I am reading your new book Dreamweaver For Dummies and saw in your book that you discuss WordPress and CS5. I purchased CS5 to work with WordPress and have yet to successfully get it working with my various WordPress installations. I am not a real developer and would prefer to not create a local test environment but to work with Dreamweaver directly with the installation I have on a hosting account with GoDaddy.

It is close to working, but I get an error message about the connection to the database. The FTP access works properly. I can sync the files. Does this have anything with logging into the SQL database? Can you point me to some troubleshooting tips for the initial connection to WordPress and Dreamweaver? Everything I find, read, or watch makes it look so simple and nonproblematic. . .

Thanks
Dave

Hi Dave,

Thanks for buying my book. Dreamweaver CS5 does provide much better support for WordPress than any previous versions, but you will have to set up a local testing environment if you want WordPress files to work on your local computer the way they work on your server at GoDaddy.

That’s because WordPress generates web pages dynamically by pulling content out of a database and displaying it in a template/theme as it opens the page in a Web browser. Thus, you have to set up a database and web server on your computer if you want those pages to display on your computer. That’s not as hard as it may seem at first, but it is more complicated than simply installing Dreamweaver.

The good news for you is that you’re not alone in facing this challenge, so a couple of great services bundle all of the software you need (the Apache web server, MySQL database, PHP, etc.) into one nice package that you can download and install relatively easily on any desktop computer powerful enough to run Dreamweaver. My favorite for Windows is XAMPP www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html. If you use a Mac, a popular option is MAMP www.mamp.info/en/index.html.

Once you install this software and install WordPress (which you can download for free from WordPress.org), you’ll need to start the server and set up a database. You’ll find instructions for how to do this at http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress.

If all goes well, this entire process should take less than an hour, but it’s one of those things that can be a bit tricky to get right the first time. Fortunately, you only have to do it once and from then on, you’ll be all set up to work on your blog on your computer.

An alternative is to work on elements of your blog in Dreamweaver without setting up a local server. For example, you can edit just the CSS files on your local computer by copying them to your hard drive, editing them in Dreamweaver, and then uploading them to the server again. Similarly, you can compose posts in Dreamweaver and then copy and paste them into the editor online. But to get the full functionality of WordPress on your local computer, I’m afraid you’ll have to set up a local testing server.

I hope that helps and I wish you all the best with your WordPress blogs,
Janine

Still want more? Visit the Dreamweaver Help Center at www.DigitalFamily.com/dreamweaver to find Dreamweaver tips, tricks, and tutorials.

I have a couple of questions regarding instructions you gave on your recent training video thru Kelby Training.

First, I am on a Mac and would like to know what to name my web URL in the server setup. You indicate Localhost for Windows. Is it the same for Mac?

Second, is the setup the same for setting up a local server (Apache) to test and customize WordPress if WordPress is my blog link on my index page?

Thanks for any clarification you can give.

Kathleen

Hi Kathleen,

Thanks for watching my video. I went over that installation process rather quickly in that CS5 preview video. I plan to do a more comprehensive video on editing WordPress with Dreamweaver later this summer, but here are some answers to help you in the meantime.

1. On a Mac, I recommend you get the MAMP set of programs at http://www.mamp.info. And of course, that you also download and install WordPress.

2. As for the settings and address of your local testing server, follow the instructions from the MAMP site and you should find all you need about how to set up a Mac. Much of it does depend on what software you use and how you set it up on your computer.

3. If you have a site that is built in Dreamweaver and just links to a blog in WordPress from the front page, you can edit the blog just as you would if all you had was a blog, like I showed in that video. To make it all work well together, consider moving all of your Dreamweaver files into the root folder for your local testing server along with the WordPress files. That way you have it all in one place on your hard drive, running on your local server, in the same relative location that it all resides in on the server where you host your site and blog. (If you host your site and blog on different servers, it doesn’t matter if your WordPress files and your main site files are in the same folder on your computer because you’ll need the full URL to link from one to the other anyway).

I hope that helps and I wish you all the best with your site and your blog,
Janine

Still want more? Visit the Dreamweaver Help Center at www.DigitalFamily.com/dreamweaver to find Dreamweaver tips, tricks, and tutorials.

I’m writing in part to tell you how much I’m enjoying your book, although I’m still very new to the concepts, the Dreamweaver program, and web-design in general.

I’m also asking if you might have any recommendations on sources for Dreamweaver templates. I’ve downloaded a some from various Web sites, and I’ve found that they are often not developed with the neophyte user in mind. Trying to modify them involves a fair amount of trying to figure out what the original designer/developer was doing.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Brian

Hi Brian,

One of the most confusing things about templates is that there are so many different kinds. For example, if you download a template designed for Flash, it won’t work in Dreamweaver. Similarly, many templates that are designed for blogs use PHP and require advanced programming knowledge and a web server.

Even if you do get a template designed using Dreamweaver’s template features, it can be difficult to know what and how to change things such as colors and fonts if you want to alter the template design.

Most good pages are designed with CSS these days, and if you learn CSS, you can probably edit most of the well-designed templates you can find on the web.

If you’re still new to design, you may appreciate a book I wrote called Web Sites  For Dummies — it’s part of the new Do It Yourself series it combines templates I created in Dreamweaver complete with instructions for how you can edit them in Dreamweaver.

When you buy the book, you get access to a special part of my Web site where you can download the templates.

You can find the book in the The Digital Family Bookstore.

I hope that helps and I wish you all the best,
Janine

I’m creating a website for my friend. He would like there to be a blog or a comments page and I’m not sure how to accomplish this. If you could spare some time and explain or give me a link to a tutorial, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks
James

Hi James,

Although in theory you could create the equivalent of a blog with Dreamweaver, it would require advanced programming skills and many, many hours of work.

A much better option is to use one of the great blogging tools already on the market. Among the most popular are WordPress, TypePad, and Blogger.

Many people create a custom Web site with Dreamweaver and a blog with a program like WordPress (my favorite) and then link the two together.

I wish you all the best,

Janine

Still want more? Visit the Dreamweaver Help Center at www.DigitalFamily.com/dreamweaver to find Dreamweaver tips, tricks, and tutorials.

How can I create an interactive blog in Dreamweaver? Where can I find the code for that?

Alison

Dear Alison,

I’m afraid there is no “blogging” feature in Dreamweaver. You’d have to know very advanced programming and spend a lot of time to create something as complex as a blog in Dreamweaver.

A better (and much more popular approach) is to use one of the blogging Web sites, such as blogger.com, typepad.com, or wordpress.com.

These sites offer all of the tools you need to create a blog. You can then use Dreamweaver to edit the design of a blog template, although even that is a rather advanced use of Dreamweaver and in many cases unnecessary if you’re using one of these blogging tools and are happy with the templates they provide.

All my best,
Janine

Still want more? Visit the Dreamweaver Help Center at www.DigitalFamily.com/dreamweaver to find Dreamweaver tips, tricks, and tutorials.

]]> http://www.digitalfamily.com/dreamweaverblog/2008/12/how-can-i-create-an-interactive-blog-in-dreamweaver/feed/ 0 http://www.digitalfamily.com/dreamweaverblog/2008/09/can-i-set-up-a-blog-or-an-rss-feed-within-a-website-by-using-dreamweaver-8/ http://www.digitalfamily.com/dreamweaverblog/2008/09/can-i-set-up-a-blog-or-an-rss-feed-within-a-website-by-using-dreamweaver-8/#comments Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:29:14 +0000 janinewarner http://www.digitalfamily.com/dreamweaverblog/?p=56 Janine,

I purchased the entire Studio 8 suite that was included with the Adobe CS2 Web Bundle a few years ago and have just recently begun learning Dreamweaver 8 by using your entry-level Total Training DVDs. First off, THANK YOU for such wonderful, clear, and precise instruction! It has made all the difference between gearing up and giving up.

I am presently in the planning stages of a new website and exploring options. My question is: can you set up a blog or an RSS feed within a website by using Dreamweaver 8? The terms don’t even come up in the DW help files. And if not, can you set up a blog or add an RSS feed within a website by using the newer version of Dreamweaver CS3?

Thanks for your help,
Debra

Hi Debra,

Although you can use Dreamweaver to edit the templates used with most blogging programs, and you could, in theory, use Dreamweaver to create a dynamic site that works much like a blog, most people seem to do one or the other: create a custom site with Dreamweaver or create a blog with a tool such as WordPress or TypePad.

I’ve seen many people combine the two by simply linking from one to the other. I do that myself. My site at www.DigitalFamily.com was created in Dreamweaver (of course), but if you go to the Dreamweaver section and follow the link to my FAQ Blog, you’ll come to a blog I created by using WordPress.

It is possible to include a section of a blog, such as the most recent post, in a custom Dreamweaver site, but you do need some experience with the programming language used in the blogging program.

I believe that the blogging tool at www.Blogger.com includes a feature that makes it easy to add the most recent blog posts to a site created with a tool such as Dreamweaver, but most of my blogging friends find TypePad and WordPress to be more advanced blogging tools over all.

Hope that helps you sort through the options and find the best solution for your site.

Janine

Still want more? Visit the Dreamweaver Help Center at www.DigitalFamily.com/dreamweaver to find Dreamweaver tips, tricks, and tutorials.