I would say welcome, but this is actually the 4th or 5th iteration of this recipe site. This originally started at a desktop database I used to keep track of favorite things to cook or new ideas. To make it easier to share, I conscripted an online recipe database and the public share was born. Long story that’s already been recounted. There’s more info about it on the About page, you can find a link above in the navigation.
I won’t rehash what’s there in this new post. What I will do is describe what’s new here.
I’ve switched over from my last wiki iteration of the recipe database. I grew tired of the lagging performance, and also the updates to keep the site, as well as my web hosting, secure. I’m now on my own WordPress installation.
I’ve actually been using WordPress on and off for a very long time, as long as it’s been around, probably 15-20 years. The advantage of using WordPress is that the performance has improved significantly from MediaWiki, and it is easier to lock down and keep updated. It’s also highly customizable without wading deep into the PHP guts of the application, as opposed to MediaWiki, which is also customizable but requires more time and attention (as well as a dedicated server to function properly).
The drawback with this change is with porting over content from Wiki markup to WordPress data. I actually did find a Perl script online that did the converting and ported over the XML for a relatively painless import into WordPress. However, in converting I lost all of my categories for recipes.
I currently plan on doing a couple things:
- I plan on going through as I’m able to update recipes, adding categories and tags, and
- I plan on getting back to posting recipes again. I have a backlog that I’ve been collecting since I made the decision to switch.
I will be getting to these two things as I am able. I’m hoping to update recipes when I call them up or look at them, so that can take a while. Some might just stay at “Uncategorized” for a while, maybe a long while.
I’m also hoping to take advantage of the easier mockup and publishing with WordPress and will maybe start putting in some photos or images of food if they’re available and applicable.
The look and feel of the site is subject to change, so don’t get *too* comfortable with how it looks, which is a bit dodgy at the moment. What will not change is the location of recipes. URLs will remain for all recipes, so feel free to bookmark permalink if you have any favorites.
So start poking around, the search function is quicker and more cooperative now, and you can pull up recipes by ingredient, title, whatever. Enjoy.