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Running two wordpress blogs on same server?

A

arvinb

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 7, 2007
37
0
Hey all,

I am redesigning my portfolio site entirely using wordpress for easy maintenance, with a heavily modified theme (called Gallery from Smashing Design):

http://www.greasypigstudios.com/home

I also wanted to have an actual blog on the site, following most of the style of the rest of the site.

I was wondering what the most efficient way is to run what's essentially a blog-within-a-blog. Do I/will I be able to/ install a separate copy of wordpress on the same server? I would prefer something not entirely separate from my other wordpress install, but not something that will trip me up in confusion between the two either.
 
I guess it's not so much whether or not it could be done (though thanks for pointing that out), it's more whether or not this is the best way to do what I'm looking to do.
 
Personally I've installed it locally so I can play with it as much as need be. WordPress has some good documentation on setting it up locally using MAMP, which is what I'm doing.
 
Hi arvinb :)

I've been playing around with worspress for a little while now and though I can't and won't claim to be an expert, I've got some good working knowledge which might be useful.

arvinb said:
...it's more whether or not this is the best way to do what I'm looking to do.
Click to expand...

In that case, I think you should tell us a little more :)

Why are you considering using 2 installs? What do you hope to gain that can't be acheived with a single install?
 
So if you check out the site right now, wordpress is powering the entire portfolio system.

I want to simultaneously run a traditional blog using wordpress using some semblance of the same template I'm using for the rest of the site. Like have a link that says "Blog" next to the "About" page, and it has the menu/header up top, and a traditional looking blog below, with its own archives and such.

I've only been playing with Wordpress for a week, but this is something that feels like I should know what I'm doing before I start adding/dismantling things.
 
Hmm, if you are talking about a about page, I think that many people created some "I cant believe this is done with wordpress" sites with themes, some themes are so good that at first glance you will never know its all created from a single wordpress theme.
 
... I don't really know how to respond to that. Thanks anyway?

Once more, all I'm asking for is the most efficient way to run a traditional blog within a site that was entirely built around a very customized wordpress theme.
 
I suppose one way of doing it would be to create a new page, get the plugin that lets you execute PHP in posts (php-exec i think it's called) and then throw in all the actual blog post code in there.

I don't know if that will work. I haven't seen how that theme works. Maybe tomorrow I'll throw it on the server and play around with it.
 
SelfMadeCelo may have the best option. You could use a page to display the most recent post and use the space on the left to list the other posts and / or archives? All this could be relevant to a category you've made named 'blog' with subcategories within it?

But, in theory, you could just add a link to 'blog' next to your 'about' link and send it to the category archive of the category you've made named 'blog'. But you want to change the way the archive page and single posts for this category looks, so it appears more like a conventional blog.

Have I got the right idea?

If so, there may be a way to create another child theme which specifically targets that new 'blog' category's ID (category-XX.php) and allow you to make changes that way. Will look into it further if that sounds right... Let us know.

Oh, and thanks by the way, hadn't seen that smashing magazine article and may well use the gallery theme when I re-do my site :)
 
i have wordpressMU set up on my server. works great.

that being said, wordpress itself can be set up in separate directories, so you could have

thispage.com/ for the gallery
blog.thispage.com/ for the blog

and each have an independent wordpress installation

or again, the MU install. for that you'd have one log in, but you could select which blog you post to. for the MU site tho, make sure you configure it so users can't set up blogs too, otherwise the spam shows up.

http://mu.wordpress.org/
 
Okay sorry I'm going about this all wrong.

I forgot that under Settings > Reading you can set your "blog" posts to be under any page you want. Just create a new page called Blog then go there and change "Posts page" to that new page "Blog". It looks really odd though because it has the same setup as the gallery pages so you might have to change some things in the theme to get it the way you want it.

WordpressMU is one option but I gathered you wanted to keep the same look of the theme so it would probably be easier to run off one installation.

Like wheelhot said, there are some sites that you would have NO idea it was running off Wordpress. You just have to spend some time making it that way.
 
So my question is,

If I did what you said, which is put the posts page under a page called "Blog," wouldn't that put all of my posts together, including stuff in the gallery?

I guess I didn't clarify as well when by "regular blog" I meant to say, a journal-type thing where I can talk about latest developments and goings-on, interesting links I want my readers to view, etc, not just a blog-style showcase for the same stuff in the gallery.

I'm leaning towards multiple wordpress installations at this point, as much of a mess it might make. I just realized now that if I wanted people to subscribe to the blog there would be no easy way to filter out the gallery page updates as well.

The challenge now is to find the easiest way to keep the templates on each install in sync in case I decide to modify one of them (likely the "gallery").
 
With regards to
If I did what you said, which is put the posts page under a page called "Blog," wouldn't that put all of my posts together, including stuff in the gallery?
Click to expand...

I'm sure you can exclude categories from the listing. I use a plugin called *checks my blog* Advanced Category Excluder to remove categories from my main page, post listings and category listings. You could use it to remove the category you make named 'blog' as I've mentioned in a previous post.

Be sure to keep us updated on how you go, there's a lot of useful advice in this thread & I'd be interested in finding out which route you take!
 
Download a plugin called Advanced Category Excluder (ACE). It will let you exclude certain categories from showing up on the front page.

Edit: Oops didn't read the post before mine. Saw it was already mentioned.
 
Just as an update:

I decided to go with a simpler WP theme that gives me more flexibility and is easier to update, and now the site is viewable at:

http://www.greasypigstudios.com

As you can see, I was also able to implement a blog. I did it using no plugins, and instead just used the information found in this wordpress codex page:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Category_Templates

Basically, I created a category called "Blog," and then created a template with the name "category-35.php" (35 being the category id of "Blog"), and then just inserted The Loop function in there, customized to look like a normal blog looks, whereas all the other category pages display posts in a portfolio-y scheme.

the category-35.php template is only invoked by that category, and that page only shows posts labeled in that category.

Finally, I used the "Simply Exclude" plugin to exclude posts in the "Blog" category from the front index page.

Thanks for everyone's help, this was my first time using wordpress, really, and your tips really helped me find my way around.
 
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