Suguay Productions

I made mention in my article on Word Press that I am using a plugin called “WP to Twitter”. At the time I noted that it didn’t seem to work for articles that were scheduled to post instead of posted immediately.

I am please to note that an update has since been released that appears to resolve that issue. My most recent scheduled article did indeed issue the Twitter post when it published. 

Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.

I just setup a new blog and decided to try out WordPress.

I am using WordPress 3.2.1 at the moment using one of the templates that comes with it.

Installation was a breeze as I use GoDaddy for my hosting company and as part of their service they have a service called “Hosting Connection” which allows for reasonably automated installation of various software for your website. I’ve used it several times before for other installations including this one.

Just getting started isn’t too challenging if you have dealt with other Content Management Tools. I started with Joomla! and so have had some experience with setting up or selecting the different plugins and widgets and such. For a novice this will take a litle getting used to though I don’t think one would find it too challenging. 

One of the key things about WordPress is that the template is what defines your layout capabilities, at least without digging into the code. If the template is a 2 column template with 2 widget areas, that is what you get. There is no deciding you want it to be 3 columns and you want more widget areas or you want them in different places. So remember that when you are looking for a template.

There are lots of free templates out there and you can browse through them, though that can be tedious and not quite as friendly as I would like. Unless you have a keyword to search on your search choices are limited to certain subsets such as ‘most recent’, ‘most popular’, and ‘recently updated’ or something similar. There are still plenty to look through and you can even view a preview of them. 

I recommend starting with your template because it will determine what your layout will be and what options and segments you will be able to include on your page. I had started setting it up and then tried loading a template I created using a tool, only to find out it didn’t support some things I had already decided I needed. 

I have added a couple of widgets. Just like the templated, there are lots of widgets already created and available for free. Searching through these is a little easier as they tend to be divided out by categories such as ‘social networking’, ‘shopping’, and stuff like that. I have an advertising addin installed called “Adsense Me” that gives me six or 8 sections to put in my advertising code and they are all widgets that I can then just drag to my widget locations, including before or after the text. It seems to work well so far. 

I am also using “WP to Twitter” to automatically update my Twitter feed when I post an article or a link or if I update and article. This took a little bit to figure out how to setup because you will need to get some keys and codes from Twitter so it has permission to post for you. But once you get that it’s pretty easy. You can use a variety of url shorteners as well or you can let WordPress do that for you. The only downside I have encountered with it so far is that if you schedule the article to publish at a later date, it doesn’t register this as a publish when it does post and so it doesn’t send out the notice. For me this is a small problem since I tend to have a bunch of things to say all at one time and in order to not flood the page or my readers with a lot of new stuff, I will set things to post a day or so later. My current solution will be to either leave it as is, post a notice to Twitter myself, and or post a notice to Google+ myself. This last option might be a good one as there is a public circles option. 

It was fairly easy to add my analytics code to the template. Google gives good instructions and it’s not too hard to find in WordPress. You’ll need to go to the Themes section under Appearance and then to the Editor to find the spot to add it. It might take a little to find it because it doesn’t just jump out at you. Fortunately I was already poking around in things so finding it was going to happen anyway.

With WordPress, creating static pages to hold your information like a bio or about us or the legal disclaimers is really easy. They call them Pages and you create them much like you create a regular posting.

I haven’t found an easy option for the Contact Me part yet. I think I may just add a Contact page and then put the contact information there.

If you use custom HTML code for something, like a Paypal tip jar or something like that there is a built-in widget for HTML code so that’s easy to add as well. You insert the code you want and then drag it to one of your widget areas.

If you decide you want to remove some widget but don’t want to lose your settings for it you can drag it to the Inactive Widgets area instead of the Available Widgets area and then it’s ready for you to use again when you want it. If you would rather remove it and delete it’s settings just drag it back to the Available Widgets area.

With a few exceptions, making layout changes won’t require you to save settings before the changes show up on the site. Pretty much, you drag a widget to a spot and it’s there for the next person to see.

WordPress sites have a distinctive look to me. Regardless of the template being used I can almost always spot a WordPress site. Depending on your view this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The sites tend to look clean and crisp with a well positioned layout. Very few of them tend to look like they were thrown together in Hotdog using the most outragous color combinations the person could come up with. WordPress sites generally look good.

I have always thought that WordPress was a very basic Content Management or Blogging tool and with it’s ease of use and setup, in many ways it is. But don’t be fooled and don’t let that keep you from using it. With the number of Widgets and Plugins that have been created, and that can be added to a WordPress site, this is far from a limited tool. While I haven’t had a need or gotten far enought into it to review all aspects of it, however; from what I’ve seen so far, and from some of the other WordPress sites I have seen, it is an application that can be as simple or as robust as you need or want it to be.  

Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.

It’s time to update my interactions with some of the software that I may have mentioned here. Most of it I was evaluating or testing for others who had indicated a desire to do some particular something on the Internet and were in need of an application that would make this possible. Some of the software I have looked at just out of curiosity, and some of it has been for my own use. Now seems like a good time to update everyone on what I’ve finished looking at, what I am still desirous to look at and what I intend to continue to use, research, play with or whatever you may call it.

To start with, I have removed the following applications
: Moodle, Gallery, and Zen Cart. None of these have I removed due to a problem with the software, rather a lack of need.

Moodle: I was evaluating for another person who indicated they wanted to be able to hold classes online. They have changed their focus and are no longer interested in this idea. I am not inclined to host online classes and thus have no need of the application.

Gallery: quite frankly, I don’t entirely remember why I installed this. I think it had to do with a group whose site I was supporting and they had expressed a desire to be able to share photos and such. Beyond installing the software and looking at it, I never did anything with it. I’m not inclined to share a lot of pics with people. I don’t even have a personal picture up on the social networking site I frequent. So there is little use for this particular application for me.

Zen Cart: Again, I was evaluating this software for someone else, who was expecting to need a way to sell products online. They have chosen to do something else so they no longer have a need for this software. I do not currently sell any products. I host advertisements for others and beg for donations, however, I don’t currently have anything to sell. So I have no real use for this application. Additionally, not in favor of this application, one of the other applications that I do continue to use has the capability of adding a module to handle sales, including download sales and so this becomes somewhat redundant for my purposes.

I have one application installed that is sort of in limbo and that is, Simple Machines Forum. The site that I initially needed it for has not been active for sometime and will soon be disbanding. I will not need to continue to do anything for it on that site. I have it installed on my site however, I do not currently have a use for it. I am ambivalent about removing it as it is still possible that I will have a use for it. I have discovered that there had been an issue with one of the upgrades that I have not looked into. I just had to recover the application this weekend and have not looked into what the problem was, or even the state of the environment. I suppose I should add that to my “To Do List”. So, alas, Simple Machines Forum remains in limbo for me.

There are a few applications that I continue to use, work with, evaluate, tweak or whatever. I am either actively using them myself at the moment or someone I help is actively using them and so I have it installed for reference. Those happy, active applications would be: Joomla!, Drupal, and WordPress. Yes, all of those.

Joomla!: I actively use this application. It is currently the primary application I use for my site and the one I have used longest. I’ve recently come across a need to make some serious adjustments and need to either learn to tweak a template or two or to write my own. As a result I’m spending a lot of time with this one. I am still trying to figure out how to embed a flash animation in the header. To be fair, I haven’t spent any real time scouring the Joomla! forums so the answer is probably there and I’m trying to reinvent the wheel. So this remains at the fore of things that I am working with and working on. It will continue to be a potential topic for discussion.

Drupal: Ok, initially I did not like this software. I thought it was too difficult to get started with. With more experience with a CMS program in general, I find this less of a challenge. It still takes some work to get my head around the difference in concepts, however, I am making progress with it. Part of what has caused me to revisit the software has been it’s publicity lately with regards to some of the sites that are using it. So I am learning how to setup a Drupal site. What I have decided to do for this is to essentially duplicate everything or at least all the articles and features that I have at the Joomla! version of my site within Drupal. I think this is the best way to get a reasonable comparison of the look and feel of the differences and similarities of the applications. It also gives me content to work with and not requiring me to come up with lots of new content. I can post the same articles on each site and then determine how easy it is to do and such and report back on that.

WordPress: I am not yet actively using this. I have someone who is and I assist them with their site and changes they want and the like. Because of this, I have WordPress installed. I don’t have anything in it at the moment though I do have a theme other than the default installed on the site. In addition to helping this other person with the application, it is my intention to actually use this myself. I have an idea that I think the WordPress software might be ideally suited for, as a start. And I eventually intend to do with it what I am doing with Drupal. The key here on this is the eventually part. I do not anticipate getting that deeply involved with it for a while. Of course if the other idea takes off all that could change. However, sooner or later I’ll have a report on this one as well.

There is still at least one application that I would like to “play” with. I changed one of my hosting accounts over to Windows from Linux so I could install and look at DotNetNuke. The only problem I have run into so far is that the version of Asp.Net on that new server is not compatible with DotNetNuke. I haven’t really decided what to do about this yet. I’m not going to switch the hosting back yet though because I may still play with Silverlight from Microsoft as an alternative to Flash and I have a feeling I may want that on a Windows site. Not sure yet. Then again, I may have to find a way to get convert my Flash animation into HTML 5. So many things to think about.

A final note: The application X7 Chat is falling by the wayside as well. I do not expect to be continuing with this program since it was researched and implemented strictly as a tool for the site that is expected to disband soon. They never made any use of the application anyway so I have not kept up with it.

That about covers things as they stand for the moment. As you can see I have quite a bit of work that I still need/want to do and there is still a learning curve to address with different aspects of each bit of software I am using. My goal is to find the one that is easiest to learn and get up and running and to keep up to date.

 

Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.

So I got all excited I figured out how to add the adverts to my site. If you use Google Adsense for this which is one of the things I did. Then you start to get a little information about visits to your site. The other thing you can do is to set up Google Analytics. Both will tell you something about your traffic. And it’s kind of cool information.

First how to set up each. For Google Adsense go to the site at: http://www.google.com/adsense and apply for an account. Yes, apply. Their email or message says they will give you an answer within about 2 days. I had mine back in a few hours. When you get notified that you’ve been approved, then you will need to create/set up the type of ad you want to display. Don’t ask me too much about this as I’m still figuring it all out and I haven’t read all the details. Once you have created your code you will place it in your banner for that client on your site. For a bit more on this see the article on adding adverts to your site under the Joomla! section. Read carefully because you don’t want to break the rules. Don’t click on your own ads for Google and you can only have so many of each type on a page. 

For Google Analytics you will need to go to that site at: http://www.google.com/analytics and get set up there as well. This doesn’t really require an application process so you won’t have to wait for approval. Once your account is created and you give some general information you will then get the code to add to your site. When the code displays it provides instructions as to the best place to paste this code on all the pages you want to track. If you are using a static site that is not created using a content management tool then you will likely want to add it to every page. You paste it into the html code at the very end just before the </body> tag. That is just before the closing body tag. And then away you go. For Joomla! users, this turns out to be way easy. Ok, I confess I have a book I looked it up in. Basically, from within you administrator console, under extensions go to the template manager, click on the template you are using and then click on ‘Edit HTML’. It will open up the index page and you will paste the analytics code in just before the closing body tag (</body>) towards the end of the page. Save it and you are in business. For template users it’s much the same as for Joomla! users. Paste the code in your template just before the closing body tag  (</body>).

So what will all this tell you? Well with the Adsense page, when you log into your account you can see how many page impressions and click throughs are happening. This also tells you how much cash you might have made so far.  The Analytics page has more information. You find out how many hits you have had on your page, if they have been organic or direct. Did some come from search engines? Of those visiting your page what browsers were they using? How are they connecting to the internet, are they using cable, DSL or what? You can even find out what pages they are visiting so you can tailor your content more effectively. You can also find out how long they are staying on your page. 

You can connect your Adsense and Analytics accounts to make accessing the info easier. I haven’t done this yet so I can’t tell you what other advantages it might have. If you are an iPhone user there is a Google Analytics Lite app that you can download for free at this time. It will give you a quick view. Not as indepth as the full Analystics site but still helpful.

Cheers

Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.