Can Wordpress perform this task? If not, is there a simple database solution?

[sbryan]

I operate under the assumption that the layperson would like to avoid coding, therefore, I need to develop solutions that are user friendly.

So there's a club I'm designing a site for on spec. I have three content panes below my navigation bar and above the main content area on every page. These content panes will feature 3 acts: coming this week, next week, two weeks away.

In each pane, there will be a picture of the performer(s), their name(s), the ticket price, and the performance date(s). When a user clicks on the name or the image, they will be taken to a biography page with a larger image.

There are two things I'd like to avoid:

1. The Club Staff copy/pasting Act 3 details into Act 2 details every week and Act 2 details into Act 1.
2. For recurring acts, I don't want the club staff to retype the bio for every show.

It would be nice if they could upload a .txt document with the following information for either week 1, week 2, or week 3 through an admin console:

• Name
• Dates
• Ticket Price
• Biography

Upload the .txt file, a 100x100 thumbnail, and a larger 200x200 image for each act.

(Those variables would be styled with CSS). .TXT Files and pics could be stored and organized locally on their computers.

Can wordpress do this via e-mail submission or some finagling of the admin console? Or is there a light database solution for that purpose?

Thanks,
SB

 

[FourCandles]

I have three content panes below my navigation bar and above the main content area on every page. These content panes will feature 3 acts: coming this week, next week, two weeks away.

Which theme are you using for this - or are you writing / adapting your own? I'm assuming that this content area you've described will be acting as a WP sidebar (even though it's at the top)?

 

[sbryan]

Which theme are you using for this - or are you writing / adapting your own? I'm assuming that this content area you've described will be acting as a WP sidebar (even though it's at the top)?

I'm adapting an HTML/CSS Design for Wordpress Theming.

I think what I could do is this:

Have the three most recent articles populate those content panes. The oldest entry is automatically first. That way a new post will bump the second post to the number one spot and the third post will be bumped to the number two spot.

 

[FourCandles]

I think what I could do is this:

Have the three most recent articles populate those content panes. The oldest entry is automatically first. That way a new post will bump the second post to the number one spot and the third post will be bumped to the number two spot.

That's one way; I suggest you customise your theme so that the post date, author etc. are not displayed, as this will be confusing.

Or, you could use one of the calendar plug-ins - your users could then log in and make a calendar entry with the appropriate date, time, details etc. and the plugin with automatically display them in order in the sidebar in an "Upcoming Events" widget, and it will take care of getting everything in the right order, past events will automatically disappear, and you can set recurring events for the acts that recur. I haven't seen a calendar plugin that will display thumbnails, though.

 

[sbryan]

Which Calendar plugin would you recommend? I can look around WP.org and see if there's a way to call the image attached to the post.

 

[lucasgladding]

I second the suggestion about using a calendar plugin. Hacking something together using posts could get messy very quickly and probably wouldn't be intuitive to the end user. It may also help to register 3 extra sidebars for the boxes then add the calendar listing to each.

If you haven't used it already, I highly recommend Drupal for anything like this. If you install fckeditor and setup the built-in file manager there, the system is just about as user-friendly as the WordPress editor. When you add CCK and Views, it becomes very easy to design your own content types for events calendars, contact lists, etc.

 

[FourCandles]

Which Calendar plugin would you recommend? I can look around WP.org and see if there's a way to call the image attached to the post.

The one I used is just called "Calendar" - see here on the WordPress plugin directory.

We chose that mainly because, as well as a summary in the sidebar, it can display a page with a dynamic calendar - which for your purposes may not be so important. There are various other calendar / events plugins that could fit the bill more closely. I also think the author of "Calendar" has stopped supporting that plugin.