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Converting Your WordPress Blog into a CMS (Content Management System)
July 1st, 2007 | Posted in Blogging, Web Design, WordPress |
WordPress is already a micro-CMS, but if you have a site that has a lot of pages, it can get a bit cluttered. By CMS, I mean a site where you have an abundance of static pages that you want to manage, rather than just an endless number of posts. You can use a Subpages plugin in your sidebar to make it easy for your users to find the pages. The context-sensitive Subpages sidebar can give your blog more of a CMS feel.
I just finished redesigning the Suncoast chapter site into a CMS/Blog. You can view it here: http://stc-suncoast.org. When you click a button on the top navigation bar, a list of subpages appear. That’s the CMS part.
The subpages are called automatically using Rob’s List Subpages plugin. Here’s the cool part: this plugin works in your sidebar, not just in a page template.
Using this plugin, you can have about 7-8 top-level pages that each have 10+ subpages, and you won’t overwhelm your users with long page menu showing 80 pages at once. In fact, the user doesn’t even have to scroll. The user only sees pages relevant to his or her selection.
(By the way, the original design was the YGO Lonely theme, but I modified it quite a bit. You can tweak any theme into a CMS.)
Implementing a CMS
Here’s my quick conceptual explanation on how to implement a CMS for your blog:
- Make a second sidebar file, giving it a unique name.
- Add the List Subpages php code at the top of the new sidebar. Consider removing the other template tags from the sidebar so that you draw the user’s attention to the context-sensitivity of the sidebar.
- Change your page template file to call the new sidebar with the subpages code.
- Leave your main index and single post files calling your regular sidebar.
- Define your parent and child pages.
If you’re totally new to page templates and sidebars, read the WordPress codex a bit. Then spend time styling your design, and voila, you’ve got a CMS.
If you have any feedback on the Suncoast site, I’d love to hear it.
Inspirations
I had the urge to modify the Suncoast site after reading more about information architecture and findability. I had the inspiration from seeing the iaconsultants.ca site. On that site, if you click the Findability link on the top nav bar, you’ll see a subpages menu on the bottom left. I like this concept. I often hear people complain about the clutter of blog sites. This is one small tweak you can make that will make a difference in findability.
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July 2nd, 2007 at 11:30 pm
[...] Converting Your WordPress Blog into a CMS (Content Management System) | I’d Rather Be Writing [...]
July 18th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Thanks so much for this post! It really inspired me!
I’ve got precisely 3 metric oodles of old audio cassettes that have been collecting dust, and I’d been looking for an excuse to find the motivation to rip them all to MP3. Then I read this article and it dawned on me that WordPress would be a great CMS hosting platform!
I tried a few organisational methodologies including contextual menus with subpages, but after delving into the WordPress codex I decided to rely mostly on inherent hierarchical categories instead. WordPress had almost everything I needed built right in! As I research lesser-used functions and options I find the WordPress documentation to be more cryptic, with fewer examples, and mostly relating to version 1.5, but I’m getting there slowly. My biggest challenge is wrestling with WP’s infuriating tendency to sort categories by ID number instead of by category or alphabetically.
Here’s the link if you’re interested. I’d very much appreciate feedback or criticism as I want to make this my most easily navigable project yet! http://mixtapes.demodulated.com/
p.s., audio previews are forthcoming! I’ll be using 1 Pixel Out’s very attractive Audio Preview Plugin.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Oops, forgot to give a link to 1 Pixel Out Audio Preview - http://www.1pixelout.net/code/audio-player-wordpress-plugin/
July 19th, 2007 at 11:51 am
[...] a little help from Tom Johnson’s post about using WordPress as a CMS I slapped together a WordPress installation and played around with various plugins, most of which [...]
July 21st, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Brian, I like your site. I think you are very skilled at design and WordPress — especially dark themes. I really like how the categories light up/change as I roll over them with my mouse.
I know that you can sort categories alphabetically with a parameter in the category call (something like sort=asc, but I can’t really remember). Obviously you figured it out because you already have them in alphabetical order, though.
My advice? I’m sure you are aware of the podpress plugin. If you have just one audio file per post, it works well. The limits of the one pixel out player are that you have to manually code a download link; also, podpress integrates with iTunes and also counts downloads (though I think it’s not that accurate). Podpress also automatically shows the length and file size of the mp3 file.
I’ve used both tools — they are both good (and look highly similar), so if you don’t care about iTunes or the other features (or if you have multiple audio files per post) the audio one pixel player is a good choice.
Is this a theme you totally coded yourself? That’s impressive.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:57 am
I wish I could take credit for the themes I use, but alas, I am all but artistically deficient. I do enjoy customising themes, though, as they’re usually not exactly what I want out of the box.
Thanks very much for taking a look at the site and for your suggestions! I’ll have to think hard about whether I wish to turn this project into a podcast. The content doesn’t belong to me so I’m a little apprehensive about publishing it on iTunes, even for free.
Also, I don’t know whether setting up automatic download subscriptions is a good idea… I plan on uploading a wide variety of content and chances are not everyone will enjoy every single release. This is being paid for out-of-pocket so I have to curb my generosity a smidge.
I think I will only make the content downloadable with small web-enabled previews. To web-enable the full file would likely be wasteful. I think people will be tempted to preview the file which will trigger a download of the full file - more than is needed for a preview - before they decide whether or not to download the whole file yet again for their collection.
It’s a work in progress but I think this will turn out to be a true CMS where people must browse for specific content. This will hopefully keep my costs down, empower my users to find what they’re looking for, and minimise my administrative overhead. I’m just a little concerned that the layout might not be sufficiently accommodating. I want people to have fun browsing but I fear that as my collection grows it will be more difficult to keep track of where you’ve been and where you’re going next.
This is a great learning experience!! Hopefully this project will be nice enough to feature on my professional portfolio before long!
July 30th, 2007 at 5:02 am
Tom explains WordPress plugins here: http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/04/17/wordpress-plugins-extending-your-blogs-features-and-capabilities/ Tom’s post on how to use WordPress as a CMS is published athttp://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/07/01/converting-your-wordpress-blog-into-a-cms-content-management-system/Tom gave a presentation on WordPress that is posted here: http://www.idratherbewriting.com/doctrain In a message to STC leaders who use WordPress for chapter and SIG sites, Tom also recommends the WordPres podcast:
August 25th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
[...] Tom Johnson over at I’d Rather Be Writing [...]
November 8th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Hi there,
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How often do you find new and research stuff? Are there any opportunities that I can contribute to your blog. I believe other blog readers would love
November 13th, 2007 at 12:52 am
You want to contribute to my blog? I currently don’t have any guest bloggers, but if you write a cool post that I think fits into the technical communication niche, I’ll certainly consider it.
December 1st, 2007 at 6:41 am
website. But you don’t necessarily have to re-invent the wheel, I found a few themes / plugins and articles that could be just what you need if you are interested in using WordPress as a Content Management System :Converting Your WordPress Blog into a CMS(Content Management System) Semiologic Theme To Build Top Internet Marketing Website Wordpress as a CMS from Graphic Design Blog Must-have WordPress plugins mentions as well Semiologic The Drikatruu Jelly CMS template
January 28th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Wow! nice plugin!
June 15th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
nice blog! one of the best i have seen so far
August 14th, 2008 at 1:16 am
Great plugin, I am going to use it.
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September 6th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Thanks, you nice post that helped me alot.