August 12th, 2006

What is “Using WordPress as CMS”?

Part of the Using WordPress as CMS SeriesBy virtue of the fact that WordPress (WP) makes it easy for us to write, publish, edit and organise our blogs, it’s already a content management system (CMS). So, what in the world does “Use WP as a CMS” mean when we already are?

Generally, it means to use WordPress as a more conventional CMS, for less blog-ish content and presentation style. We’re looking at portfolio sites, news and magazine sites, article libraries, gallery sites, photologs, e-commerce sites, and many more. Thus, it means to push WP beyond what it was originally intended to do - publishing blogs - and into the realm of more robust and perhaps more complex CMSes, like Drupal and XOOPS, or into the realm of CMSes specialised in other fields, like Vivvo (for news and article sites) and WSN Gallery (for media galleries).

But speaking generally sucks, so here’s some specifics on the many ways to use WP as a CMS (plus some examples too):

  • Using WP for a Portfolio Site
    To use WP to handle an online portfolio, it will have to be modified to make posts in WP hold individual projects (e.g. web designs, photography, art, etc.) you’ve worked on. This means that instead of the main page listing your daily ramblings in reverse chronological order, it should be able to list your projects in that order - but perhaps only with a thumbnail. Perhaps even custom fields will have to be utilised to make project administration more standardised. A couple of examples of using WP to do so are eric-powell.com and FreeWay Design.
  • Using WP for an E-Commerce Site
    For e-commerce sites, not only will you have to make product pages that list thumbnails of your products, you would also have to integrate a payment solution (e.g. PayPal) into WordPress. Allowing your customers to dynamically change the ordering of your products in those pages, whether according to recency, price or rating, may also be necessary. A couple of examples of using WP for ecommerce are Filipino Artisans, Above The Fold, and Bell Vance Art.
  • Using WP for a Gallery
    Using WP for galleries isn’t much different from using it for portfolios. But there are some differences, including the need to allow commenting and rating for individual gallery items, display of top rated items, and dynamic sorting. Some WordPress powered galleries include webdesignbook.net and Lovely Blogs.
  • Using WP for a Photoblog
    Again, the concept of using WordPress for photoblogs is similar to using WP for galleries or portfolios. But there are unique customisations that will have to be applied for photoblogs, including automatic resizing of uploaded images and easy publishing of a photo’s exif data. Two examples of WP-powered photologs include Pictorialis and dilineate.
  • Using WP for a News or Magazine Site
    News and magazine sites usually need to have feature articles kept on the front page, free of WP’s default reverse chronological display format. They might also need category pages (e.g. for sports news, international news, etc.) with the same implementation (i.e. feature articles specific to the category). Examples include XXL Magazine and Cebu Living.
  • Using WP for Article Libraries
    Article libraries generally need to manage and display articles in a hierarchical manner, yet must also be able to display those articles in reverse chronological order without hierarchy (i.e. Recent Articles). Generally, WordPress’ pages system is hacked to achieve this as unlike Posts, Pages are listed hierarchically. One example of this is A-Level.EconoRef - a site I manage that is still in development.

This list surely isn’t definitive, but I think it’s does its job in showing what it means to use WP in a more CMS-manner and less as a blogging platform.

And for those who want more details on how to replicate some of the examples above, don’t worry, as this is barely an outline of the Using WordPress as CMS series. Catch the technical details as the series goes on.

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Posted by ZMAng

Filed under WordPress

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