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How To Integrate Blog With Html Site...


TCWriter

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Hello!

 

I host my www.troutunderground.com site on TotalChoice. I have been updating my blog/fishing report page (www.troutunderground.com/uppersacreport.htm) using my Web editor (Namo Webeditor), but would like to run that one page of the site on blog software.

 

That will give me the ability to invite user comments, and also automatically handles archiving, RSS feeds, etc.

 

I would rather not redirect offsite (and back onsite) from one of the blog sites. I'm looking at Wordpress blog software as a possibility, but wonder if there isn't a better solution. I may end up using WordPress and investing the time learning the software, but I'm open to other ideas.

 

Take care,

Tom Chandler

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Welcome to the forums Tom.

 

I see no reason why you couldn't install Wordpress to do that. Or any other blog software, Movable Type, Blogger (and publish to your web space here) or any of the others out there.

 

What ever you decide create a sub-domain in your web space and install/run from there. You can have links back to your main site.

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Welcome to the forums Tom.

 

I see no reason why you couldn't install Wordpress to do that. Or any other blog software, Movable Type, Blogger (and publish to your web space here) or any of the others out there.

 

What ever you decide create a sub-domain in your web space and install/run from there. You can have links back to your main site.

 

 

Thanks. I'm leaning towards WordPress, but am a little wary of the level of control offered over the appearance - and the technical challenge. I'm not exactly a code geek. Is Movable Type easier to manage/configure than WordPress?

 

If no one else pops up with anything I'll install WP this weekend and start experimenting...

 

Tom Chandler

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I used to run Movable Type and now I use Wordpress so my opinion will be biased.

 

There are plenty of themes out there for both and you can certainly create your own. If you are comfortable with CSS you will have no problems making it look the way you want.

 

You could try both, it will only cost you some time. :goof:

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I used to run Movable Type and now I use Wordpress so my opinion will be biased.

 

There are plenty of themes out there for both and you can certainly create your own. If you are comfortable with CSS you will have no problems making it look the way you want.

 

You could try both, it will only cost you some time. :D

 

 

Thanks for the information. I don't even know what CSS means, but I'll probably figure it out. Do blogs like WordPress offer custom navigation? My concern is I'll be forced to construct a blog page that looks like a blog - and nothing like the rest of the site.

 

Thanks for the help.

Tom Chandler

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Short answer is that you can customize them as much as you want. Depends how much you want to learn and how much time you want to spend working on it.

 

I used to run WP and had a mix of blog and regular static pages, and they all had the same look. Now I use PluggedOut Blog for my blog page and the rest I write myself. Again, all the same theme.

 

Big difference between WP and PluggedOut. With PluggedOut it was much easier to take a static theme and add the dynamic blog page to it. With WP, you take the dynamic theme and add static pages to it.

 

My feeling is that if you have a site already and most of your content is static, it might be better to use something light like PluggedOut rather than going with WP where you will have to get all your static content to fit for the sake of a dynamic blog page.

 

Hope that makes sense. Either way, we're here to help no matter which way you choose to go.

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PluggedOutBlog looks interesting too, if perhaps a little less mature than WP. Am I correct in assuming it can be installed on a TotalChoice server?

 

The idea of sticking a single blog page in the midst of my already-built-and-I'm-real-happy-with-it site is certainly an attractive one.

 

More research it is...

 

Tom Chandler

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When I wanted to integrate a blog into my site, I was having a hard time customizing a wordpress theme.

 

This tutorial helped me greatly!

 

http://www.jonathanwold.com/tutorials/wordpress_integration/

 

Good luck.

That's a pretty decent tutorial. I use WP for client sites on occassion (it's good for more than just blogging) and it never occured to me to strip stuff out of the admin interface and make a custom welcome page. Thanks for the tip.

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Thanks to everyone for the help. I've done more research, and it's all pretty intimidating. To someone who thinks my NAMO WYSIWYG html editor is only one step removed from rocket science, the idea that editing css code is "easy" is an amusing one indeed.

 

I like Wordpress and once the Fantasik scripts are available, I plan on installing it and seeing if I can modify it to look the rest of my site. If that doesn't work, perhaps I'll pay someone to do it for me.

 

In any case, thanks for all the help!

 

Tom Chandler

www.troutunderground.com

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  • 2 weeks later...
When I wanted to integrate a blog into my site, I was having a hard time customizing a wordpress theme.

 

This tutorial helped me greatly!

 

http://www.jonathanwold.com/tutorials/wordpress_integration/

 

Good luck.

I just spent a few hours with the help of this tutorial getting a WP blog to fit the look one of my sites. Wow! Talk about a learning experience. Rip it apart, then put it back together again.

 

While I feel a great deal of satisfaction having gotten Wordpress close to how I want it, I am still unsure if I like the blog platform. Perhaps I might try to do the same type of thing with WebsiteBaker.

 

If anyone wants to see the results, it is in the blog section of JensenConnection.com. It is going to be a place for my father to communicate thoughts etc to his family. I guess when you get to a certain age patriarchs like having a soapbox to preach from. Itll be fun.

 

(as of right now, all of the content is just filler. Most things dont even make sense)

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I went and installed Website Baker per this thread. I currently have both up on my site (until I decide which one to keep). Here is what I found out.

 

WordPress

I learned a lot in hacking the theme to match my site. It still isn't exactly how I want it, but its getting there. It took a while and was hard work. One of the most difficult things is that the DIVs were spread across 3 different php documents (header/footer/index). A DIV would start in the header.php and then close in the index.php. Once I got the feel of that it was OK. It did however exclude me from using the WYSISYG portion of dream weaver. Most of the things I did, had to be with code (thus the learning experience).

 

Website Baker

Piece of cake to get done. I just took my existing home page, and took out some of the content. I then simply copy and pasted the variable content into my site. I found all of the code needed here. The only CSS that I had to add to it (other than my existing CSS file) was a few things for the menu. I just adjusted the CSS format to match their ul li type of menu.

 

Done. :goof:

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As a longtime user of WP and a recent user of Website Baker, here's my feeling. If you want a blog, use WP. If you want a website with mostly static but easy to change content, use WB. When your posts start numbering in the hundreds or thousands, WP will do a much better job since that's what it's built to do. Unless there's a slick blog plugin for WB that I'm missing.

 

I'll agree that templating in WP is tough at first, but once you get it down you'll be changing it every weekend. I find that it's a good idea to comment closing divs in the code to help with the disjointed includes.

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As a longtime user of WP and a recent user of Website Baker, here's my feeling. If you want a blog, use WP. If you want a website with mostly static but easy to change content, use WB. When your posts start numbering in the hundreds or thousands, WP will do a much better job since that's what it's built to do. Unless there's a slick blog plugin for WB that I'm missing.

 

I'll agree that templating in WP is tough at first, but once you get it down you'll be changing it every weekend. I find that it's a good idea to comment closing divs in the code to help with the disjointed includes.

 

I've used it for a while as well. If somebody is just starting to learn WP and wants to do their own theme, it's almost best to browse the WP Theme Viewer (themes.wordpress.net), and pull down the themes they want to use portions from and study them. There is a site with 600+ WP themes listed (it's one of the top 10 sites if you google for Wordpress Themes), but the Theme Viewer shows you thumbnails right there on the page. The problem with it, it gets used a lot and so maybe slow in responding.

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Dave,

 

I do like what you've done. How often do you forsee updating content? What are you looking for in an end product? I think it is always a good idea to try to start with the end in mind, and then pick the product that will give you the best results, even if it does require extra work learning to so it will do what you want.

 

In any case, I saw both implementations, and I think you're doing a good job.

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  • 4 months later...

I've been using PluggedOut Blog for several months now, since a search for "integrated blogs" led me to TCH-Tim's posting in this thread. As a result, I signed up with TCH and installed PluggedOut.

 

I first integrated PluggedOut into my existing site and recently used it to develop a portfolio site.

 

I've found that it's easy to use only the elements of the blog that I need, and to place each element exactly where I want it. So, for example, I stripped the comments out of my portfolio site, since it's for display only.

 

I've adapted categories to function as menu items. And the blog format behaves like a content management system (CMS), which is easier to manage. But I'm also able to use regular html pages where needed. The blog manages archives through a calendar display, which has the benefit of a smaller footprint.

 

The developer just recently moved PluggedOut to SourceForge, in order to attract new coders and expand the user base. The blog in fact could benefit from expanded features and still has a few bugs relating to the way comments are displayed. But due to the blog's efficient design, these issues should be easy to resolve.

 

Get it at www.pluggedout.com

Edited by slobjones
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I used PluggedOut for a little while myself. It's a nice little script, good if you want a simple blog that is easy to integrate into an existing site. Very easy to add/remove components and functionality to fit your needs. Hopefully the SourceForge move will do good things for it.

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  • 10 months later...

I've been using PluggedOut Blog for more than a year now (since learning about it on this very thread). It's the best script I know for users seeking a blog script they can integrate into their own site designs.

 

With PluggedOut, you're not locked into a lookalike template. The script adapts to your blog, and not the other way around.

 

The original developer recently turned the script over to the Open Source community. Developers and users are working together to bring the script to maturity. We're adding new functions at a steady rate.

 

I invite any interested developers and bloggers to check out the PluggedOut script here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pluggedout/

 

And the forums:

http://pluggedout.sourceforge.net/developm...orums/index.php

 

Here's a PluggedOut site in action:

http://tinyurl.com/uw8mc

Edited by slobjones
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