A metaphor for CSS: If you are more familiar with programming than with xml or CSS, consider this object oriented metaphor to understand the building blocks of CSS. First, selectors could be thought of as tokens in, say, C++. An ID could be considered an object (I would say class, but that’s the next token to be compared.) A CLASS could be considered a variable.
CSS explained as OOP: You build an object and assign variables within it which may exist elsewhere in code, but will only apply to it’s own scope when called in the code. An instance of a class will reference that class’ variables. Any variables with the same name will not be referenced within that class!
I have moved my test posts out of the main serifdesign.net blog by adding another installation of wordpress under /fjmwordpress. I also built a test site under /fjm. This will keep my funky test posts out of plain sight.
Now the big problem is CSS. I have never been able to quicly grasp CSS. So, I’m am scouring the web for CSS tips and tricks and sending posts to the RealMac forums to get some help.
So far Nilrog’s tutorial seems to be the most powerful, while his WP-Plugin seems to be the most convenient. Yet to be determined which method I will use.
Well, this is just a journal I’m keeping on my attempt to use WordPress as an inventory catalog. Mostly for me, but maybe it will formulate into a how-to eventually. I’m using RapidWeaver as the basis of my website, and I have come up short on plug-ins that will do what I want which is basically a catalog of trucks and trailers for sale for a truck dealer company. I don’t know yet if this can scale into eCommerce, so it all may have to be redone when that is implemented, but I’m sure Google and PayPal have built in features to hold the inventory.
First thing to note: “Custom Fields” on the Write page on WordPress’ backend. This is what sparked my idea. Basic database field>key entry. Second to note: The Loop. This is where the nitty gritty coding will most likely take place. It is a section of your index.php starting with “ <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>” which is the format of each entry on your blog page.
So the first thing I did was comment out the date and the comments portion of The Loop. For now, I shouldn’t need these as each entry isn’t a blog post, it’s an inventory item. Well, it worked aside from some funky formatting. My custom fields showed up after adding “<?php the_meta(); ?>”. So far so good!