How to use WordPress as a CMS?

[dev_cw]

I am looking for some information on how to use WP as a CMS. I looked in the codex but did not find much specific about this (or if I did I did not recognize it). Is the way to do this through plug-ins? I see some nice sites that use WP as a CMS and am stumped as to how they do it. Like adding gallery or portfolio pages or having multiple layouts (pages with 3col and others with 2).

Is the codex the best place to find this info?

[pm63]

For a start, you can not use the blogging resources at all (unless you want the site to include a blog). Instead, there is an option which allows you to set any page on your blog as the home page. That's a start. Then write pages instead of posts. That's what I understand to be the main ways.

[dev_cw]

For a start, you can not use the blogging resources at all (unless you want the site to include a blog). Instead, there is an option which allows you to set any page on your blog as the home page. That's a start. Then write pages instead of posts. That's what I understand to be the main ways.

That is what I understood as well. If this is true than it is only suited for certain types of sites.

[RetroNetro]

Hello

To me the only difference between a blog and a website are the comments. Beyond that the term CMS just mean content management system, which is really just what WP is right out of the box, just formatted for a blog.

Though WP is very easy to customize (depending on your knowledge of it, php, css and html) pretty much anything can be accomplished.

The first step IMHO would be to remove the call to the comments template from the single.php and page.php file(s) and then delete the comments.php file from the directory and then make use of the front page feature pm63 mentioned above, but I do not see any trouble using actual posts for articles and pages for sub pages such as about, sitemap, faq and so on.

Then all you have to do is edit the HTML/CSS and php to display the way you envision it. Which can be harder to do than it is to say, but if you have any questions just post them here and someone will be glad to assist.

Hope it helps.

[biggdesign]

found any wp themes that are not blog'ish?

[Kat]

I am looking for some information on how to use WP as a CMS.

I've been wondering about this, too!

I see some nice sites that use WP as a CMS and am stumped as to how they do it.

Would you mind posting several links to sites using WP in interesting CMS ways...

found any wp themes that are not blog'ish?

Good question.

[Kat]

Amazing site using WP as CMS:
http://www.xxlmag.com/

Articles on using WP as CMS:

http://bloghelper.is-there.net/using-wordpress-as-cms/

http://essentialkeystrokes.com/proje...ress-as-a-cms/

http://alexking.org/blog/2005/03/22/wordpress-as-cms

http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2...og-to-cms.html

[RetroNetro]

found any wp themes that are not blog'ish?

I found some by doing a Google search but I am not sure what exactly you are looking for so I just linked to the search: wordpress theme non blog style

Would you mind posting several links to sites using WP in interesting CMS ways...

Yes this would be cool to see some sites that use WP themes that are not mainstream in style.

[Dan Schulz]

Ben, remember that WordPress theme wireframe we were working on?

[RetroNetro]

Ben, remember that WordPress theme wireframe we were working on?

Not off the top of my head, please enlighten me.

[Dan Schulz]

The one for my personal site, which sadly has been put on hold yet again?

[RetroNetro]

Off Topic:

Oh yes, I remember that, I just was not thinking of that. Or well I thought of it, but was not sure that is what you meant.

@ dev_cw: Sorry for hijacking your thread. I am stopping now.

[dev_cw]

Kat: Thanks for the links, will read them soon.

Johnny Gulag: don't worry about it. But now I am curious about the wireframe

[Kat]

Amazing site using WP as CMS:
http://www.xxlmag.com/

Has anyone looked at ^that^ site yet? They've really done an amazing job using wordpress. I had to keep looking at the source code to remind myself that it WAS wordpress...

Simply brilliant.

[dev_cw]

Amazing site using WP as CMS:
http://www.xxlmag.com/

Yes that is a very nice example of how far you can go with WP.

From looking at the code it seems that the home page is not part of a WP theme but the content pages are. Am I right? The reasom I say this is that i did not notice any calls to the standard WP paths as I did on the content pages.

[Kat]

From looking at the code it seems that the home page is not part of a WP theme but the content pages are. Am I right? The reasom I say this is that i did not notice any calls to the standard WP paths as I did on the content pages.

It might just be using the 'static page' feature in WP.

Either way, I'm drooling over that site. If it's fully integrated with their IPB, I'm in love...

[jhmattern]

I'm still pretty new at trying to use a non-blog style for some of my wordpress sites. I was skeptical at first, but it's really pretty amazing what you can do with it (and I'm totally php-clueless and can still figure out the basics well enough). A theme I like is the Gridlock theme. I'm using an editing version at FadMarketing.com. Mine is centered, but it was a pain to get it that way (no real info from the theme creator... got some help on a forum from a kind soul). I also added some additional content areas to highlight extra categories.

You can give most themes a non-blog look (at least on the home page) pretty easily. For example, I used a somewhat typical blog theme - Quadruple Blue, and edited it a good bit for BizAmmo.com to get a non-blog feel there. I'll probably convert that one into more of a hybrid in a few days, but it's been my playground. I'm also playing with changing another pretty standard theme into a non-blog look at one I'll be relaunching soon - dev.audioxposure.com. I'm sure people can do much more complicated things than I'm doing, and really the possibilities are pretty endless.

As for the xxlmag.com site... that's actually the one that finally convinced me to take a shot and play with the themes in a non-blog way. It's just pretty darned impressive.

And if you're looking for non-blog themes, don't only search for that term... also look for "magazine style themes," and you'll find a few other gems.

[nukeemusn]

I'm interested in the wireframe, too. I jsut recently started using Wordpress. I was trying to wrap my head around the standard HTML layout and such to start building themes in. Instead, I just changed my blog to the classic template and customized form there. I'm still working on it. I think a good outline (like the ones for the CSS zen garden) that breaks down the standard HTMl would be great...

[Dan Schulz]

It's just a template that uses pastel background colors and floats/margins, integrated into WordPress, is all. It's not even finished yet.

[fallen*sky]

I use wordpress as a CMS for most of my web design clients. Its just so much easier for them to add/change content.

Plus almost all clients want at least one page that they would update regularly with things like news etc. That's the one section that would use "posts". The whole rest of the sites use "pages".

The portfolio I built for my design company (the link that's in my siggy) is the most I've extended wordpress as a CMS in that I used breadcrumb navigation and a lot of custom stuff to get the secondary navigation in the right sidebar.
But that was a lot more complicated than most brochure type sites I would design in wordpress.

The only drawback about this is having to update WP so often.. you remember on your own sites but clients can't be trusted to do it themselves and its a security risk if they don't.. something to consider.

[Dan Schulz]

That's where monthly maintenance fees kick in.