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1 Sep 04, 2008 22:23    

My b2evolution Version: 1.10.x

Hi, well this is officially the first post I’ve ever posted asking for help, and hope there is someone out there that has some knowledge that would help me.

I have b2evo installed and have become familiar with using it and manipulating colors and stuff in a custom skin (very basic, novice level). I’ve spent a long time researching and reading other posts and documents on this site, but have not been able to accomplish what I’d like. I have an existing website that I maintain and want to add a blog. The pages in the existing website (edited with Dreamweaver) have the same header image and a left menu that lets visitors navigate to the other pages of the website. I’d like to keep the header and left menu intact, or at least duplicate it as best I can on the blog page so that it is visually consistent with the rest of the site.

Question is how best to accomplish that? I assume a blog can only be a .php… and there is no way to have an .htm file with php elements embedded (this is just an assumption on my part based on limited knowledge of php). If that is the case, then is it possible to add html code and change the appearance of my custom skin file "index.main.php" to include my own header and include html code for a left menu structure (in a table) to navigate the rest of my website from the blog page, just like all the other pages in the website? OR do I need to manipulate "a_noskin.php" to be what I want, and if so, can I add a table so that the top row is the header, left column is the navigational menu for the existing website, and then the main cell of the table be the b2evo blog (php code)?

I hope this makes sense! Thank you.

2 Sep 04, 2008 22:32

Hi hvgreen,

Welcome to the forums.

Are you running B2evo v1.10 or B2evo v2.4?
PHP is designed to work perfectly well within HTML so you can mix them without problems.
What you want can fairly easily be done in two ways.
Either you replace the header (or parts of it) by the header of your main site or you use an iframe structure where you place the blog in an iframe under the header of your main blog.
Though the latter is easier, the first method is more consistent.

if you provide me a link to your site I can give you a more detailed description on what you could do.

Good luck

3 Sep 04, 2008 22:53

I'm using 2.4.1. The website is still under construction, but the home page will give you a good idea of how the website looks. Ideally I want the blog to look like it is sitting within our website template.

Thanks so much for your quick reply to my first post. I look forward to hearing back at your convenience.

4 Sep 04, 2008 23:48

This is possible.
You want to build a skin with the header and the style of your homepage. That will make the blog.
You can put the menu in the sidebar of the blog, either hardcoded above the container or as a FreeHTML widget. That will give you a sidebar starting with your menu and continuing with whatever you'd like to put in the sidebar from the blog itself, like a recent posts widget etc. You can do so in a way it looks as if it's seamlessly integrated.

The easiest procedure is to start with a basic skin with a single left sidebar. I'd choose the 'Custom' skin and move the sidebar to the left. Next tweak this using as much code / style form your homepage as you can.

I can't give you any advise using DreamWeaver for this.
I think you find this easier as you think once you get started ;)

Feel free to ask advise from the community. If you really get stuck you may want to concider hiring a professional to do the blog skin for you.

Good luck

5 Sep 05, 2008 02:44

Many, many thanks for your help! It all makes sense, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to create something usable. Thank you so much.


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