Blog

Elodin

Hey guys, I was wondering what php solution do you use for blog on your sites.

I've seen so many portfolio pages with blog on them, I want to create one myself but after trying to integrate existing systems and other websites i end up with a result, that looks completely different from my site. I want to be able to customize the looks so it's going to be like my other pages.

Anybody can give an advice on the matter?

Equanim

In many cases you're seeing a blogging tool, like Wordpress, that has a portfolio plug-in or theme or a "content management system" like Joomla, that has a blog plug-in.

I suggest Wordpress. It's easy to install and widely used so there are a ton of free themes and plugins. If you know a little CSS, you can also edit themes really easily to more suite your tastes.

Another, and easier route, would be to intentionally chose a minimalistic blog theme. A lot of people do this because it doesn't conflict with your existing portfolio's design as much. Unless you're looking for job as a UI designer, no one's going to worry about how your blog looks as long as it's kept up to date and easy to use.

Snader

If you're comfortable enough with html and css you could indeed have a go at building your own wordpress theme, or modifying an existing one.

Even if you're fairly new to it, you can swap out some color palettes and background images, which should go quite a ways.

GabeTHEGeek

I would suggest wordpress. I've used it for years and it's pretty simple to setup and find a theme if you don't want to do the ground work.

Elodin

OK, but is there a way to basically show ur blog on you site.

Connect them so if you open say blog.php you stay on my site but you see blog on it.

Id say im mediocre when it comes to php, css or html

GabeTHEGeek

Elodin wrote: »

OK, but is there a way to basically show ur blog on you site.

Connect them so if you open say blog.php you stay on my site but you see blog on it.

Id say im mediocre when it comes to php, css or html

Wordpress is a blogging platform, the main goal is blogging. You can change it however you want. There a gazillion free themes to choose from.

I think i'm kinda confused though. Are you just looking to add a blog to your existing portfolio?

Snader

You could try making a very minimalist blog on something and then embedding it via an iframe, but it's a very dirty hacky workaround.

Have you tried giving wordpress a try? You can screw around with it fairly safely in a subdomain like wwww.portfoliosite.com/testblog. You should be able to at least get your own header in, and underneath load the blog.

Equanim

I agree with Snader.

If you know enough to write a page from scratch, then yes. Authoring a Wordpress theme is actually pretty easy. You just write a page in "blog" format, then break it up into various PHP files that Wordpress re-assembles into a functioning blog. There's plenty of tutorials on how to do that.

Elodin

Thanks for the info. I downloaded Worpress as well as the other solution.
It seems to work for me. Small blog, simple functions, just what I needed.
SureNews

Richard Kain

I use Drupal. But that's less of a blog-centric solution than a complete adaptable CMS system. Technically Joomla and Wordpress are also complete CMS solutions, they just happen to be a bit easier to use for a quick-and-dirty blog. Drupal is usually favored by programmers who want to really dig into creating custom modules.