WP Educational Support
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I am working at the math department of the University of Tuebingen using WordPress to publishing my lectures. Presently I am using the LaTeX-support of WordPress with the latex2wp-tool https://lucatrevisan.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/converting-latex-to-wordpress/
which I enlarged a little. But still, the LaTeX support of WordPress is not the best.Trying to install the (better?) LaTeX2html-plugin (which free of charge) I was asked by WordPress to move to the Business Tarif (23$/month) which is not understandable for me.
I am not making money with my page, I am just doing education using WordPress which should be a good marketing for WordPress for future customers (the pressen students) etc. Why to pay therefore such a lot of money?
I am not asking for an unlimited number of additional plugins just few (in my case just one). Therefore an “education support” would be helpful and I guess I am not the only one asking for such a “support”.
Ulrich
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there,
Presently I am using the LaTeX-support of WordPress with the latex2wp-tool https://lucatrevisan.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/converting-latex-to-wordpress/
That is a WordPress.com site belonging to a WordPress.com user, and the process they outline there was devised by them. It is not a WordPress.com support page, and does not describe any official LaTeX integration for WordPress.com.
There is no need to convert LaTeX content to WordPress using some tool. LaTeX support is integrated into WordPress.com, and you can use LaTeX code directly in the WordPress.com editor, as explained here:
On WordPress.com plugins can only be used on the Business Plan. We don’t offer any special pricing for that plan based on the purpose your site is used for.
If you don’t wish to upgrade to the Business Plan, your other option is to move to another host where you can then use the open source version of WordPress instead. In that case what you pay for your site will depend on the specific hosting plan you select at your hosting provider.
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Hi, thanks for the answer. Let me make some comments:
1. I know the LaTeX-tool WP is offering and I am using it. But this tool has some serious limitations. To overcome this limitations the mentioned user (Luca) has written a tool, which can be used (what I am doing).
2. The mentioned package Latex2html seems to overcome all limitations, the one of the WP support and the one of Lucas package. But to add this tool I have to pay the Business Plan with a lot of features which I don’t use and don’t need for my educational purposes.
3. I have already the premium plan and pay for it. Why not adding there the possibility to add this plugin? Everybody (as you) is telling me the same: move to the Business Plan (my answer see above).
4. I am happy with the support of WP and the hosting. Your recommendation to move to another host is no option for me.
Again: I will not have the possibility to add a plugin for free. But it should part of the premium plan for non-commercial customers like me. This should not hurt WP.
Ulrich
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Hi, our free, Premium, and Personal plans all run on the plugins we’ve vetted and integrated into our installation. The Business plan allows significant program changes via outside plugins and themes, which significantly increases the complexity supporting your site and keeping it running smoothly. Our costs go up, even if it’s an educational site, so the plan price goes up as well.
I can file a request to update our LaTeX integration. I can’t promise changes anytime soon, but we review requests regularly to determine how best to serve our users. Do note if changing the integration would result in breaking people’s existing LaTex, we likely wouldn’t do it. But it’s something we could look into.
And if you need to, you could set up and maintain your own installation at another host. If you transfer your domain as well, you would not be paying us anything. Instead you would pay for your own hosting, and take on the responsibility for the added complexity of extra plugins. You would also need to take care of your own backups and what not. We have information on how to port your site to a self-hosted, self-maintained, and self-supported installation here.
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Also, please let us know the main issues you’re running into so I can flesh out details in the request to change our LaTex support. Thanks :)
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Once again a remark: I am just asking for a fairly priced „educational plan“ which gives me the ability to add plugins up to a limited number and which is more tailored for a non profit organization. As I already mentioned, the businesse plan is oriented for a profit oriented organization. Paying 23 bugs a month just for adding one plugin and not using the other features is to much.
Also once again: I am happy with WP and with the support I got and will get from the highly skilled people there. Therfore moving to another host is not an option.
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Understood; but even just one additional plugin still significantly impacts logistics on our end. Let us know the most important issues you’re having and we’ll help how we can.
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As requested: Here are my comments about the WP LaTeX-support.
LaTeX is not just the possibility to write mathematical formulas but it is markup language based on TeX. If I write something with LaTeX I structure my text with tags like \section, \subsection, ordered and unordered lists etc. Therefore to add this to WP I have to translate those items to the related HTML/XML-tags. An example:
\begin{itemize} \item First item \end{itemize}has to be translated into- First item
. This is the first issue.
The second point is the math support. You are right, I can write mathematic but I have also in this case move from the normal input like
$ \int $to the one requested by WP:$ latex \int $. This is ok if I have only a few, but a lot of work in all other cases and this works only for inline formulas. This is the second issue.The third issue is the following: Normally one is using the amsmath-package for writing the text. This package gives me the support for math environments like theorems, proposition etc., the support for display math environments like align, equation etc., the support for references etc. All this is not part of the WP support.
A solution is the tool LaTex2WP written in Python which helps the translation from the LaTeX based source file to the format usable in WP. But as the author wrote: Not everything is supported but one cane add own code to get what one would like to have (as I did). But this tool is not integrated in WP: I have to run python, copy & paste the output and hope everything is ok. And there are still useful things missing (see this example).
The LaTeX2html-plugin I mentioned, which is based on mathjax seems not to have this limitations.
As you can see, it is not simple to”translate” a LaTeX document into a format supported by WP but there are tools already available.
Therefore once again my “request”: find a pricing model between premium and business. I don’t need PayPal support, google analytics, sea-support, the WP branding on my blog page is ok etc. The tools of premium + plugin would be fine for an reasonable price. By the way: The plugin will already be offered on the WP plugin page. Therefore I don’t understand the remark about additional logistics.
Thats it.
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There is something wrong by me:
.. has to be translated into .. should be:
.. has to be translated Ito
- First item
. This is the first issue.
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I have copied a TeX-file ans the related pdf into https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wrrq4026rxdw63j/AAC0Wc8JC_GAyMdBJHpSGD9-a?dl=0 . The present blog is called WP-Example on my blog (not public; I guess you have access) using the latex2wp tool. The yellow-problem can be solved but theres is natively no support. One has to “translate” everything to html.
Does this helps you?
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The wp-example.tex is the source, the wp-example.pdf the output. The tex-file should be readable using a normal ascii editor. But its is UTF-8 encoded.
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Thanks for providing those examples and additional details. I’ve logged your request for additional LaTeX support within WordPress.com other than Business.
For now, if you’d like to add a plugin or extend WordPress.com’s LaTeX offering, even for educational use, you will need to upgrade to the WordPress.com Business plan.
Thanks for your understanding.
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OK, I have to live with it. During the discussions I had (with the chat) someone offered me a discount if I go to the business plan. Still valid? We can discuss this off-line just by mail.
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