Groovy Sputum

T-Minus 5 Days

I met with Pastor Mike last week and showed him the initial build for the CFAC web site and he really liked it. I thought about providing a link for you to check it out, but because the content is just gibberish, I decided to wait until the site is up and running to reveal it.

Some of you may be wondering why I appear to have an obsession with WordPress. Well, when I first investigating CMS (content management systems), I realized that there were many to choose from. I had a list of criteria that the CMS needed to have, and as I began to investigate the possibilities, a few platforms really stuck out. Here is what I was looking for:

1. Open Source (i.e. free)
2. Well supported and tested
3. Large community of users for support and the sharing of layouts & customizable features (because I an not that creative)
4. Built on an open source database (again, free)
5. Easy to use login and user interface (if it is too difficult to change, the site will never be updated)
6. Blog ready, but not necessarily blog only
7. Able to be self hosted with my domain name (I didn’t want third party ads or logos on the site nor did I want my domain name to be whatever.blogityblogblogblog.com)

Based on these criteria, I narrowed my choices to Joomla! and WordPress. They are nearly identical platforms and fit my criteria to a tee, but I eventually chose WordPress because of the out-of-the-box blog features. Although Joomla! can be used as a blog, there is much more set up and customization involved to get there.

The more I have used WordPress, the more impressed with it I have been. It uses MySQL as it’s database and runs on Linux servers. It uses the scripting language php to access the database, although some programmers have complained that it is not a true php, but a modified version of it. I honestly don’t care because it is fairly intuitive and anyone with the slightest bit of scripting background can figure out the syntax. WordPress also has a huge following of users and that means tons of extras like themes and plugins (a small program that provides an extra service not normally preformed by the CMS). The main WordPress site also has a large resource area to assist people like me in customizing.

In my research leading up to our church web site, I came across many churches using all kinds of blog software. In my opinion, those running Joomla! or WordPress were by far the nicest. They just seemed to strike the right balance between and online billboard and an online community. I think that is really what I am going for. Too much of either and the site becomes a static ad or simply a church forum. I am not interested in either of those.

So, we are set to go live on Sunday. When you see it, I hope your reaction is, “Wow, that doesn’t look like a WordPress blog.” I am planning on explaining what we did with the layout in a future post, so stay tuned for more!

We’re Online

I recently got the ok from Pastor Mike to build a website for our church and last night I got the ball rolling with the purchase of a domain name. I also loaded WordPress onto the server and set up the MySQL database, so we are ready to roll. At this point, we just have to settle on the content, layout, and overall look of the site. Since we are going with WordPress, this shouldn’t be too difficult.

I also discovered a little plugin that is handy if you use WordPress. It is called Maintenance Mode and when active, it takes your site off line and replaces it with a customizable front page. As the name implies, this tool is used when you are doing maintenance on your site. It is nice to be able to quickly take down the site and put up a temp page. It is also nice for visitors to see a real page while you are working and not get one of those nasty “server not found” message. Check out the site and see what I mean: clearforkalliance.org. I just put up the church name, location, and meeting times. It will work for now and we can be working on the build behind the scenes and as soon as we are ready to go live, we can deactivate MM and BAM!…have an official web presence.

I thought about putting a spinning gif of a stick man digging with a message that says “under construction” (demo), or simply this icon (I like the backhoe), but I thought the simple page was more appropriate. The sad thing is, even in my 10 minutes of work getting the site up, it is probably better than 90% of the church web sites out there right now. I particularly like this site (check out the dancing Jesus) and am thinking of contacting the web master for some design tips.