WordPress.org

1. thorshammer
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I cut my teeth on DRUPAL (regarding CMS) and have grown to like it personally. (And I can hack code as needed, to adapt themes etc.)

   Am learning WordPress now because one of it's advantages is a more "word-processor-like" interface for creating and changing pages - much more approachable for my clients.

   So now as I learn WP, I'm looking for some "equivalents" if they exist. Drupal has BLOCKS that can added or modified, to change page layouts (regions) from Admin interface instead of under-the-hood. Does WP have something like that?

   Also looking for how to turn on / off things like site slogan, Logo link and so forth. So far I've only found the Dashboard page to change texts there, not to disable (or adjust position etc.). Can someone point me in the right direction? I'd prefer starting in Admin (Dashboard) before going to the CSS and PHP. Thanks so much for the help!

2. Christine
   Moderator
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Most of the changes you can make are in the admin > settings and then you also have lots of choices in the appearance > widgets and menus, but these latter changes will depend on what theme you are working with.

   Most of the work done with WordPress is with the theme itself.

3. Chelsea Otakan
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   An equivalent to blocks can be achieved by using a combination of custom page templates and custom metaboxes.

4. thorshammer
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Most of the work done with WordPress is with the theme itself.

   Thanks Christine (you are a prolific poster, and god bless you for it :o). Sounds like I've hit one of the first trade-offs in the reverse direction, coming from DRUPAL. The Admin section seems much more robust over there, less work to do at the theme level... while the themes themselves potentially offer a bunch more (standardized) configurable options before one has to resort to "custom page templates" or such. Though in all fairness, I've not yet plumbed the depths of WP themes at all.

   An equivalent to blocks can be achieved by using a combination of custom page templates and custom metaboxes.

   And thanks chexee. Doesn't sound like an equivalent though - BLOCKS are created and managed from admin. I want to find out what I can do BEFORE I get under the hood...

5. julio5
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Drupal to WordPress is a very huge and hard work, there are ton of different between this too CMS, I am suggesting to ask professional developers to do it, I tried this one, they are working very fast ( 1 hour ) and result is perfect.

6. thorshammer
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Thanks Julio5.
   Since posting a few weeks ago, I've come to the conclusion it's simply not worth the digging to find the various ways that WordPress Admin does the things I'm accustomed to doing in DRUPAL Admin.

   Soooo... I just went under the hood after all, adapting the php and css for the theme and it's all worked out fine. My first WordPress website:
   BlueBlueberry Company.

   In the meantime I've also started tapping into the plugins for WP - they're great! Like the photo gallery on that website... easy peasy.

7. SharonEJ
   Member
   Posted 9 months ago #

   thorshammer, I almost exclusively use the Atahualpa theme for WordPress. It has over 300 things you can do to personalize your site and it has an incredible support forum at http://www.bytesforall.com

   The moderators there are very knowledgeable and friendly. I very seldom use anything else.

8. thorshammer
   Member
   Posted 9 months ago #

   And oldie but goodie. Thanks SharonEJ.
   I'm coming to see how important it is to start with a truly flexible theme (like the ZEN template in DRUPAL - starts with virtually no pre-determined layout, just a good start and with sub-templates to get you moving in the preferred direction).

   I will give Atahualpa a tire-kicking. 0-4 columns sounds great, create custom widget areas even better. How is it for menu support? Does it include a main JS (drop-down) menu? Multiple menus? I'm always creating websites with several pages that have sub-pages - and thus need unique sub-menus, preferably broken out from the main menu.

   BTW> I clicked your support forum link above and only a got the beginner HELLO WORLD! welcome page for BytesForAll.

   OMG! I just saw a sidebar discussion on that theme page, about a WP Spry Menu widget. I really like SPRY!

9. SharonEJ
   Member
   Posted 9 months ago #

   I have not used SPRY, so I cannot say anything about that, but Atahualpa has drop down menus, more than one menu area, multiple widget areas, incredible support and I love it. Try this:

   http://forum.bytesforall.com/

   Duh. Sorry I sent you the wrong link.

   Is SPRY hard to learn?? I suppose it is all relative.

10. thorshammer
    Member
    Posted 9 months ago #

    Yep, it is indeed all relative Sharon.
    I took to SPRY quite readily - I think I was in that head-space at the time, and while I don't really write JS code from scratch much I have adequate skills at adapting it. And that's all that SPRY requires. Mind you I downloaded the orig. library from ADOBE, read the doc and looked through the (copious) libraries attached. SPRY can do a bunch of neat things, like the accordion-fold links and the galleries I used here:
    http://www.asgardforge.com/web-design/web-design-company/new-client
    - mid-page are the accordion-fold links
    - inside that first "FOUNDATION" link is a popup gallery that is also SPRY

    Thanks for the corrected forum link, that's more like it. Looks plenty meaty!

    Looking forward to checking out Atahualpa on my soon-to-start next website project! This one needs to be the best website I've done so far...

11. SharonEJ
    Member
    Posted 9 months ago #

    Good luck with the new WordPress site! I like Asgard Forge, too. It is different. Nice and kind of pagan.

    I have spent the evening doing Spry tutorials. Very cool, although why I would want disappearing divs when I click buttons is still a mystery.

    I have signed up to this guy. He has a lot of tutorials.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qERF3P64WX8&NR=1

    Here are some links to Atahualpa Sites I have done. If you want names of great plug-ins just ask
    http://www.ecodepotfacts.com A site fighting against the local government
    http://www.richardhughes.ca A Canadain political blogger
    http://www.bookworldexpress.com A literary events site
    http://www.gelinascarr.com A furniture site

12. thorshammer
    Member
    Posted 9 months ago #

    Thanks Sharon for the well wishes, and the link.

    hint: the SPRY accordion-links is like one's bedroom. If one likes keeping things clean and tidy by using clothes drawers, SPRY's for you. (It even closes the last drawer when you open another.) If like my daughter you prefer to keep all your clothes out on the floor, bed and shelves, well what IS the point to div's that close?? >.<

    Now it's my turn: why I would want a thumbnail to expand across a page is a mystery. (Lightbox anyone? :o)

13. SharonEJ
    Member
    Posted 9 months ago #

    OK. I get it about the disappearing divs. I was not thinking of your accordion menu but this video
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuOxSeo7qaY
    The presenter is excellent but the example he uses is so lame as there is a giant white space where the (dis)appearing text is and because of the example I cannot tell if they collapse or just keep a big white space.

    Where did you find your accordion menu code or did you write it yourself?

    The expanding thumbnail might be in lieu of lightbox. I like lightbox, and it is clean and classy, but everyone and their dog uses it, it might be fun to see if this would work with a number of photos or if it would blow the page apart if you had more than one.

    WP Plug-ins I recommend:

    Calendar by Kieran O'shea...places a calendar on a page http://www.kieranoshea.com/calendar

    Event Calendar 3 for PHP 5.3 I like this one better. It is smaller, used in a widget in the sidebar. use with Event Calendar 3 for PHP 5.3 Widget

    Log-in with Ajax- Ajax driven login widget. Customisable from within your template folder, and advanced settings from the admin area.

    Member Access- Member Access is a WordPress plugin that allows an administrator to require that users be logged-in in order to view certain posts and pages.

    Akismet along with Bad Behaviour for spam and harvesters

    SI CAPTCHA anti-spam (though Akismet and BB catch everything)

    Fast Secure Contact Form

    Contact Reply Notification

    Headspace2 for seo

    Live Countdown Timer if you need a countdown calendar to an event

    Lightbox Plus

    News Announcement Scroll

    Share This- for the bottom of blogs

    Simple Page Ordering- drag and drop page ordering

    WP-Polls. Quite sophisticated plugin that works in a widget on your sidebar. Will track by cookie and IP address so voters can only do so once.

    Continuous Announcement Scroller (similar to News)

    Capability Manager: If you have several people working on website and you want to control what they are able to do. Alter text, create new pages etc.

    And my secret weapon: Add from Server. Everytime you upload a photo from your computer to WordPress, it uploads 4-5 versions. A thumbnail, small, medium, large, original size. If you have someone who blogs every day and uploads 1-2 photos per blog, in a very short period of time, you will be using up huge amounts of storage space for crap you are not even using. With FTP create a folder off the root called images or whatever. Tell Add from Server where you are storing the photos that you FTP. Then when you insert photos you have the option to Add from Server. It only uploads ONE version.

    Best wishes for the future. I have done about probably 60 or more wordpress sites and I have always appreciated the help others have given me. I am glad to pay back by helping other people.

    p.s. tell your daughter about carpet beetles. Maybe she will keep her clothes off the floor.

14. thorshammer
    Member
    Posted 9 months ago #

    The major drawback to the expanding thumbnail is that it is ON-PAGE. This poses unnecessary challenges to the page set-up. The page holding it must be able to move out of the way - no problem for your average blog-style page with no significant on-page formatting, where everything can just slide on down. (But then, blog pages formatting is uncreative by nature, why would anyone want the thumbnail trick there?) On other more creative types of pages, this adds work to accommodate that. For example, a page where having a little thumbnail sitting all by itself at the top (or wherever) dilutes the page's visual style. Why bother, when off-page solutions require no on-page wangling? But you're right, everyone and his dog is light-boxing. Fortunately there's some variety there and some of them are classy as you say. And the thumbnail could indeed be fun to play around with - but again, there are lightboxes that do virtaully the same thing as that expanding thumbnail - just off-page. Like my daughters' bigCartel shopping cart:
    http://www.vivaciousapparel.bigcartel.com/product/anti-christ-v-neck
    That's a very good one, I need to get hold of THAT code! :o)

15. SharonEJ
    Member
    Posted 9 months ago #

    Her clothes are great. I would look like crap in them but I particularly like the antichrist tshirt. Hilarious. Fag Wizards I do know are actually large men so cannot drum up any sales there!!

    I agree with you about the thumbnail. I probably do not have the time to dick around with little thumbnails, I have enough work on my plate. But I will continue to look for neat Spry effects

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