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Extended CMS functionality for wordpress (link-collection)
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This twine-object is a collection of links to information about the subject Worpress as a CMS: "change wordpress into a CMS", or more correct - "extend wordpress existing CMS-capatibilities.". When I stumble upon some new info I may post it in this twine-object, others who want to edit/extend this twine-object are welcome to do so , just join Organize your world[..]and edit the item.
Index
1. General
EDIT: here's a good introduction- text (From The Codex) explaining terms like "cms" and compare Wordpress with other CMS:
"Ever since the very early releases of WordPress, users have been eager to customize the software to suit their own needs. Indeed one of the more prevalent needs in today's context is the need for content management, or more specifically, a Content Management System (CMS). With its flexibility and power, WordPress can be customized into a full fledged CMS, and many people are already doing just that. "
others:
How to use wordpess as a cms(1)
How to use wordpess as a cms(2)
from mccormicky.com
"[..] [wordpress] is pretty darned handy to use as a CMS and you only have to a few important facts about WP in order to make it work for you as a CMS."
How To: Tell WordPress To Function Like a CMS
2. Plugins extending wordpress cms-functionality
Plugins that will make Wordpress into a CMS
Turning Wordpress into a CMS with plugins
13 plugins that will make WordPress into a CMS
Wordpress as CMS in five steps
(from the site above:)
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3. Tutorials , techniques, trix
How to use WordPress as a Truly Customized CMS (Multiple Headers, Footers, Sidebars and more!)
Static frontpage combined with dynamic content
Give your page wings: the WordPress Side Content Plugin
Jazz Up Your Site: 28 Ways To Use WordPress Custom Fields
How To: Display WordPress Categories in a Horizontal Drop-Down Menu
Creating a two level menu with Pages - part 1(1)
Creating a two level menu with Pages
4. More
WordPress webapp framework. More than a blogging engine. More than a CMS.
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--some (not all) texts from the links above:
How to use WordPress as a CMS Part 1
Just a little semi-beginner information that assumes:
- That you know what I’m talking about.
- That you are considering using WP to build a website.
- That you are familiar with the process of building a website.
- That you know what a CMS is and why people need them.
- That you are familiar with using WordPress.
But I’m going to try to explain it from the approach of someone with a limited working knowledge of php and I am not going to write about the WordPress Loop that much because there are already many very good WP how-to’s about the Loop.
If you’re used to WordPress but haven’t ever considered it as a CMS,I don’t blame you.
The language in WordPress theme’s codes “bloginfo this and bloginfo that, and if have posts while have posts” can throw you off at first…what if you aren’t interested in creating a blog site? & WP is intended to be a blogging tool so it makes sense that the language of the code relates to blogging.
But I and a lot of other people making websites have discovered that it is pretty darned handy to use as a CMS and you only have to a few important facts about WP in order to make it work for you as a CMS.
Hint number one:
It’s easy use it to do what you want it to do, which is make it make a website that isn’t a blog.
The breeze that it is to make Pages and upload images with WordPress is the reason it’s a good CMS.
Tip:
If you want to use WordPress to make a website that isn’t a blog you’re probably going to want a static front page.
So you go to Manage>Pages, create a new Page called Home then go to Reading>Options and select it to be your static front page.
Problem with that is once you’ve done that to a theme that you downloaded is most free WP themes are coded a certain way to list pages in order make a navigation menu. And now because of your pretty new Page the links of “Home” are printed twice in the navigation,either in a horizontal menu or in the sidebar–whereever the theme designer thought the navigation should go. Darn it! Why?
It’s because of this bit of code most free blog themes have to make a navigation menu:
Home
I had to find a plugin to display this code as code so thanks priyadi.net.If you’ve got a blog site in mind you won’t need a static front page because your front page will be your blog,your Posts page…. Most if not all free WordPress themes are created to be used for a blog and not a CMS, and that is why theme coders put that in. Which is why free themes don’t usually come with a Home page and rather an About page pre-installation.
All you have to do is remove this:
Home
And keep this:
Now your Static Front Page won’t double up the Home link.
Next I’ll talk about making your own template for a static home page.---How to use WordPress as a CMS Part 2In “How to use WP as a CMS Part 1″ I wrote about how to remove the double up effect of the menu/navigation
when you make a static page and select it to be the front page of the website.
Now I’m going to write about something so mindblowingly obvious that if you know this already you might just have a fit.You don’t need a Posts page if you aren’t going to have any Posts!In Options>Reading in the dashboard WordPress will ask you to select a Posts page.This can be confusing because you might not want a posts page at all.Because if you want to use WordPress as a CMS you might not need a blog. Case closed.
If you’ve created Pages to hold your site content but then selected one of them to be your posts page any content you used the WP editor to add into that page will now be skipped over in anticipation of displaying your posts.
Why is that? Because whatever you typed into the editor is displayed with the Loop and a Posts Page is for posts which is why the Loop asks
But in order to keep the CMS aspect of things you should design the home page to be editable with the WP editor.This will make it so that the end resulting page can be edited by the site owner without them having to go to their host control panel or use a text editor and FTP–which might frighten the pants off of them. I call it code shock.
In which those unused to looking at code will be so scared of it that they will be too afraid to touch anything resulting in a static site that never gets updated because they were afraid to update it.The WP editor gets knocked a lot because of what it does to coder’s codes but it’s fine and dandy when used for what it was meant to be used for which is typing plain text into the textarea and uploading an image to be displayed in a post/page.Which, let’s face it, are what sites are made of; images and text.You and I both think it’s as easy as pie to add text and images with a text editor and FTP. But your client hasn’t been studying HTML in their free time and may not know how to use FTP.
If you let the WP editor be the CMS they never have to look at code which means they will be 100% more likely to edit their own sites! And sites that get updated frequently keep us all happy.
In order to make a static home page and use the Loop you create a new document with Notepad and put this at the top of it:
Then copy the code in page.php and paste it after that and save it as homepage.php.
Then FTP it to your theme’s folder.
Go to Manage>Pages>Home and scroll down to the select box on the
left:
Default Template is selected, um by default, but now the template for the home page should also be there ready to get selected.
So now all that’s left to do is make sure the structure html of the document is laid out in the way you want the home page to look.With a few simple tweaks to the CSS it ought to be ready to go.
However,remember that changes made to the css will effect all the pages.
I’m not a PHP programmer so the way I deal with that is with includes.
In my next post I’ll show how the homepage.php can work to show static and dynamic content with a custom query.----How to use WordPress as a CMS part 3
In the past 2 posts I covered the menu and the home page.
And here is how to have a custom home page that isn’t static.A static page is not the best thing for a home page because it’s just kind of dull– a freshly updated and interesting home page is more exciting,better for SEO,better for site visitors,etc. It’s the home page, after all. It’s usually the 1st thing people see when they land on your website. Best to have new stuff there all the time.I was working on a theme for an ecommerce site. My client had an idea to have a few sideboxes on her home page that showed her latest products. I had the idea that she could have a what’s new category, write posts to it and they’d show on the home page. We didn’t end up using it,though.
It was a bit of work to figure out so I wanted to pass it on.
Here is a custom query to show 3 excerpts from a single category in your template for the home page (and keep things fresh):
Posted inat
Ok, if you copy and paste that you’ll break your page because the divs aren’t closed and neither is the Loop.
I’ll try to explain what each bit does.
That makes sure the more tag will be used in the Page, the more tag is just one of the template tags reserved for Posts… and Posts being what WP was made to make…
What that does is pull the latest 3 posts from category ID 2some things may go awry:
Your client may forget which category is going to show on the home page.
That’s why it’s a really good idea to walk them through the dashboard and explain the whole category thing to them.
Also, name the category something like Home Page News.
So they will be more likely to recall this is the category for displaying post excerpts on the Home Page.
The good old Loop.
A more complicated bit of code to show content as an excerpt if it’s a search.
There are better ways to do it than this because my way relies on the person writing the posts(the client) remembering to put in the more link and choose the right category for the posts.Here is the home_page.php file in full.
This template is only an example and if you can’t use it as is it’s because
you have to change the names of the divs to match the ones in your theme and make sure they’re all closed.That means checking the header and footer,too.
And the category ID,too,of course
-I forgot to mention that.---Wordpress-plugins that extend the CMS capacity:Turn WordPress Into A CMS With WordPress Plugins
By Kyle Eslick on February 2nd, 2008 | Filed Under Plugins
Tag(s): CMS, WordPress, WordPress PluginsWith the recent popularity of themes attempting to turn WordPress into a content management system (CMS), people have begun purchasing premium WordPress themes in order to get the features and look they are wanting for their website.
As Josh Byer’s points out, people can instead use free WordPress plugins to achieve much of the CMS functionality they are looking for. Miriam of WordPress Garage also adds that a few additional plugins to turn WordPress into a CMS.
While using a theme designed specifically to function as a CMS has a few advantages, I think those of us that are on a budget can definitely get many of the CMS features we crave through the use of these WordPress plugins.
If you were looking to purchase/download a CMS, what options are you most looking for? Can you get this functionality via plugins? I’d love to get everyones thoughts on this!
Two articles from Pressingpixel about plugins that extends Wordpress fuinctionality for content managing:1. Completing the CMS With WordpressPlugins and techniques to strech the Wordpress Admin to new heights24There has been an upswing in the recent days and months regarding the “cmsness” (I love it when I can make up words) of Wordpress. I think the discussion gets a little off base, in that the definition of cms is very subjective. I belive that anything you use to create and publish content, is in some shape or form a “cms.”So then the debate turns to what makes a good cms? I believe a good cms at its core must be flexible enough to allow a wide range of people the ability to manage their content the way they want to manage it. And I don’t know of another application that has as large a userbase, as large of a community that is active in creating new plugins, or the flexibility to become most things to most people as Wordpress does.So with that little soliloquy I’m presenting a list and descriptions of the plugins and techniques I have used to make Wordpress a very effective and useful content management system for a wide variety of clients.
Custom Admin Branding PluginThis is my own plugin which allows you to re-brand the login screen, header and footer of the Wordpress admin. You can upload your own images or your clients logos to make them feel more at home.
Clutter Free
This plugin allows portions of the WordPress interface to be hidden that your client won’t use. Each author’s preferences are stored separately and can be edited in the author’s profile.
Custom Admin MenuThis is a brilliant plugin that allows full customization over the menus and submenus in the Wordpress administration area. You can create new menus, and reorder and relabel existing ones.
Custom Write PanelWhat does this beauty do? In general it allows you to create your own custom fields in the write section. In reality you are creating an entirely new writing section in which you can choose specific input fields to display. You can also create custom fields that are specific to your user. If you combine this with the Custom Admin Menu plugin you can create a menu of specific forms for your end users to write with.The documentation for this plugin is pretty sparse so look for a future post where I’ll outline how I’ve used it.
Fresh PostThis plugin is an offshoot of the Custom Write Panel. The Fresh Post plugin is essentially the same as the Custom Write Panel but has added the ability to upload files and images. This feature alone makes this plugin one of the most valuable plugins in my Wordpress Admin. It also comes with a sweet little script that automatically resizes and thumbnails images.The only downside is that much like the Custom Write Panel documentation is pretty much non-existant so you’re going to have to play with it a bit. I’ve also discovered that this plugin is unfortunately incompatible with the podpress plugin (version 8.8 running on WP 2.3.2)Both of these plugins do not seem to be in any sort of active development cycle but hopefully someone can pick up where these have left off because the features these plugins offer are far too valuable to leave and let lie.[update 3.11.08 It appears that Fresh Post is alive and well and a new version will be released on 3.15.08. I'm planning to do a complete review after it comes out so stay tuned. The best plugin for the Wordpress CMS possibly just got better.]
Dagon Design Form MailerThis is another absolutely indispensable plugin. It allows you to create custom forms and have the data emailed back to you. There is not a limit on the amount of forms you can create and the customization options for it are practically endless.
cForms IIMuch like the previous plugin cforms is a highly customizable, flexible and powerful contact form plugin, covering a variety of use cases. Some of the features that distinguish this plugin are the ability to add upload fields, track data from within the Wordpress admin.
Dashboard EditorWipe the cluttered dashboard clean and insert your own content. Greet your clients with a personalized message, links, widgets and more.
Image ManagerIf your clients will be uploading a lot of pictures this is the perfect plugin. It organizes, inserts and even does simple editing. The plugin allows your clients to crop and resize pics without leaving the admin section. It will also create better thumbnails and even integrate with Lightbox.
One Click InstallerThis is more for you than your clients. This plugin simplifies and speeds up the process of installing all these other plugins. You will wonder how you lived without this one.
Post TemplateThis plugin allows you to create post templates in order to save time writing posts having the same structure.
Search EverythingI’m not sure why this isn’t a Wordpress default but this plugin will do what it says. It allows the search function in Wordpress to search everything including options to search pages, attachments, drafts, comments and custom fields.The first and most popular article to date on this site is a list of CMS plugins for WordPress. That list is by no-means comprehensive and I wanted to present some additional plugins I have run into that will enhance Wordpress as a CMS.I’ve tried to find plugins that aren’t as well known so hopefully you’ll see something new and cool you can use.I’ve tried and tested most of these plugins on WordPress 2.5.1 and they all worked great at the time of testing.As always, the comments are open and is great place for you to share the plugins that make Wordpress work as a CMS for you.WP HelpWP Help is a plugin that allows an administrator to create a help and or instructions page in the WordPress admin for new users. It creates a top-level menu item that presents a page of content you define to all WordPress users who can access the admin section.It is very helpful if you create a lot of WordPress sites for clients and you want to give them some simple instructions they can quickly refer to on how to use the site or a particular plugin.http://pressingpixels.com/wp-help/Admin Management XtendedThis is a cool little plugin that lets the admin user edit properties of posts and pages quickly without having to open up each individual post/page.You can change page order via drag-and-drop, change posts/page title, change tags, change comments status and much more.http://www.schloebe.de/wordpress/admin-management-xtended-plugin/WP-Add QuicktagWP-Add Quicktag allows you to quickly and easily add your own custom quicktags to the write panel. I’ve used this to create a button for myself to add in custom classes for images but could easily be used to insert custom code for client installs as well.http://roel.meurders.nl/wordpress-plugins/wp-addquicktag-plugin-for-adding-quicktags/FormBuilderWhile not as complex or feature rich as some other form creating plugins for WordPress, the FormBuilder plugin is very easy to use and may be exactly what a client install needs.The Form Builder Plugin for WordPress allows you to build complex forms in the WordPress administrative interface without needing to know PHP or HTML.http://truthmedia.com/wordpress/formbuilder/Flexible UploadFlexible upload enhances the image upload functionality built into WordPress and brings in some much needed features.It will re-size pictures to upload at the size you specify, insert captions, include watermarks, and will create custom sized thumbnails.http://blog.japonophile.com/flexible-upload/Page Category PlusPage Category Plus allows you to assign categories to WordPress pages, which WordPress in it’s natural state does not do.This is a great plugin if you need to be able to customize your installation just a little bit more. It gives you the hook in your templates to be able to call pages by category which opens up all sorts of new possibilities when creating themes and sites.http://www.stuff.yellowswordfish.com/page-category-plus/Tags 4 PageLike the Page Category Plus plugin, this plugin brings a feature only in posts to pages.With the Tags 4 Page plugin you can apply tags to pages. Again, this gives you another hook to use in your development and will bring back additional results when a user is searching.http://www.michelem.org/wordpress-plugin-tags4page/Search Custom FieldsIf you just want your default WordPress search to search custom fields, then you will be happy with the Search Anything Plugin. But if you want to display a form that will specify what custom field to search by you will want to check out this plugin.This plugin automatically creates a form with select boxes for each custom field you have created. All of the values for the custom field will be in the select box. You can add and remove the fields it uses in the plugin.*Warning* The site I originally got this plugin from has been listed on search engines as a dangerous site that contain malware. I’m not sure if this is true or if the site just got hacked. Either way the site is not up anymore.You can download the plugin here at your own risk. I am currently using it on a site and have had no problems. I have checked the code with the knowledge I have and it appears safe. If any other experienced coders want to give it a clean bill of health that would be helpful.Again, I’m using the plugin on a large site and have not had any problems.http://pressingpixels.com/projects/wp-plugins/search-custom.zipWP CMSThis plugin strips out all the blog functionality of WordPress and leaves admin users with just the ability to create and manage pages.This could be a great plugin for very simple sites with very simple people needing to manage them.http://www.gilbertpellegrom.co.uk/wp-cms/Role ManagerThis is a very poplular plugin and no list of WordPress CMS plugins would be complete without it.WordPress Version 2.0 introduces the concept of Roles. Each Role is allowed to perform a set of tasks called Capabilities. This Plugin allows you to define and manage multiple subscriber profiles - called Roles and their Capabilities.It allows you to specify what exactly each person can do administratively. There are a number of other plugins that work in conjunction with the role manager plugin as well.http://www.im-web-gefunden.de/wordpress-plugins/role-manager/Hide DashboardThe Hide Dashboard plugin removes the dashboard from the admin. When users log in they will see their profile instead.
http://www.deepwave.net/articles/hide_dashboard/Users with Administrator credentials will still see the dashboard.
My Dashboard
The MyDashboard plugin is designed to replace the standard, but limited, WordPress dashboard with something a bit more useful, extendable and skinnable.It is based on the igoogle, Pageflakes and Netvibes style of home page and is designed to be easily extendable and skinnable. Features include: Drag and drop gadgets, CSS style chages, and standard gagets.http://dev.clearskys.net/Wordpress/MyDashboard
My FTP is a file management Plugin for WordPress that enables a blog administrator to (much like an FTP client) navigate folders and files on the server where their WordPress installation is hosted. The administrator can then edit, delete or upload files on the fly from within the WordPress administration panel.My FTP
It is also possible to create new folders and upload complete directory structures. I’m not sure how safe this plugin is so use at your own risk.
http://trialsoftwarez.com/wordpress-myftp/Upload PlusThis plugin let you clean file names from unwanted characters while you upload them.If you are building a site for clients that requires the uploading of pictures or other files they often will upload stuff with the wackiest file names known to man. This plugin cleans all that up so that there are no problems related to file names.http://pixline.net/wordpress-plugins/upload-plus/en/---How to use WordPress as a Truly Customized CMS (Multiple Headers, Footers, Sidebars and more!)
I love WordPress… ok scratch that… I ADORE WordPress! I have used it for several of my own personal blogs, as well as to develop blogs and web sites for clients.
However the more I use it - especially for my own projects where I have full creative reign - I am constantly amazed by just how much it is capable of.
Not Just For Blogging - A Live Case Study
WordPress is incredibly versatile, in that although it is primarily known as a blogging platform, it can be used to run a non-blog web site as well.
I had been intrigued by the varied uses of WordPress, and knew that it was time to upgrade my own business web site to use the platform. Web designers / developers are often most critical of their own work and I was very specific as to how I wanted my own site to function.
I’ve finally given WordPress’ capabilities a full and through test by converting my own site from static HTML to WordPress.
This Is What They Call “WordPress as a CMS”
It is WordPress’ administrative area that turns it into a CMS or Content Management System. The WordPress admin area provides a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor - similar to a mini-version of Microsoft Word.
This allows virtually anyone to add and edit content themselves - all through their web browser - and without knowledge of HTML.
Of course, for more advanced users, there is a “code view” option where you can edit HTML code in a page, post or article, but it is not necessary for creating simple content.
Initial Settings - Permalinks and Comments
The WordPress installation process is a fairly simple one, assuming you have the right web hosting (which must be capable of supporting the PHP programming language, and running MySQL databases).
Once installed, there are several settings to update. Some of the essentials being to update the Permalink structure, and in the case of a web site vs blog, I wanted to remove the comment features, as well.
Permalinks - also known as “pretty URL’s” - change your post URL’s from something like “/index.php?p=364″ to “/web-design/wordpress-as-cms/”
Typically with a blog, posts are setup with date based permalinks. In the case of the main site, however, I wanted to go with a more traditional format of “/category/postname/”- which help give the illusion that all areas of the site are Pages, as opposed to a combination of Pages and Posts.
I also turned off Comments and Trackbacks (links from other sites back to your own) throughout the site. Comments are an essential part of a blog, but not something I wanted on the main web site.
The comment settings are updated through the WordPress admin area, however I took this a step further by also removing the comment loop from my template files - basically just because I didn’t want a notice that “Comments are closed” on every page of the site, as well.
How to Resource Link…
Using PermalinksUsing a Static Front Page
Once the main site settings were complete, it was time to begin on the content pages. To begin with, I wanted the site to use a static page for the home page (not the typical format of displaying the most recent posts).
This is a very simple setting in the WordPress admin area, which lets you specify either using the latest posts or a static page as the front page of the site.
How to Resource Link…
Creating a Static Front Page in WordPressIndividual Page Templates
Using the Page Template option (and with some extra PHP files), you can indicate separate templates to be applied to individual pages.
By creating a home.php file,* the pre-defined front page of the site can use a different page template than the rest of the site, as well. In my case, I wanted the home page to use a specific header and footer, but NOT use a sidebar.
* It’s important to note that the home page file MUST be titled home.php - anything else, even page_home.php as I had tried to use, will not fully work.
On the interior pages, I wanted to have unique headers on each page - each one having a different slogan under the “Hello! Welcome to iDesign Studios” text at the top of each page, depending on which section a visitor is on.
There is also a difference on the header and footer of the site, depending on if you are in a main site section - take the Portfolio page, for example - vs the more personal About Me section (which includes my bio and resume, etc.)
How to Resource Link…
Creating Your Own Page TemplatesIndividual Templates For Categories and Posts, Too!
While there is a readily available Page Template option when creating Pages - there is no similar option when creating Posts. I admit I had to do a bit of digging around on Google to find a solution to this problem, but I’m glad to say that I found it!
This one involves a bit of PHP scripting (explained very well at the link below) - but basically, by knowing your category ID’s, you can specify posts contained in different categories to use specific page templates.
This means that I was able to keep the header and sidebar from my Portfolio page along with my individual Portfolio posts, as well. Take for example the main portfolio page vs an individual portfolio post. By clicking through on the site, you’d really have no idea if you were viewing a Page or a Post, which was what I had hoped for.
How to Resource Link…
How to Set Up Custom WordPress Category TemplatesMultiple Dynamic (Widgetized) Sidebars
Even more important than having individual headers and footers, I wanted to have separate sidebars, as well.
For example, on the main About the company page, I wanted to highlight one of my client testimonials, as well as link to additional information about myself (bio, etc.). On the Testimonials page, I wanted to include a PHP code that would automatically list all of the Testimonial posts so you can easily navigate from one to the next, etc.
Although I could just as easily have hard-coded the content of each of the sidebars in PHP, you have to admit that using widgets are easier. I could make updates anywhere as long as I have a web browser (without having to download/upload updated PHP files, etc.)
On each of the page templates, I’d link to the individual sidebar files. Where the real work comes in, though (which enables all of my sidebars to be widget ready and editable in the WP admin area) is to make some updates to the functions.php file.
How to Resource Link…
How to Create Multiple Dynamic Sidebars for WordPressSeamless Pages and Posts
Then comes the integration of WordPress pages and posts. On most blogs it’s quite obvious which is which. However, in this case I didn’t want to highlight content as being specific posts or pages - I wanted it all pretty much hidden.
With careful organization of my page and category structures (as well as the help of the Redirection Plugin) you’d never know the difference.
For example, if you tried going to http://www.idesignstudios.com/category/portfolio/ - instead of getting a chronological listing of Portfolio posts, you would be redirected to http://www.idesignstudios.com/portfolio/ which is the page I have setup with a general introduction to the portfolio, as well as a specific order of my work samples, etc.
Two additional plugins that proved to be essential for this project are Exec-PHP and Deactivate Visual Editor. Both plugins combined enabled me to add PHP code to my pages and posts from within the WordPress admin area. You can see this in action in the FAQ page, for example, where the questions are automatically inserted onto the page, just by including the “get_post” tags as demonstrated in the link below.
How to Resource Link…
Template Tags - Get PostsPutting It All Together
There were so many individual elements involved, but combined, the new site takes “WordPress as a CMS” to a new level.
With some of the automated features - such as the PHP code mentioned above to automatically list Testimonials and FAQ’s - all I have to do is add a new post whenever I have a new client recommendation, for example, and it’s automatically added to the main Testimonial page and sidebar.
I haven’t made use of the Feed options for the site yet, but by using posts for some of the more frequently updated content (especially the Portfolio section), this will be a great way to keep clients and prospects updated about company news and updates.
This was a truly great project that I learned quite a bit from. Nothing like really being able to spend time working on your own projects, where you can learn new techniques that you can later utilize for client projects, as well.
This is yet another demonstration of exactly why I love web design and development so much! It’s a never-ending learning experience, and it just gets better every time!
From the Experts - Complete Resource Lists
For the developers out there, here are some of the resources that I found to be invaluable while re-developing my site with WordPress.
These guys explain the techniques better than I could - and they helped me tremendously - so I figure a little bit of link love is in order!
- WordPress Codex Template Tags
- Creating a Static Front Page in WordPress
- Creating Your Own Page Templates
- Template Tags - Get Posts
- How to Set Up Custom WordPress Category Templates in Four Easy Steps
- How to Create Multiple Dynamic Sidebars for WordPress
Then come the plugins! Since WordPress is Open Source, there is a big community supporting the software. Many talented developers create plugins that extend the software’s functionality.
With several thousand plugins currently available, the possibilities are seemingly endless! You can do so much with plugins but for this particular project, there are a few that were essential.
Big thanks to everyone involved in creating the posts and plugins listed here - without you, my site wouldn’t have been possible as I had envisioned!
If You’re Not a Developer and This Is All Greek To You…
Yes, it’s time for the obligatory shameless plug!
With the resources above, web developers reading (especially those versed in WordPress) should have no problem putting together a similar site.
But, you’re not all tech types (I don’t think…) So, if you need a web site of your own, or realize it’s finally time for an upgrade, but have no idea where to start…
I hope you’ll keep me in mind!
FREE Web Design Proposal and 10% OFF!
I’m offering a 10% discount on all web site design and development services until September 30, 2008.
Please check the Services page on the main site for details. I’ll be happy to put together a FREE detailed proposal with several options to choose from - just fill out the Quote Request Form or send me a quick message on the Contact page.
I look forward to hearing from you!
By the way, I offer “Design Only” and “Development Only” services that are great for other web designers / web developers who prefer to focus only on one or the other, and outsource the rest…
--WordPress webapp framework. More than a blogging engine. More than a CMS.
Posted by Leonid Mamchenkov on June 18, 2007
I’ll try to keep this post as non-technical as possible for the benefit of the general public. The main goal of the article is to show why and how WordPress is more than just a blogging engine or a content management system (CMS). WordPress is a web application framework.
First, let’s see Wikipedia definition of “Software framework”:
A software framework is a reusable design for a software system (or subsystem). This is expressed as a set of abstract classes and the way their instances collaborate for a specific type of software (Johnson and Foote 1988; Deutsch 1989). Software frameworks can be object-oriented designs. Although designs don’t have to be implemented in an object-oriented language, they usually are. A software framework may include support programs, code libraries, a scripting language, or other software to help develop and glue together the different components of a software project. Various parts of the framework may be exposed through an application programming interface (API).
Reusable design, blah blah blah, code libraries, scripting language, blah blah blah, glue together, blah blah blah, API. Not bad. I’d say it nails it.
The truth of the matter is that WordPress has a lot to offer to web application developers (web developers and webdevs for short). Let’s see exactly what.
- Database abstraction layer. WordPress provides functionality for database connectivity, querying, variable escaping, caching, and troubleshooting. Altogether this means faster development for database dependent web applications.
- User management. WordPress has a whole lot of functionality around users. Most web applications these days use some sort of user management. Many require access control management. WordPress offers this out of the box.
- Content and object management. WordPress provides functionality for object management (posts, pages, attachments, drafts, categories, etc). These objects have some minimal attributes (title, author, publication date, etc), but can be easily extended with custom fields (price, size, relationship, status, and anything a webapp might need).
- XML-based interfaces. WordPress knows a lot about XML. It can import and export data in a number of XML-based formats (such as RSS and Atom, for example). And it also provides a powerful way to interact with data (both read and write) - an XML-RPC interface.
- API. WordPress is one of those system that really behave like a skeleton. It allows for all sorts of customizations, both visual and functional (plugins, themes, widgets). It lets web developers control many internal processes and outputs (hooks). It makes packaging and redistribution of features and appearences trivial with packages and themes.
On top of that, WordPress features some excellent documentation, large and active user community, search engine friendlyness, and more.
And why is that so cool? Because. Because almost all modern web applications can benefit from these. How many web applications do you know that don’t use some sort of database? How about web applications that don’t manage users? Are there any web applications at all that don’t need content management? Are there any good web applications that weren’t integrated with other web applications or extended by user community in some way?
And don’t forget that WordPress is a free and open source software. That means that anybody, anybody at all can improve it. Nobody, nobody ever is going to lock it down and have full control over the future direction. And nobody will ever force you to pay huge amounts of money for support, upgrades, or maintenance. That’s pretty important considering the cornerstone roles frameworks play in application development.
Can we have a practical example without going into too much of technical details? Yes, of course.
Consider WordPress posts. They have already been assigned different types - post, page, draft, attachment, etc. But these don’t vary a lot to demonstrate the power. What’s truly amazing is that WordPress posts can easily (with custom fields) represent any other data. WordPress post can represent a real estate object, for example. Or a car. Or a person. Or a product. Or a service.
WordPress’ own categories can be reimplemented as posts. And, in fact, that was somewhat done with pages. Remember, a page can be a parent of another page? Just use post title as category name and post content as category description, and here you go - your own category subsystem within WordPress, without any work at all.
Why do we need WordPress categories then? Well, they come handy sometimes too. Let’s say you have you’ve built a product catalog using WordPressj (each product is a WordPress post). And let’s say your products can have a number of features or properties. And let’s say these features can be easily expressed as true/false or yes/no value. For example: featured product - yes, can be shipped globally - no, available in gift wrapping - yes, needs age confirmation - no, and so on. Well, these all features can be implemented as categories. Then you just assign appropriate categories to your post (product), and you don’t need to do any programming at all. More so, you have a whole lot of functionality given to you by WordPress itself (editing, searching, aggregating, counting, etc).
WordPress provides some really useful functionality for application development. But it’s been hyped as a blogging engine and a CMS for far too long now. Getting rid of stereotypes and expanding horizons will take some time. But I have a tip for you that might be handy along the way.
For the next day or two, every time you stumble upon a web site - be that three static pages or the newest Web 2.0 service, ask yourself a question - “Can this be implemented with WordPress?”. I promise, you’ll be amazed by the number of times you’ll say “yes” (note: if you come up with “I don’t know”, use some help resources to figure out a “yes or no” answer). And after those couple of days come back and we’ll work on the “How do I do this with WordPress?” question.
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Query_Posts and Your Homepage Design
by Nathan Rice
WordPress has a fantastic little loop qualifier. I’ve written on it for the last 2 weeks, and this week I want to go a little deeper, moving more toward the direction of using WordPress as a real content management system using the built in page feature that WordPress added a while back.
Although WP also recently added the ability to use any page as your homepage, most people running a business want a bit more complicated homepage. For instance, I’ve had clients that wanted to have both the content of a page, and the latest 3 blog entries on the homepage. Now, you may want a homepage that is more or less complicated than that, but you can take the principles outlined here and apply them to you own homepage design.
The Page Content
As you may remember, we can use the query_posts to allow the loop to pull just about any kind of information you can imagine! In this case, we’re going to use it to pull the information from a particular page. We’ll name it “homepage”. The first thing to do is actually create the content and post slug for the homepage. Go into your WordPress admin panel and click “Write” –> “Page”. Type the title and body of your content (whatever you want to be the homepage message for your readers) and then over on the right hand side of the page, you should see something that says “Post Slug” with a plus sign next to it. Click that and type “homepage” in the text box (witho
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