Can WP create static HTML pages, then upload them to a remote server via FTP?

WordPress is NOT a static webpage builder. If you want a static html website, write it in a notepad and publish on the server, or use a visual website builder like Dreamweaver to do this.

It’s not possible if you are keeping the WordPress installation on the same server.

If you are OK with hosting the WordPress installation on a seperate site and sever then it is possible, but it’s a very big job to do and it will need you do to pretty much all of the work to create the functionality for this yourself. It’s possible to do, but it will be very hard. To do it yourself you’d need to create a new plugin that can do it all for you.

It’s not possible if you are keeping the WordPress installation on the same server.

If you are OK with hosting the WordPress installation on a seperate site and sever then it is possible, but it’s a very big job to do and it will need you do to pretty much all of the work to create the functionality for this yourself. It’s possible to do, but it will be very hard. To do it yourself you’d need to create a new plugin that can do it all for you.

What in heaven’s name are you talking about? What plugin? What functionality? How are you going to run php scripts on a server that has no php installed on, even if you link to external database?

And what’s the point of this? To me it sounds like that the original poster doesn’t have a slightest clue about how a website functions and because WordPress looks easy, he wants it that way. You can’t have a content management system without storing the data somewhere, either a database or .dat files. Nor can yo run server-side scripting languages on a machine that does not support it.

Unfortunately WordPress has made it “look” so easy that people think they can find a “plugin” to do magic. WordPress is a capable software but it doesn’t replace knowledge and most certainly doesn’t make a programmer out of you.

Short answer is: a) Get a new server b)hire a professional to make the site for you.

I do understand that my reply sounds confusing. In all honesty it was meant to because it the process of doing what is wanted really is.

Well, I did say

on a seperate site and sever

I took that as meaning that WordPress would be installed on a different server that was capable of PHP, databases and everything else that’s needed to run WP.

What plugin? What functionality?

I also said

To do it yourself you’d need to create a new plugin that can do it all for you

I was trying to give jackzelig the benifit of the doubt and asusme that they had some knowledge of what they wanted to do. If they didn’t know that, or they wanted more explanation, they can always ask for themself.

I do agree with you that this is really not a great thing to use WordPress for. There’s way ot many barriers to make it actually work properly, as well as thre being a whole lot of other tools (like Dreamweaver) that make it a whole lot easier.

Thanks for your reply Michael.
Sorry if I didn’t provide enough detail in my initial post, but you seem to have understood my question correctly.

The situation is this: we have a website, consisting of a bunch of static HTML pages on a server which doesn’t run PHP or MySQL. This I cannot change.

These pages were created and are maintained by me. However, it would take a load off my plate if I could have some of the other people in the department make changes to them as necessary.

I agree that it’s not an ideal use case for WP, and I’m very probably trying to have my cake and eat it, but I was thinking of installing WP on a virtual server which I have access to within the same domain (which obviously does run PHP etc), and having WP create static pages which it can then push to the uni’s main WWW server. This is how the uni’s own CMS works.

My question was twofold: is this possible and if so, could you give me a pointer as to where to look.

I’ve been scouring Google since posting this last night and have just struck lucky: https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/really-static/.

This doesn’t do 100% what I want, but provides a good basis to move forward.

Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.

Jack.

P.S. If this really is a backwards way of approaching this problem, or if someone has a better idea I would be really glad to hear it.

There are other systems designed to do what you want — for example Adobe Contribute (enables CMS on static sites with “editable” regions defined in Dreamweaver) — that would likely be much less “backward” than trying to use WP to do that. I’m not necessarily endorsing Contribute, or any other Adobe products, just FYI. I have used Contribute a little bit and it does work okay — a bit clunky for my preferences, but in some situations probably a decent solution.

Note that that plug-in has not been updated in 2.5 years — so do some research and testing…

There are other systems designed to do what you want — for example Adobe Contribute

I’ve worked with Contribute and found it to be ok too. The disadvantage of this is that I would have to install it on every PC of anyone who wanted to update anything. And, despite the very reasonable price for a CLP licence, my boss won’t pay for this.

Note that that plug-in has not been updated in 2.5 years — so do some research and testing…

True, true. I’m hoping that I can check out the source and extract the core functionality that I need. Hopefully it’ll be a good exercise in getting to grips with WP internals.

Jack,

Server cost for a simple site with almost no traffic like that is $100 top a year, a very small fee compare to development, maintenance and the unbelievable headache that will come out of this re-invention. If it’s for a university, you can even get the fee donated by the host company.

I charge $120 an hour for looking at a site, let alone building it upside down!! If you are doing this for money, don’t sell yourself cheap, and if as a favor, give them the straight dope.

The hard answer that you’re looking for so hard is just that simple.

Hi shirazdrum,

The complicating factor in all of this, is that we have to keep our url, which is www . some-uni. de / our-department.

My boss doesn’t really give a monkey’s *** if I build the site with WordPress, by hand, or with strange cosmic rays which emanate from my fingertips.

Fact is, if I can find a way to hand off updating the site to other people, it would be a load off my plate. Fact also is, as you pointed out earlier, WP is a piece of cake to use and therefore, if I can (mis)use it to do this task, everyone would be a winner.

As a pet project I wrote a mini CMS in ruby to update certain parts of the site and this worked quite well. However, I really don’t have the time to maintain this and it doesn’t really scale. That’s why I had the idea with WP.

I find I learn best when I have a real world application to work on, so that’s why I quite fancy seeing if I can get this to work.

Nonetheless, your comments have given me food for thought, so thanks for that.

BTW, I do get paid for working for the uni, but nothing like $120 per hour. If you genuinely pull that in for web development work, then good for you.

Jack

I have to agree with WPyogi about Dreamweaver. You don’t even need to use contribute (but it will help) as long as the templates are set up right.

Trying to get WP to work like this can be done, but it’s a BIG job. Even if you’re just on the pay roll for the University, the cost for your time alone would be 5 to 10 times more then buying Dreamweaver for everyone that needs to update the site 9seeing as how you’re a University, you’d get it at the academic price). On top of that there’s also the time taken. It could easily take months fo ryou to get something like what you want working.

All in all, it’s an interesting idea, but the actual logistics of doing it realyl make it unrealistic unless you want to do it as a bit of a hobby idea.