Hi all, i am trying to create something like sports portal, using WordPress, i need to create new tables in the database, like News, Partners, Voting Poll and offer the administrator features so he can add new News, new partners which will be news papers websites that administrator will be able to fetch news from their websites and show them on the wordpress front end. I had a look at the source code of WP and i could see that it is using classes and functions that are strictly connected with creating new posts, categories and if i want to add new tables and use my own sql queries would be something really hard. If someone has done something similar to this, could you please share it or just the idea how to do it?
A:
WordPress Plugins should do what you want, for example, WP-Polls is a polls plugins.
Moayad Mardini
2009-09-05 10:49:47
but what about if i want to use my own database tables with my own queries? I don't want just to install few plugins that i cannot modify. For example i want the admin to have feature to add new news from news papers websites and to have a table for all the news papers he is using. Is it waste of time to try and do this?
2009-09-05 10:57:42
Yes, it's a waste of time. WP isn't intended to be used like that, it's just a blogging system with some expendable features. For such a large extending, you should use a "portal" system, like Drupal.
Moayad Mardini
2009-09-05 11:23:27
I already have good base CMS created with CodeIgniter framework, i would go with it instead of learning Drupal, i think it's the best solution for me to go with it, but client is always right :(. I will probably have to tell him that it's almost impossible to create such thing with WP.
2009-09-05 11:50:10
A:
If you really want a full-blown portal system, WordPress is not the right foundation. WordPress is a blogging system primarily, so while you can extend it (and many people do), there's a limit on what makes sense. You wouldn't try to make a bus out of a VW bug either. Better base systems would be Drupal or Plone.
Also, the WordPress source is, architecturally speaking, a big ball of mud, so working on its guts might not be exactly funny.
Simon
2009-09-05 11:04:09
Exactly, i agree with you, but this client of mine tells me they want to have admin panel from wordpress so they can use it to manage content on a front site that has their own design. Was trying to explain to them that i should hack the whole WP code in order to gain what they need, but i don't know what to do, really.
2009-09-05 11:08:43
Oh, so it's a "wetware" problem, not a technical one ;-) Well, maybe you can find out what part of the WordPress admin interface appeals to them, and reuse it. TinyMCE, The WYSIWYG editor for example, is also used in a number of other products. If your explanation of WordPress being the wrong tool for the job falls on deaf ears, make two estimates for the project, one for hacking WordPress (guess a large number, round up, double it...), one for Drupal. Let their wallet decide!
Simon
2009-09-05 11:54:51
Yes, your answer makes sense, i think i should go for hacking the WordPress no matter how much i would hate that :(, but would take more time and bigger number, other option would be CodeIgniter, for less time, smaller number.
2009-09-05 12:18:29
Maybe you can use the best of both worlds - use CodeIgniter for all your new stuff and look for the WordPress documentation that describes adding controls to the administration backend. WordPress itself does not need to know about your new tables and classes.
Simon
2009-09-05 14:26:58
Try Joomla, php, it is a bit more friendly than Drupal. And it does not require anything more than a wordpress env.
Jakub
2010-09-08 17:29:32