php feedback/blog

[mxalpinestar]

hello, i have been trying to find scripts or write a custom php script so i can have a feedback/comment type blog on my website. im trying to go for the same type of design layout and function as the blog on this site: http://www.jessicaswift.com/treasuring/ I have found a few scripts but they are on sites that want me to pay for the scripts and coding, but im not sure if its legit or even what im looking for cause they dont have full demos of them. if anyone could help me out by pointing me in the right direction with a website or tutorial for what im trying to do. Im not sure if javascript would be better for what im trying to do. cause i dont want to have a full out blog like from wordpress or blogger.com my site im building for my sister is www.jessicadurrant.com if you go to the blog page you will see its a wordpress blog, which i dont want to use. i would like to set up something like the blog that is on the first website link i posted about. Again any help would be greatly appreciated.

[gizmola]

Use wordpress.

[mxalpinestar]

i am already if you didnt look at my site. i have a wordpress blog already. but i dont want to have my blog in the wordpress blog template, i want it to just be on my website with my website as the layout and just have the blog posts in the main content box on my website, so it will look some what like this persons blog here : http://www.jessicaswift.com/treasuring/ if you understand what im trying to do / explain.

[gizmola]

The problem is that the site you have is nothing but a bunch of static html pages.  So there is nothing for the blog to "live within".  What most people have is a CMS or blog that they use as the basis for their site.  Wordpress can be blown up via modules and extensions into a full site.  For example you could do a full site in joomla, drupal, wordpress or Serendipity to name just a few solutions.  CMS's have blog modules built in for the most part.  For example, here's a cms I built for someone with joomla:  http://www.gb4k.com/

 

The problem is that you need to be able to translate a design into a template at minimum or pay someone to do it for your, which requires a good understanding of php/html & css.

 

 

 

 

[mxalpinestar]

ok well if you noticed i have wordpress installed on my website and i have the blog set up. but i dont want to use that to show people the blog on my site. so how can you help me? do you understand what i want to try and do? i have seen sites before with what im trying to do i just cant remember what there url's are.

[gizmola]

I'm not sure if I can help you because this site is a place where developers and in some cases designers can get help and advice with specific questions.  I understand that you have a static website that nonetheless has a consistent design.  You also have a wordpress install that for some reason is godawful slow, but from what I gather is not what you want because it does not really match the look and feel of the rest of the site. 

 

What I'm saying to you is that typically people want a CMS.  The main reason for this is so that they can easily update content.  They want to make a blog entry to talk about something related to their craft, or promote something.  I understand what type of site you have and what the genre is.

 

I could take all your existing pages and probably stitch them together into something dynamic and embed a piece of a blog in it as well.  So could countless other developers here.  The question is... can we lead you by the hand through that process?  It's highly unlikely you'll get that type of help here. 

 

So I jumped ahead and basically tried to advise you on how you could get something like the site you posted which looks to me like it is probably using a cms or blog as it's base engine.  This is why I linked the joomla site which although primarily a vblog has many of the same features as the site you linked, including categories, and blocks of content that look like they are driven by modules. 

 

There is nothing special about a CMS or a blog like wordpress to developers like myself.  They are written in PHP and we can read that code.  All the blogs and CMS's out there do tend to have one thing that makes them useful to people and that is that they have templates, which I referred to.  The template is what gives the site it's organization and look and feel.  That is why I brought up them up.  You could take your entire existing site, move it into a joomla install and it would look like it does now --- if you have your custom template installed!

 

 

[mxalpinestar]

Ok well i am understanding what you talking about more now. but i am not able to pay anyone to to build this blog for me. i will look into CMS more and i will try this word press integration i found here :  http://codex.wordpress.org/Integrating_WordPress_with_Your_Website and here : http://moshublog.com/2005/07/05/integrate/ i will make a test page with the coding and tutorial they have and see what it looks like. and i will also read more on CMS. If you have any good websites about / for CMS please let me know. Thanks for all you input and taking the time to reply to my thread.

[xyph]

To sum it up, you want a TEMPLATE for wordpress.

 

If you want it to look like your website, you'll probably have to do a custom template. Documentation can be found in almost every CMS/blog app to do this.

[mxalpinestar]

So since i already have wordpress installed on my website, could i use that or should i install joomla on site and use that as my CMS?

[gizmola]

You can use wordpress.  I brought up Joomla because the effort there would be less about adding a bunch of modules to wordpress to make it work like joomla, but in either case you can get what you want.  The reaility is that each of those packages have communities where you will probably get much better help with this than you will get here.

 

Wordpress forums -> http://wordpress.org/support/

Joomla forums -> http://forum.joomla.org/

 

I'd recommend you join each and do some searching and reading through their forums.

 

The site has a public copy of base joomla you can play around with to get a sense for how it works:  http://php.opensourcecms.com/scripts/details.php?scriptid=39&name=Joomla

 

 

[mxalpinestar]

ok well thank you, i will look into it more. so i did mess around alittle with the wordpress how to. so this is what i got with the coding they said to use for displaying the posts on my website, outside of the wordpress blog page. www.jessicadurrant.com/blog.php and as you can see it keep my website layout and menu etc. but it also added the blog header, banner, menu, and the white background in the middle. So im getting on the right track i just need to figure out how to code it or get it so that i dont have to include all the blog stuff i dont want displayed on my page.  the first code they had me put on my page was :

<?php 
/* Short and sweet */
define('WP_USE_THEMES', false);
require('./wordpress/wp-blog-header.php');
?>

<?php define('WP_USE_THEMES', false); get_header(); ?>

 

they said i can call it as false but it still displays the header and etc. which im not sure if it should or if im missing some coding. so i make a thread on the wordpress forum to see if anyone there can help me. unless you know how? also here is the php coding they told me to use to display the posts.

                	<!-- Start the Loop. -->
					<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
						<?php if ( in_category('1') ) { ?>
           					<div class="post-cat-one">
						<?php } else { ?>
          					<div class="post">
					<?php } ?>
						<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
						<small><?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?> by <?php the_author_posts_link() ?></small>
						<div class="entry">
   							<?php the_content(); ?>
						</div>
						<p class="postmetadata">Posted in <?php the_category(', '); ?></p>
						</div>
					<!-- Stop The Loop (but note the "else:" - see next line). -->
					<?php endwhile; else: ?>
						<p>Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.</p>
						<?php endif; ?>
                        </div>
                        <!-- REALLY stop The Loop. -->
                        

			 <!-- Start Display The Last 5 Posts -->
                 // Get the last 5 posts.
				<?php
				require('./wordpress/wp-blog-header.php');
				?>
				<?php query_posts('showposts=5'); ?>
				<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
				<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a><br />
				<?php endwhile;?>
				<!-- End Display The Last 5 Posts -->

[gizmola]

I don't do anything with wordpress so I can't be much help to you, but it looks like you're on the way.  You might have better luck making a new post with the title:  "Help with embedding wordpress" or something similar, that will attract the wordpress developers here.

[mxalpinestar]

ok thanks. and thanks for all your help and advice.