Integrate a WordPress Blog to Your Bootstrap Website

So, you built a great website in bootstrap. Your site is live and great, works fine in all devices and browsers, everything is perfect. Now, your customer wants to add a blog to your website. WordPress has great themes for blogs but none of them are going to look like your custom website. Here is how you can integrate the WordPress blog into your website and make the blog look same as the rest of your website. You can create your own WordPress theme!

WordPress Blog

WordPress blog is great as it is perfect for content management, backend, and frontend. You can add multiple users, media, plugins, comments, and so on. Backups and versioning is great with WordPress blogs. Corporates have been building full fledged websites using WordPress Divi themes. Inorder to integrate a WordPress blog to your HTML site built using bootstrap, you can follow certain steps and achieve same functionality.

Settings in the cpanel

  1. First install WordPress in your root folder and give the folder name blog.
  2. Download bootstrap and save in the wp-content-themes folder.
  3. Save additional css such as font-awesome and other css you used in your Bootstrap website in the same folder as bootstrap css
  4. Create new index.php, home.php, header.php, footer.php, sidebar.php, functions.php, page.php, single.php, style.css. Each of the files have their significance in creating your theme in WordPress.
    • index.php: Loads your blog
    • home.php: Loads the blog posts from the database
    • header.php: Loads the header in every post when the get_header() function is called
    • footer.php: Loads the footer in every post when the get_footer() function is called
    • sidebar.php: Loads the sidebar contents when the get_sidebar() function is called
    • functions.php: Needed to load the jQuery in wordpress package to this website and also the sidebar contents
    • page.php: Loads the page you create and can act as a template for every page in your WordPress blog or Website
    • single.php: Loads the individual post which the user clicks in a page with comments function
    • style.css: Loads the styles for this blog
  5. Edit header.php and copy paste the content including the navbar from your existing website template. Edit the css href to php function bloginfo. Load the stylesheet_url using the function. Add wp_head and wp_enqueue_script to load jquery in this page. Save header.php. In the navbar list, add wp_list_pages function to get the additional blog page you created in the WordPress admin login. This way, your WordPress blog will be at the end of the menu items in your website. After the blog is setup, go ahead and edit all the pages of your website and add menu item blog to link it to the blog page.
  6. Edit footer.php and copy paste the footer section of your website template. Remove all the javascript functions at the end and add wp_footer() function. Save footer.php.
  7. Edit sidebar.php and add the function dynamic sidebar to get the sidebar content on all pages and make the sidebars widget friendly. It will load the sidebar contents if there are any existing. Save sidebar.php
  8. Edit index.php and load the get_header() function first. Next, in a loop check the posts and load the posts and the title and content using the the_title and the_content functions. If there are no posts display a message, saying there are no posts. At the ends, load the get_footer() function.Save index.php
  9. Edit page.php. Load the header and footer contents. Divide the page into two columns and load the posts in the left column and the sidebar in the right column. Save page.php
  10. Edit functions.php. Add function to register the scripts such as bootstrap.min.js and script.js in the page. Then enqueue the scripts of your page. Add another function to register the sidebar contents and the before_widget, after_widget, before_title, and after_title style of the sidebar contents. Save functions.php. You can override the default jQuery that comes with the WordPress install with a latest version in the functions.php.
  11. Edit home.php and load the header, footer and sidebar. In a if condition, check if there are any existing posts. For every post, get the post title, links, content, and date, using respective functions. If there are no posts, display a message. Save home.php. WordPress uses home.php to load the blog posts. Save home.php
  12. Edit single.php and and load the header, footer and sidebar. Get the contents of the post and get comments section. This page will be loaded if a single post is clicked. Save single.php
  13. Edit style.css and import the bootstrap, font-awesome, and other css used in your website. Edit the navbar and footer styles to load exactly the same way as the rest of your website. WordPress uses style.css to load the style for your blog. Save style.css.
  14. If you have multiplepages in your blog, you can have a front-page.php and load the header, footer, and sidebar there.

Settings in the WordPress login

Login to your website and blog using the WordPress credentials. Delete the existing page and create a new page called Blog. In the Settings, go to Readings and set the page to load the latest posts. In the appearance settings select the new them you have created. Go to Live Preview and test the site if it is loading properly. Make your current theme as the default theme for your WordPress and start writing blogs. Voila! you are almost done.

Keep checking for the WordPress updates and backups. Test it in all devices and browsers for responsiveness. Maintain your site and the WordPress blog at the same time with minimal distraction to the user. Add some ads to your blog to make some dollars!! 🙂

AngularJS Directives

AngularJS directives are a cool way of defining behavior and using it any way you want. You can have a directive with your name and have it do any kind of work you want depending on the situation. AngularJS directives control your DOM behavior.

Directives

Directives guide the HTML compiler to control the elements so they can behave in a certain way. The rendering of HTML inside the AngularJS application is controlled by the directives. Depending on the type of directives, they can be used to change the behavior.  Think about it like the word ‘change’. You can use it to refer to ‘change of clothes’ or ‘spare change’. It depends on the context. Similarly, Directives too can be used to behave differently if used in different contexts.




Built-in Directives

Here are some key details about directives.

AngularJS has some crucial inbuilt directives which can make your application behave in a certain way. Directives can be integrated with the HTML or can be used in the Javascript.

One thing which is cool about directives is its naming. The naming of a directive follows camel case when used in Javascript: (ngApp). Whereas, if the directives are used in a HTML, the name is separated with a hyphen: (ng-app).

There are four basic directives:

  1. ng-app : To auto-bootstrap and initialize an AngularJS application
  2. ng-model : To bind between HTML control and application data
  3. ng-init : To initialize application data
  4. ng-view : To switch between different views

There are many builtin directives, here are my favorites:

  1. ng-controller : To attach a controller class to the view
  2. ng-bind : To replace the text of the element with value of an expression
  3. ng-repeat : To instantiate a template once per item from a collection
  4. ng-hide : To show or hide the given element based on given expression

Directives are defined in a similar way as the Controllers and services. They can be defined using app.directive method. The method takes a name of the directive and a function to define what happens in the directive.




Types of Directives

The four types of Directives are classified based on where they are applied. For example, let ‘kuul-stuff ‘ be the directive you wrote. Then,

  1. Attribute directives : The directive is used to change the attribute of an element                                                                                                            <span kuul-stuff=”expression”></span>
  2. Element directives: The directive itself is used as an element              <kuul-stuff></kuul-stuff>
  3. Class directives: The directive is used as a class                                       <span class=”kuul-stuff: exp;”></span>
  4. Comment directives: The directive is used in the comments section                <-directive: kuul-stuff exp ->

Custom Directives

Custom directives are a cool way of defining your own functionality or workflow. They enhance existing directives and are easy to integrate in the HTML. The custom directives are one of the super powers of AngularJS that makes it build powerful applications. Here are some details about custom directives.

Custom directives are defined using app.directive method. The directive function returns an object in its callback.

myapp.directive (‘myDirective’, function(){

—–     write your functionality—-

});

There are some options which must be specified while writing a directive.

  1. Restrict: Defines the type of directive<br>’A’ = Attribute directive, ‘E’ = Element directive, ‘C’ = Class directive, and ‘M’ = Comment directive. It is better to define Attribute or Element directive so you can determine what element a directive matches
  2. Template: Defines directive output content
  3. TemplateURL: Gives the path of the template to be shown
  4. Controller: Defines a controller in the directive which can be used to achieve a specific task.
  5. Controller As: Defines an alias for the controller so you can refer to the controller’s variables using the alias
  6. Scope: Defines the scope of the directive                                                            ‘false‘ = Default value, which means that the scope of the directive is shared by the scope of the parent. There is no local scope present    ‘true‘ = It means that a new scope is created for the directive. There is local scope present as well as we can access the parent scope.  ‘{}‘=Isolated scope means that there is no link between parent and directive scope. A new scope is created and cannot be accessed outside. Further, the directive cannot access the outside scope.                    It is suggested to have an isolated scope in large AngularJS applications to keep the data safe. However, isolated scope can be accessed outside using some techniques. There is some magic which will be revealed later. Okay, fine. Here is the key. Use the following property to achieve the given purpose.                                                                                                             ‘=’ = Handles two-way binding.                                                                     ‘@’=Passing string values to directives.                                                      ‘&’=External function invocation.
  7. Compile: Compile method is specified to achieve a function as soon as the page loads. It will return a link function. If the behavior occurs only once in the directive, use compile.
  8. Link: Link method is specified to achieve a function similar to compile but it loads after compile. If the behavior occurs multiple times in the directive, use Link.

The order the AngularJS guides the HTML compiler is:                                    Compile–>Controller–>Pre-link–>Link–>Post-link.                                             It depends on what you want to achieve in the directive.




Directive Example

Here is an example of a custom directive.

myapp.directive(‘kuulStuff’, function(){

return {

Restrict: A,

template: <span> Hey, I’m custom</span>,

templateUrl: ‘/kuulstuff/home.html’,

Scope: ‘true’,

Compile: function(telement,tattrs) {

console.log(“Hi, I’m custom”);

var linkfn=function($scope, element,attrs){

element.css(‘background-color, ‘red’);

}

return linkfn;

}),

controller: function(){

console.log(“In the controller”);

},

Link: function(scope, telement,tattrs){

console.log(“In the link”);

},

};

});

This is just ‘some’ information about directives in AngularJS. It may be a bit confusing in the beginning, but if you write more, you will be fine. Write your own directives and let me know how it goes. 🙂

AngularJS Controllers

AngularJS Controllers are where the most magic happens. Think that the controllers of an AngularJS application as the brain. The controllers are super smart and can define what happens on the (DOM) Document Object Model. AngularJS controllers along with the dependency injection form the super power of the AngularJS.

Controllers

Here are some key details AngularJS: How to Begin.

  •  Controllers are attached to the DOM through the ng-controller directive. When a controller is initialized, a javascript object will be created and all the functions in the .controller method can be accessed.
  • The initial state for the Angular $scope is available at the point where a controller is registered. All the properties of the $scope can be defined in the controller and can be accessed through the methods.
  • The .controller method can be used to add the controller’s constructor function to the module. Thus the constructor function is out of global scope.
  • Apart from the $scope, we can send additional parameters to the controller, such as services and functions. It is better to keep a controller as simple as possible. You can define as many controllers as you want in an AngularJS application.
  • A common practice of keeping controllers focused on the required logic is to define services and functions, which can in turn be passed to a controller through dependency injection.
  • Controllers can be nested and inherited. You have to note that the parent’s controller’s methods can be accessed in the child controller. And not vice versa.
  • Finally, remember that the controllers contain Javascript functions and are created by a standard Javascript object constructor and is bounded to a particular scope.

Example

Here is an example of how the Controller is initiated. You have to create an angular app called myapp. Also, you need to declare in the html to tell that it is an Angular application.

In the js:

myapp.controller(“MyCtrl”, function($scope){

$scope.message=”Hello”;

});

In the HTML or template:

<div ng-controller=”MyCtrl”>

{{message}}

<\div>

Your div is binded to the controller using the ‘ng-controller’ directive. The scope of the div is passed to the controller. The scope message variable’s value can be accessed in the div within the dual curly braces. Notice, how the name of the controller is defined with an ‘Ctrl’ and the double quotes used while defining and accessing the controller.

Similarly, you can have any number of controllers in your AngularJS application. You can have different Javascript files for each controller or just put it in one main file. This makes two way data binding easier and keeps your application simple!

Three Steps to Post a Google AdSense Ad in Your Blog

Google Adsense is widely popular among the blog industry. Everybody is blogging, but the real challenge is setting up the ads in a WordPress blog. Here are three simple steps to post an ad in to your blog.


1. Login as Admin to your blog
  1. Click on Posts menu and select a page to insert Ads
  2. Select HTML view for inserting google Ad javascript code. Leave an empty line above and below the <script>… </script> tags
  3. To add the Ad beside the blog image: Add <table><tr><td>Ad script or blog image</td><td>Ad script or blog image</td></tr></table>
2. Login to AdSense to create an ad
  1. Under AdSense Setup, identify the content type and subject for which you need the ad
  2. Click AdSense for Content to select ad type
  3. Decide the place where you want to show the Ad on blog
    • Just after the heading of blog => rectangular image or text 700 X 15
    • In the middle => rectangular preferably text with multiple columns may be 4 or 5
    • Next to a image => square 300 X 200
  4. Select Ad Unit. You can experiment with Link Unit also
  5. Select Size horizontal or vertical and so on
  6. Add five subject categories related to the blog contents
  7. Give a name to the ad and generate javascript
  8. Copy the javascript from the text box


3. Go back to the blog contents and paste the javascript
  1. Save and Update and Publish the blog
  2. See the blog and make sure you have the correct ads appearing
  3. Click back to Manage Ads and edit if needed
If the ads are not to your expectation or want to change any categories you can go to AdSense and make the changes without copying and pasting the javascript again.

The AdSense is smart enough to post the ads according to the changes you make there without copying and pasting the javascript. Happy advertising and happy blogging with Adsense. 🙂