Filosofo Home-Page Control .83

Allows you to put pages on the same permalink level as the blog’s directory and to set which page you want to be the “home” page. Go to Options » Home-Page Control to adjust the settings. Works in WordPress versions 1.5+ By Austin Matzko.

A significant use is keeping your javascript safely out of the hands of WYSIWYG editors and/or clients.

I will be using this technique. Thanks Zain.

Yes - you’re right this was spotted a while back and I updated the information in a later post. Another “newbie” (Carol) mentioned this and working with her on getting this working I updated the information which you can now find here:

http://knowledgeconstructs.com/semi-static-wordpress-homepages-yogi-ive-found-a-boo-boo

As for why you’d want to do this instead of adding text directly to your index.php, page.php or single.php - the main reason is “ease of use”. Once it’s set up, there’s less chance of messing up the actual PHP code and you can add text etc. without worry of accidentally killing the page (it happens - trust me. Even as an experienced coder, I still mess pages up!).

From a time efficiency perspective, you might also consider that every time you need to make an update you have to go to your FTP, download the file, update it and then re-upload it. With a semi-static system, you just need to go into the Sniplets admin panel in WordPress, tweak the copy and hit “save”. Job done.

Also, Sniplets allow you to *add* PHP code as well - you could gain extra functionality just by putting the relevant code into the Sniplet (again, without worry of destroying your layout).

I hope that explains some of the reasons why you’d want to use this type of system instead of just adding code or text directly to your pages. I’d rather do it this “safe” way than adding potential issues to my site!

Cheers,

Zain

This shouldn’t be a surprise though – I’m a complete beginner with Wordpress, and not much better with PHP, so this is bound to be a stupid question…

Anyway, nothing is showing up - nothing at all. If I manually paste my “static” text into my index.php file I get the desired result, so why not just do that?

[16-Nov-2007 17:06:16] PHP Fatal error: Class filter_is_numeric: Cannot inherit from undefined class fi_filter in /home/metam7/public_html/wp-content/plugins/filled-in/extensions/filters/is_numeric.php on line 16 [16-Nov-2007 17:07:04] PHP Fatal error: Class filter_word_count: Cannot inherit from undefined class fi_filter in…. etcetera.

Nick

I’m a bit confused on precisely where you’re stuck. That’s probably because my instructions weren’t as exact as they could be.

Anyway, look out for an email as I’ll contact you directly on this to see if we can get your Semi-Static homepage working properly on your site. So far, I’ve installed it on 2 sites and working on a 3rd - it’ll be good seeing it working on another site too!

Cheers,

Zain

I have a couple of questions:
When i named the snippet homepage it showed up on the page just like that homepage and ugly.

My original homepage was the Freedom Train Depot. So I went back and took “home” off the page slug since I had designated it as that in my -options, reading pane in wordpress. and renamed the slug on “homepage”. Now my snippet doesnt show up anywhere now.

Also nothing will show up when i use the content tag - only shows up when i put it above posts on first page.

So one: how do i get my original title (Depot) to act as my homepage in your scenario? And second, why won’t anything i write show up if i tag it content?

Thanks so much.

The kind words are there because I regard you as being one of the best resources in the WordPress field. As a subscriber to your feed, there’s always quality information that I enjoy reading and think there are tips that other readers would do well to make note of. Always inspiring - keep it up!

Checking the comments today, I was glad that I left you speechless - I must be doing something *right* . It’s just one of the few tips I’ll be sharing over the coming weeks on how to make full use of WordPress to make it do things that people wouldn’t normally expect.

I love pushing the boundaries.

Just to clarify (and I know you’re a smart cookie to have worked it out) - yes, all you need to do to change the static content is to go into Manage / Sniplets / Whatever-you-called-the-sniplet and then update the content. That will change the text on the homepage.

The beauty of this tip is that Sniplets also accept HTML tags - so your creativity and talent are the only things that will restrict you when coming up with a really amazing homepage. Add some tables, pictures or (for those of you in the Internet Marketing field) put your best products on the homepage!

Go for it and let us know what you’ve come up with! I’d love to see how far people take this tip.

Let’s start beautifying the web. Blogs don’t have to look like blogs!

Good luck.