Wordpress for Local Area Guides

[trigatch4]

Been debating the setup of my wordpress front for my local area guide. I think I decided upon the optimal solution:

Twisting Wordpress Into A Local Area Guide/Directory | eurekadiary.com

It's a lengthy post, so to summarize: basically to use pages as if they were categories, hacking up a custom template for each to give them somewhat of a "static category" feel and later on implementing a wordpress post loop into the page template once the site grows.

Still open to other ideas, but I think this works best for now. Since there has been a lot of discussion on local area directories as of late, I think this could help a lot of others in my shoes.

Sowhatchyathink?

 

[semester3]

I have been doing this with a custom wordpress theme. It has been working well with mine. I have since added a place where people can sign in and see specific things that pertain to them on the recent posts.

I have learned a lot by looking at the wpdesigner.com website. Learning about the loop and everything will make everything so much easier.

 

[Crynos]

This was something I was thinking of also, mainly because I also can't afford to get some custom coded up. When I get it up I'd like to chat some about it, maybe bounce ideas back and forth.

 

[BennyBoy]

I've done a little local directory by personalise the "profil" feature in word press (adding more options, pictures, etc.). Very simple to do and effective.

 

[Jizzlobber]

Why not setup a Wordpress MU installation in another directory and create a separate blog for each category? I would think you would have better opportunity to scale each category as an independent blog should a particular one become popular.

 

[trigatch4]

Wordpress MU has too many bugs and not enough plugins/following. Because the majority of people use the singular wordpress, that's what developer's create themes, plugins, hacks, tutorials, updates, patches, etc... for.

I've tried Wordpress MU in the past and was very keen on the opportunity, but it simply lags a little too far behind for me to implement it as a long term solution.

When WPMU has an update, you stand a much better chance of being left in the dust if one of your themes, plugins, scripts or something else doesn't translate properly with the new edition. And then where do you go? Using the regular version of wordpress, there are tens of thousands of other people in the same shoes as you... making the dialogue open and easy.

Not a bad idea, I'm just not ready to make that leap. I can foresee the headaches already!

 

[semester3]

I'm not saying Mu will just up and die but I agree with you that it is too early to tell if it is something that they will continuously be updating. The headaches to use singular wordpress are for easier to me handle then the possibility of the ones that I can foresee happening with Wordpress Mu.

I would get started on it, I have marketed mine to local biz's. I have scraped my local newspaper and gotten relative articles and it seems like I've been around for a few years vs just starting out. I have had the domain for 4 years so that helps with seo as well.

If I were to start over whcih I will be doing soon...My team and I will be doing a custom CMS . There are just a few things that get lost in the mix of things.

 

[eliquid]

if your doing custom work to WP already and you think WPMU is "too far lagging" then your an idiot... WPMU is by far the best thing since sliced bread for what you are trying to do.....

 

[stmadeveloper]

The "BUGS" in WPMU usually result from someone who doesn't know what they are doing trying to make it do something else

Fixed enough of them to know that.

Problems that are valid: 1.) Server load - but only with lots of users. 2.) Less plug ins - but all the good ones work. 3.) Less themes - nope wait - almost every wordpress theme out there works with mu or at least every one I've ever installed.

I've got about 50 MU sites runnign with various themes, plug ins, configurations, etc.. No real issues to speak of.

 

[eliquid]

The "BUGS" in WPMU usually result from someone who doesn't know what they are doing trying to make it do something else

Fixed enough of them to know that.

Problems that are valid: 1.) Server load - but only with lots of users. 2.) Less plug ins - but all the good ones work. 3.) Less themes - nope wait - almost every wordpress theme out there works with mu or at least every one I've ever installed.

I've got about 50 MU sites runnign with various themes, plug ins, configurations, etc.. No real issues to speak of.

right on stmadeveloper, i only have 2 MU sites, but they are highly customized to hell and back.... if you know PHP, you can do anything you want with WP and WPMU. I get all my plugins and themes to work with no problems.

 

[trigatch4]

eliquid - thanks for the "idiot" comment, very constructive feedback that is much appreciated.

stma - point noted... so are you suggesting installing wpmu with a different blog for real-estate, restaurants, entertainment, etc and proceeding that way? Do the benefits far outweigh my suggested method?

I wouldn't say I "know" PHP... I've learned enough to hack around existing wordpress code to get it to do what I want.

 

[Jizzlobber]

I have a site with 32 categories, each as a separate blog in an MU installation. What's nice with MU is that it's like mission control. I login to the admin panel and I got a drop down list of all the categories (blogs). When I select one, I've got an entire CMS for my category - I can apply plugins, SEO, etc. independently. Create custom pages, sidebars, etc. Create custom calls to a separate database, or to a PHPmydirectory dbase. Also it's easy for me to do specific database tasks in the WP database as each category (blog) is identified in my case as WP1 tru WP32. Overall just a cleaner way for me to work as I am mildly retarded and borderline ADD.

 

[Crynos]

I have a site with 32 categories, each as a separate blog in an MU installation. What's nice with MU is that it's like mission control. I login to the admin panel and I got a drop down list of all the categories (blogs). When I select one, I've got an entire CMS for my category - I can apply plugins, SEO, etc. independently. Create custom pages, sidebars, etc. Create custom calls to a separate database, or to a PHPmydirectory dbase. Also it's easy for me to do specific database tasks in the WP database as each category (blog) is identified in my case as WP1 tru WP32. Overall just a cleaner way for me to work as I am mildly retarded and borderline ADD.

Are you running a local area guide like this or is it something else? Just wondering.

 

[trigatch4]

• Do you have to add your theme to each of the 32 blogs if you want minor changes like a different header on each?
• Do you have to add plugins for each or once across the board?
• What happens for something like an "event calendar" where all WPMU installations should share the info from 1 calendar?
• Have you faced any problems/bugs? Easy as WP to update? Most plugins/themes work fine?

 

[Rob_TID]

I have been doing exactly what trigatch said in the first post and it has been working pretty well so far.

 

[Jizzlobber]

Are you running a local area guide like this or is it something else? Just wondering.

No mine's a shopping/reviews site.

• Do you have to add your theme to each of the 32 blogs if you want minor changes like a different header on each?

In my case I have 32 themes - 1 for each category. Each theme folder is labeled the same as the category, each theme style sheet title is labled that way as well - this helps you activate the appropriate theme for each category in the presentation tab. I keep a localized folder of all themes, that way for sitewide generic code changes, I can do an extended find and replace and then upload them all at once. My theme is only 400k so 32x is not so much space. Besides, the user is caching the same images anyway. I suppose if you're doing some big images then you could create a folder in the root directory and call out to that. Also, if I need to go to a page within the category that has different header, sidebar or footer - I create a template with the all the code within a single php file which includes the changes and then create the page through the Manage > Pages tab. A Google search box results page for example.

• Do you have to add plugins for each or once across the board?

I use plugin commander and I can activate/deactivate across all blogs all at once or separately as well.

• What happens for something like an "event calendar" where all WPMU installations should share the info from 1 calendar?

I'm not using the calendar function - that's prime adsense space. Seriously, its commented out in my template but why couldn't you have all category themes coded so they read from one calendar? Perhaps a root setup? I need to look into that one.

• Have you faced any problems/bugs? Easy as WP to update? Most plugins/themes work fine?

The only plugin that I tried that didn't work for me was the Mass Post Manager. I needed to get rid of a bunch of posts from a minor autoblog casualty - I ended up doing it directly in the database. Never had an issue with any theme and I tried out a lot before I settled on one. Small Potato did some nice work before I hacked the shit out of it.

trigatch4, this is a solution I came up with that worked well for my application. In my case MU has proved to be an exceptional solution. Right now I have a 32 category site that is semi-logically laid out and easy to maintain. Maybe not the next time around. I've got a directory gimmick on the backburner until I clear out some other projects, so who nows maybe I'll find your methods to be a better fit.

 

[eliquid]

hey, sorry if you felt bad about the idiot comment... didnt mean it to sound like YOU ARE AN IDIOT, just in general for people thinking WPMU is "lagging behind" when they dont even know how to use it correctly... you do know this is WF right?