Static Welcome Page for WP CMS

  • What started out as a nice little blog for venting my rants and raves is morphing into something else.
    I would like to go the whole way and make it a CMS(?)
    I have a business domain ceconn.com and the blog is a subdomain of my business site. I also have Coppermine photo gallery. Ideally, I’d like to somehow integrate them all. I’d like a front page that has the same look as the blog but with changes. From there I’d like to be able to direct my readers from the serious to the fun and everything in between.
    Can that be done?
    I have WP 2.07. The theme is Andreas04-10. My main domain is https://www.ceconn.com. Blog is ceconn.com/canwetalk. Coppermine is ceconn.com/photo_gallery. I’d like them all to have a similar look, if possible and I’d like to have a static front page which acts as a welcome screen and directory etc.
    Since I am no techie, to put it mildly, could someone take the time to help me with this? Please?

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

  • here you go:

    Creating_a_Static_Front_Page

    May just want to upgrade to 2.1 as it’s built in.

    Hope this helps,
    -drmike

    It can be done. What you’re asking is actually quite a bit of work. Coppermine seems like it can be integrated, but with a lot of work.

    This is what I would do:

    1) If you’re happy with the Andreas04-10 theme, then you would need to create a page for your home page. I would then upgrade to the latest WordPress because it has an option to use a static page as your home page, so you would set the page you created as you’re new home page. If there is something very specific about what you want your home page to look like, you’re going to have to create a page template to use for your home page.

    2) I would then move WordPress from out of the subdomain to the main domain so that people no longer have to https://ceconn.com/canwetalk/, they would just go to https://ceconn.com/. There are steps on here to move WordPress from subdomain to main domain.

    3) The Coppermine integration looks tricky, but there are plugins to facilitate this: https://wp-plugins.net/plugin/coppermine-integration/. The only issue is that I think you have to utilize the same database as your WordPress to do it.

    I know you said you weren’t a techie and I hope what I’ve told you isn’t too techie sounding, but this is essentially the steps to accomplish what you want.

    Here is an example of a current project I’m working on. It utilizes WordPress MU (the multiuser version of WordPress found at mu.www.remarpro.com).

    This is the main site: https://sfpublicdefender.org/

    This is the Public Defender’s personal blog. I’ve got it currently set to use the static front page feature: https://adachi.sfpublicdefender.org/

    Thread Starter erika_conn

    (@erika_conn)

    Well, I’m going to give it a go although I’s so afraid of screwing up my present situation. Perhaps I should save the blog as is and then start a whole new blog and then import the items from the old blog. Do you think that’s possible?

    Thread Starter erika_conn

    (@erika_conn)

    Is there a way to save an exact duplicate of this blog before doing anything major? I could then install the WP2.1. Then create the static front page. Once that’s done, import the posts from the old one.
    What do you think?

    Install the wp-database backup that will allow you to backup your database and then if anything goes wrong, you can reapply it.

    Thread Starter erika_conn

    (@erika_conn)

    Well, I thought I’d give you an update. I downloaded the WP2.1.2. I installed it and then, to my grief, I realize that my very favourite theme is not compatible with the new wordpress. That being Andreas04-10.

    Is there any way I can make it compatible? Is there anyone who can make it compatible? I just love it and now I can’t use it. That totally sucks, don’t you think?

    How is it not compatible? I’m not seeing any errors…

    Is it just giving you the error on the categories? Or what’s it doing?

    Thread Starter erika_conn

    (@erika_conn)

    Oh, you’re not seeing the new one – WP2.1.2. Previously I had WP1.07 and that’s the one you’d be seeing because the new one is not live yet.

    Oh. Well, how is the theme not compatible? What errors are you getting, or why do you believe that?

    Thread Starter erika_conn

    (@erika_conn)

    It doesn’t appear in the 2.1.2 theme directory. 2.1.2 has a lot of added features that sound like they’d be fun to use. If I want to use Andreas04, I have to stick to 2.07.
    Here are the examples:
    canwetalk.ceconn.com – this is Andreas04 with WP2.07
    ceconn.com/wordpress – this is Andreas09 with WP2.1.2
    I can’t find Andreas04 to work with 2.1.2

    Am I making sense?

    I’m just curious, because usually (I’m not familiar with Andreas, so I can’t say for sure) it’s not hard to upgrade a theme. My own theme only required one line of code to make it compatible for 2.1.2 (I had to change the wp_get_categories() in the sidebar to wp_get_bookmarks() and all was well.) So I was just wondering what kind of issues you were having – are they just on the back end? I mean, if you put Andreas 04 on 2.1.2, were you getting error messages, or just a blank screen?

    Just curious ?? If I knew what errors you were getting, exactly, I might be able to help you fix them. (I’d download and look myself, but I’m not running 2.1.2 anywhere to see.)

    Thread Starter erika_conn

    (@erika_conn)

    Well, I don’t know what just happened. I downloaded the updated Andreas04 into a different directory from my other blog directory and, to my surprise, the initial blog theme updated too.
    In answer to your question, I never got an error message. However, not all the options are on the Andreas04.
    How can I put it? Take for instance the RSS icon. Andreas09 has it. Andreas04 does not.
    I’m sure there’s lots more but that’s all I have so far.

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
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