Using PHP to integreate a blog - begginner's dilemma

[c.gray]

Hi,

 

I'm about to start a site for a client. I have edited other sites that were built in PHP, but I have never built a site from scratch in PHP. I'm considering using PHP for this new site because I want to integrate a wordpress blog into the site. However, I'm trying to determine if this is too advanced for someone with nominal experience with PHP. I am also pretty new to design in general, but have a solid handle over HTML and CSS.

 

Would it be acceptable and/or appropriate for me to use .php file extensions on my pages but use mostly html coding so that I can later seamlessly integrate the blog? Will this work? I've found detailed instructions online that explain how to integrate a Wordpress blog into a site, but they all stipulate that the site should be built with PHP.

 

My other option is to simply use html and css and then have the blog be an external link, but this is not ideal.

 

I would appreciate any advice. Thanks!

 

[Noumes]

I worked with wordpress before knowing what even <?php was. Its a full-featured blog engine which requires minimal work to use within your webpage.

 

having your page end in .php is just telling the server there is specialized language it needs to render, html is fine and completely allowed within php documents. For the most part, you can take your current .html document and save it as .php and when you upload it, it will run the same.

 

Try watching a few of this video series:

http://blog.themeforest.net/screencasts/new-wp-video-series-and-free-rockstar-book/

 

Most of the wordpress implementation comes from template tags (im sure they are explain in the video tutorials somewhere) these are found at: http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags and are VERY detailed.