Creating static site – Category or Menu, Pages or posts?

  • laurentlanglais

    (@laurentlanglais)


    13 years, 2 months ago

    Hi everyone
    I am new to WP, and not very gifted with coding.
    I have rewritten my website and I am now trying to build an architecture in WP on locahost.Dunno which decision to make…
    Basically I want an horizontal meny with a few general sections: Home, Contact, company profile etc.
    So I’ve decided to create a few static pages for this. It works.

    Then I went a vertical “menu” on the left side with all my articles. They are 5 main sections, and then maybe 10 or 15 articles on different topics inside the sections.

    Problem is, how to achieve that?

    1.First option is to create each article as a page: but menu cannot include pages (how prfound is that!) so dunno how to organize them vertically. I could do a general page as a “menu”, and subpages as articles. However if I do that every created page also show in the horizontal menu on top!
    So if there is a simple plugin/widget or code to have those pages only in a vertical “menu” (even if it cannot be a “menu” as I understand menu cannot have pages) on the side, and nowhere else, I would gladly choose this option.

    2.Second option is to create each article as a post, with no date, comment, etc so it looks more static. Then each post in a category, and each category in the vertical menu. But is it the best way to build a static site, or should I stick to page only?

    Also I dunno if this second option works because depite my efforts I was not able to have my permalinks work on locahost – and I’ve done everything I could think off, rewrite mod, htaccess etc.

    So dunno which was is best to have such architecture and I would greatly appreciate your help guys, I am banging my head on walls now!
    Cheers

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Samuel B

    (@samboll)

    13 years, 2 months ago

    my question would be – why not use the post function for “articles”. it seems that would be a simple solution for what you want to achieve. a static site with a blog page is not uncommon
    read this section
    http://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_a_Static_Front_Page

    as for your permalinks on localhost
    find the folders, then file Xampplite > apache > Conf and find the file httpd.conf. Open that in a text editor. Use the search facility in the editor to find “rewrite”. The line you need looks like this:

    `#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

    You need to take away the hash sign so it looks like this

    LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so`

    Now just save the file.

    Thread Starter laurentlanglais

    (@laurentlanglais)

    13 years, 2 months ago

    Hi Samuel
    Thanks for your input.
    For the permalink, I have already done such modifications and they still don’t worl. Apache does not create a .htaccess file on localhost, so apparently despite the modif. the rewrite is not working. Hard to test a site if the links are not working!
    For the post/page, I understand the logic, but not how it will be organize. Will such posts, that look like page, be organized in categorie then menu – so vertically as I want, and regular pages only show in the horizontal menu? If so that would work for me…
    However I really need to solve the permalink problem to see how it looks like…

    Thanls a lot for your help!

    Samuel B

    (@samboll)

    13 years, 2 months ago

    Apache does not create a .htaccess file on localhost

    create your own then
    http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks#Creating_and_editing_.28.htaccess.29
    when you try to save permalinks other than default, there should be code to put in the .htaccess at the bottom of the page

    you can certainly put the articles in categories (I would do this regardless) and list the categories in a widget in the sidebar
    or list recent or popular articles in a list with a widget in the sidebar
    many options

    Thread Starter laurentlanglais

    (@laurentlanglais)

    13 years, 2 months ago

    Ah dear Samuel I should have been more precise.
    I have already done everything listed in this article, including creating such .htaccess and it didn’t solve the problem. Dunno what to do about it anymore…
    Maybe I should move the whole Wamp folder from C:/ to another hard drive so there would be no conflict of writing permission etc. It seems that everytime I set up the whole folder as “writeable” it comes back to read only afterward.
    Sorry for those silly questions it is really not my primary field and I suffer, I think you can tell 🙂

    As for the articles I am seing the light but still want what it looks like in “live”, and can’t at the moment, vey frustatring!
    What is the point of a MENU if it cannot include pages? This concept or the terminology in WP is quite confusing to me. Logically I would have created articles as pages and then organize the pages in menus, one vertical, one horizontal. The fact that menus cannot include pages is quite confusing! (at least to me!).

    Samuel B

    (@samboll)

    13 years, 2 months ago

    you can list pages in a widget in the sidebar, also

    Thread Starter laurentlanglais

    (@laurentlanglais)

    13 years, 2 months ago

    Ah ok brilliant!
    If I do so, do you know if the pages created will also show in the horizontal section as well? As now, everytime I create a page, it is automically added in the horizontal section and mess up the initial 5 pages I’ve set up in this location (Home page, contact page etc.). It does this with every theme 🙁
    Just have to sort out the permalink problem now…
    I will start another topic on this matter only I guess, thanks a lot for your help!

    Samuel B

    (@samboll)

    13 years, 2 months ago

    you can decide which pages show up in menus with this plugin
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exclude-pages/

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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