Hi. I have a small project for which I need to offer a CMS UI/storage system.
I am guessing that I can have my computer-fearing client use the Wordpress UI to store a set of images for her gallery page, and a set of text for her testimonials page. And then, through a Wordpress function, or raw SQL query into the database, I can get the data that I need on the page.
If this is possible, how do I do this?
You can either just create your own theme/template for Wordpress, or you can create your own frontend altogether with raw SQL queries. The database layout is rather simple so it shouldn't be impossible to create your own system.
But consider the theme solution first because I think it's both easier for you (not needing to reinvent the wheel) and better for security (easy to use the built-in functionality for security updates).
So, WordPress 3.0 is getting to the point where it is no longer just a blogging platform, but almost a fullblown CMS. For her testimonial pages, or about me, contact, etc, you can use WordPress. Instead of creating new entries, just have her (or you) create pages.
For the gallery, there is an open source project called Gallery that you can use that would allow the client to upload and manage their own photos. In WordPress, just create a new menu item and link to the Gallery installation you have.
We use the Pods CMS Wordpress plugin to help us create custom data fields for our site, for areas where the typical post/page structure just isn't appropriate.
Like everything else in Wordpress, Pods is a little rough around the edges, but it does provide a fairly simplistic interface for pulling information out of a database, without the need for raw SQL, or bolting together custom fields for a post.
A simple example for looping over records might look like:
$mypod = new Pod('mypod');
$mypod->findRecords('date ASC', 15) // ORDER BY date ASC, LIMIT 15
while ($mypod->fetchRecord()) {
$image = $mypod->get_field('image')
...
}
It also supports a basic set of relationships between Pod objects.