Everything is running fine...now what do I do? The docs kinda leave you off after installation...then there is the explanation of the Templates and Tags. But it doesn't explain what they are used for...exactly??
Is it supposed to be assumed that I can insert any of the "tags" into any document whose root is the WP root, which will then enable that document to use WP? If I could view the source of some of the documents that everyone passes about on the "Your WordPress" forum it would be very helpful. I learn best by example (as I believe do most people).
PHP has a fine function to easilydisplay your code:
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.highlight-file.php
OK, its running, now what? (17 posts)
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Anonymous
Posted 7 years ago # -
Just about everything you need to get started can be found here: http://codex.wordpress.org/ and here: http://wiki.wordpress.org/
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Posted 7 years ago #Sorry, but I have looked and the answers to my questions (as in my original post) are not in the docs or the wiki...
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Mark (podz)
Posted 7 years ago #Anon - Could you clarify what it is you want to do ?
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Posted 7 years ago #Well I guess I haven't presented myself well...sorry (but no need to 'sigh", it's condescending)...
First let me say that my purpose in using WordPress is to add a blog to a my own unique (in design) website. From what I have seen as linked examples this is possible. But what I am unclear about is how to accomplish that. I see how I can “fiddle� with the default index.php to customize it. What is lacking in the documentation is a transition from installation to the use of Tags and the manipulation of the underlying CSS. What do you do (exactly) after you install WP?
I am an intermediate PHP programmer with good HTML and CSS skills. I write my source using the text editor jEdit running under Gentoo Linux, so it would seem that I may know a little about the web, among other things. I've written help documentation myself, including a 150 page research paper for my Master's degree which explains (documents) a cost model for OpenSource Total Cost of Ownership, so I know the 'flow'. And, I've worked on an end-user support help desk...that should explain my affinity for 'everything documented'. I could eventually figure it out, but I would also think that it should be easier. I'm not asking to be 'spoon-fed', 'jumpstart' is a better word.
The help with Tags, Templates, CSS, etc. appears to be very good. And the user supplied links to help are ...well, helpful. What is missing is the connection between installing WP and what to do with these Tags? What are they for? Simply explaining what they do is not enough.
Think of a car:
You can document what a fuel injector is and what it does, but without any knowledge of how it fits into a car, or why it is needed at all, or what is required to install it including 'dependencies'...the fuel injector docs are not so helpful. They need to show a connection to the whole no matter how good they are alone.
Like I said I could (and probably will) understand it mostly on my own.
So then my questions are (as if I haven't littered this post with questions already):
How do I go about adding WP to my website? Do I need to use the WP CSS? If so do I need all of it? Do all pages that access the WP functionality need to reside within the WP directory. I am assuming that any pages that use WP functions need a 'require_once' statement...is anything else mandatory?
A simple help topic on 'the minimum requirements for using you own HTML and CSS' would be very helpful! With source code, of course.
You see, if I stick with the default design I could be up and running very quickly. I want more, but I think others do, too. I can't believe that I am the only one who has asked these questions? Now here is the proper place for a sigh... -
Oh! I get it, you want The Loop. The Loop is the code which displays your WP posts. http://wiki.wordpress.org/TheLoop I hope that's what you're looking for!
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Posted 7 years ago #How do I go about adding WP to my website?
- If you want WP to be a 'complete' blog, then it will have to be added and used as it comes out of the box pretty much, though you can install WP in one directory, but use it from another:
http://wordpress.org/docs/installation/different-address/
- If you just want the 'engine' that drives the entries, then you need The Loop as referenced above.
Do I need to use the WP CSS?
No.
What you will need to do though is check how the output is formatted, and create your own CSS for your purpose.
Do all pages that access the WP functionality need to reside within the WP directory ?
No.
However, if you are pulling functions, you will need to include the file 'wp-blog-header.php' file on each and every page that you want a function on. Those pages will obviously have to have the .php extension. It's at the very top of index.php
I do know what you mean about docs, and there is - and has been for months - an effort to create them. What's difficult is knowing where to start, where to pitch the knowledge (we have people using WP who have never blogged before, right up to people who probably read php.net for enjoyment).
Please do ask as much as you need to, and if my answers need clarifying, fire away :) -
rickb
Posted 7 years ago #Thanks,
I learned something here, too. As another new user I was wondering about much the same things. This topic must have answered the questions of others, also, look at the Views count. Well, at least it piqued their interest!
If you need help with the docs, maybe we could all meet in Las Vegas and hash things out. I have some decent writing skills and a need to get back to Vegas!
Rick B -
Posted 7 years ago #OK, macmanx,
the loop link is excellent...a little light on content, but what I was looking for. It does answer some of my questions and gives me that 'jumpstart'. The last paragraph, if enhanced, would be a good start on the transition I wrote about...from the install to the TAGS, Templates and CSS.
...and podz, thanks for your answers, too
...let me check WP out a bit more, and then I, too would be willing to help with the docs. And, as I said I have 'wasted' alot of time on such nonsense, so I have experience (writing at least...blogging...that's another issue).
Thanks... -
The Loop is probably the SECOND place I'd start. The first being wp-layout.css. Or at least that's how I started. Then I moved into The Loop, and wp-sidebar.php, wp-footer.php, etc. Gradually my blog is starting to look less and less like the default installation and more like I want it to look.
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davidchait
Posted 7 years ago #Ummm, I'd disagree with error. The CSS is fine to start with if all you want to do is tweak the 'look' of a WP install. If you want to tweak the functionality, the flow of output, integrate other things into the page layout, you need to look at index.php (and the php files it then includes).
It used to be that index.php was 'the' only file -- recent changes have broken it out into a few files for assumed 'end user' ease of use (one could argue either way -- it adds to end user complexity as well...). Now it also depends on the header, sidebar, footer, etc., files as building up the framework.
If you are an intermediate PHP coder, it really shouldn't be that difficult. The header really sets up the base query for posts for the page being loaded (that is, parsing arguments and doing the SQL work), the index then runs 'the LOOP' and uses post tags to get at data fields, and the footer/sidebar uses other functions to dump out things like link lists/blogrolls, category lists, etc.
-d -
Heh. Have you seen the default "look"? That's the first thing that had to go! :-)
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Yeah, but the point is that the user wants to incorporate his WP posts in his EXISTING site. The Loop is the way to go as it's simply the code that display's WP's posts. He just has to figure out where to put it design wise.
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Posted 7 years ago #I know a little CSS. don't know any PHP but am willing to learn.
I'm about to integrate WP into my site as well, maybe as a blog, maybe otherwise and I had the same question as above: now what do I do?
but still I find the explanation of The Loop very meager, and hope that eventually there will be written a bit more about that one in the WP Wiki then just "The loop" is everything.... -
All you have to do is place The Loop code wherever you want to in the file you're placing it in. For example, if you want your WP posts to appear on your site's main index.php in the sidebar, then place the code in the main index.php at the point where the sidebar code is present.
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nolageek
Posted 7 years ago #I think the problem people have with The Loop is that it's hard to figure out how to manipulate it. A simple thing like just getting one category to display instead of all of them seems to take 20 minutes of digging through forums.. and even then there's multiple posiple solutions and none of them work. I have yet to figure that one out. :)
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george71
Posted 7 years ago #Hey that's an interesting comment about The Loop Macmannx.
I didn't know it could work like that. Much more information can be written about The Loop.
Maybe a tutorial in the WP Wiki . . . someone . . .?
;-)
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