I want to use WordPress for my personal website, but it isn't going to be structured like a blog. Can someone help me with a few concerns I have before I get too deep into it?
I want it to have a main page, and a hierarchy of content pages. Can I make the default page be a home page, and not a big chronological listing of posts?
I see that the DotNetNuke CMS has built-in support for auto generating your menus based on the pages you create. Does WordPress have anything like this?
Can I make the blog post section come up in a sub-directory like mysite.com/blogposts?
Is there anything about WordPress that makes it an obvious bad choice for a general purpose website? Does it have extensibility for thinks like shopping carts or whatever in case I want to add them in the future? I just want to make sure I am not doing something stupid by choosing a blogging software for a general purpose website with future requirements that aren't yet known.
Yes, current versions of Wordpress support designating a content page as the home page.
Yes, Wordpress will generate a set of nested lists that represent your content pages; it would be the job of the theme to style this into an appropriate menu (and most themes do not).
You can set up your permalink structure to do this, yes.
Wordpress is a good choice up to a point for many kinds of web sites, but if you want to integrate with a shopping cart or other complex application, I'd suggest looking at Drupal instead. Wordpress's developer ecosystem is mostly set up around extending its existing capabilities (blogging and content management) not on adding other unrelated functionality. Drupal is much more of a general-purpose framework for any kind of application or site.
I've set up Wordpress for several non-blog sites without issue.
Yes, you can create a static Page in Wordpress and set it as the default page. Read more about Wordpress Pages here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages
Yes, you can generate menus of Pages, both flat and hierarchal. Most themes will include a Page sidebar that will show Pages you have created. You can of course code and style your own to your liking. For example, this bit of php will pull out the top level Pages in your hierarchy and generate html for a series of <li> elements:
wp_list_pages('meta_key=page_title&depth=1&sort_column=menu_order');
Yes, you can have the blog section come up as a subdirectory.
Wordpress is a fine choice for a general purpose personal or even small business website. It only takes a little effort to convert your own custom layout into a Wordpress Theme, or you can choose from thousands of ready made Themes. You can do a lot with the base install, and its always being updated. Plugins and Widgets allow you to add all sorts of new functionality to Wordpress with ease. If all else fails, you can always write your additions own with a little effort.
That said, Wordpress is primarily blogging software. It has some decent CMS features, but its not the core focus. If you aren't going to do any actual blogging, Drupal is a solid option.
I'm not a heavy user of WordPress but my feeling for it is that it is primarily a blogging tool. It sounds like you want a full CMS. I'd have a look at Drupal (as PSU_Kardi suggests) or Joomla. Both have built-in support for or add-ons for blogs, e-Commerce, ...
2: Multi-level navigation plugin: http://pixopoint.com/multi-level-navigation/
4: Some e-commerce plugins: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=e-commerce
Yes, available by default, configurable via control panel
Yes, it's usually on by default on modern templates (unless you're using something extremely exotic)
Yes, you can do pretty much everything with permalinks
I really don't see a reason why wouldn't you choose wordpress... many plugins available for this platform can do almost everything - even more than standard cms solutions. There are SEO plugins, e-commerce plugins, security plugins, forum plugins, modern anti-spam protection, design enhancements, advanced templates with easy to use control panels...
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Can anyone help me to get this answer with a small example as I have been trying to be cleared about this two things.
According to, and elaborating on the WordPress Codex:
Plugins
Plugins are ways to extend and add to the functionality that already exists in WordPress. The core of WordPress is designed to be lean and lightweight, to maximize flexibility and minimize code bloat. Plugins then offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs.
So this should be thought of as a way of extending WP's underlying / core functionality. Remember, WP's Roots is that of a blogging CMS, but developers over the years have been hell bent on making it do anything and everything treating WP kind of like a framework, but not to be confused with one. For example, WordPress does not have a contact form built in for users, therefore I can plug in a 3rd party module which will permit the administrator to set up and use such functionality.
Widgets
WordPress Widgets add content and features to your Sidebars. Examples are the default widgets that come with WordPress; for post categories, tag clouds, navigation, search, etc. Plugins will often add their own widgets.
This is not as straight forward due to the concept being quite abstract. Think of a widget of extending the template dynamically by allowing a webmaster to deploy 3rd party plugins (as well as default plugins). Developers tend to use such functionality to display information that is not mission critical, non intrusive and easy to use / manipulate.
However, to clarify, you don't necessarily require widgets to use plugins. In the case you use Akismet, it will simply extend WP to prevent against spam without ever displaying anything to the user.
First of all i don't have any experience on wordpress.. So please forgive my ignorance.. I've found a theme on themeforest. Unfortunately it's a wordpress theme. I want to develop my own admin panel. I don't want to use wordress. Is it possible?
Anything is possible, however this is a gum in hair scenario. Ask the theme author if there is an HTML version which is common on ThemeForest. If you do try to "extract" the layout:
Begin with the stylesheet and match up the styles with each page template's markup.
Also, why not use WordPress? The Redux theme options framework is very easy to use.
Since a wordpress theme is just a bunch of html/css/js/php files, yes, it is possible. Depending on what language/framework will used backend side, the easiest way would be to extract the html/css/js parts of the theme and than add your own "content-placeholders" which will be used by your own backend.
But: Think twice about doing this. First, there could be a conflict with the license of the theme (depending on what type of license is used by the author of the theme). And more important, second, you should think twice about building your own backend.
For the case this isn't an experiment and you're building a productive website, building you're own backend is a lot of work. Unless you need some special functionalities (or you would like to keep it very slim and basic), I would suggest using a ready made CMS for this - like wordpress.
My opinion: 95% of self-made backends for basic cms features I've seen (and was forced to work with) are very messy and far beyond available open source cms. It seems like many people don't balance the pros and cons of building an own CMS-backend and undervalue the effort to build a state-of-the-art CMS.
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 am a web Designer that recently decided to expand into developer waters as well :). What I have in mind is to build an elaborate portfolio site that will also contain a blog. The sites sections will be standard for such a project - something like Home, About, Portfolio, Contact and Blog.
The Home page will contain some static parts but also feeds from the latest additions to the portfolio and the blog.
The Portfolio page will have sections on the different types of portfolio pieces (like logo, print, web etc).
The About will be completely static.
The Contact page will be static and will have a contact form.
The Blog page will basically have your standard WordPress blog structure.
At first I was thinking of doing the whole thing in WordPress (since I already have some experience with it) but what got me thinking about different options was the portfolio part. I want the portfolio page to be quite differently stylized than the blog page and yet I want to have the possibility of doing quick and easy additions to it trough an admin panel.
So please give me suggestions and direction about what would be best for me to do? Is this thing possible with WordPress? Should I instead code the whole project with CodeIgniter (or a similar framework)?
I am quite good with HTML & CSS. Comfortable with jQuery. Trying to get better with PHP :).
I am willing to learn and improve and wouldn't mind trying a CMS or a Framework that Ive not had experience with before.
Thank you.
Wordpress is more than sufficient. You might want to find some plugins that allow you to add special content like videos, scripts and other things to portfolio pages. Also knowing html, css well is important if you want to build or modify a theme a lot to your liking. It is also very helpful to know some php if not be very experienced with it. MySql is helpful as well but not as need to know.
This Wordpress PHP function sheet is very helpful at times.
The Wordpress Codex page is also very good. Not an end all be all, you'll still need to know how to do things on your own, but it defiantly will get the ball rolling if want want any custom functions, or want to modify functions.
If you know wordpress a little bit, I hope you will able to make your desired project. Using wp you can do several types of project.
Read some wp books or tutorial and learn wp functions.
Essential wp functions sheet https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference
I hope it will help you.
It's obviously a matter of some controversy as to whether WordPress is a CMS, but like it or not, it's an extremely popular platform.
Assume for a moment that it's an almost-there CMS.
What plugins would you add to the package to bring it over the threshold? ie, if you were designing a "WordPress CMS core", what plugins would you add?
Check out http://www.noupe.com/wordpress/powerful-cms-using-wordpress.html. It has a lot of great tips and resources for makeing WordPress a CMS.
FYI WordPress 3.0 is coming out very soon, (it's in beta) and it adds a lot of API for adding custom post types (akin to Drupal nodes). You can actually do it already in WP 2.9, but 3.0 makes it easier to do.
Beyond that, what do you need to make it a CMS? Pages are quite flexible if you use templates. The answer to your question depends a lot on what you want to do in particular.
I recently did a Page-only site (no "posts" section) using just the PageMash plugin. PageMash lets you organize your pages easily (put them in order), and it lets you hide certain pages. So I set the "posts" page to a particular page and then hid that page via PageMash. Create all the pages you like and organize them at will. Works nicely.
Actually you don't need any plugins to use Wordpress as CMS. But I used the following plugins when I built CMS, they were specific for my site:
qtranslate, cforms and exclude pages.
Since you probably use a lot of regular pages on "CMS" web sites I always install
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/cms-tree-page-view/
I am the one who created it, but it's true that I always install it and often I feel that I could not manage a site without it.