How cool can Wordpress get?

August 18, 2009 1:43 PM

What is the coolest thing you have seen/done using Wordpress. Special relevance to a corporate website. Can I get it to do cool stuff for me like IP filtering and more?

I am not a web developer or a designer but am willing to read and learn and any help will be appreciated.

The site itself will be hosted as a wordpress theme and the client will use it for updating it (CMS). What I was wondering was if there are any nice plugins/tricks which would allow us to do some of the following cool things:

1. Embed Google documents which can be shared either the whole world or in a password protected section (particularly interested in presentations and spreadsheets)

2. Can we present a different set of pages to visitors from different part of the world based on their IP addresses?

3. We are planning to use Dreamhost as our web host - any good or bad experiences with Wordpress/plugins?

4. Can we backdate postings in our press release section?

posted by london302 to computers & internet (6 comments total)

What is "cool"?

As for your specific questions:

1. I've seen people embed Google docs in their WordPress blogs. I don't think this is especially difficult. In fact, I don't think it's a WordPress thing, but a functionality provided from directly within Google Docs.

2. I think you can filter based on IP, but that it's something that you'd need to do at the server level, not from within WordPress. You might use WordPress to construct a set of pages for one region and a different set for another region, but I think the actual filtering would be done through Apache. (Or whatever -- I'm only mildly techie...)

3. Dreamhost will auto-install the latest version of WordPress for you. It's pretty much like using WP on any other site. The only caveat I can provide is that Dreamhost is pretty lax regarding security, at least in comparison to the other host I've used. That is, the host for my main blog took a very proactive security stance and kept things battened down tight. Dreamhost keeps things a little loose and expects users to screw things down tighter if that's their preference. If you set up WP with them, I'd submit a ticket asking what you can do to implement added protection against hackers. (I say this as somebody who had a blog effectively nuked due to DH's lax security, and then had them say, "Meh. Nothing we can do. Sorry.")

4. Yes, you can backdate postings in your press release section. You can give them whatever date you want.

Again, I'm not really sure what you mean by cool, but I hope these answers to your specific questions help.
posted by jdroth at 2:16 PM on August 18

1. Probably. (see also) (password see also)
2. Yes, although this would require some theme customization (most likely in the header.php file). You have to detect ip by php, then look up the country based on ip.
3. I like dreamhost just fine. Sometimes you get put on a bad server but their tech support people are way above par compared to other cheap shared hosting.
4. Yes. You can backdate any post on WP.
posted by shownomercy at 2:24 PM on August 18

2. The Country Filter plugin seems to do what you want.
posted by Memo at 2:27 PM on August 18

Thanks for all the responses above. More plugin tips are welcome.

@jdroth: to a non tech like me all the things you have said sound very cool. thanks
posted by london302 at 3:12 PM on August 18

I was a bit surprised when, on closer look, it dawned on me that JesseJoyce.com uses Wordpress.
posted by geekyguy at 6:10 PM on August 18

Here are the answers to your questions (based on my experience):

1. It should be pretty easy to do this. I’ve seen a number of presentations and documents embedded directly into posts using Google Docs.

2. This is more of a server level thing than it is a WordPress thing. You can have localized versions of your site using WordPress and different pages to serve as different landing pages for visitors from different countries, but the actual redirection is done mostly at a server level.

3. Dreamhost has a pretty good reputation and WordPress definitely works well with Dreamhost. What web host is the best depends on your need, so take the time to compare Dreamhost to other hosts like Bluehost, Media Temple, HostGator, etc.

4. You can backup your entire WordPress blog either using your control panel, an SQL and file export, or a WordPress automatic backup plugin.

If you have any other questions, feel free to post and I'll do my best to help out :)
posted by douglashanna at 2:24 PM on August 22