Add Wordpress to Dreamweaver site? Or start over? Or something else??
April 14, 2011 7:16 AM Subscribe
I built and maintain a fairly basic website for my daughter's nursery school, and I need to know the simplest way to integrate a blog feature (to be utilized by the teachers), as well as a way to allow the school's director to make updates from time to time to a particular page of content without having to teach any of them how to use Dreamweaver CS4 (this is key), which I use to maintain the site. I am by my own admission more of a designer than a coder (the technical stuff is not my strong suit), and on top of this I have a pretty limited time frame in which to accomplish this. Other than hiring someone else to do it for me, can anyone offer suggestions? I thought about using Wordpress - either integrating it into the site as is, or starting over and rebuilding the site in Wordpress. But I haven't come to any conclusions yet (obviously!).
If it was me, I would re-do it in WordPress (but then again, i'm relatively familiar with it). It's really not too bad unless you need to do something complicated. Some hosts (GoDaddy for example) offer guided WordPress installations. All you have to then is choose a customizable theme, enter some content, get a few plugins (I can recommend a few), and you're good. Then you give them Editor accounts so they don't go messing about with settings and you're good.
MeFi Mail me if you need more specific advice.
posted by pyro979 at 7:39 AM on April 14, 2011
MeFi Mail me if you need more specific advice.
posted by pyro979 at 7:39 AM on April 14, 2011
You might look into CushyCMS. Short version: you define some tag classes in the HTML, and tell Cushy which pages it can edit, then it logs into your site with FTP, downloads the files, lets people edit those very specific tags, puts them in place, and re-uploads them to your server.
I think you have to pay for the version that will let you do a blog-like thing, but this requires almost no coding on your part, and Cushy handles user logins, security, and so on.
In terms of speed, this is probably your best bet, as creating a new wordpress theme (especially if you want to replicate the existing look of a website) can be quite a bear the first couple of times you try it.
posted by toomuchpete at 7:52 AM on April 14, 2011
I think you have to pay for the version that will let you do a blog-like thing, but this requires almost no coding on your part, and Cushy handles user logins, security, and so on.
In terms of speed, this is probably your best bet, as creating a new wordpress theme (especially if you want to replicate the existing look of a website) can be quite a bear the first couple of times you try it.
posted by toomuchpete at 7:52 AM on April 14, 2011
I would start over in Wordpress. If you've got static pages now, then bringing them into Wordpress makes them editable through the admin interface, which is a bonus.
I used to run a super-simple website that used some PHP includes. However, because I suck at PHP, I was creating a backdoor to hackers. I wound up reimplementing the site in Wordpress and haven't had any trouble since.
It shouldn't be too hard to take a starter theme and adapt it to resemble your current website, although you may want to use the opportunity to update things a little.
posted by adamrice at 8:01 AM on April 14, 2011
I used to run a super-simple website that used some PHP includes. However, because I suck at PHP, I was creating a backdoor to hackers. I wound up reimplementing the site in Wordpress and haven't had any trouble since.
It shouldn't be too hard to take a starter theme and adapt it to resemble your current website, although you may want to use the opportunity to update things a little.
posted by adamrice at 8:01 AM on April 14, 2011
I'd move it over to Wordpress too. There are a ton of nice themes out there, so you're bound to find one similar to what you want.
posted by backwards guitar at 8:26 AM on April 14, 2011
posted by backwards guitar at 8:26 AM on April 14, 2011
To elaborate on my suggestion against WordPress in this particular instance: I love WordPress. I use it every chance I have and I think it's fantastic. If you have a bit of time, a conversion is probably a good idea, provided you also have time to maintain a WordPress installation, which involves making sure your site is 100% up to date at all times because blog spammers LOVE to hop on the latest vulnerabilities and cover a blog with ads. The updating is pretty easy most of the time, it's just a matter of remembering to do it.
However: WordPress theme creation is not the most intuitive of endeavors, and there's a level of PHP knowledge that, while it isn't mandatory, lacking it will make this job 10x as hard as it might otherwise be. There are also lots of quirks and tricks that people pick up quickly and never think about again, but they tend to forget that the first time they made a WordPress theme there were all sorts of rabbit holes and other gigantic time-sucks.
It's a great skill to have, and it'll serve you well if you do website design regularly because WordPress is a great platform. If you have experience skinning other CMSes or experience with PHP generally it might not be too bad.
But I would advise against trying to combine a tight deadline with your first time developing a WordPress theme, especially if that theme needs to look exactly like something that already exists, and also especially if you aren't confident in your PHP coding skills. That's the recipe for some really late, frustrating nights because something just doesn't work when you really think it ought to.
posted by toomuchpete at 8:31 AM on April 14, 2011
However: WordPress theme creation is not the most intuitive of endeavors, and there's a level of PHP knowledge that, while it isn't mandatory, lacking it will make this job 10x as hard as it might otherwise be. There are also lots of quirks and tricks that people pick up quickly and never think about again, but they tend to forget that the first time they made a WordPress theme there were all sorts of rabbit holes and other gigantic time-sucks.
It's a great skill to have, and it'll serve you well if you do website design regularly because WordPress is a great platform. If you have experience skinning other CMSes or experience with PHP generally it might not be too bad.
But I would advise against trying to combine a tight deadline with your first time developing a WordPress theme, especially if that theme needs to look exactly like something that already exists, and also especially if you aren't confident in your PHP coding skills. That's the recipe for some really late, frustrating nights because something just doesn't work when you really think it ought to.
posted by toomuchpete at 8:31 AM on April 14, 2011
Response by poster: Hmm...I will say that it's not critical that the site look exactly like the current one, so that doesn't concern me. I pretty much have license to design it as I see fit, within reason.
The deadline is more a result of my lifestyle -- I'm doing this as a volunteer, and I don't have the luxury of spending significant chunks of time working on it, therefore I'd love if the simplest, quickest solution is the best. That said, if starting over in Wordpress is by far the most logical answer and will be more user-friendly and time-saving in the long run, then I'll just find the time to do it.
toomuchpete - I appreciate your feedback and your warnings. I'm going to look into both Cushy and Blosxom and see if they are a viable solutions.
posted by missuswayne at 8:50 AM on April 14, 2011
The deadline is more a result of my lifestyle -- I'm doing this as a volunteer, and I don't have the luxury of spending significant chunks of time working on it, therefore I'd love if the simplest, quickest solution is the best. That said, if starting over in Wordpress is by far the most logical answer and will be more user-friendly and time-saving in the long run, then I'll just find the time to do it.
toomuchpete - I appreciate your feedback and your warnings. I'm going to look into both Cushy and Blosxom and see if they are a viable solutions.
posted by missuswayne at 8:50 AM on April 14, 2011
Seconding WordPress, although I might try to rope a second volunteer to train the blogging teachers how to navigate the backend for blogging purposes. Better yet, if one of the teachers is tech savvy, maybe they can train the others during PD time?
Google Sites can also do these things more easily and in a less intimidating fashion, but it's pretty fugly.
posted by smirkette at 8:51 AM on April 14, 2011
Google Sites can also do these things more easily and in a less intimidating fashion, but it's pretty fugly.
posted by smirkette at 8:51 AM on April 14, 2011
nthing wordpress.
It is easy to setup, you can add features like short polls, feedback forms etc later through plug-ins, very stable and secure and lots of great themes.
You can also make the home page static which is great in such cases.
For blogging, wordpress allows posts to be emailed to a specific email id - this can be useful for teachers who don't want to use the wordpress dashboard, easy as it is.
Mefi mail me if you want any info/help about specific things.
posted by theobserver at 10:57 AM on April 14, 2011
It is easy to setup, you can add features like short polls, feedback forms etc later through plug-ins, very stable and secure and lots of great themes.
You can also make the home page static which is great in such cases.
For blogging, wordpress allows posts to be emailed to a specific email id - this can be useful for teachers who don't want to use the wordpress dashboard, easy as it is.
Mefi mail me if you want any info/help about specific things.
posted by theobserver at 10:57 AM on April 14, 2011
Response by poster: I'm attempting to install Wordpress at the moment...I'm finding it a bit confusing. I'm so used to using a WYSIWYG editor, and the WP setup is a bit out of my comfort zone, although the documentation seems very thorough. It's just a language I'm not used to. I'm going to see if I can get it to work.
Umm...here's a dumb question. We're using Web.com as our host. I'm on an iMac running Snow Leopard. I've set up a database through Web.com and designated a user and password...so am I correct in assuming that I'm going to be running Wordpress locally on my Mac and uploading my stuff via FTP to my host? Am I bypassing Dreamweaver altogether? If so, does this mean I have to install PHP and ...whatever else separately on my Mac?
Pardon my ignorance. I have serious Mommy Brain. :)
posted by missuswayne at 11:43 AM on April 14, 2011
Umm...here's a dumb question. We're using Web.com as our host. I'm on an iMac running Snow Leopard. I've set up a database through Web.com and designated a user and password...so am I correct in assuming that I'm going to be running Wordpress locally on my Mac and uploading my stuff via FTP to my host? Am I bypassing Dreamweaver altogether? If so, does this mean I have to install PHP and ...whatever else separately on my Mac?
Pardon my ignorance. I have serious Mommy Brain. :)
posted by missuswayne at 11:43 AM on April 14, 2011
No. Everything lives on your website, and Dreamweaver isn't involved whatsoever.
1. You upload WP to whatever directory on your server you're going to use.
2. You create a MySQL database on your server
OR
web.com most likely has some kind of site-administrator's web interface like Cpanel/Fantastico that gives you one-click install of WP, which takes care of the above two steps for you.
Then you go to a special setup URL, and your WP install walks you through some initial configuration stuff. Then your site is live for all the world to see.
Now, all that said, you can run WP locally on your Mac. That's actually the best way to do theme development, in fact, and the easiest way is using MAMP. But it's not accessible to the wider world when you do that (unless you go to some amount of trouble to get a static IP and direct your domain name to that, or use DynDNS, things like that)—it's just for your personal consumption.
posted by adamrice at 12:43 PM on April 14, 2011
1. You upload WP to whatever directory on your server you're going to use.
2. You create a MySQL database on your server
OR
web.com most likely has some kind of site-administrator's web interface like Cpanel/Fantastico that gives you one-click install of WP, which takes care of the above two steps for you.
Then you go to a special setup URL, and your WP install walks you through some initial configuration stuff. Then your site is live for all the world to see.
Now, all that said, you can run WP locally on your Mac. That's actually the best way to do theme development, in fact, and the easiest way is using MAMP. But it's not accessible to the wider world when you do that (unless you go to some amount of trouble to get a static IP and direct your domain name to that, or use DynDNS, things like that)—it's just for your personal consumption.
posted by adamrice at 12:43 PM on April 14, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by mkb at 7:18 AM on April 14, 2011