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Content Management Systems: Wordpress Templates?

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      CommentAuthorSpyrte
    • CommentTimeFeb 20th 2007 edited
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    Hi,

    I know that is question may sound stupid, but does anyone think it is possible to use Wordpress as a CMS in an existing website (as a add-on feature) without having to design a completely new website (with a Wordpress template and all)? This CMS can be used to post daily/weekly news on a website and enable visitors to comment on a posted news article, with a RSS feed that is automatically updated to reflect news articles. Is this possible, or am I stuck with having to use a completely Wordpress website with a Wordpress template and all? I am trying to avoid having to re-build my existing website and converting it to Wordpress with the templates. I just got this idea while browsing www.zeldman.com. Thanks for any commentary in advance.
  2.  permalink
    If you mean installing WP on an existing site and skinning it with HTML from that existing site, I'd say go for it, I've done it plenty of times with no hassles.
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      CommentAuthorSpyrte
    • CommentTimeFeb 20th 2007 edited
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    Hi Darren,


    Thanks for your comment. Do you think www.squared-designs.com is capable of having a WP news feature on the front page without having to make a Wordpress template?

  4.  permalink
    Looks like your site is just static HTML at the moment, yes? Incorporating WP should be a piece of cake. You'll just have to create a WP skin that matches your website. You can use a third party RSS widget--I use Feed Digest--to pull the content from your blog to the homepage.

    WP is very flexible. I just designed and developed a website for a Providence, RI area preschool that uses WP as a CMS to power the entire thing. No WP template necessary.
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      CommentAuthorSpyrte
    • CommentTimeFeb 20th 2007 edited
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    Wow..sounds good. Thanks guys. I will let you guys know how the progress is going with that later on. But just one question: will I have to point my domain name to www.squared-designs.com/wordpress or anything to use this? Also, do I have to do any modification in PHP, or just my website HTML?


    By the way adjustafresh, nice site design. Thanks for the concept of the idea too.

  6.  permalink
    Spyrte,

    You can call the directory anything you want--e.g. install WP in a "blog" or "news" directory. The blog lives as a separate part of the site; you'll be modifying the blog template (this will require mostly HTML changes and rearrangement of WP's PHP) to make it look like the rest of the HTML/CSS on your website.

    Good Luck.
  7.  permalink
    You can use a third party RSS widget--I use Feed Digest--to pull the content from your blog to the homepage.

    With Wordpress 2.1, you can actually go into Options->Reading and determine which page you want to display your blog and which content you want on the homepage. WP 2.1 also allows you to create different templates for different pages with a quick insert of some code in your header.

    ill I have to point my domain name to www.squared-designs.com/wordpress or anything to use this?

    Dumping the whole package of WP into the root of your site is probably the best bet, just make sure not to overwrite any files, such as 'index.php'.
  8.  permalink
    Darren,

    Keep in mind that spyrte is not using WP for the entire website, rather just the news section. If WP is installed in the root directory it will cause problems with the existing code.
  9.  permalink
    Ah, I'd assumed he'd have the news/blog as the homepage and also use the 'Page' function in WP to manage all his interior static content, too.
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      CommentAuthorSpyrte
    • CommentTimeFeb 21st 2007 edited
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    Hi Guys,

    What I was trying to accomplish with www.squared-designs.com was to have the homepage as it is now, but just feature a list of articles (just as it is now), and when a visitor clicks on it, it takes the visitor to a page that shows the news article. I tried several times yesterday to re-make the homepage where it would incorporate Wordpress, but it seems like their has to be a huge knowledge of PHP to get this done. I went through this tutorial, but it seems so daunting, because some of the stuff on there was not explained properly.
  11.  permalink
    Spyrte,

    Your homepage is just a flat HTML file right? There is no PHP, ASP, JSP, .NET, or any other technology gathering content from a database to compile your page correct?

    If so, you won't be able to include PHP on your homepage to pull in WP content. You're going to have to install WP on your server in a news or blog directory. Get the blog up and running and publishing content through an RSS feed. You can then skin the blog templates to match the look & feel of your existing website (use the tutorial you linked to to help you here--there are many others online; do a Google search).

    Once your blog is publishing a feed you can use some JavaScript to get the feed to appear on your static HTML page. Try the following services to get the JS code that you'll need to pull in the news feed:
    http://www.feeddigest.com/
    http://www.virtualnewsfeed.com/feed/

    Hopefully, that will set you on the correct course.
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      CommentAuthorSpyrte
    • CommentTimeFeb 21st 2007
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    Hi adjustafresh,

    I understand now, it's just the process of making the Wordpress theme. I have Wordpress installed onto my server already, it's just the matter of getting the Wordpress template done. I am not too good with PHP, and the tutorial that I linked to is throwing me off course (with the PHP parts). I will make another attempt. I will update you guys a little later on this.
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    You don't need plugins or javascript or even PHP knowledge. Everything you're trying to do can be accomplished with the newest version of WP, v2.1. It allows you to determine what the homepage displays (blog vs. static page) via a simple dropdown. Email me if you need further explanation.
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    Darren - you're missing the point.

    The original post in this thread states:

    does anyone think it is possible to use Wordpress as a CMS in an existing website (as a add-on feature) without having to design a completely new website (with a Wordpress template and all)?

    Spyrte is not building an entire website with WP on the back end as a CMS. Spyrte has already built a static HTML website and just wants WP to power a News section with the ability to display the latest news on the homepage.

    Are we all on the same page here?
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      CommentAuthorDarren Hoyt
    • CommentTimeFeb 22nd 2007 edited
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    I think we're just recommending two different solutions.

    It is feasible to: back up the current homepage, install WP in the root, skin the homepage/blog as you normally would but omit the php which outputs the entire post entry (<?php the_content('Read the rest of this entry;'); ?>) so that you just see headlines, and skin the 'single.php' file so you can go read the full news stories.

    Otherwise, you can leave the other secondary pages just as they are. Or if it's easier to edit in the future, migrate all that content into WP
    via the 'Pages' function. The former is not at all what I'd call 'having to completely design a new website' as spryte says. The latter is not what you said you were looking for, I'm just pointing out it's an option.

    You can surely pull those headlines in via RSS/XML-parsing, I'm just trying to suggest a comprehensive/scalable way to implement WP closer to the manner it was designed. Just another way of looking at it.
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      CommentAuthorSpyrte
    • CommentTimeFeb 22nd 2007
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    Hi,

    Thanks for your comments.

    "It is feasible to: back up the current homepage, install WP in the root, skin the homepage/blog as you normally would but omit the php which outputs the entire post entry (<?php the_content('Read the rest of this entry;'); ?>) so that you just see headlines, and skin the 'single.php' file so you can go read the full news stories."

    I think this is a good idea. I was trying to have the homepage show news articles that are posted (just the topics), and when the visitor clicks on them, it would send them to a individual page that would show them the news article.

    On the homepage at the moment, you can see that I have news topics up, but I need these to lead to full news articles on separate pages. I am guessing that Wordpress can handle this, but I am just a little confused as to how I would skin this, since this is not a normal layout for WP.

    Thanks again.

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