Static HTML site to Wordpress php

davidh6781

davidh6781

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David
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Has any one done a static HTML site and a wordpress blog to match there main site?

Looked at a few theme design guides but they are a little bitty.

cheers
 
Yes the task is fairly easy, but you need to be fussy with the details. You just need to make sure the wordpress template you start with, broadly matches the layout of the main site. e.g. the layout is approx the same. The rest is a css / styling job

Example of one I did for a clinet - integrating gallery2, a static site and wordpress together: www.caronphotography.co.uk
 
I really like that look like a fun task for you, when you say fussy are we talking on the get header, get sidebar coding etc?

the style of the site is this, header section with menus and company logo. left and right sidebars but for the blog only need 1 for the widgets to work and a footer.
 
davidh6781 said:
I really like that look like a fun task for you, when you say fussy are we talking on the get header, get sidebar coding etc?

the style of the site is this, header section with menus and company logo. left and right sidebars but for the blog only need 1 for the widgets to work and a footer.
Click to expand...

That doesnt matter

Get a piece of paper and draw boxes on it for the static site and the blog. You might find the main content for the blog is split into coloumbs. It doenst have to be a fixed width, its just the overall screen behavious beteeen the static bits and the dynamic bits needs to be the same


Things to note: header + menu will need to be common in static site and blog. This means you need to control how menu for pages are displayed, and where the menu the BLOG pages apear on within the blog section (traditionally in the header)

Simples

When I say fussy, you need to watch that the positioning for menu, containers, footer etc.. for the DYNAMIC blog isn't different for the static site. This is normally solved by broadly using the same CSS in both, and borowing the outputted HTML frm the blog, and recycling it in the static site (or visa versa). Fussy as in figguring out just why (for example) in a comments page something is offset by a pixel..

__________________

Header inc. menu
__________________


Main content

(sidebars or not)


_________________

Footer
_________________
 
Not quite the same, but I have managed to get my wordpress site to match my pixelpost site:

My Blog (Wordpress)
My PhotoBlog (PixelPost)

Still not finished yet though, still to change menus, post title bars etc...

Should be easier getting a html site to match a php one though. You know you get plugins for wordpress that cache your php pages as static html pages to help them load faster? Might be able to use this to extract the code/template? :thinking: (ie. WP Super Cache)
 
interesting reads thanks, i have some thing to play on now.

think what i may have to do is a temp wordpress blog on the site thats for testing
 
I think it'll be easier to ditch the static site and have wordpress power both that section of your site and the blog as I have done in my site, see signature.

The advantage of this is that it'll be easier to make structural changes in future if you required it. Information architecture is important when creating an accessible and easy to navigate website. You also want to reduce the time it takes you yo update and modify the site.

I recommend that you do a default install of wordpress and take a look at the default theme that comes with to see how it works. It's extremely easy to use wordpress as both a cms and a blogging platform. I'd be happy to offer assistance for free to help you do this. I've helped other forum members in the past.

If you want to create a theme yourself then the best way to go is to disect the default theme and modify it. Also join the wordpress development forums and read the official codex.
 
I'm in the process of getting my Photoshelter site and blog matching, using much the same method as suggested above, it is possible as all php sends to the browser is HTML code.
 
hello thanks for the suggestions, yep it will be xhtml and my code it very neat, if it doesn't validate then its not going live until it does. lol.

Unfortunatly my client doesn't want to control the whole site via wordpress, so leaving me to control the static site and the dynamic blog, plus its what hes paying for any way.

i will disect a similar layout and see how it comes together.

thanks for every ones help.
 
I started with a static XHTML/CSS site, then slowly shoehorned Wordpress into it to control most of the pages. The Gallery page is handled by Pixelpost. Unless there is a strong reason not to, I would make all the pages through wordpress as it is much easier updating the content with the wordpress CMS. :)

www.afowler.co.uk
 
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