I want to build a personal website on wordpress.com
I have found a website that I really like the look of and want my website to look extremely similar to that website, maybe with just different assets.
I have some experience in Java and C but none in html. What would be the best way to replicate the source website onto my own website. I know I can inspect the element and look at the source code but it is really unintuitive. Is there a better way? How do I find the themes the original site used? Is there any way to copy the html code onto my own website?
Are you sure you want to build it on WordPress.com? It's hosted by WordPress, but also very limited and you can't really modify the themes.
If you want more control, you should do it using self-hosted WordPress.org package.
To check what kind of theme is used, go to source code and search for "wp-content/themes/theme-name" or find the main CSS file (often style.css) as there will be commented details that are shown by WordPress in Themes menu.
There are 2 options:
The website you like is a custom design and there is no easy way to copy that and it can be even illegal if you don't ask the owner. If you really want to copy the source, there is only a manual way - you download the source styles and scripts and modify it. Tough and risky way, because the sources are often minified.
The website is using a free or premium theme, available to buy, that's going to save you hours of work and probably allows a lot of customization, so you only have to spend some time to adjust it to your needs, upload photos etc. You will probably even don't have to look at the code.
(extra) If you still don't know what theme it is - ask the owner
(I'm quite new to programming so forgive me for any incorrect terms! HTML and CSS are my strenghts.)
I'm currently working on a Joomla website for a music festival. One of its pages contains a schedule with a list of performing acts.
My ambitious goal is to build a feature that makes my website's users able to mark certain acts as their favourites. In practice, clicking an icon would give it a visual highlight or something like that. The ideal situation would be that the user shouldn't have to sign in to save one's choises. I guess the solution would have something to do with the browser's local storage?
Here's one example for what I mean. (This is NOT my site, just an example of something I'm looking for).
Can anyone help me to get started? Thanks in advance!
This extension, http://extensions.joomla.org/extension/my-shortlist , should help with little or no modifications to the template.
If the above doesn't help, then you can the JED (the Joomla Extensions Directory) for an extension that is better suited to your needs.
I am currently in an internship and making a website for someone. I have nearly finished the website and they would like a way to easily edit the website without messing around too much with code. They have no development team and once my internship is over, obviously they'll be stuck and they would like a way to edit the content on the website. How can I go about doing this? I mentioned a WordPress site to them but they didn't like the sound of that. Are there any other ways in which I can allow them to have this functionality?
Cheers
You can either create a Wordpress-similar, with a login, and while navigating through pages they would have options normal users do not have (e.g: delete, etc).
Or you could create an admin dashboard, where there would be every settings.
I think the second one is the best option for you, as it doesn't require you to modify any pages already created, and you will not have to adapt the style of your website to those supplementary options which would be shown on every pages if you used the first option.
Edit:
Or you could have all the content of the website in files, so that they simply need to edit the files to change the content. Even though I think option 2 is better, this one is a lot simpler to put in place.
I have a question of how to develop a small website which is quick and easy which has html support unlike google sites. For one of my course project I have to develop a prototype of the website but just html pages. Want to implement the clicks, text fields, checkboxes etc., I have created a small site of googlesites but that doens't allow me to put the html like text fields radio buttons etc., I just wanted to know if there is any free WYSIWYG capable for doing my stuff.
Thanks in advance
EDIT:
I dont want to use the div tags and arrange the location of HTML. I just want to drag and drop the fields and the site should automatically place the fields appropriately on the webpage something as easy as google sites
I found jsfiddle.net to be really useful. Basically you can put in HTML, CSS, and Javascript, click "Run" and see the result.
It's great for testing or hacking some CSS or Javascript, as it gives you instant feedback, saving you the "edit, save, launch, wait, repeat" cycle you might find using a text or HTML editor.
UPDATE
I'm not sure if I understood your question correctly. Perhaps you are looking for a tool like Google sites but with more capabilities? If so, http://www.weebly.com/ is a good option and it is free.
I'm trying to create a theme for a CMS, but it's proving nearly impossible, as I have no understanding of PHP or ASP.NET. I can put a site together via CSS and HTML, but I want clients to be able to add and edit content themselves. I'm about ready to give up on designing one altogether and just use an existing theme.
I've had a go at trying to understand the inner workings of Wordpress, SilverStripe, Umbraco and Pixie, but the tutorials have left me confounded. Are there other CMSes I should be looking into for a more simplified theming process?
I'd really love to be able to just drop a chunk of code into the content area of a given HTML page, and make that region editable from a WYSIWYG front end that the client can log into. Is there such a thing?
Anything but DotNetNuke.
I'd recommend giving Wordpress another try.
I'm no web developer, just a an average Java/C# programmer who needed a web site and has some basic knowledge of HTML and CSS. What I did was find a theme that was similar to what I wanted, then started tweaking it incrementally. My theme is pretty basic, but before long I got a pretty good grasp of "The Loop" and printing out category and page links and such.
How about Movable Type?
You can (and should) edit the templates via the web interface, they are divided into separate modules, so you can concentrate on one area of the site, styling is of course handled via CSS.
It took me a few hours without any prior experience with this CMS to completely port a Wordpress theme to MT - I found the documentation very helpful and didn't even have to look elsewhere.
An awesome thing about MT - it generates static pages based on the templates you defined. Meaning, very low load on the server, you don't need to query the database on every request, etc. You could probably do the same/similar by activating the cache plugin (or is it built in now?) in Wordpress, but here it's the default modus operandi so it's more stable and integrated with the CMS.
Drupal with the zen theme (or a "lighter" version of it: Starkish theme) seems like a popular choice (and well deserved, too). It gives you a good starting point, it has great documentation and many modules available.
PS: I've added this as an additional answer so that it can be voted upon separately from my other suggestion - I just could not stop myself from bringing up the Drupal + zen combo :)
I worked with Joomla, it is really easy to have a theme for it without knowing any programming language. When you install it using a simple installer, there will be a folder named templates. There are three simple themes each in its own folder. Just copy one of them,change XML data for that theme ( just to name it and have some details, no programming ) and change the contents of CSS and HTMLs. every where you see something unrelated to HTML like , copy them!! Names are descriptive. so you can guess what do they do. give it a try!
I'd really love to be able to just drop a chunk of code into the content area of a given HTML page, and make that region editable from a WYSIWYG front end that the client can log into. Is there such a thing?
The only system I've come across with this kind of functionality is Perch.
Just create your website using HTML/CSS as usual and chuck in a few small php tags where you want editable content. These areas are then added to an admin area for your clients to edit.
The only drawback is it costs £35 per site - I don't know if there's a free/open-source CMS with this functionality...
It's difficult to say which CMS will be the best one for you (maybe your question should be made into a community wiki question).
I have a little experience with mojoPortal, and found it to be easily customizable. There's a lot of documentation about how to skin your CMS and there a lots of complete skins that you can use as a starting point.
There is also a demo site, where you can see how the CMS works for an end-user.
Take a look at Joomla. That was the first CMS that I really used, and I still think its templating engine is better than most of the others out there.
Its template system essentially lets you build a standard web page, and then use some simple tags to define where the content and modules would go. You can override the output of most external components and modules without too much trouble, and the vast library of third-party extensions should help you add a ton of functionality to your site without much coding on your part. Joomla also has a fairly easy-to-use administrative backend, so your clients should like it too.
This page for themeing Wordpress helped me a lot:
Theme Development
UPDATE
Xichael,
If you know HTML and CSS pretty well, but you just don't want to spend time learning the Wordpress framework, then I think this is a good option for you (again, I can relate to your situation). Use Wordpress with the new Toolbox starter theme. It's super minimal.
Toolbox: An HTML5 WordPress Starter Theme
Here's an example of what it looks like. Just "View page source" and go to town on the CSS!
I've thought about writing my own very simple CMS just for handling pages, i.e. you have some sort of template, and then a <div> in the middle to drop in text from a WYSIWYG editor. You could even use XML as the data store to eliminate having to set up a database to store the page content.
It would sort of be re-inventing the wheel though, because there is so much polished CMS software out there already, but it wouldn't be that hard because it wouldn't have 99% of the features most systems have. However, what happens when your client wants to add something in the future that's already standard in an existing CMS or plugin?
If you are looking for a simple CMS tool, CMSimple is as basic as it gets. A small PHP based CMS system that does not even require a database or XML.
"CMSimple is the ideal tool for a single user to maintain a website."
Original version here: CMSimple.ORG
Original plus 2 enhanced versions here: Download CMSimple
117KB content manangement system
no database required; the entire site is stored in a single HTML file
built in WYSIWYG
no modules or widgets, no blog, no comments, etc., just basic pages
uses PHP (but no database)
Get themes here: dotcomwebdesign.com