rgwhitaker Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 (edited) I'm going to be using a purchased PrestaShop theme for an online shop. As part of the website, I'm going to have a WordPress blog as well that will be linked to from the global menu. In looking at the theme I want, I was thinking of taking the About Us page, which is simply a general page, and using that as a basis for my WordPress theme: the only parts I would keep of the page would be the header and footer. I'd remove the content in between the header and footer and put the blog content there. What is the best way to approach this? I'll have a separate directory for the WordPress files (for example, /public_html/blog). I would copy the PS theme About Us page into the /blog directory. But then how would the page keep its formatting? Is there a way to direct the page to look at the css file back in the PrestaShop style directory? Or would it be better to copy the PrestaShop style file(s) to the /blog/styles directory? I will also need to style the content of the blog content as well. Again, what would be the best way to approach this? Thanks in advance! Edited August 3, 2013 by rgwhitaker (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kip Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 Hi, well all I always do when client have eshop on what ever platform it is and he wants wordpress as part of the eshop for blog which is important for seo, I simply cleate theme for wordpress from existing prestashop theme.. it is not hard, and you have fully native looking blog 'inside' of the prestashop.. I always leave prestasop in root dictionary /public_html/ and then in prestashop you add to menu manually link to your worpdress which is installed in /blog folder (/public_html/blog/) once this is done I simply create theme with all links build in and the only part which will change is wordpress blog..visitors then not even know they are visiting blog running on another platform I do same stuff with osticket which is used for support tickets etc.. it is not that hard to modify those things.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobcat22 Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 (edited) Hi Kip, What is the advantage of having PrestaShop in the root? Because traffic is attracted to interesting content, content rules first then the shop. Say you want to show how your vendors may take photos of their products - like you see on Etsy, your content would show, for example, how you can achieve professional results using a point and shoot camera using video/text. You will attract those who may not want to purchase anything, but you will get a percent of the readers to buy or attract a seller to come onboard. This is why you need interesting and relevant content on your domain. What best could do that than WordPress. So I choose to locate WordPress in the root and the shop script in a subfolder. If for some reason you want to change out your shop script, you do not impact the site blogs or articles. WordPress or a CMS would be the anchor. So again, what is the technical or otherwise, advantage of having the shop in the root? Edited August 6, 2013 by Bobcat22 (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kip Posted August 9, 2013 Share Posted August 9, 2013 (edited) Hi Kip, What is the advantage of having PrestaShop in the root? Because traffic is attracted to interesting content, content rules first then the shop. Say you want to show how your vendors may take photos of their products - like you see on Etsy, your content would show, for example, how you can achieve professional results using a point and shoot camera using video/text. You will attract those who may not want to purchase anything, but you will get a percent of the readers to buy or attract a seller to come onboard. This is why you need interesting and relevant content on your domain. What best could do that than WordPress. So I choose to locate WordPress in the root and the shop script in a subfolder. If for some reason you want to change out your shop script, you do not impact the site blogs or articles. WordPress or a CMS would be the anchor. So again, what is the technical or otherwise, advantage of having the shop in the root? Hi.. it is simple.. you can have blog in root or prestashop in root.. it is up to you.. you see, if you understand a bit of seo all products are your seo.. blog will just boost it.. and oposit way.. when someone type in 'product a' and you will have it in your shop they will find you.. but if you do blog about it your chances are higher as seo is driven via content what you have on your site.. dont get me wrong.. prestashop/blog is valuable as prestashop it self as you have site map and other things you can let know search engines hey I am here and I blogging about it.. google will see your product plus informations you put out so.. you understand hah? Blog is something which is changing constantly but shop will stay as it is.. for 3 months your shop will be okay but as soon as it is not giving valuable info your seo is driven away.. blog is great for seo.. no matter if you have it in root or /folder.. if you pull it on subdomain you will loose simple.. again you sould care where it is.. shop/wp or wp/shop is okay but wp.shop. is bad or another way.. shop.wp. that will be bad thing for you. Lets go back to topic as you understand - this is not about seo even I know we can discuss it long way as I can feel you have right knowledge about it Using a PrestaShop Theme Page as a Template for the WordPress Blog Portion of Site - this is possible quiet very easy.. and I think it is best way.. Edited August 9, 2013 by kip (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobcat22 Posted August 9, 2013 Share Posted August 9, 2013 (edited) Hi Kip, You said, "Using a PrestaShop Theme Page as a Template for the WordPress Blog Portion of Site - this is possible quite very easy.. and I think it is best way." Are you saying that a PrestaShop Theme is good for "dynamic" rather then "static" content where you assign content from a WordPress post to designated blocks on a PestaShop theme? So there is no appreciable advantage in either having WP or PrestaShop in the root as I understand from your post. I am one of the editors who publishes product reviews and had enough with WP themes/plugins. So in one of our meetings our staff agreed to steer a WP site developer to a multi-vendor e-comm script because WP e-commerce solutions are not mature nor is there a good multi-vendor product. The review would take into account utilizing WordPress for creating content, forums, forms, protecting pages and other functions and then PrestaShop as the shop. However I am seeing plugins which may fill in for WordPress, like the forum, newsletter and blogging. I had created a configuration, as an example, where WordPress is the root and OpenCart resides in a sub-folder. Summary: I would like to present the possibility of using PrestaShop for those who are thinking of a WordPress shop solution. The organization, TalkingManuals/Product Reviews did not want to have the shop owner to have to learn both WordPress and PrestaShop. Each of these scripts are a world of their own. The PrestaShop solution may just lure WordPress site developers away from WordPress and instead, they may want to standardize on non-WordPress environment for shop use. Edited August 12, 2013 by Bobcat22 (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dh42 Posted August 9, 2013 Share Posted August 9, 2013 Bobkat22, The reason you keep the shop in the root is simple. Traffic costs money, sales make money. e-commerce is a different game than writing a blog for traffic. Blogs for e-commerce sites don't generally generate the traffic that people think they will, because they are usually based around products. People read blogs for information, not a biased review on a product. Everyone, Don't put a blog in the root or a sub directory. Use a subdomain set up on a different cpanel account. The reason being is that wordpress is hacked / cracked more than another platform on the internet. If you lose control of your wordpres installation, more than likely your prestashop site will be lost too. You are storing peoples personal information, be sensible on how you store it. rgwhitaker, The easiest way to make a wordpress template from a prestashop template is to open the page that you want to use as the template, you said a cms page. Then copy that to a text editor, and merge it with a blank wordpress theme. You will basically put your hooks and what you need into the prestashop page, then cut the code apart and make a header / footer out of it. If you are going to use a side bar, you will need to add that as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobcat22 Posted August 9, 2013 Share Posted August 9, 2013 Is this the official voice of PrestaShop or is this a personal opinion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dh42 Posted August 9, 2013 Share Posted August 9, 2013 None of it is an official voice of prestashop. But let me ask, which part where you referring to or disagreeing with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobcat22 Posted August 9, 2013 Share Posted August 9, 2013 (edited) I will be attending the PrestaShop coming events and will engage in these kinds of discussions of WordPress or Drupal as the front end of PrestaShop. I manage TalkingManuals, there you will see a WordPress review area. As stated earlier in the thread, I will be presenting PrestaShop for WordPress site developers. The questions is, how best to configure a site, PrestaShop as root / WordPress in subfolder or do not use WordPress and instead, use PrestaShop. About Traffic/SEO Ratings- "Blogs for e-commerce sites don't generally generate the traffic that people think they will, because they are usually based around products. People read blogs for information, not a biased review on a product" I would generally agree with your statement. Lets take for example Etsy, "Etsy is more than a marketplace: we're a community of artists, creators, collectors, thinkers and doers." ref: http://www.etsy.com/...ity?ref=so_com. For niche markets editorials may be vital. I am not referring to testimonies nor reviews. For some shop owners it may be about building a community based also on utilizing both common interest and valued products as the basis of interest. I am new to PrestaShop and interested in how PrestaShop's CMS and other modules would serve as a WordPress replacement. Edited August 9, 2013 by Bobcat22 (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dh42 Posted August 9, 2013 Share Posted August 9, 2013 About etsy, I like their crafty things, I have bought maybe 8-10 things for my SO in the last year. I have never read their blog. I don't discount blogs, but for the majority of merchants that are selling a feed of products they just are not useful. I have a few niche clients that use them and they work well. That being said, I have a couple of clients with wordpress installations along with their prestashop installations. I always use prestashop as the front end though. If you really want to get elaborate with how you handle wordpress with prestashop you can. You can actually override the whole wordpress login / cookie system and merge it with prestashop. Just take a look at the wordpress plugable. Also once you to that, you will be calling the prestashop init from wordpress, then you can actually load prestashop modules onto your wordpress template. They might be a few things you want to take a look at, if you can put them together correctly, they might be a big help on easing the integration. But one thing I would suggest looking at is just using a prestashop blog. What does wordpress really have that prestashop and a blog plugin do not offer? A lot of the issues people see with ecommerce sites come to how the site is set up. You can make the landing page not look like an ecommerce shop. Just hide some of the ecommerce modules from your landing page. It is all about configuring it. I have a few clients with no products on their landing pages. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobcat22 Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 (edited) Hi Dh42, Your comments along with Kip/s has helped me to better qualify PrestaShop. Edited August 10, 2013 by Bobcat22 (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BWT Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 @ DH42 what wordpress "plugable" are you referring too? I always keep an eye out for new modules or plugins that will work with these two platforms. I do see that there are a few of both but couldn't find any that did what you suggested in your post could you elaborate on that part a bit. In one of my shops i use a blog module for prestashop and on another site I use WP as the main site and it seems the blog mod on presta just doesn't work well, it's slow, no one ever visits those pages (i know it could be content). The address path to the blog is ridiculous, and in wp simple. I know that this is one issue with the blog mod even though friendly urls are used doesn't work the same and returns a crazy path. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dh42 Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 T-bone, Plugable is Wordpress's api for plugging in core functions. Read this, http://codex.wordpress.org/Pluggable_Functions You can rewrite the urls for the blog module, albeit it is not fun, but it can be done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobcat22 Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 (edited) "Also once you do that, you will be calling the prestashop init from wordpress, then you can actually load prestashop modules onto your wordpress template." Using a predefined php script within a widget may allow you to move that PrestaShop block anywhere on the page body you wish. The trick is creating the script. I would think for marketing reasons, PrestaShop company would want to entice the WordPress community to get comfortable with PrestaShop . There by, creating a widget/plugin to capture either function or content. Being able to do this would better assist on merging these 2 camps for shop use. However if PrestaShop had better bloging modules (with page layout capabilities/multi-columns) then the reason to use WordPress would diminish. About blogging regularly: Great articles will increase traffic for those who are not interested in your products as well as attract those who are. If you are creating an Ebay clone, no need for a WordPress/shop blend. Creating interesting topics takes time. Many shop owners will fail to continue to produce articles as they require considerable time to produce in an effort to keep the site fresh. Seeing articles with post dates of several months back, dates your site. Edited August 12, 2013 by Bobcat22 (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kip Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 (edited) Hi Kip, You said' "Using a PrestaShop Theme Page as a Template for the WordPress Blog Portion of Site - this is possible quiet very easy.. and I think it is best way." Are you ..... Hi bobcat22 I am saying regards blog (it is the best way which works from me) not regards reviews or other plugins. As topic said "Using a PrestaShop Theme Page as a Template for the WordPress Blog Portion of Site" I was thinking thats what this is about.. the blog not pages and other plugins.. sorry if we did not understand each other from very start Dear Dh42 Regards seo, prestashop is nice, have its own tool and its own sitemap, robots etc.. however you are very unlikely to change products frequently and it is the content which turns your google and other search engines in.. of course key words too, but you have to be more interactive with people, not only informations and shop - thats what internet is about those days.. Regards root folder, sure its all about traffic - as bobcat22 said 'Great articles will increase traffic for those who are not interested in your products as well as attract those who are' he nail it just right. If you have prestashop in root you will have basic seo just for your products which doesn’t change so often and as you cannot adding every day new products it is very likely that you will 'stay as you are' once you finish adding all your products and thats it. Google will keep you but if someone will start for example blog regards any of those products or something where content will have something to do with your product, then you will simply go down on google page 'search results' as his content is more relevant due to information and interactivity of people with the content.. that is why I suggested to use folders instead of having it in subdomain. When you pull wordpress to subfolder (not the root one) all seo from wordpress will be driven to that youreshop.com/blog but when person comes to read about it he could see he is in shop.. and thats what I want.. it doesn’t matter if you have prestashop in root or in subfolder, combining those two things can be very good.. In all respect with your suggestion you can create subdomain and still make it looks like your wp is part of the shop but - your seo will be driven out from main domain (people can see it on google before they click on link)..We dont need to fight which method of installation wp (in subfolder or subdomain) give you best seo results, you can google it. I think prestashop should be in root and worpdress should be in /subfolder. Regards wordpress and hacking you said 'wordpress is hacked / cracked more than another platform on the internet' well I know for the fact that most dangerous cms on planet is joomla and if you ever tried to get in you will see what I mean.. however I agree with you that is is most widely used cms on planet and thats why so many hackers try to hack it but if you take care regards security updates, with no admin user name and good password then there is very little chance to get hacked - but I was thinking about all of this issue this days you can use some static blog like monstra cms or staticpress with google comments or other commenting service. Having no database with proper permissions reducing hacks nearly to zero.. however everything on web could be hacked even prestashop, well put it this way.. if you are able to get in via wordpress, then you will be able to get to the prestashop as well.. and as last thing.. I never bridge two cms into one (like dbs or coockies).. that is just very very bad idea! Regards 'What does wordpress really have that a blog plugin do not offer?' this one yap.. spam fighting is not even there, gallery (pics and videos) and nice permalinks for seo, theming, easy portability and backup process and other stuff.. I think thats just the base which is not there. I hope so, it is free plugin, however having eshop without blog is not very good. For everyone I just sharing my opinion however I am glad that I find this discussion I created wp install which could be on subdomain or subfolder I dont care, but to demostrate how it is looks like with prestashop basic theme you can see it here http://topfreelancer.co.uk/dev/fun/ ..some scripts not working as I use everything fetched from original prestashop demo eshop, but if you have your own install of prestashop and it is on same server they will work.. there are no sidebars as I did not put them up - Its just for demonstration that if you really want you can have the blog very easy with any prestashop theme and if you copy few css from ps theme into your wp theme stuff(this one use original ps demo shop files so I cannot edit them as I don’t host them) then you can tweak it to make posts looks as you need and don’t even need to touch prestashop theme (that was not possible with any prestashop blog mods/plugins in past but they maybe changed now.. I have no idea). If you have it on subfolder even shopping cart will keep stuff added in etc.. Sorry guys but blog mods/plugins for prestashop did not worked very well for me (in past) and some of them to get working was just night mare.. specially when I updated presta to newer version (I said in past and if that was changed then good, I wont offend or upset anyone, as it did not worked for me in past very well I did not look at them again) I just wont spend 2 days to figuring out what went wrong with the blog mod/plugin after update and then rewrite every time.. yah I am lazy in that kind of way Edited August 12, 2013 by kip (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RonDsy Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 (edited) My first post. . A very interesting thread/topic for sure. I am happy we are not pitting a mature CMS with PestaShop and see the possible advantage of both. Kip, you staed that - I think prestashop should be in root and worpdress should be in /subfolder. Which one as the Root? I did not read why you suggest PestaShop in the root - you do say that either positioning is ok as long you do not use a subdomain for either in light for SEO considerations. @Smartdatasoft - will review those links and thank you. In you first link I see the template for WordPress for OpenCart, did not see for WordPress for PrestaShop. Are you perhaps the author of these themes? Edited August 12, 2013 by RonDsy (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartDataSoft Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 no this wordpress for prstashop or opecart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RonDsy Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Did not understand your response. Are you saying that the theme is for both, WordPress and OpenCart? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartDataSoft Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 No this theme have three version woo commerce with wordpress, prestashop version and also opencart version. We developed prestashop and wordpress for prestashop blog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RonDsy Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 Is there a demo showing how the PrestaShop/Wordpress works? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BWT Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 (edited) oh! you mean "Plugins" got ya! for a while there was a FREE theme set floating around from Smash-Magazibe. both for prestashop and another for WP although they are different themes that meet the standards of there platforms they matched very well. here is the link Edited August 13, 2013 by T-Bone (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kip Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 (edited) Is there a demo showing how the PrestaShop/Wordpress works? Hi.. this is wordpress using external theme and css from original demo shop here from presta.. this wordpress does not use any plugins or what so ever its just pure blog.. some scripts does not work as it is not hosted on same server but this could show you that it is possible to have blog on prestashop very easy, have look http://topfreelancer.co.uk/dev/fun/ Edited August 18, 2013 by kip (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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