What's the best way to add a blog to a site?

[swee'pea99]

I have absolutely no idea how to go about this, but I've heard rumours that something called WordPress 3.0.1 is the way to go. Any advice/thoughts very much appreciated. 

 

[ColinJ]

I use WordPress and really like it.

Do you mean that you are going to add a blog to a pre-existing site or are you starting from scratch with WordPress?

I've always started from scratch rather than retro-fitting WP. If you want to do a retro-fit,  this article and this article might help. 

You can make WordPress look and behave like a regular site by choosing a suitable 'theme' for it. You can create static pages as well as blog posts.

WP is very easy to use and you can get lots of useful plugins to extend its functionality.

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks Mr J - I shall check out those articles now. To answer your question, yes - I'm looking to add a blog section to an existing site.

 

[gaz]

How is the site currently set up?
what is used to edit this?
Does it use a database already?
php, asp.net or none of the above?

 

[swee'pea99]

Hi

The site is actually just in the pre-launch stage at the moment. It's all html, no flash or anything like that. I use MS Expression Web 2 to do the editing. No database, and none of the above. We'd just like to add a facility whereby we can post brief messages and other people can add comments - again, nothing fancy.

 

[HJ]

WordPress is really easy to use and has lots of extras for free, it is defiantly the way to go...

 

[HJ]

[quote name='swee'pea99' timestamp='1285769816' post='1413386']
Hi

The site is actually just in the pre-launch stage at the moment. It's all html, no flash or anything like that. I use MS Expression Web 2 to do the editing. No database, and none of the above. We'd just like to add a facility whereby we can post brief messages and other people can add comments - again, nothing fancy.
[/quote]

All that you need to install if is ftp access to the server, once it is installed you don't need an editor, everything is done from a web page, it is really easy...

 

[goo_mason]

All that you need to install if is ftp access to the server, once it is installed you don't need an editor, everything is done from a web page, it is really easy...

It's even easier if your web hosting package has Fantastico on its control panel - click a button and Wordpress is installed for you. Upgrades are just as easy - click a button and it takes a backup & then installs the new version.

 

[HJ]

It's even easier if your web hosting package has Fantastico on its control panel - click a button and Wordpress is installed for you. Upgrades are just as easy - click a button and it takes a backup & then installs the new version.

The only problem with Fantastico is that it is well behind the curve with updates...

 

[gaz]

WordPress is really easy to use and has lots of extras for free, it is defiantly the way to go...

Seeing how the website is currently done. Agreed!

 

[ColinJ]

The only problem with Fantastico is that it is well behind the curve with updates...

True, but once you've got WP installed it is easy to upgrade it from WP itself.

 

[goo_mason]

The only problem with Fantastico is that it is well behind the curve with updates...

True, but I'm not one of those who bothers updating WordPress the minute a new version comes out, so I'm happy to wait until Fantastico's ready to do it. Laziness also helps me to wait!

(BTW - saw you on video again today helping demonstrate how to cycle on the tram tracks. They had a Trams stand at Ocean Terminal - a bit insensitive now they're not running down that way any more!)

 

[ColinJ]

True, but I'm not one of those who bothers updating WordPress the minute a new version comes out, so I'm happy to wait until Fantastico's ready to do it. 

Not the best approach, since sometimes the updates fix serious security problems. Trying to fix a hacked blog would take a lot longer than the 20 seconds or so it takes WP to update itself.

 

[Shaun]

Doesn't Wordpress require and MySQL backend for storing everything? or can it work as a flat-file solution too?

Just thought it might be worth mentioning in case you need MySQL installing / enabling.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[ColinJ]

Doesn't Wordpress require and MySQL backend for storing everything? or can it work as a flat-file solution too?

Just thought it might be worth mentioning in case you need MySQL installing / enabling.

Cheers,
Shaun

To run WordPress your host just needs a couple of things:

• 
  PHP version 4.3 or greater

• MySQL version 4.1.2 or greater

That’s really it. We recommend Apache or Nginx as the most robust and featureful server for running WordPress, but any server that supports PHP and MySQL will do. That said, we can’t test every possible environment and each of the hosts on our hosting page supports the above and more with no problems.