I'm working on a website for a friend of mine (see the work in progress) -- and all along had planned on using MT as the backend for managing all the content. I'd even talked with SixApart about proper licensing for educational use. The only hitch was the website is hosted on the school systems servers - and they don't have perl. :banghead: And it's not really an option. (Jeff would tell me just to write my own CMS ... but why reinvent the wheel especially when I'm charging non-profit prices for my services anyway!) Sooo ... I figured I would give WordPress a whirl.
A few thoughts in the extended entry ...
First - I love how fast and easy WP installs. Wham Bam Thank You Maam and it was installed and working. You just have to alter a few very easily found lines in a config file and you're up and running.
Second - after working with Movable Type for so long - it's a bit of a mind switch to work with WordPress and their dynamic way of creating pages. WP is super fast ... there's no rebuilding or anything. I'm still trying to figure out how to get a NICE static page url. I know you can do it ... I'll figure it out sometime today hopefully! I really don't want a question mark in my urls. I want the urls to read like www.domain.com/category/page-name. Right now they read www.domain.com/index.php?pagename. I hate that.
Third - this is just something I have to get used to. Their templating. Again, I am so familiar with MT's way of doing templates. It is sooooooooooooo customizable. I love MT. Basically, whatever I can think of ... I can do in MT. I love that I can output to a .txt or .inc or .whatever file. In WordPress ... you modify the index template - and that's the template used for basically every output page. Home page, individual entry page, category page. I'm sure you can create new templates ... but where? I'll be surfing the WP forums today and trying to learn new things.
Fourth - Said this already, but I have to reiterate ... WP is FAST. It's like ... instantaneous almost. That's due to everything being done "on the fly" I suppose. MT needs to make their new dynamic capabilities a bit easier to implement ... right now it feels like brain surgery. Rebuilding a site that's been online for several years takes a while.
Fifth - WordPress has built-in email posting capability. Built-in is the key word there.
Sixth - WP doesn't seem to have the capability to have multiple blogs? I guess you can just install it in another directory, but ugh.
Seventh - Support and documentation on WP are pretty lacking. But, I have to remember that it's fairly new and doesn't have the userbase that MT does. I'm sure the support will continue to grow as more and more people start using WP. With MT, I know that if I can't figure out how to do something -- all I have to do is go over to the forums and the answer will be there waiting for me. Usually I don't even have to post a question ... I search and wala - I have my answer.
Eighth - have I mentioned that WordPress is fast? :bounce:
All this said ... it would take a lot to make me want to switch this blog over to WordPress. The whole static page thing bugs me - considering my entire site here is in Movable Type. Every single page - the about me, my fanlistings joined, my guestbook, contact page - everything is in MT. I love that I can create static pages like that. Output in whatever format I want. I'm sure I could figure out a way to do that in WordPress ... but why bother when MT works so perfectly for me? I love having all my entries inline -- my reviews, regular entries, links ... and that I can format them all differently according to the content. I :heartbeat: MT. BUT ... WordPress is very cool.
I'm kind of glad that this site I'm working on has forced me to work with another content management system - it's good to learn new things. I'm going to enjoy learning the ins and out of WP - and will definitely consider using it as a CMS option for websites I'm working on.
:wave: Hi there. I arrived at your site while searching the MT forum for a smilies tutorial.
I adore the look and feel of your site. I'm sure I'll be back to visit more.
BTW, I've been playing around with Wordpress too and it is a cool program too. However, I can never leave MT. You mentioned the version of WP that you're using isn't capable of mutiple blogs. I wanted to share that WP actually does have a multiple users version. It's located at WP-Multiple Users
And as a side note for testing purposes only, WP currently has a alpha version that is in development. You can download the nightly versions at WP-Alpha.
If you know already know all of what I just said about WP....I'm sorry. :worried:
i strongly suggest you NOT download the alpha versions of wp - they break. A LOT :0)
for your url problems, you just need to create an .htaccess file, you can tweak how you want them to be under options/permalinks, it's very easy.
from what i know, templating is a bit sketchy with wp BUT this has been invaluable to me for figuring out the things within the layout that are not immediately obvious.
the multiple blog thing is something you see come up a lot with wp folks, i hear they're working on it and it is forthcoming, although by forthcoming it means - no one quite knows.
i found the documentation frustrating initally but there are A LOT of great wp blogs. scriptygoddess, carthik just the two that immediately popped in my head.
but having gushed and gushed (i :heartbeat: wordpress) it is still a baby and has a lot of growing to do. for me it was worth the not rebuilding alone, but i understand being accustomed to doing things a certain way and not wanting to forgo that. good luck - and just holler if you need any help.
I've been tweaking my htaccess files ... and this is what I'm currently using
/index.php?%postname%/
which gives me www.domain.com/index.php?postname
when I try anything to do with category .... (i.e. /%category%/%postname%) it doesn't work. evidently %category% doesn't exist? The whole sentence about taxonomy/categorias is confusing. Documentation stinks.
I'm so used to MT where I can use ANY field within MT to specify path structure. This is driving me bonkers! It should be easier!
nice blog!
Interesting post! [lovely smilies :cool:
I just created my first WP site yesterday - and I found it as you've said. Templating seems quite easy, just bung in a new .css and you're done! Altering the index.php seems a poor solution to me - there are plenty of themes - check out the competition at alexking.org
I've found support to be as you've described for MT - check the forum and if it's not already there - someone will help quick-smart. I think the wordpress site could be more easily navigable, but it's a small complaint.
now where's that smiley tutorial - and can I apply it to WP!
:-propeller