Which is which?

The original site was a forum website. So I was thinking and experimenting with different CMS to do the job. However, I decided that this site shouldn’t only be a “forum” site but an interactive site that can host articles, announcements, and forum discussions. I tried SMF but was stumbled by the complexity (for a beginners) to create articles. Same goes for phpBB. I tried Joomla! but also faced the hindrance of back end management and looking for a forum plugin was hard (since SMF already stopped supporting the SMF-Joomla! bridge due to license issues). There is a release called Kunena but it required a good hosting that I can’t meet. And I fell to my favorite CSM, WordPress.

Forum in WordPress.

Since I am already familiar with WordPress, I decided using this for the site. Setting up was no problem, but integrating a forum gave me a bit of headache (it’s not that it can’t be done, but because I was so noob I forgot some basics – php limitations). At first, I tried looking for a way to integrate different forums to wordpress. It’s either the bridge failed, not supported or I just don’t like the way it looked.

I then discovered Simple:Press. A wordpress plugin that will give you a, what else, forum. At first try, installation failed. But after asking Simple:Press support forums, I was told to adjust memory limit on my php (server), and if I can’t do it (like in my case), I can disable some plugins (which I did). Nothing much on the forum yet since the site hasn’t yet been promoted that much.

The “Theme”.

Another big puzzle in my mind was the theme of the website (design). I want to create my own theme, but I am only beginning to learn and was not successful on all of the attempts I made (still needs practice). I looked for free themes and tested it with the forums. Some are too narrow, some doesn’t support widgets, etc.. I encountered the theme that is currently used on the website (credit goes to jauhari.net). I edited the theme to suite the intent of the site (adjusted footer, column width for forum, etc.). It was my first time to dig that deep into the “codes” and I was very happy I was able to do it.

There are still a lot of tweaking to be done on the theme. But I’ll do it slowly and when I get more info from the Association.

The Webhost.

One of the biggest part of the website is the webhost (server where all the files are, etc.). Fortunately, a colleague whom I helped on her thesis (a website also) has an abandoned web space from msweb networks (a Philippine based web hosting company, where I registered my domain, marvincruz.com) that she used for her thesis. She is not using it anymore and doesn’t have a plan to use it. I asked her if I can use it and she said yes (thanks Apple Vasquez). I will renew the subscription on the hosting since I already moved one of my blog (sundayschooldirector.co.cc) there.

Lesson Learned.

I learned a lot of things on this “project”.

• Get a good hosting service (I tried it on some free hosting services but it failed). I attempted to use my space here at driphost, but I am reserving the last domain available for another blog.
• Get a good internet connection. I tried setting up the website at home (and my net is a headache), and everything just screws up. I sneaked the setup in the office (during avail time).
• Research, read, read, read, read, read,… you’ll learn lot of things through reading.
• Don’t be shy to ask for support in the forums… they are there to help..
• Be imaginative/creative… that’s where my struggle is during and currently on the design…. go to be more imaginative.
• Ask for feedback.

There are still a lot of things to do on that website. I hope people would post their feedbacks on the forum.

BTW, that website is open for all Alumni, students, former and current faculty and staff and Pastors of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary – Philippines.

Some screen shot of the website:

The website can be accessed at: http://pts-alumni.info

PTS-Alumni - Front Page

PTS-Alumni Online - Forums

PTS-Alumni Online - Forums

After a long time of inactivity, I was able to rebuild our Church’s website. I first made interest on making a website for our Church due to possible contacts from foreign sponsors. Also, some of our members are abroad, and our main denomination, Presbyterian Church of the Philippines, is scattered all over the country. Having a website, we will be able to bring them news, latest events, projects, prayer concerns, etc., and communication will be easier.

What’s new:

• First, new domain name. Previously, we are using a long subdomain under freehostia. In search for a free domain, I was able to find co.cc. They offer free domain (depending on the actual domain). You can manage name server settings and others. And it is not just a subdomain, cause it is actually recognized by search engines. After testing a few domains, I came up with lpcgumaoc (the only one that was free). lpcgumaoc stands for Liberty Presbyterian Church Gumaoc (the barangay of village). Other combination gave me a yearly price. And since we’re (I am) on a tight budget (there is actually no budget for this), I chose the free domain. So the new domain is http://lpcgumaoc.co.cc. Someone commented that it is hard to remember, but I don’t think so. Well, maybe in the future, I would switch to a .com or .org domain (if money permits). For now, we’ll stay with the .co.cc.

• Second is a new webhosting. My previous webhost is great. They have fast response, good speed and goo plan (free of course). But since it is free, there are a lot of restrictions on the hosting. I can’t connect to external servers. Meaning automatic upgrades (for wordpress and its plugins) are disabled, and this is very critical. I can’t connect to the Akismet server (which helps a lot with spam protection). I was able to find a new host at http://driphost.com. They’re offers are great. And there are very little restrictions even on free accounts. Though they told me that free accounts will have, in the future, banners (unlike on my previous host which is bannerless), I was offered a free upgrade for no additional cost. Maybe in the future, once the site has already built up, I might take advantage of the offer, maybe just request to remove the banner. I really hope that they’ll be stable. Ever since I used their servers, I only experienced one downtime that lasted for around 1 minute

• Third is a new look. On the previous site, it is blog style. Now I am using a simple, clean, magazine style template from theme hybrid. My initial plan was to create my own theme. But due to my status as wordpress user (noob), I opted to search for a free (of course) good theme. I was able to find the hybrid news theme. I set it up. Found it hard to configure at the beginning. But once I was able to get a hang of it, I was able to set it up properly.

Some of the stuffs that I haven’t yet placed are:

• Articles for the past activities in our church.
• Informative about page (beliefs, history, etc.).
• Church staff info page.
• Change the colors (if I would be able to learn how).
• Move to a .com or .org domain (I pray someone will donate, cheers! but might stick with this)
• Some other stuff that might come to my mind.

Me and my pastor is hoping that it will serve as a communication between members afar, members of the denomination, and potential sponsors (specially for Children’s Ministry).

So please do visit the Liberty Presbyterian Church Website at http://lpcgumaoc.co.cc

I consider this website as my first project (production website). There are still a lot of things that I have to learn. The good thing is, I am learning.

On with the learning.

Soli Deo Gloria.