xanthein.net

So I’ve been working on the BATS website recently - http://www.bats.uk.net/ If it looks familiar then you’d be quite right as it’s based on Wordpress - the same blog engine that I use on xanthein.net.

So, why did I use a blog system for a “normal” website? Firstly, you have to understand what the old website was like. Designed completely in static HTML, edited using MS Frontpage - a design straight out of the 90s. From looking at archive.org it looks like the site was updated once in 2003, once in 2004 and once in 2005. In 2006 I took over running the website and only managed to make one change before deciding it was too much work it its current form!

After moving the domain from Freeola to my own co-located server and tidying up the HTML so it was editable in my web development environment of choice (i.e. the vim editor!), I set out to look at alternatives.

My main choices were:

• Static pages, but with nicer design.
• A “proper” CMS like Joomla or Plone.
• A blog system such as Wordpress.

The first one was out due to the high level of maintenance required. Originally the 2nd option would have been my choice, but in all honesty Joomla was too much for me to try and get my head around at the time, especially as I only had my spare time to work on this. Plone was ruled out by me not knowing any Python/Zope.

This left a blog engine - for me, meaning Wordpress. Wordpress has the advantage of being very easy to hack into something useful if it isn’t possible with the default install. It also has plenty of support for multiple authors - meaning I don’t have to do all the updates to the website. It also has TinyMCE built in - meaning that my authors wouldn’t need to know any HTML!

Originally I started to do some research into making Wordpress more CMS-like and came across Canvas and it’s Kiwi theme. After much tweaking of the Canvas modules and some custom coding to try and get things working decently I gave up in frustration. What I was trying to do was much too complicated for such a system and while a “proper” CMS would have handled it very well, Wordpress just wasn’t up to it.

Rather than move away from Wordpress I decided to opt for a more traditional “blog” format than the CMS type that I wanted. I took the Prebuilt-10 theme (which was based I think, on K2) and adapted it to my needs and after integrating Extended Live Archives and Gallery 2, I was almost to roll. I also spent some time investigating Google Maps, and eventually got a map on the site.

So what’s next? My next step is to get all the information on past productions into Wordpress. I’m currently gathering information from some of the long-term members of BATS to get a decent list of shows, authors and directors, which will form the basis of the past productions section. Once I’ve imported all that data into the database, the manual work will begin, which will involve getting people to write summaries for each production. Alongside that, I think I’m going to try to integrate some forums into the site so members old and new, past and present can discuss the society and its productions.

All in all the time invested in making Wordpress work has been very worthwhile and should pay dividends in time saved later on.