Current Site Issues
-
I already have a site being hosted and maintained by someone else , however they are not updating or maintaining the site to our satisfacation. Since I paid for the to design of the site (and assuming they give it to me on request) would I be able to upload an existing site to WordPress and going forward manage my website through your system?or would I have to build it from scratch using an existing template that matches our current look as closely as possible. I’d rather not redirect it to a site ending in wordpress.com since this is a non-profit organization and appearances of legitimacy are important.
Any information or suggestions you could provide would be greatly appreciated and I thank you in advance for your help. PLease feel free to contact me via email or phone should you require additional information.
Thank you
Blog url: http://vir2allyyou.wordpress.com/The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
-
You can’t use homebuilt or external themes on a blog hosted at WordPress.com. You can get the custom design upgrade and use it to change the look of an existing theme, but that’s it. You could use your design on a site with paid hosting elsewhere and software from WordPress.org.
You can use a custom domain or subdomain here for $13 a year and $5 to purchase the name, if you don’t own it already.
-
As raincoaster said: You cannot build or use your own custom theme built from scratch at WordPress.com.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/ftp-access/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/themes/adding-new-themes/The only themes we can use are those found here > Appearance > Themes
This is a multiuser blogging platform. All blogs wearing the same theme are using the same underlying template and we cannot access the underlying files and edit templates or themes. http://en.support.wordpress.com/themes/editing-themes/
There are two free themes, Sandbox and Toolbox designed to allow maximum flexibility for CSS editing and creating new “skins”. Toolbox is more modern and includes a lot of support for CSS3 and HTML5, so it is really only limited by your skills and knowledge.
If you have CSS editing experience the upgrade will allow you to stylize the appearance of themes you find here > Appearance > Themes, but will not allow you to change the functionality, by editing the underlying template. It does not allow you to remove footer links to the theme designer or to WordPress.com. Also note that CSS is theme specific, so you cannot use the CSS stylesheets from other themes with the themes at WordPress.COM. http://en.support.wordpress.com/custom-design/custom-css/
See also > WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org: The Differences > http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
-
Thanks raincoaster and timethief:) quick question then. while I was waiting for are reply I found this article about making my existing site work with Word Press:
http://brassblogs.com/blog/make-your-existing-site-work-with-wordpress
Are you guys saying what this lady is saying does not work?or did I misunderstand what she’s saying?
Thanks:)
**in case you don’t wanna reroute it says:
You need to start by making them recognize each other. Th tricky part is, most static websites are done in flat, static HTML. But you need your files to be in PHP. The conversion may seem like it would be tiring, but truly it’s not, as long as it’s something your host allows. It means adding a line or two to your .htaccess file, and you do need to find out how your PHP runs from your server.
If your host is running PHP as an Apache module, just open up your .htaccess file and add:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .html .htm
If it’s PHP is being run as CGI (common with Windows hosting, actually, but it’s not necessarily true in all cases):
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .html .htm
Now you can place PHP code within your .htm or .html files and it will run, without having to convert every single file to PHP. This is also good (although not proven, but it’s thought to be) for SEO – because your pages are already indexed with the .html extension. This means there’s no major change, and things will go on as before.
Once you’ve done that, you need to make WordPress and your static site recognize each other. This is easily done by adding in
<?php require(‘path/to/wp-blog-header.php’); ?>
to the very top of the pages you want to be recognized with WordPress (it has to appear before anything else). Now, the reason you want to do this is, once that field is included into your static site, you can use ANY WordPress tag that you would use for a WordPress site. You can add commenting availability to certain pages, add a widgetized sidebar – whatever you want to do.
Again, you probably don’t want to go through every single file on your static site, and most likely you’d rather make WordPress recognize YOUR site setup. So the above would require you to add a command to every single page on your site that you’d want to use WordPress tags on (there’s no getting around that), but you can also make it work the other way too – you can make WordPress recognize your already-existing files.
At this point, you have a lot of options. The two sites now recognize each other, and you can “swap spit” between the two fairly easily. Now, you need to decide what direction you’re going to take this. Do you keep the static HTML site with WordPress as an add-on, or would you like to progressively move everything over to WordPress and use it as a content management system? (My vote is always for the latter, but that’s me!)
If you want WordPress to recognize your own stylesheet and layout that currently exists, you can simply connect the header to your existing stylesheet. You’ll need to find the path where it’s housed, and use that path alongside that style.css file within your theme template file. I say “alongside” because there are things that WordPress has in place that I bet your regular site doesn’t, and it’s just a good idea to keep that stuff with WordPress, especially if you are doing a slow conversion to the system.
You’ll also want to edit the theme files down to their bare-bones and make sure it has the same structure and div names as your existing site, so that it’ll take on the correct attributes for your classes and ID’s.
But as you can see, it’s very simple to connect a regular static site to a WordPress installation. once you have the two connecting, there’s all kinds of directions you can go with it.
-
Are you guys saying what this lady is saying does not work?or did I misunderstand what she’s saying?
Yes. Please read this and note the instructions you are dwelling on are for WordPress.ORG installs. This is the WordPress.COM support forum and those instructions do not apply to free hosted WordPress.COM blogs.
WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org: The Differences > http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
-
Like I said, you can import and do it with .org. Not with .com. They’re different types of the same brand of software.
-
My bad I did not see or understand the reference to com vs org before as having to do with the reason I could not upload the existing site. I didnt realize they were different in the way you explained. Thanks for the info (both of you) I will look into the .org functionality.
You advice is very much appreciated as is the fast reply :)
- The topic ‘Current Site Issues’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 