New Screencast: WordPress as a CMS
* 11/6/2008 — 25 Comments *
We once did a poll asking people what their favorite CMS was. WordPress was a run-away winner, but also got many comments of “WordPress isn’t a CMS!!“. Well clearly, in the strictest sense, WordPress is a CMS as it “manages content”. But is WordPress really only suited for blogging, or can it be used for more traditional non-blog sites? In this screencast I attempt to show off a number of WordPress features that make it very “CMS-like” in my opinion. Including page templates, dynamic menus, parent-child relationship pages, and using posts as ancillary content.
Two quick notes:
One, somehow I forgot a major point I wanted to make. WordPress offers “Custom Fields“, which allow you to append extra content to a post or page to be used in any way you want (or not used at all) depending on the situation. This is very “CMS-Like”, and I’m sorry I forgot to mention it in the video.
Two, I’m trying to move the individual video pages themselves to inside WordPress itself. Literally as “pages” with a custom template. This way they’ll have commenting right on the video page itself, and I just feel better having stuff like this off of static pages and into WordPress. Very appropriate for the video! If you have any opinions on this, let me know. The biggest change is that the video is way smaller on the screen, but you can always bump up to full screen. I may end up losing the sidebar and going back to the full 800 width, we’ll see. Only a few videos have made the move, the rest will still be in the old layout.
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I don’t know about having everything at the left hand side (widescreen monitor), but Im impressed with your new site layout =D
I guess I don’t know why wordpress is so popular. I use Textpattern for all my CMS projects, works like a charm every time.
Ive used it many times as a CMS and its wonderful. Heres and example:
http://wanaku.cl
wordpress rocks… however, for simple cms stuff - CushyCMS is pretty slick.
thanks for the info about wordpress. I will have to look more into this.
@Ben Good Cushy CMS is looking really god. I might use it in the near future. Thanks
Awesome video Chris! Your new design for Css-Tricks looks awesome as well. Keep up the great work!
Wordpress is a great CMS, I have used it in many of my projects.
DRUPAL!
hey chris,
i like your new design, but you should show the link to the comments on the front-page artical view again.
i don’t care ’bout the numbers.. just missing the link.
Chris,
Very informative video, lots of good things even one or two I wasn’t even aware of or dug into.
I’d love to see more videos about this, maybe a little more structured so it’s not jumping around so much and more detail. Custom Fields is something I know zero about and a video like this about it would be of great help.
@CushyCMS - Call me paranoid but I’m not to keen storing my sites url along with ftp address, username and password on some site. The fewer people that have my passwords the better for me. I like the idea behind it just don’t like giving away my password.
@Michael Good point, didnt really consider that fact. Reconsidering using Cuchy CMS (wich I was implementing on http://bbpress.chilombia.com).
Nice screencast, I use Wordpress as a CMS for:
http://www.lunch.tv
which though it retains some blog elements - i.e. the loop - it is pretty non-bloggy in its structure. (The version up is a ‘bit beta’, but improvements are on the way)
Can I give you my firstborn child? (Well, she’s 39 and has 6 kids, so maybe not!) But, I’m so grateful for this screencast. I’ve been struggling with setting up WP as a CMS, getting nowhere, and feeling like a real dummy. Watching you run through all the steps, I suddenly “got it.”
BTW, as a Mac user I’m curious about all the icons in your dock.
Also check out Issue 149 of Web Designer magazine from the UK. It has a great article covering WP as well as themes and other goodies.
Great screencast on using WordPress as a CMS. I have one question, and that is if you were to create a staff page, giving them an email, phone #, fax #, etc. and setting up a template for it. Would you have them enter these as custom fields and then using them in your template?
Take a look at, Wordpress: More than just a blogging platform?
we use wordpress as a CMS for our competition at school. http://envy.artistikmagazine.com/
I wish we would have learnt stuff like this in school….
You can call me old fashion, but I always like to use the proper tool for every job I do.
If I need to take out a screw, I use a screwdriver.
If I need to nail something, I use a hammer, etc.
So, if I need to create a Blog Website, I use Wordpress.
If I need to create a CMS, I use Joomla, Drupal or Exp. Eng.
It is so simple as that. No extra tricks needed.
Why would anybody try to use a Ferrari for a Destruction Derby, or a Rolls Royce for a rally is beyond me, even if you can.
Still, a good screen cast as usual.
Is there a way to have a dynamic menu that uses images? Maybe with the image name/src in a custom field, or maybe just by naming the images correctly (for eg. if the page were about-us, you could name the image about-us.png and wordpress would put in <img src=”/wp-content/buttons/<?php echo $somevariable?!? ; ?>.png” />
I suppose if you’re making images for the buttons, it might just be easier to hard code the menu, but I’d be interested in knowing if it is possible anyhow.
Chris, its amazing! When ever I need a wp job to be done, you make the screencast for it. wow. last time i really needed to customise my some themes your screecast just cam in time. now i need to get it working as cms (even though its main job will be blogging) and your screencast comes.
gosh!!! Thanx a lot and greetings from japan!
thanks for sharing, its really nice, but i am a ASP.NET programmer is there any CMS for ASP.NET, means free if yes then please share.
I use wordpress as a CMS for a standard “non-blog” site and it works GREAT! E-COMMERCE and all!
check it out…http://www.securelogiconline.com