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FlipFall Magazine - a multi-topic blog


Violet
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Here I'm introducing FlipFall Magazine, our multi-topic blog. It used to run on Wordpress but we recently switched it to ProcessWire. This was done the usual way we do it when converting our sites: install ProcessWire in a subfolder of the original Wordpress site under a hard-to-guess name, set up the new site there, then move content over manually, inspecting and updating each article as needed. After the ProcessWire site was ready, when we un-installed the Wordpress one and moved the ProcessWire site up one level to the document root, and... done.

We used the W3CSS framework because it handles the responsive breakpoints so well (no extra work for us ?), and it tends to default to a clean modern look.

We wanted full control over the back end of the site and do customized things without having to hire a developer.  As FlipFall has grown, the ability to have in-house back-end control has become even more important.

Case example: Ad partners - we now can quite easily, if we wish, place different ads on different topics on this blog at a moment's notice - no need to hire a developer. Changes like this can be implemented in-house right away. The fact that we can easily incorporate this sort of thing is really nice when we're talking with potential ad partners.

Helpful features of ProcessWire during this experience:

  • The ability to export and import fields in PW was key here. We had a few other article-style sites I had done in PW recently, so having the same types of templates was very helpful. We were able to export fields and templates from our existing sites and import into FlipFall as a starting base point. No need to re-invent the wheel here!
  • Another helpful ability of PW was when we were dealing with the categories. We built the site without category templates (but with the category page field), then added the templates in later as needed - no disruption. In other words, a template-less page field worked perfectly for the categories until we needed the template, then we just created the template. Not every feature of the site needs to be thought out in absolute full beforehand, some can be added in later as needed. Very extensible and convenient.
  • Internal links within blog posts worked well using the page select option in the link button on the editor. When moving out of staging folder and into document root, the links auto-updated, which was nice.
  • Creating new articles is a breeze, because under PW our fields are now customized for our needs: we created all of the fields we need and none of the ones we don't. Again, this is unlike most blogging CMS's, where they try to guess what you want (and usually get it wrong). Even for people who are solely doing blogs/article sites, I feel that ProcessWire is a much better option than most blog-specific platforms, because of PW's flexibility.  The only thing I miss about Wordpress is the ability to auto-schedule post publication, which for the serious blogger is important. For example, there were some occasions on some of our other blogs where we needed to schedule posts to auto-publish at 3:01am Eastern Time to allow a time-sensitive post to come out as early in time of day as possible on publication date (3:01 am US Eastern time ensures it's that same day 12:01 am on Pacific time).

We were delighted to see that ProcessWire is much, much lighter on resources of the hosting environment than the same site on Wordpress - we could see this empirically on our web hosting stats before and after the switch.

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2 hours ago, Violet said:

install ProcessWire in a subfolder of the original Wordpress site under a hard-to-guess name, set up the new site there

First of all thanks for the nice write-up and congrats to your re-launch.

I'm curious: If you install a sub-directory into a WP site, or let's say just a .php file at WP root, it can't be accessed due to WP's own redirect (.htaccess) rules. Did you have to add some .htaccess exception for this?

2 hours ago, Violet said:

The only thing I miss about Wordpress is the ability to auto-schedule post publication

There are two modules out there. They seem to be quite old, but did you consider using one of them anyway? I agree that an "out-of-the-box" solution would of course be preferrable. Feel free to add this feature to the wishlist / roadmap list (if it isn't there already).

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On 5/16/2019 at 2:14 PM, dragan said:

I'm curious: If you install a sub-directory into a WP site, or let's say just a .php file at WP root, it can't be accessed due to WP's own redirect (.htaccess) rules. Did you have to add some .htaccess exception for this?

Thanks for your input and for taking the time to respond. I had no problems with a sub-directory in a WP site. I didn't have to do anything with WP's .htaccess rules first. This was the case for all our WP sites we transferred to ProcessWire, and also the case for a different WP site we had that had an OpenCart store attached to it in a subdirectory e.g. thesite.com/store. In case it is of relevance, all the installs I did (of Processwire, Wordpress, anything) were via Softaculous. Hmmm. Would the fact that flipfall.com/stagingfoldername had its own .htaccess file (i.e. the Processwire .htaccess) and its own index page have an effect, versus some random directory that didn't have those features? I don't know. I'm out of my depth there, I just know it worked! This was the case on the 2 different web hosts I used for our various sites we converted from WP to ProcessWire; there was nothing unusual about the hosting environment in each case. It's interesting that you ask though because I did have a Wordpress thing that would "bleed through" while I was working on the ProcessWire site in the staging subfolder. This was the Wordpress security plugin Wordfence. It refused to let me put in any iframes (I have a few iframe ads) in my ProcessWire body field. If I tried to save a page like that, I'd get a Wordfence logo with a 403 forbidden. It likewise refused to let me embed any videos etc. So I made a list of those things as they came up (it was literally just a few occurrences) and added those in at the end, after uninstalling Wordpress and moving the staging subfolder to the document root.

On 5/16/2019 at 2:14 PM, dragan said:

There are two modules out there. They seem to be quite old, but did you consider using one of them anyway? I agree that an "out-of-the-box" solution would of course be preferrable. Feel free to add this feature to the wishlist / roadmap list (if it isn't there already).

I had only managed to find one of them beforehand (Schedule Pages) and had taken a look but it said it was compatible to version 2.x and since I'm using the latest version of PW (3. something) I figured it might not be compatible, and I didn't want to try it in case there would be some problems with non-compatible fields or something like that. I wasn't worried if it simply didn't work, but I was concerned in case a 2.7 module would have some unintended consequences to a 3.x site. I had another look at the modules and searched the forums, but couldn't seem to find the other module. I'm guessing the various search terms I tried didn't quite catch it.

UPDATE November 19, 2020

I recently tested the Schedule Pages module on another of my sites and am pleased to report that it works perfectly on a 3.x site! Thank you for this solution, it's perfect.

Edited by Violet
Subsequently added info about SchedulePages
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