnel. Can someone point in the right direction?
You can do this very easily by using a PHP snippet in the article, blog entry or whatever. You need to activate the PHPfilter module, and to make sure that the content type you are working with accepts PHP code... and that you as a Drupal user is allowed to use PHP code.
Otherwise, its simple, put something like this in the body of the content:
<?php
print file_get_contents("/path/to/file.html");
?>
A CMS does not manage html pages, it manages content. In case of Drupal, content is nodes, blocks, users, ...
The next important thing in a CMS/Drupal is separation of content and design. With a CMS like Drupal, you create/use a so called theme, which is a template for your content that defines HTMl structures, CSS and so on. That is more or less the same for all pages of a website.
Once you have that, the advantage of a CMS kicks in. You can now create content, as much as you want (more or less) and it will all be displayed using that previously created/downloaded theme. Without having to write HTML/CSS for every new page. And you can change your design/structure in a single place, and every single page of your website will be affected at the same time.
As you can see, that is completely different from what you have done with static HTML files. Which also means, that there is no easy way to "import" it into Drupal. You basically have to re-create the complete site, this time with using Drupal, and then add your content to it. And you will have to learn Drupal while doing that.
So, when you are finished with your website as static pages, just upload them to a hoster and be done with it. And maybe start with a CMS from the beginning with the next project...
I need to import Twitter posts (single account) into a Drupal site to display in a sidebar. Obviously I can use the pluggable JS script, but I don't want the page to hang waiting for a response from Twitter.
I installed the new Feeds module, but I am a little confused. I want to create a content type. This content is created from the RSS feed of tweets. However, it would seem that Feeds does not allow me to create multiple feed sources to create different types of content with? Is that true? Does it merge all imported RSS into a single content type?
The reason I ask is because I don't want everything merged into Feed Items, I'd like imported content to be mapped to different content types for Views displays.
I think I figured this out, if I add a New Importer, I can do what I was looking for. Kind of sucks to have to create so many content types though.
You may also want to take a look at the activitystream module, I think it does more or less what you want.
I use it on my personal site and it works ok, trying to get patches in is not paticularly easy mind you.