Process to Embed WP into an Existing Website

  • On another thread, I learned about embedding WordPress into an existing website. I followed the tutorial there and made a basic frontpage. The problem is, I don’t know where to go from here.
    What is the process to get the whole of WordPress to look like my website? What about the archive pages and comment pages? Should I be looking at converting my frame-based website to CSS, something I have no experience with whatsoever? (Is that even possible, with the design I have now?)
    Or, is the inserting WP tags route, like I did with the very basic frontpage, gonna get me to where I want to be? What are the steps I should be taking at this point?

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

  • Hey pez, good to see that you were able to get things going over there.
    To answer your question, if you are wanting to avoid converting your site to a CSS layout, then you will have to use the function calls, spread out across the frames and tables.
    I had an example of using frames to create a WP site at one time, but I just recently cleaned it out!
    Follow the example I gave you before, substituting the function calls for the ones you need on each page and you should be fine.

    Thread Starter pezastic

    (@pezastic)

    So, it is possible to get all of the functionality of WP into my own pre-existing website design? Is there anywhere I can read more about actually how this is done? I’m just looking for a general outline. I think I can figure it out from there.

    I am not sure that there is one at this time, but if you give me a day or two, I am sure I could make one… shall we say, magically appear.

    Thread Starter pezastic

    (@pezastic)

    Any help that you can offer me would be much-appreciated. I’m sure that other people in the same situation as I am in could use the help, too. I re-read my post above and I erroneously stated that I have a “frame-based” website. that should have read “table-based”. Sorry.

    Begin with the index.php. Don’t edit anything above the <body> tag. Below that tag you can start a table-based layout, just like you would any normal HTML page. What you will need to do is move around the template tags so they fall within your table layout. Those are the ones that start like <?php. These function calls are what retrieves the various components of the blog.

    its actually as simple as copy pasting tags from wp index to a template of ur site. a local server running a demo wp installation would help a lot if u can get it to work…

    I see the descriptions of the template tags within index.php, but I don’t understand some of the variables to those tags. Has anyone made a highly-commented index.php to help people like me understand it better?

    why u need a guide! there are loads of tags that are not present in the main index file…
    u got a working file (index.php and wp.php)… just scan through the file, copy paste the tags into the new template and keep checking side by side.

    Thread Starter pezastic

    (@pezastic)

    I needed a guide because I’m not a coder. I use a WYSIWYG editor to make my webpages. I tried to insert WP tags into my design, and then made it a php file, but I just kept getting different errors. So, you can see that I’m really stupid when it comes to this.

    You’re not stupid, you just need to take a bit of time and understand PHP. A WYSIWYG editor is not going to work for WP. Unlike a standard HTML page where you are directly editing the layout and content, the PHP tags in these pages are small snippets of code. So you’re gonna have to work with the code directly.
    Start with the default index.php file. Locate all the PHP tags. They will start with <?php and end with ?>. These are your PHP tags, or modules if you will, that generate the content. For instance, the tag <?php get_links_list(); ?> generates the entire list of links. So wherever you place that tag, the list of links will be generated on the live page. Make a backup of index.php and play around with the various tags. Pretty soon you’ll figure out how it all works.

    Pez,
    Wow sounds like you’re learning a lot. So I am going to ask you for a little help. As I am
    having a little trouble understanding all this, I too use a WYSIWYG (Adobe GoLive).
    I just downloaded WP and have unzipped it. Under the 5 min install it says to:
    Have a database ready with proper username and password. What does this mean ?
    Open up wp-config-sample.php and fill in your database details. Where will I find this ?
    Save and rename the file to wp-config.php.
    Upload all the files to your webhost… Does this mean into a directory on the server ?
    Run the installation file. Relative to where you uploaded the files, it’ll be in wp-admin/install.php. Again I don’t understand. I want to put a blog on a website I am building, but am starting to feel a little overwhelmed.
    Thank you in advance……

    diesel kat,
    In order to run WP, you need a webhost with 1 mySQL database for you to use. For that database, you’ll need its name, and create a username and password on it. Some webhosts (like 1&1) already have those settings configured so you’ll have to use theirs.
    In the unzipped WP folder, there should be a wp-config-sample.php file. Open this in GoLive or Notepad and change the appropriate bits as commented. Then upload the whole thing to your webhost/server and run the wp-admin/install.php. The path will be something like https://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php.

    a wysiwyg client wont help as u have to copy paste snippets of php codes in relevant places… so u will have to go into the code view of the software you are using. though the interface is what u can free make in dreamweaver or golive…

    Thread Starter pezastic

    (@pezastic)

    I have reinstalled WP to a different subdirectory and updated my status to a new thread.

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
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