Creative Plan of Attack. Is WordPress Worthy?

  • Jk

    19 years, 7 months ago

    Ok. So I’ve got WP up and running and have got some great help from people here (thanks a lot!).
    However, I’m trying to expound upon my initial idea a bit and find that I’m floundering a little as I’ve been out of the “web design” loop for a bit, not that I’ve ever been a real or true web designer. Anyway, I’m hoping people might have some good ideas how to attack this.
    So, a little history, I’ve had a site, in it’s various iterations ,to mainly showcase my music for some time now. However, I’ve always used tables and such to split things up which resulted in major pains when I decided upon a site revamp or even just wanted to add some news to the front page. Enter WordPress, CSS, PHP, etc. I love the “dynamic” factor of being able to edit a few lines in a CSS file and voila! redesign! And also obviously being able to “blog” an update as quick as I can type out what I want to say.
    So, great so far, but here’s where I’m stuck. I have four other pages that I want to incorporate into this “on the fly” format somehow. Specifically, a page that will highlight my musical exploits, one that will show case my photo work, another with bio info, and finally a contact form. The contact form and bio is pretty easy to some extent, I mean they’re static/unchanging pages so not a major brain drain there really. So I guess that really leaves two pages that I want to be “on the fly”.
    Would making two more “blogs” make sense? I’ve read up on how to use more than one install on the same db, and I have 7 years background in IT so I’m not totally lost in that aspect even if PHP and CSS is a bit “new” to my skillset. I pick things up pretty quick, but honestly I don’t have a ton of time to lend to a full education in all things PHP and CSS – it’s more likely to be something that will happen as time allows – and I’d like to get moving on a redesign without too much headache.
    My thinking is that I’d like people to be able to comment on various songs that I release, and possibly the photos as well and have them presented in a pleasing and easily accessible format. I’d also like to be able to upload them and have them “formatted” into the design with minimal hassle, similar to entering a blog entry. So, in that sense the extra blogs make sense. But, then I wonder if I’m going about it the right away.
    I guess you could say that I’m looking for some creative ideas to muse on. Any thoughts?
    Thanks in advance,
    Jk

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
  • Mark Jaquith

    (@markjaquith)

    19 years, 7 months ago

    You could create a “music” category and a “photography” category and then keep those categories from displaying on the main blog, and only show those categories on the Music and Photography pages.

    Thread Starter Anonymous

    19 years, 7 months ago

    Hmmm. I’m not so into the categories thing. I’ve taken the menu completely off of my site in fact. But maybe I just don’t understand it completely.
    I’ve already taken out the main header and put my own in instead. So navigation is handled. I guess I’m more interested in the “back end”.

    moshu

    (@moshu)

    19 years, 7 months ago

    You have two choices: the categories suggested above by mark, or… the categories 🙂
    Of course, if you want to double your troubles, yes, you can install 2 blogs.
    Seriously, the fact that you took off the menu has nothing to do how the categories work.

    Thread Starter Anonymous

    19 years, 7 months ago

    Ok. Maybe I need to look into them some more then.
    Brief synopsis on their function other than organizing blog entries?

    Root

    (@root)

    19 years, 7 months ago

    Categories are similar for the want of a better comparison to pages. If you click on a category a *page* comes up with everything in that cat. For you it is ideal.

    1539

    19 years, 7 months ago

    Or.. you can do what I did with my website. Some PHP allowed me to create my own pages still using index.php by modifying it, gutting most of the original index.php, moving it two 2 seperate files, then calling them as conditional ‘require’s. Let me know if you’re interested.
    Also, in 1.3 it looks like they plan to implement static pages createable via the WP admin menu, which might suit you better.

    Thread Starter Anonymous

    19 years, 7 months ago

    Sorry for being a bit of a noob, but I”m still not quite getting how categories are an advantage over just doing a multi-blog / single install.

    moshu

    (@moshu)

    19 years, 7 months ago

    WP is not a multiblog software – yet! 🙂
    So it would be not a single install but multiple install.

    Thread Starter Anonymous

    19 years, 7 months ago

    Well, I’ve found some hacks to remedy that, but I’m still not quite clear on how categories would help me though.

    Mark McKibben

    (@manzabar)

    19 years, 7 months ago

    If you use multiple installs of WP to get your seperate pages; that introduces:

    • Multiple usercodes/passwords that you have to remember.
    • You’ll have to log into those other blogs seperately to update those areas.
    • Depending on how you setup those other blogs (database-wise), your web host might want to charge you more for having additional mysql databases.
    • Multiple blog installs will eat up more of your server space.

    OTOH, if you keep everything in one install of WP and just using seperate categories:

    • You can login once and be able to edit any of your pages
    • You minimize the amount of server space used by your blogging software and will have more space for photos, music files and what not.

    You mentioned above that you removed the categories from your main page and setup your own navigation links. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing that, but it doesn’t mean categories have been completely stripped out of WP. It just means that visitors to your site won’t see them as a link on your page. You can still use them to organize your content; e.g. setup seperate pages for music downloads, concert photos, etc… and have seperate pages that only show the specific category you want.

    Thread Starter Anonymous

    19 years, 7 months ago

    I see. Thanks for the breakdown. I’ll do some more digging then . . .

    clay

    (@clay)

    19 years, 7 months ago

    No need for multiple installs to do what you want
    Check out my site- I suspect it is exactly what you are talking about

    Thread Starter Anonymous

    19 years, 7 months ago

    Yeah, kinda actually. Not to be a total dunce, but I”m still not totally clear on the categories thing. . .
    Here’s what I envision from what I understand though.
    @ http://tekmonki.com I’ve just posted a picture that I took a little while ago. So while that post would appear on the main page, it would also show up on the photos page in the context of >>Images > NYC along with the other photos . . .some how.
    The same would occur for new songs that I post. A little “news” blurb about it, but then clicking a link in the post or the category link above it would take you to the music page where you could download it along with my other songs.
    Also, (and I’m sort of asking here), I would modify my header links to go the categories instead of static php pages, and somehow those pages would only show the chosen category.
    How do I even attack this? I almost comprehend it, but not quite enough. I know enough to be dangerous I think.

    Thread Starter Anonymous

    19 years, 7 months ago

    shhhhhhh’bump/

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
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