Integrating Wordpress to Your Directory

Adding unique content to your directory probably one of the best way to make your directory more valuables. It is good for your users (especially when you're running niche directory) and so does search engine. Here we're using wordpress to create the news section (what's up) and the article section (IndexU Tips & MODs).

Why wordpress ?

1. Easy admin interface to create articles.
2. It support search engine friendly URL.
3. Allow user to comment your articles.
4. There is rss feed feature.
5. And the most important factor : they have a lot number of plugins

Here is our integration goal :

1. We want indexu and wordpress to use the exact same layout, so user will not notice the different when browsing the directory or blog.
2. We want wordpress component like : Blog Search, Blog Recent Post, Blog Categories, Blog Archives, etc can be shown in IndexU panel.
3. And we want indexu blocks like : Category List, Who's Online, Directory Stats, Pagerank Stats, Site of The Day, etc can be shown in wordpress panel too.
4. We want it to be dynamic. So if we add or remove blocks in indexu it should affect wordpress too.

Here is the step :

1. Install wordpress to your server, example : we installed it under /blog folder in our directory.
2. Next, we need to show wordpress component in indexu. We do this by creating custom script in wordpress (indexu-blocks.php) that will act as component provider, then create custom block in IndexU (block.wordpress_panel.php) to call this component.

   Here is the indexu-blocks.php content :

   Content visible to member only. Please register or login first.

   This file should be saved in your wordpress folder.

   Here is the block.wordpress_panel.php content (the script) :

   Content visible to member only. Please register or login first.

   This file should be saved in your blocks folder in your indexu.

   And here is the block.wordpress_panel.html content (the template) :

   Content visible to member only. Please register or login first.

   This file should be saved in your themes/active_theme/blocks folder in your indexu. You might need to adjust the template based on your own theme in this regards.

   After everything is set, now modify the header.html/footer.html/index.html (depend on your theme) to call this new blocks. Here is the block call :

   Content visible to member only. Please register or login first.

   Ok, the indexu integration part is done. You should able to see wordpress component within your indexu page now.

3. Next, we'll need to make wordpress use the same layout as indexu and also showing indexu blocks. Here we're using the default wordpress theme, but we have to modify some files : sidebar.php, header.php, footer.php, comments.php and single.php templates.

   Here is the sidebar.php content :

   Yup, no code there. Just emptied the file :)
   We'll going to use indexu panel to replace it.

   Here is the header.php content :

   Content visible to member only. Please register or login first.

   Here is the footer.php content :

   Content visible to member only. Please register or login first.

   Here is the comments.php changes (just minor change) :
   Change :

   Content visible to member only. Please register or login first.

   To :

   Content visible to member only. Please register or login first.

   Here is the single.php changes (just minor change) :
   Change :

   Content visible to member only. Please register or login first.

   To :

   Content visible to member only. Please register or login first.

Ok, done.
For more better result, you might also want to modify your indexu css file to accommodate some of wordpress specific style.

That's all.
We hope this tips will be useful for you.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 at 4:47 pm and is filed under IndexU Tips & MODs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.