Many professional blogs highlight their newest and most popular articles using a gallery on their home page. These display a slideshow of photographs and excerpts from articles, attracting interested readers and enhancing the prominence of individual posts on the blog.
Ensuring a Successful WordPress Install
Creating a new WordPress blog with a working article gallery takes approximately ten minutes and requires:
- Webspace with access to a MySQL database;
- A copy of WordPress; and
- A copy of the D13slideshow plugin
Although WordPress comes with two basic themes, they are very generic. Consider downloading a new theme, too.
How to Set Up a Blog using WordPress and D13slideshow
Once webspace and database access have been secured, follow these simple instructions to install WordPress.
- Unzip the .zip file downloaded from wordpress.org;
- Open the wp-config-sample.php file in any text editor;
- Replace putyourdbnamehere with the name of the database WordPress is to connect to;
- Replace usernamehere with the username to log into the database;
- Replace yourpasswordhere with the password to log into the database;
- Be careful not to remove the apostrophes around each word, or the installation will fail.
- Save the file as wp-config.php;
- Unzip the theme's .zip file, if one was downloaded, and move the contents (including the folder) into the 'themes' folder (found inside 'wp-content');
- Unzip the D13slideshow .zip file and move the contents (including the folder) into the 'plugins' folder (found inside 'wp-content');
- Using an FTP program, connect to the website's ftp connection (the connection details should have been provided by the web host or ISP);
- Upload the contents of the wordpress folder, including all subfolders;
- Change the permissions on the 'themes' folder so it can be written to by 'public' (so themes can be edited through WordPress);
- Go to websiteaddress/wp-admin/install.php (e.g. www.mynewsite.com/wp-admin/install.php) to run the WordPress installer; and
- Write down the admin password the website gives out.
The site is now installed.
Setting up the D13slideshow plugin
Once WordPress is installed, go to websiteaddress/wp-admin to log in to the administrative portion of the site. Use the password from point 14, above, and then follow the on-screen instructions to change it to something more memorable.
Click on the 'Plugins' menu in the left sidebar, and find 'd13slideshow' in the list of installed plugins. Click on the 'Activate' link underneath its name. The slideshow plugin is now running.
Next, click on the down arrow beside 'Settings' in the left sidebar and select the 'D13slideshow' link in the drop-down list. This is where the slideshow can be configured. On the whole, most of these settings will not need to be changed but it is worthwhile remembering where the settings are because the default size of the slideshow may not suit requirements. If it turns out the slideshow is too large, its size can be altered here.
Now, select the down arrow beside 'Appearance' in the left sidebar and click on 'Themes'. Select the theme to use for the site, and then select 'editor'. It is time to add the slideshow to the website.
Select the index.php file from the list on the right of the page to edit the main index template. Most WordPress themes use 'Main Index Template' to control the look of the site's front page, but some do not (the Revolution Streamline theme uses Home.php instead). If using a theme that does not use index.php to control the front page, select the file that does control it instead. If unsure, add the following somewhere in index.php
<h2>Test</h2>
Then save it using the 'Update file' button and visit the website. If Test appears somewhere on the front page, the theme is using index.php to control it. If Test does not appear, check the theme's documentation for assistance.
Now, remove the 'Test' code and enter the following:
<?php d13slideshow(); ?>
This tells WordPress to show the slideshow. The position of the code in the file determines the position of the slideshow on the site, so experiment for good positioning. Remember to save using 'Update file'.
Writing the First Blog Post
Now the site is up and running, blogging can begin! Once each article is written, a custom field needs to be added. Custom fields send extra data to WordPress to tell plugins how to handle the post.
D13slideshow is looking for promoimage as a custom field, with the URL of the image for the slideshow as a 'value'. Add this information, publish the article, and the article will appear in the slideshow.
A photo gallery on a WordPress blog gives the site a more professional, eye-catching appearance and can draw in interested readers who might otherwise have missed the articles in question. They are easy to set up with a simple plugin, and very effective.
Zoe Kirk-Robinson - Zoë Kirk-Robinson is a freelance writer/artist specialising in legal writing, internet technology and creative writing. She holds a ...
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