Help starting

[smaximo]

Hello,

I'm trying to include a kind of blog in my website, something only for people can comment my writings, nothing to fancy. I know that I need to create a dynamic area in the site and I´ve already download the wampserver 2.0i the thing is that I´m not sure how to advance and what should be the correct procedure.

I´m hopping that anyone can point me out to what needs to be done.

The link to my website - www.sergiomaximo.com

Thanks

[smaximo]

Hello again, can anyone give some feedback please. I really need some help...

Thanks

[David_Powers]

If you're looking for a blog and the ability for visitors to comment, install WordPress. It's free, easy to set up, and you'll find a lot of other people using it, so help is easy to find.

[smaximo]

Hello, thanks for the suggestion but what I meant was just to integrate some text area for people can coment some articles in a particular area on my website, I don´t whant a blog. A little bit like this example - http://www.apap.pt/pages/apap/contactar/?scrh=645

[bregent]

>A little bit like this example -

Your example points to a page with a contact email form. Is that what you want? Your post is confusing because you first stated you want to integrate a blog, then you said you didn't. Do you just want visitors to be able to email you? Please try to clarify exactly what it is that you want to do.

[smaximo]

I´m sorry for that, the example indicated wasn't of course de best.

What I really want was to post some articles and publications (text and images) in one specific part of my site, appropriated to that objective, and after the publications I would like to give anyone the possibility to leave some comments (leaving their name and comment), maybe this share some similarities with a blog but I´d only like to include a text field for the name (single line text) and other for the comment (multiline). This should appear after my published article staying at the end of the page after every published comment.

I hope with this explanation it could be easy to help me.

Thanks

[Guest]

You can post static content and use a commenting service like intense debate, echo, or facebook comments, etc. You can develop everything entirely yourself if you have database and server scripting knowledge or you can use a complete third party system like wordpress to post content and enable commenting. It seems like you don't have any scripting knowledge so wordpress was recommended.

[David_Powers]

As the_shocker says, you don't seem to have any scripting knowledge, and he's right - that's why I recommended WordPress.

It's perfectly possible to combine WordPress with an existing site. I have done so with my own website at http://foundationphp.com/. The vast majority of pages have been created individually, but WordPress is used for http://foundationphp.com/blog/. You can install WordPress and be up and running very quickly. The main difficulty is integrating the look of the WordPress pages with the rest of your site, but it's not difficult if you have a good grasp of CSS. If it's just for your own site, I think WordPress is your best solution. There's a four-part tutorial on editing a WordPress theme in Dreamweaver CS5 at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/dw_wordpress_pt1.html.

However, if you're interested in developing the blog and commenting system yourself, you'll need to learn about database design and understand at least the basics of a server-side language such as PHP. To get a feeling for the type of things involved, follow the tutorials at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/setup_php.html (setting up a PHP development environment) and http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/first_dynamic_site_pt1.html (building your first dynamic site with PHP). If you want to explore the subject further, you might want to consider using a book, such as my "Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 with PHP: Training from the Source."

Developing websites with a server-side language, such as PHP, is not particularly difficult, but it's not something you can pick up in a weekend. If you're willing to learn, you'll find a lot of help available on the internet; but it will involve a considerable amount of effort on your part, too.