Questions about using WordPress as CMS

  • Dear All,

    I usually hand code websites, and this is also the first time I am using wordpress and am using a wootheme for a client’s website.

    The client’s website is going to be architected in the following manner:
    1- Home
    # Links in the top navigation to aboutus,contact,products
    # There will be 2 products for the time being, and they need to appear as a drop down from the products nav button
    # Basic sliders etc on the homepage

    2- Product Page
    # Now each product will have characteristics like location, pricing details, options available, why product A, contents, etc
    # The characterstics can be visited on different pages by clicking on a sub-menu created individually for each of the products
    # The client would like to add products on his own later on [is willing to go thru the learning curve]

    My question is how links, categories and pages should be used for putting products together. So aboutus, contact could be pages? With each product being a category? With each characteristic being a sub category? And each post will contain the details of the characteristic?

    But how do I ensure that the sub categories (characteristics) appear as a horizontal/vertical menu under the main site menu for each product?

    Any help would be much appreciated. I am comfortable with basic HTML and CSS. But I can follow directions accurately ??

    Best wishe

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • That’s a clear view of what the customer wants, but requires some thinking ahead.

    Based on the above, I would create an empty products page, with empty category pages underneath, and the products themselves as subpages of the (empty) category pages.

    All variable info, like pricing, images, possibly location would then go into custom fields.

    From that structure you could easily expand the catalog, and make a design around that. The pages, also the empty ones, are then shaped by page templates.

    To have an idea: this page is an empty page called books, filled with the info from the custom fields of its subpages. The subpages themself hold the information displayed on the right (if you click one of the books), things like author and such are custom fields.

    Peter

    If you planning on the product section really growing over time posts may be a better option as pages dont allow the same taxonomy flexibility that wordpress does so well (though yes you can use custom fields on pages to similar effect).

    Each product could be a post, categorised as a “product”.

    Use as custom loop get_posts('category=1') (where 1 is the product category id) to build your initial drop down of product menu. Later if you’d rather display product categories rather than product names for the menu use wp_list_categories()

    You could then apply further sub-categories (and or tags) to these product posts to thread like products together (characteristics).

    Use the_category and the_tags to display the posts categories and tags on each products page.

    As pboosten suggests use custom fields for other things such as pricing for consistent presentation and logical storage of data.

    Thats the broad outline of how I might approach it – lots and lots of options to get lost in along the way. I guess the correct solution will also depend on how big the product section would grow. If you’ve got 2-10 products page/subpages should be fine, if you’ve got 200 I’d use posts.

    I see the Woo website promotes ‘Incredible Support’ so why not ask them to for their angle.

    Thread Starter mohakgambhir

    (@mohakgambhir)

    hello,

    thanks to zeniph, pboosten!

    what if the characteristics were to be separate pages which is what i meant by a sub category…
    so when you reach the page for product 1, a sub navigation for the features for the product are listed as a navigation?

    Merry christmas!

    Without knowing the products this would be a guess, but I think both methods would fulfill your wishes ??

    Peter

    Thread Starter mohakgambhir

    (@mohakgambhir)

    Okay, so you know what I have done? I have put together a sample site map. MindMapping – That’s the best I know ??

    You all are the wordpress champ. Make my sitemap talk to my wordpress ??

    As I understand, this may actually require no coding whatsoever?

    https://dakshta.org/images/wordpress_sitemap.png

    As I understand, this may actually require no coding whatsoever?

    Can’t promise you that, and frankly I believe you’re not going to get around that. I think it’ll require heavy customizing of an existing theme (or building a custom one).

    Nice project though, which can be done with WordPress. I still would go for pages/sub pages.

    Peter

    Greetings, All… I’m trying to put to gether a site using wp-ecommerce plugin. Basically, it’s a music download site, and I’m confused. the site is https://www.blublakmedia.com and I have each product (song)with the same 50 options for purchase, which have a separate price point for each variation. How do I display this or setup this site better than the sloppy way it looks now? I need a better way to do this and I’m having problems figuring out how to do this…
    Thanks in advance for any insight.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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