WordPress

I want to use WordPress as a CMS, not just as a blog-engine. According to the WWW this should be possible. I tried some other CMSes briefly. I think they suffer from over-complexity or overweight and I don’t want to overload my brain or system.

Below I’ll use ${WPROOT} to refer to the directory wordpress is installed

Installation

Download and installation from the WordPress MU website it pretty straightforward.

• Apache:
  • I installed wordpress-root in a virtual host
  • I defined the *.domain.tld ServerAlias for the moment. If I’m ready testing I will assign virtual hosts names myself
  • I defined *.domain.tld in my DNS to have any unknown host to be resolved as the wordpress site.
  • mod_rewrite module must be enabled
  • Put AllowOverride FileInfo Options in the <Directory> directive.
• In mysql create a user with an empty database

WordPress is installed for subdomains (*.domain.tld). The root is used for administration purposes only. I don’t want any visitor to be disturbed by administrator login pages.

Modify ${WPROOT}/wp-content/themes/home/home.php and put only a redirect tag in like <meta http-equiv=”REFRESH” content=”0;URL=http://www.domain.tld/”>. You have to goto the login page by typing or linking it somewhere else.

Moving a WordPress site

This instruction from Steve Taylor works very well.
http://sltaylor.co.uk/blog/moving-wordpress-new-domain-server/

Before starting lock out everyone (./.htaccess and ./503.php and backup everything.

The main thing is to export the database and change all occurrences the directory-path and URL. In simple sites this is pretty straight-forward. The only serialized data is in the recently_edited file-list (table wp_options). I think you can safely ignore these.

The other thing is to move all files you added or edited too. These may be:

• ./.htaccess
• ./503.php
• ./wp-content/themes/<theme>/functions
• Any theme you created yourself.
• ./robots.txt

Security tips

Also from Steve Taylor: http://sltaylor.co.uk/blog/wordpress-hacks-tips-security/

Very briefly summarized:

• Use a randomly generated password for the DataBase
• Replace the standard table prefix (wp_) with a random string.
• Disable user Admin, create another user with the Administrator role.
• Remove ./wp-admin/install.php
• Create ./.htaccess to deny access to ./wp-config.php, ./.htaccess and directory listing.
  

  IndexIgnore *
  <Files .htaccess>
  order allow,deny
  deny from all
  </Files>
  <FilesMatch ^wp-config.php$>
  deny from all
  </FilesMatch>

• Disable publication of the WP-version by adding this function and filter to your theme functions (./wp-content/themes/<theme>/functions.php)
  

  function no_generator() { return”;}
  add_filter( ‘the_generator’, ‘no_generator’ );

• Use the wordpress coding standards
• Use strong passwords (min 8 characters, include numbers, punctuation, capitals)
• Backup frequently your database and files if you changed them.

Themes

Themes define the layout of a wordpress site. The themes are stored in ${WPROOT}/wp-content/themes. You can start a new theme by just copying a them to a new directory and start modifying it.

Learned from the default theme (wp2.9.2)

style.css

The first comment defines the name and authorship of the theme.

images/kubrickbgcolor.jpg

Defines the background-color of the browser window (outside the page)

images/kubrickbg-ltr.jpg

Defines the background-colors of the page-body

images/kubrickfooter.jpg

Defines the background-color of the page-booter

images/kubrickheader.jpg

Defines the colors and shape of the header. For some of the colors the settings in the ‘Appearance’-‘Custom header’ section have preference. If you remove all color settings from the ‘Custom header’ page the color from the image are selected.

First thing I will try is to find a good theme that matches your layout needs. Then check if it can be modified to make if fit exactly.

Nice themes found:

• WikiWP (For unix)
• Andyblue (3 column theme)
• Tomorrow (very quiet, everything is in index.php)
• blog.txt (Text-style)

Plugins

Definition List

Adds DL button to the editor. Added to wp_unix

Configure SMTP

You really need this to get wordpress sending emails.