First Real Baked Site

[jollylama]

I've been messing around with WB for awhile and love that it's straight forward.

I've finally got motivated to somewhat duplicate my current 'static' html site to some sort of CMS Back-end that i can understand. Joomla and the rest makes my brain hurt.. i don't seem to get their process..

anyways,

I'm only maybe 60% done and have alot to figure out (like how to feed articles where i want and how to have users add articles in an easy way).. but wanted to get everybodies advice and suggestions in mid-stream.

here's the baked version:
http://menifeelive.com/wb/

here's the current 'static' version
http://menifeelive.com

Let me know what everybody thinks and on a side note.. thanks for creating such a great tool!

[ruebenwurzel]

Hello,

woow a new nice baked site. Looks like it is made with big expensive System in the background    . Is it really baked with WB? 

Your site shows what is possible with WB and you've done a great work.  .

Matthias

[jollylama]

Thanks Matthias,

I'm not done with it, but just the fact I won't have to open dreamweaver in the 'near future' just to add an article makes me very excited!

Using WB and the News Mod will be really fun for my visitors to post comments on the stories and event photos, I can't wait. The guestbook mod is really great too. I'm using it as a place where visitors can post baby and wedding announcements, yard sales and local happenings... It's like a mini classifieds. I wish it had user image upload capabilities.. (hint, hint...)

I also wish I knew more PHP to tweak things a little more.. but by using WB I'll be able to launch a solid site and work on the harder stuff as i go.

thanks for the kind words.

[kweitzel]

it is really a nice site! BTW ... the upload ability exists ... give your users the right to upload to the media directoy ... they can upload any file there that you allow them to upload ... or take the download gallery together which comes with userupload as well ...

cheers

Klaus

[i2Paq]

Nice jobs!

I see that not all is up and running (Contact us)?

[mathetos]

Seriously great and detailed site. I like several aspects:

1) Your calendar. That's not one of the WB Event calendars, or is it?
2) The different content boxes and side bars are nice and well integrated. Are each of those boxes in the middle column a unique content area, or is it one content call with a lot of customized code?
3) The CSS is cleaner on your WB site than the static site.

Couple suggestions:
1) Your navigation logic is clearer on your static site. I couldn't really figure out where I was (contexually) when I clicked the horizontal menu in relation with the vertical menu. The vertical menu alone is more logical than the hor. but putting them together just seemed confusing. I didn't dig into your code to see what you used on your static menu, but I'm sure you could almost exactly emulate your static menu with WB and show_menu2.

2) I like the black background and shadowing on the static page better.

3) I would extend the cloud graphic from the banner to the footer as well for a bit of consistency and "completion."

Overall, I'm really impressed. It makes me want to do more myself.

~mathetos~

[jollylama]

Hi Mathetos,

Thanks for taking the time to look at my site and for your great suggestions.

The calendar is not WB. It's created by 'easy PHP Calendar'. It's 20 bucks and very easy to install and modify. You have the option to run it with or without MYSQL.

I think they might have a free version..
http://www.easyphpcalendar.com/index.php

When complete the homepage will accomodate different content boxes feeding in separate page id's. It will be dynamic. If you visit:

http://menifeelive.com/wb/pages/front-porch.php

You can see the dynamic version. I still need to write the css and such, but you get the idea.. I found a thread somewhere on the WB forum on how to feed any news 'anywhere'.. it's a really great script.

http://forum.WebsiteBaker.org/index.php/topic,409.0.html

The side bar on the right is all graphics I created with hard links..

As for the navigation.. I'm not sure i like any of them.. I'm still working out the sections and section names. I have alot of articles and photo galleries and just trying to sort them all out at this point. Once I figure out the site structure (which I should have done at the start) I can concentrate on the nav.

As for the black background.. Originally the WB version was black and very loud, and like the black myself because it makes it look more dramatic. However, my demographics for this site oddly enough leans towards families, stay at home moms and the 35-55 female category. I thought i'd try to use softer colors for the new WB version.

Thanks again for looking.

[jollylama]

Hi,

This is kind of directed to Klaus or anybody else who knows the best way to handle this. Basically, I'm wondering how to add image upload funtionality to the guestbook and turn it into a sort of a mini classifieds or a more visual announcements. If people want to show off their baby pictures in the guestbook and add an image. I want to avoid them having to register to do this. I currently don't have user log-in enabled on the site.

it is really a nice site! BTW ... the upload ability exists ... give your users the right to upload to the media directoy ... they can upload any file there that you allow them to upload ... or take the download gallery together which comes with userupload as well ...

cheers

Klaus

Hope this makes sense.. Does anybody know how to do this? and is the correct place to have this discussion?

thanks

ben

[kweitzel]

try implementing this here: http://forum.WebsiteBaker.org/index.php/topic,4430.0.html

It will need to go into the view(.)php of the guestbook (I think ...).
cheers

Klaus

[Akumaownz]

http://menifeelive.com/

that's a wicked example of what wb can pull off

good work!

I am surprised you left the wb in the url hee hee

nice

[jollylama]

Hi Akumaownz, and everybody for your very encouraging comments.

I finally launched the site in January and my visitors seem to like it alot. I'm loving how easy it is for visitors to comment on the stories. I really dig how easy it is to update my site and add new articles in website baker. WB is the best and I'll always keep the wb link. - gotta share the love

I only wish I knew php better to tweak what I have. I would say that I'm 85% done with my site, but unfortunately my brain is at it's last 2%.

I'm a illustrator/multimedia kind of guy and any kind of programming is a struggle for me. (thank god for WB)

If anybody reads this and has any pointers on the following I'd be glad to help them with custom illustrations, artwork, icons, wash their car, my first born. 
http://southwest-live.com/wb/

I apologize if this is the wrong forum for this..

1. Guestbook Posting
Have the ability to have a user also upload an image with their posting. and if i could get an email sent to me that would be awesome. anybody know how to do this?
http://menifeelive.com/wb/modules/guestbook/gstbk_add.php?sid=234&pid=135

2. News Comments
Ability to add a name and email to their comments as well as them receiving a thank you email and one to me.
http://menifeelive.com/wb/modules/news/comment.php?id=140

3. RSS solution
Currently I'm manually creating an RSS every time I add a new article. (not a big deal)  I'm wondering if there was a way to have WB write to the xml auto-magically.
http://menifeelive.com/wb/rss/menifeeRSS.xml

Thanks again for a great CMS.