WordPress is becoming more and more usable as a Content Management System, so naturally the question comes up.

But they don’t want to abandon the idea of a blog either. Blogs can be an integral part of a business website, and it makes sense that businesses and individuals would want the site and the blog managed from the same WordPress installation.

The First Option

The idea is simple … create a category called “blog” and place every single post you create in this category by making it the default category. Make all other categories “children” of the blog category.

This is actually a pretty decent option for users with a fair amount of WordPress experience. It allows you to accomplish the desired effect, and also lets you create other top-level categories for other purposes than categorizing posts (for instance, using top level categories for things like setting feature posts, press releases, or like me … theme releases).

The Second Option

The second option is a little more complicated, but is certainly a viable option for theme developers releasing themes for mass distribution (this is the option we use at iThemes. See the iCompany theme as an example.).

Here’s a step-by-step:

1. Copy your index.php file
2. Create a new file called blog.php and populate it with the contents of the index.php file
3. Make it a page template by pasting the necessary code at the top. (making sure to change the template name to “Blog” instead of “Bio”)
4. Create a new WordPress “page” (Write > Page) from your Dashboard
5. Don’t worry about content on the page, but make the title “Blog”
6. Before you click publish, scroll down to the “Advanced Options” and expand the “Page Template” section.  Choose “Blog” from the drop down menu.
7. Click Publish.

Now, you’re going to want to edit the blog.php file one last time. Find “the loop“. It should look something like this:

< ?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

Replace that code with this:

< ?php
$temp = $wp_query;
$wp_query= null;
$wp_query = new WP_Query();
$wp_query->query('showposts=5'.'&paged='.$paged);
while ($wp_query->have_posts()) : $wp_query->the_post(); 
?>

You can change the “showposts=5″ to whatever number you want. It just depends on how many posts you want to be shown on a single page. Plus, but using ‘&paged=’.$paged we are able to keep paging intact … a problem that kept many people from using this method in the past.

Then, find the line of code that looks like this and remove it:

< ?php else : ?>

You’ll also probably want to remove any thing that has to do with not being able to find the page you were looking for. Hopefully you have a 404.php file that will take care of that for you.

Finally, after you’ve done the above, find the following code:

< ?php endif; ?>

and change it to:

< ?php $wp_query = null; $wp_query = $temp;?>

The Third Option

The final option is by far the easiest for the end user. It requires no code editing at all and accomplishes the same goal as the other 2 methods. The only problem is that it does screw up the “current_page_item” class for the home link and the blog link. Check out the possible solutions here.

Anyway, here’s how to do it.

The first thing you need to do is create a blog Page. Nothing fancy here, just write a new Page, title it “Blog”, and click “publish”. No need for any content.

Then, Assuming you’re still on the dashboard, click on Setting > Reading. Once there, you should see something that looks like this:

Go ahead and click the radio button that says “A Static Page”. Then, you’re going to want to choose a page to use as your front page (any one of your pages will do), and you’re going to want to choose your “Blog Page” as the page to use for the posts.

Voila! You’re done! Save the settings and you should now be using one of your Pages as your homepage, and your blog Page is now housing all of your posts (and yes, paging does work with this method as well).

Conclusion

So there you go! Three different ways to accomplish the same general goal. If you have any suggestions for a better way of getting this done, feel free to leave a comment below and if it works well, then I’ll add it to the post.

add_filter('single_template', create_function('$t', 'foreach( (array) get_the_category() as $cat ) { if ( file_exists(TEMPLATEPATH . "/single-{$cat->term_id}.php") ) return TEMPLATEPATH . "/single-{$cat->term_id}.php"; } return $t;' ));

It helps solve the multiple categories issue since it cycles through all the categories in the array and checks to see which one of them has an associated post template. When it finds one, it uses the post template file, but if it doesn’t, then it falls back on the default single.php template.

Again, I highly recommend using this technique. It’s much simpler and works much better. If you care to, however, the original article is still below.
END UPDATE

A few months ago, I wrote a post over at the Blog Herald explaining how to set up and use WordPress Page Templates to control the way indivudual WordPress “Pages” appeared on your blog.  The process was pretty simple … create the page template, insert the necessary code at the top of the file, and upload it to your themes folder.

What what about blog posts?  As far as I could tell, there’s no way to do a similar thing with single posts without some manual code (see the “Unique Single Template” section).

Is it possible to have post templates like page templates???

Cory sent me this simple question a few days ago, and it got me thinking. So I started investigating.

The Setup

You’re going to need 3 things:

1. A basic knowledge of WordPress Themes
2. A single.php file
3. Multiple single templates, named according to category ID

The Code

What we’re going to do is create single post templates according to the ID of the category the post is filed under.  In order to determine what category a post is filed under, we’re going to use the get_the_category template tag.  Then we’re going to pull out the first category the post is filed under. Insert the following code at the TOP of your single.php file in your theme folder:

< ?php
$category = get_the_category();
$currentcat = $category[0]->cat_ID;
?>

Be aware, if you file posts under multiple categories, chances are this method will not work as you intended.

Then, we’ll add a little PHP magic to pull in the template file you created for a particular category:

< ?php
$category = get_the_category();
$currentcat = $category[0]->cat_ID;
if (file_exists(TEMPLATEPATH."/single-$currentcat".".php")) {
include(TEMPLATEPATH."/single-$currentcat".".php");
} else {
?>

This code defines the first category the post is filed under, checks to see if a single post template exists for that category (template files look like this: single-1.php, single-2.php, single-3.php, etc.), and uses it if it does.

Finally, we need to put the following code at the very bottom of the single.php file, normally just below the wp_footer function:

< ?php } ?>

The reason we have to do this is to be able to use the default single.php code as fallback in case you haven’t created a template for a certain category.

After you’ve got the code in place, just find the ID of the category you want to create a template for, then create a new file called single-ID.php (be sure to replace ID with the category number). Just insert the code you want to use for any posts filed in that category and you’re good to go!

Limitations

Like I mentioned earlier, if you are in the habit of filing posts under multiple categories, this code probably won’t work as intended. Since we’re working with templates for use on single posts in single categories, posts in multiple categories may end up falling back to the default single.php template. You have been warned!

Sample Code Download

As always, I like to provide a sample file for you to look at yourself. In this instance, I’ve edited the single.php file for the WordPress Default theme to pull in single post templates, if they exist. Take a look at the code if you have any questions about how it should look in your theme’s single.php file. I’ve also commented the code quite thoroughly.

Download single.php

If you’re in the market for some really solid Premium WordPress themes, but don’t want to overspend, then this is definitely the package you want to pick up.

Also, as the name of the package implies, if you are a developer looking for a stock base of quality WordPress themes, you can’t find a better product for the price.  These are multi-use themes, so feel free to use them for custom client work you have lined up.

Also, if you’re looking for a GREAT deal on single use Premium WordPress themes, you’ll definitely want to check out the latest theme, iCompany, as well as Corporate and Business Card.  All these themes are just $29.95 which is much cheaper than the majority of Premium themes out there.

Finally, I wanted to mention that Essence, far and away the most popular theme on iThemes, has recently been overhauled with a few new features.  I went through the code and added quite a few features that will definitely help you get your blog up and running in no time.  We’ve added the ability to upload, resize, and crop your own custom header image, widgetized the bottom 3 sections, made the homepage a page template so you can edit the homepage from your dashboard, and widgetized the custom sidebars.  Go take a look for yourself!

Sorry if I sound a little too “salesman” for you.  I’m just really excited about all the new stuff we’re pushing out at iThemes!

During the last few weeks, an idea of mine has been stewing and is finally coming close to fruition. So I have a proposition for you, if you choose to accept it.

Without revealing too much, I am asking talented designers, dedicated to the idea of free and open source contributions, to consider helping me with a ground breaking project that we will launch in the near future.

So if you are a designer oozing with talent and itching to contribute to the WordPress community, please contact me and we can discuss the details. I can’t wait to hear from you!

I generally don’t recommend plugins, but everybody has to use them sooner or later. So I wanted to share with you the 7 plugins that I install every time I begin or upgrade a WordPress installation.

1. Akismet

It should go without saying that if you use comments on your WordPress site, you MUST activate the Akismet plugin. Without it, I would have spent countless hours deleting spam comments, time that could have been spent much more efficiently. Darren Rowse says Akismet has saved him 46 days of work!

2. Subscribe to Comments

I remember the days before this plugin. If you commented on a blog, there was no way of knowing when someone replied to you, outside of hitting refresh all day or subscribing to the comment RSS feed. But when Subscribe to Comments was released, all of that changed. Now visitors could continue the conversation for days, no problem. I even have comment threads months old that are still somewhat active, all because of this plugin.

3. Google Sitemap Generator

I won’t go into too much detail on this post (I have a WordPress and SEO series planned for the near future), but suffice it to say that this plugin gets your site indexed by Google in no time. And you definitely want to be indexed by Google.

4. Absolute Comments

Lorelle made a great point about how unnecessarily difficult it is for the blog author to respond to comments, in her session at WordCamp Dallas, and she is right on the money. Absolute Comments lets you reply to comments from the Comment Management screen in the WordPress Admin panel. It’s a time saving Godsend! (now 2.5 compatible)

5. Admin Drop-Down Menu

If you hate, like I do, the fact that you had to click on a top-level link to get its sublinks in the WordPress Admin, then this plugin will be your best friend. It uses simple suckerfish dropdowns to display subnav links in the Admin UI for WordPress. It’s hard to explain, but believe me, it is worth your while to download and install this plugin. (now 2.5 compatible)

6. Feedburner Feedsmith

If you care anything about stats, you’ll want to be using Feedburner to track your feed subscription numbers. But in order to get an accurate count, you need to be forwarding all of your feeds to your feedburner account. Feedsmith does this for you. If anyone visits your site and finds their way to your WordPress generated feed url, it will automatically be forwarded to your Feedburner address. Genious!

7. cforms II

THE MOST FLEXIBLE contact form plugin available. I don’t much like the included styles, but the features make up for that 5 times over. Add fields, delete fields, multiple forms, too many features to name. This is the only contact form plugin you’ll ever need.
(if cforms II is too complicated for you, the Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form is a nice, more simple alternative).

With these 7 plugins, my blogs are optimized just the way I want them. Do you have any plugins that you can’t live without? Do you have a list of plugins you install every time you create a new WordPress site? Let me know which plugins you think are indispensable in the comments below!

(feature photo)

But the reason I wanted to post a recap of the weekend was to highlight all the cool stuff that was showcased at WordCamp this year.

2.5 and Beyond, Matt Mullenweg

Although he was still recovering from his recent wisdom teeth removal, Matt did a great job explaining the new features of WordPress 2.5 (released minutes before his session).

My favorite part of this session was the showcase of the new Photo Gallery feature. They’ve updated the image upload tool so that you can upload multiple images while the tool creates both a thumbnail, and a mid-size version of the image, then insert the gallery into a post with a simple, bbcode-like tag. Check out a live demonstration at Matt’s site.

Also, the automatic plugin upgrade is a welcomed addition to the new version. I’ve tried it on several of my out-of-date plugins, and it worked flawlessly.

You can check out the notes from Matt’s session, as well as video, here.

Unfortunately, I had to miss the 2nd session with John Pozadzides due to a lunch meeting. Perhaps the video will show up soon so you (and I) can check it out.

Stopping Content Theft, Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan, who is best known in the WordPress Community as the co-host of the WordPress Podcast, obviously loves the topic of combatting plagiarism and content theft, and for bloggers who are having problems with this should definitely check out the notes and video from Jonathan’s session.

The duo from GeekBrief.TV

This was definitely one of the more entertaining sessions from WordCamp, as well as informative. Neal and Cali from GeekBrief.TV took us through the history of their Podcast, including how they started monetizing it, and how they use WordPress to power their online presence.

They’ll aslo be using WordPress to power the blog that will document their newest project, BigTrip.TV, which is a all-50-states tour of the USA.

To be honest, before this conference, I hadn’t watched GeekBrief. I had known of it, but never checked it out. I think they may have just won a new fan :-)

Their session can be viewed here.

Influence and Interaction, Liz Strauss

Very few people know more about encouraging community and conversation than Liz, and she brought some great tips our way in her session. If you’re looking to encourage more comments on your blog, you have to check out her session video, when it becomes available.

One thing that really stuck out to me was her advice to be sure to not say everything in your posts. Leave room for tips and additions by your readers!

Blogging Power Tips, Lorelle

First of all, I got to meet and talk with Lorelle the previous night at the WordCamp Meetup at Dave and Buster’s, and she is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. She’s every bit as smart and sweet in real life as she is on her blogs.

Her session was fantastic. It never ceased to amaze me how she would take direct shots at specific features of WordPress, even with Matt sitting right there. This lady has guts :-)

One of my favorite parts of the session was Lorelle’s tips on using Greasemonkey scripts to enhance the WordPress.com Admin. I had honestly never thought of that, but her showcase of some of the things she uses was out of this world. I’m not a user of WordPress.com, but since you can’t install plugins for your blog on WordPress.com, I can imagine how frustrating it must be when you want to extend the functionality. Her tip was simple and elegant.

And if you’re a blogger with many articles to write per week, then you’ll definitely want to check out her session. She highlighted many different tools that can be used to make your experience so much better.

And that was it for day one. I’m hungry and haven’t had lunch yet :-) If you were present at WordCamp Dallas, day one, then let me know what part you enjoyed the most! I didn’t take very good notes, so if I missed something, let us know!

Tags: wordcampdallas2008

If you’re going to be there, I want to meet ya! So here, the best way to hook up …

Follow me on Twitter and just send me @replies. That’s the best way to communicate, I think.

I’ll also be at the Dave & Buster’s meetup this evening with Cory Miller, so I look forward to seeing some of you there as well!

Theme Options are great! They let you give editing power to your users without making them modify code. For the vast majority of bloggers, the code that runs their blog (or theme) is completely unintelligible, and therefore, themes that include options on the backend for doing things like integrating feedburner, inserting contact information, choosing a color scheme, etc., are in high demand.

But in order to cater to another equally important audience, I’ve been reconsidering my position on theme options.

Many bloggers, including myself, are extremely comfortable with things like XHTML and CSS. We don’t mind cracking open a theme and changing a few things here and there. But many of those same bloggers look on in dismay when the theme files are riddled with PHP code (other than basic, and highly understandable, WordPress functions). And for good reason! PHP can be intimidating for the average Web Designer.

In places where they were used to seeing <a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/nathanricenet”>Read my feed</a>, they instead are greeted with an onslaught of PHP conditional statements, checking for variables stored in the database in the form of, you guessed it, Theme Options.

And thus, you have just alienated a potential customer or user, because in your attempt to make things easier on the average user, you’ve ignored the guy who actually knows how to do a thing or two.

Theme Options should first and foremost be used in moderation. Theme Option pages that are 3-4 screens long scream “If you don’t edit me via the theme options, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to edit me at all”.

Here are some tips:

1. Use Theme Options sparingly

Keep them to a minimum. Not everything about the theme needs to be edited via the backend options panel.

2. Comment, Comment, Comment!

PHP allows you to comment without the code showing up in the markup. Use this to your advantage to communicate with theme modders. Give detailed instructions so they don’t become overwhelmed at code that could just as well be gibberish.

Also, feel free to give instructions, or better yet commented code, that helps them achieve the plain text code they were seeking. They’ll love you for it.

3. Give an options to download the theme, option free!

It’s really not that hard to just strip the options out of the theme and let users download the pure and simple WordPress theme they wanted.

It’s not that I’m against theme options. Like I said, I was one of the few theme authors that used them at the time. But I am just a little disappointed in the monster that has been spawned. But I think that if theme authors would follow these 3 simple steps, it will make the theme options beast a little more manageable.