bastardising wordpress sites?

bigdave

bigdave

Well-Known Member
I underestimated how difficult it would be to edit wordpress themes offline (it's all in php) and wondered firstly at what point the php becomes html and also if either of the following are possible..

A) Edit the html source code and css files live through the WP interface or if its possible to go through an FTP client to access the html and css?

B) Can I build a site from scratch and upload it to a server running WP (again possibly via ftp)? I don't need any of the wordpress features for this site as it'll only ever be me content managing it.
 
Set yourself up a server on your Mac/PC and edit it all locally. The newer versions of Dreamweaver will also play very nicely with this kind of setup. For Mac use MAMP; MAMP: Mac, Apache, MySQL, PHP (Mac, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and for Windows use WAMP; WampServer, the web development platform on Windows - Apache, MySQL, PHP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP). Both of these will parse the PHP to create HTML which you can then use Dreamweaver to change via the template CSS files. That said, why on earth are you using Wordpress if you don't need the functionality...??
 
I just wrote a reply and it vanished so apologies if this now appears twice...

Wordpress is what my employer had installed on the server they use because it made it easier for the designers to make websites (basically install a template, add content job done) but when a client is specific about the design of the site it all goes to pot.

I spent Friday afternoon installing MAMP and WP on my mac but couldn't get from there to something useable in DW, just php. (All the info I found was for CS5 onwards and we use CS4).
 
bigdave said:
I spent Friday afternoon installing MAMP and WP on my mac but couldn't get from there to something useable in DW, just php. (All the info I found was for CS5 onwards and we use CS4).
Click to expand...

Yes, the DW 'Live View' and a local server is what you need but that isn't a feature with CS4. Perhaps ask your boss for an upgrade so that you can use it. Otherwise you can develop remotely on a server but all that FTP back and forwards can make a job take twice as long as it needs to!
 
You might look at other content management systems that separate the layout from the programming language.

My vote would go to MODx
 
bigdave said:
A) Edit the html source code and css files live through the WP interface or if its possible to go through an FTP client to access the html and css?
Click to expand...

Appearance > editor >

That gives you pages provided permissions have been set correctly (but FGS don't set permissions as 777!). You can edit via WP but it's in the nature of php to be mixed in with the HTML.

As has been mentioned DW has a way of doing it locally provided you set site up correctly in DW and tell it which local DB the site is running off.

There's also one final hurdle. WP inserts absolute urls into the database so if you upload local db to live server all the links have the wrong path. There's possibly a new plugin to deal with this I haven't heard of otherwise this post tells you how to migrate to live.
 
Corrosive said:
Yes, the DW 'Live View' and a local server is what you need but that isn't a feature with CS4. Perhaps ask your boss for an upgrade so that you can use it. Otherwise you can develop remotely on a server but all that FTP back and forwards can make a job take twice as long as it needs to!
Click to expand...

Don't think there's much chance of an upgrade. :(
How complex is it to develop remotely?
 
bigdave said:
Don't think there's much chance of an upgrade. :(
How complex is it to develop remotely?
Click to expand...

It's no more complex than developing locally, just a shitty workflow having to upload changes each time to view them. You can still use MAMP to develop locally with DW CS4 you just won't get the 'Live View' in the IDE itself. You should be able to view your local changes in a web browser though.
 
I've got as far as connecting to WP via ftp and i can see the files on the server.... it's all still nonsensical to me as it's all php and I cant read/write php. :( is there any way I can get to work with the html of the site?
 
bigdave said:
I've got as far as connecting to WP via ftp and i can see the files on the server.... it's all still nonsensical to me as it's all php and I cant read/write php. :( is there any way I can get to work with the html of the site?
Click to expand...

Nope, most of the HTML of a WP site starts out as php which is then parsed by the server to generate the HTML. So there isn't really any HTML as such for you to manipulate. That is the bitch slap that is Wordpress I'm afraid and why it just isn't very good for general users. OK, you can download a template and get a site up in a couple of hours if you don't want design changes or you can really learn the ins and outs of how the php code works and create something pretty awesome but there is nothing in between.
 
Bollocks!! :(

Is it possible to build an XHTML site with it's own jquery & CSS then use the ftp to upload it and bypass WP completely?
 
This is the ftp as DW sees it:

Screenshot2013-03-25at111300_zps79449c21.png


If I remove everything below the top level folder (essentially removing wordpress) and replace with index.html etc... will the site run?
 
I think you could just replace index.php with index.html and it will bypass WP, as there's nothing in the html file making calls to WP functions. Sounds messy though.
 
Corrosive said:
I've been trying to get the folks round here converted to ModX for ages now... At least I am not a lone voice any more! Nice one thingstodo :icon_cheers: Does sound like bigdave is stuck with WP though.
Click to expand...

Just had a little look at ModX. Seems to be a perfect halfway house between code and templates. I might suggest it to my boss for future sites.
 
bigdave said:
Just had a little look at ModX. Seems to be a perfect halfway house between code and templates. I might suggest it to my boss for future sites.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is exactly what it is. Freedom of design with a really good CMS behind it. perfect for web developers who think Drupal is just a bit too much!
 
I've convinced my boss to give ModX a whirl on a couple of sites for difficult customers who's needs/demands aren't beyond my ability but are definitely beyond WordPress' capabilities. Going to be loads of overtime on this first one I think!!
 
I would thoroughly recommend running through these tutorials; Beginner Tutorials | The Coding Pad the ones for ModX Revolution are the ones you want (EVO is OK but REVO is the latest incarnation). That should get you up and running and start to get used to the ModX syntax and the way it all works. I've been using it for about 2 years now and have done some complex stuff with it so shout if you get stuck...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top