This web portal
The first web portal this.no for the school was made by AFFY and Speilegg design in 2005. In 2007-2008 a communication subcommittee in the Parents Committee started the work to evaluate using a content management system (CMS) for the web portal in order to have a more flexible and more user friendly web portal. A test server using Drupal (a free and open source CMS) was set up with about 20 users including both parents, staff and administration. In 2009-2010 it was decided to switch from Drupal to WordPress, another free and open source CMS. WordPress was considered to be easier to work with and is currently the most popular CMS in use on the Internet. Since November 2011 this.no is powered by WordPress.
If you want to help with improving or maintain the web portal for this.no, just send an email to webmaster@this.no. Any help would be appreciated, for instance:
- You have some nice pictures that can be used on some page or blog post.
- Update or add content on certain pages.
- Suggest a good WordPress plugin that can be used.
- Suggest changes in the design. The school also has several test domains where you can have full access and be creative.
Below are different blog posts in the category WordPress.
New plugin “Google Calendar Events” activated:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-calendar-events/
It will parse Google Calendar feeds and displays the events as a calendar grid or list.
Follow the tutorial below in order to add an image from a NextGEN Gallery into a page or a post.
Site Stats has been activated as a WordPress plugin since November 2011. Below is the automatic generated “2011 Annual Report” (only including the 2 last months of the year):
http://jetpack.me/annual-report/29214750/2011/
A copy of the old web portal is copied to http://old.this.no. Then it will also be accessible in the future when WordPress will replace the old web portal at http://this.no/.
The domain this.no is hosted by Webhuset and has recently been upgraded from Standard to Premium in order to allow WordPress to be installed properly.
This is tested with a default installation of WordPress at the subdomain http://test.this.no/. Technically, everything should be ready for replacing the old web portal at http://this.no/ with the content we have on this test domain http://www.trondheiminternationalschool.org/content/.
The public Google Calendar with the name “Whole School Information” which is also found at It’s Learning is now embedded in our test domain (click Calendar on main menu).
Additional features added here are week numbers on every Monday and everything is in English instead of Norwegian.
RRS Feed is now added to the widget bar on the right side. RSS allows users to avoid manually inspecting all of the websites they are interested in, and instead subscribe to websites such that all new content is pushed onto their browsers when it becomes available.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS
So far we have tested different free WordPress themes from
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
based on some criteria:
- Popularity
- High average user rating
- Possibilities for customizing the theme
- Theme functionality (templates, post and page options, etc.)
- Theme support forum
- A theme that is maintained and updated by the developers in the future
Currently, we have ended up with the Weaver Theme (version 2.0):
The Weaver theme has also built in templates with page with post functionality and advanced post filtering which we currently are using. We are not locked to use exactly the Weaver Theme. It could be other themes out there that are even better for our use, but unless we find another theme that matches our criteria better, Weaver Theme could be used in the background. Designers, like Crave Media, can then help to “polish the surface” by among other factors adding custom code to site <HEAD> section:
If you have a bit of understanding of CSS, you can get almost total control of your site’s appearance by adding custom CSS rules, Javascript definitions to the section of the HTML pages. No more editing the theme style.css file, or any other files, either. And the custom code you create are saved in the WordPress database, not a file that changes with each theme upgrade, so you won’t lose your work. Weaver even includes an extensive list of CSS snippets that you can use to fine tune your site. [Extract from Weaver homepage]
Also see additional information about the Weaver 2.0 Theme below (extract from the beginning of Weaver stylesheet style.css). Especially note the highlighted yellow text.
/*
Theme Name: Weaver
Theme URI: http://wpweaver.info/themes/twenty-ten-weaver
Description: The Easiest Way to Customize Your Theme! With Weaver 2, you are in control. Make your theme look just how you want by starting with one of over 20 predefined themes. Use the simple “check-box” interface to easily change colors, fonts, header and footer, menus, sidebars, theme width, and much more. Then, take control of your content using powerful Per Page and Per Post options, including unlimited custom widget areas. Over 15 page templates, including “Page with Posts” to show posts and content where and how you want. Easy for the newcomer, comprehensive for the expert. Context sensitive help; translations available for nearly every language; Internet Explorer support; WP Multisite features; PageNavi plugin supported; active support forum.
Author: Bruce Wampler
Author URI: http://wpweaver.info
Version: 2.0
License: GNU General Public License (GPL), v2 (or newer)
License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
Tags: custom-header, custom-colors, custom-background, custom-menu, theme-options, left-sidebar, right-sidebar, fixed-width, three-columns, two-columns, black, blue, brown, green, orange, red, tan, dark, white, light, translation-ready, rtl-language-support, editor-style
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
New, combined style sheet – as of Weaver Version 1.5
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ATTENTION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE! The Weaver Theme has been designed so that editing style.css is no longer required! If you need to make changes to the styles rules, add override CSS rules to the <HEAD> Section in the Advanced Options tab of the Weaver admin panel.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*/
