Wordpress ? Newer CMS

[Onkel Neal]

Anyone with any knowledge of WP? I am setting up another VPS account to load WP, and see if I can get a later version of vB to work. And, convert my ancient CMS news system, that will be exciting.

For now, I am merely experimenting on a non-Subsim server, so if I break everything, it's ok and affects nothing here. I know this Projects forum gets very little traffic but hey, if there are any people who have experience with WP... chime in, it should be fun.

[Chad]

I know enough about the Wordpress API to be dangerous, but to navigate around and do custom widgets may be beyond my experience.

Do you really want to stick with LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP)? The forums would have to stay vBulletin, but web pages could be .NET and filled up with cool Javascript libraries like jQuery and Bootstrap to allow a lot of customization.

[Onkel Neal]

LAMP vs ?

I really don't know if we need any custom widgets (I don't even know what a custom widget it!), but I am interested in learning more about the php stuff that the vBulletin forum uses. As the MySQL and PHP versions get too old to use, I need to be able to adapt to a new forum software package. Hopefully I can find something that provides the basic functions of the system we have here...and as you can guess, over the years, I have added a few mods and plugins to this vB system to get all the stuff it does now. And some custom anti-spam tools, which should be possible to recreate with a new forum system.

I also want to explore using php generated web pages for the whole site, using a few skins or templates, so that the layout is based on one skin and the content within the layout is created from a db. Now, saying that, I know what a huge undertaking it will be for me to get all the Subsim content into a db...but I am considering doing it. It feels like digging the Panama Canal with a shovel.

I could have done that with my current CMS years ago but I was very skeptical of the need to do it. Now that responsive web design is so important for mobile users, I'm feeling pressure to conform. My current CMS has been sunset and abandoned many years ago. So, there's that, I will need to use a new CMS system and WP seems to be the most robust and popular, which should mean best supported.

So, to move to a dynamically generated site with skins that are responsive, I either need to learn how to update the vBulletin and CMS system to new versions of LAMP, or get new versions of forum and CMS software.

[Onkel Neal]

So, to start, I have a new VPS account with a data center, and with Cent 6 as the OS, I am installing the Apache, MySQL and PHP. I found a great tutorial for this,

[Catfish]

Sorry, i guess i cannot help here. I have setup sites on wordpress on 2008 R2 servers, so I should know about that – but i build websites with a program named WebPlus X8, it is basically a Wysiwyg-Editor for Websites and blogs, and easy to use.

I have always asked myself what something like wordpress is good for? For blogging? I think a blog is nothing else than a website, but easier to setup and update. I try to avoid CMS systems like the plague. They do not give you complete control, until you do it all yourself. And there are better tools for that.

Will look at the tutorial for sure, thanks - maybe i can learn something.

[Onkel Neal]

It's ok if you cannot help, I was just wanting to start a topic on this for discussion too, for anyone interested in this kind of thing.

Using a WYS editor is probably the best thing since sliced bread. I will have a look at WebPlus X8, that sounds useful. I have always argued that I am a content creator, not a website creator, but I need a website to host the content, so.... I started out in 1995 using Notepad, but when MS Front Page came along, I adopted that and it saved me a lot of time. FP was WYS but it also was sloppy and left a lot of tag soup behind. But my personality: I really didn't care as long as the page displayed properly in the browser.

Unfortunately, FP was discontinued in 2004....story of my life. I bought MS Expression Web but that is NOT WYS at all, lol, so I never learned it. I still use FP to create the new pages....

Back in 2005 I used Front Page to create the layout for the current Subsim main page, then I placed the html into the CMS skin, so it creates the webpage with the 4 separate news feeds from the CMS. None of that probably makes any sense unless you have done it...and I probably am using the wrong terminology

On the Wolfpack website, I used a responsive template and had to go into the css code and rearrange a lot of stuff to make it work for me, and look the way I want. I'm failly happy with the layout, and I added a Dev Updates page which is fed from the creaky old CMS I use.

I have always asked myself what something like wordpress is good for? For blogging? I think a blog is nothing else than a website, but easier to setup and update. I try to avoid CMS systems like the plague. They do not give you complete control, until you do it all yourself. And there are better tools for that.

Yeah, I know what you mean. To me, "Wordpress" was a basic CMS for blogging....which my current CMS will do also. I was not keeping up with current events and sometime around last year I thought to myself, "what's all this hoopla about Wordpress templates"? I was thinking of WP as a simple blog CMS but sometime over the last 8 years, WP took steroids and became some kind of monster website tool.

So yeah, for a website with 5 basic pages, main, info, about, contact, updates; a CMS is not really so useful. But if one has a site with hundreds of webpages, it can be amazing--because you can change a template or skin and voila! All the content flows into the new skin and all you had to change was one page. If I want to change the basic design of Subsim, I have to change 638 separate pages. If they were all in a CMS, I would only need to change one.

All this because people want to view the site on tiny little phones, lol. People! Wait till you get home! Oh, and get off my lawn!

[Onkel Neal]

Nice! I just finished the tutorial video and have installed Apache, MySQL and PHP on my new server. Only thing I had to differently than the video showed was install a firewall, I guess my server did not have one to start with, so I found info on how to do that and now I'm done.



Haha, I like the name of his book, the "Accidental Administrator". That's me, all right.

[Catfish]

^ I just had to reactivate and open an older stored html website to copy adress lists, but it would not let me: all php, css ..

So i had to install Apache and SQL to be able to view it, still problems. Apart from not being able to even start Apache here, after a while i also found out the new Apache is not compatible with the old php content (what?! ). So found an older Apache and installed that, finding that port 80 was blocked. So deactivated the IIS server blocking port 80 (what's that for now anyway lol) and it runs, and am able to open the old site when i put a 127.0.0.1 in front of the link.. god.

I do not even know if this WebPlus generates php, or makes use of CSS or whatever, but frankly i do not need (want!) to know


P.S.: I really wonder why anyone wants to browse the 'net or a forum on a 5" mobile screen. Is it masochism?

[Onkel Neal]

Yeah, and after 20 years computers and software are still as dense and difficult as ever.

[Onkel Neal]

Finally got phpMyAdmin installed and working. Now creating a db and then upload WP....

[Onkel Neal]

All right. From bare bones server to installed WP.

I fully realize all I did was follow instructions and install software but it's not like installing on a GUI like Windows, everything with Linux is 1984 command line and who knows all those prompts? Lots of googling and reading up on how to use vi commands to edit files and where stuff goes, what a repository is and what "grep" means... I've always resisted learning this server admin stuff because I never intend to become a Linux expert...it's like being a lawyer and having to hand craft all your office furniture.

That'a ok, maybe I will learn a few things. I learned quadratic equations back in 1977 and I'm still anxiously awaiting a chance to use them.

[Catfish]

^ I take it you need an activated IIS server to run wordpress?

[Onkel Neal]

You can, but I'm sticking with Apache.

[Onkel Neal]

Oh man, ok, so the server is running, but WP will not upload image files. I checked the permissions, folder is 755. I think it has something to do with the server running only with IP, and so I am trying to determine how to "set the url name", ha, I don't even know how to describe it.

Basically, with the normal server, there is a cPanel CP and I can go in and configure it so the domain name domain.com will access the proper account.

Without a CP, there has to be some way to do it manually, but I am not finding it. Or understand what to look for....

[Onkel Neal]

slowly making progress