WordPress versus HTML

Last updated: May 20, 2013

[NOTE: Read this only if you have a Non-WordPress, plain HTML web site that you wish to protect using DAP]

Ok, so you’re not using (or thinking of not using) WordPress to power your web site. You are better off using WordPress, but if you can’t switch for whatever reason, then we guess you can’t switch.

DAP is deeply integrated with WordPress, and has a lot of very powerful features that work with WordPress like a dream. DAP is “Made For WordPress”.

While you’re really missing out on a *lot* of really cool things that you can do with DAP and WordPress, it’s fine as far as DAP is concerned that you wish to use DAP with a non-WordPress plain HTML web sites – because DAP can protect plain HTML web sites too.

But you also need to understand that because you’re not using WordPress, that makes “customizing” your DAP-powered site a bit more difficult, not because of a DAP shortcoming, but just because of the sheer fact that you have to hand-code a lot of things when it comes to a regular non-WordPress, HTML-based site.

So if you’re going to go down this route, there are a few things to consider:

• There are some DAP features which are wordpress-only, that won’t work on a plain HTML web site. Eg., Sneak-Peek, Short Codes for Partial Content Protection, Disabling Comments for non-members, ability to use free WordPress forum plugins, creating customizable member’s areas etc.
• You won’t be able to use our built-in “Login/Logout Widget“, which shows the login form on the sidebar if users are not logged in, and automatically turns into a “Logout” button once they log in to your membership site.
• You can’t “power customize” or “power tweak” every aspect of your membership area. For example, you must use the out-of-the-box login page that comes with DAP – you cannot customize it much other than choosing a header and footer, unless you know how to work with a bit of PHP & HTML.
• You will have to use the default login page that comes with dap – that looks like this: http://DigitalAccessPass.com/dap/ . Of course, you don’t have to use our header image – you can replace it with your web site header and footer. For which, you have to at least know how to extract the HTML for the header & footer areas from your current web site. Or at least have someone who can help you with that.
• WordPress users have tons of customizability options, which you won’t have when using a HTML/PHP only web site. Like the ability to switch themes, split the member area into multiple pieces – like “User Profile”, “My Content”, and “Affiliate Links” – and put them on 3 different pages on their WordPress blog. You won’t be able to do that. For you, it will all be on one, default member home page.

So, if you are a “power tweaker” and want more control on the little things in your membership site, then DAP will not work for you.

But if moving your entire web site over to WordPress is such a big task and pain that you don’t wish to (or can’t) deal with, or you are not too particular about power customizations, and just want your membership site to “just work” right out of the box, then DAP is perfect for you, because it can work with WordPress- and non-WordPress web sites.

What You CAN and CANNOT Do If You Have A Plain HTML Web Site
(and don’t use WordPress)

• NO: Sneak-Peek
• NO: Comment-Protection for visitors
• NO: Login/Logout widget
• Must use DAP’s default login page, that is only customizable with a header and footer – will take more work (and you must know HTML) if you want to make the login page look exactly like the rest of your web site
• Must use DAP’s default member page, which contains the “My Content” page, “My Profile” and “My Affiliate Info” sections all rolled into one single page – you won’t be able to split them up into multiple pages like you can do with WordPress
• Our Amazon S3 plugin S3MediaVault.com will not work on plain HTML sites
• DAP Shortcodes won’t work, as that is WordPress only
• “In-Page” dripping won’t work

Screenshot Of Sample Login Page

You can customize header and footer HTML. Click image to enlarge.

Screenshot of Sample Members’ Area

You can customize header and footer HTML. Click image to enlarge.

How To Customize Content On dap/index.php

You can modify only a few sections on the default dap/index.php page.

Go to DAP Admin > Setup > Templates , and the following 4 items are related to content on the dap/index.php page.

• Content:Header
• Content:Footer
• Message:Affiliate
• Message:User

Those are the only 4 things you can modify, and nothing else.

If you wish to customize it more, then consider putting those sections within WordPress.
See http://DigitalAccessPass.com/documentation/?page=/doc/creating-member-affiliate-sections-within-wordpress/