Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

kvnmcwebn · 2009-09-29 23:52:16

yes good to have all the bases covered.

kees-b · 2009-09-30 08:45:23

“the search on this forum is really poor”

From the early days of the textpattern and textdrive forums I’m using a javascript popup for a google txp-forum search.
Can’t remember who posted it originally. Here it is:

Make a new bookmark called ‘Search Textpattern Forum’ or something like that and paste this line as the destination:

javascript:void(str=prompt(%22Search%20forum.textpattern.com%20for:%22,%22%22));if(str){location.href=%22http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aforum.textpattern.com+%22+str;}

els · 2009-09-30 17:25:27

kees-b wrote:

Can’t remember who posted it originally.

That was Rob Sable. I use it all the time, and have also adapted it for other forums I visit :)

sarah · 2009-09-30 20:29:25

towndock wrote:

Textpattern posters have been extremely kind, supportive, helpful and even critical of themselves through this thread. The original poster had a rather oblique question – and despite that after being provided with support was really just simply rude.

Constructive criticism does not = being rude.

I have stuck with textpattern for weeks, but to no avail. Yes, the posters here are very very helpful, and that is definately a strong point, along with the fact that textpattern seems to be the most secure CMS (as I’ve mentioned before). But there is no escaping the fact that there isn’t enough easy to follow tutorial support on how to use textpattern.

Should I stick with a piece of software I’m struggling to use, soley because it’s free?

sarah · 2009-09-30 20:32:41

nabrown78 wrote:

Gee whiz people, there is no reason to be snarky to a potential new user of TXP. It may be that TXP is overly powerful for what Sarah wants to accomplish, but maybe her query also highlights a lack of beginner information out there. There are lots of tips, tricks, snippets, etc., but a lot of it is for people who already have a handle on the basics. The the book Textpattern Solutions is excellent, but someone may not want to invest in that before they are SURE they want to use TXP.

Thanks for the support, but I don’t think anyone has been snarky to me, apart from the one user who called me rude.

I’m not big on buying books in order to learn how to use a piece of software too… I did this with Microsoft Expression Web 2- the website creation software I’ve now mastered- only I rarely used it…

sarah · 2009-09-30 20:35:09

tennapel wrote:

I have been looking at CMS-es for a long time, trying out several but never have been able to find one that served my needs. Untill I was asked to upgrade a website and the complexity of the site required the use of a CMS.

I fiddled with different solutions and Textpattern was absolutely the most difficult one to understand. The layout of the Textbook pages is the main problem, the organisation of the page is somehow illogical, I can understand Sarah’s complaint very well.
If there should be an effort, I think it would be reorganising Textbook and reorganising the layout of the different textpattern related sites, it is a bit confusing. Somehow it belongs together but not quite. I think the quality of the content of most articles is good enough.

The only reason I did dive into Textpattern was that in a few simple setups I tested out to make a proof of concept of what was in my head, most of the other CMS-es did fail.

I bought the book in the end and that clarified a lot! To be honest, I think you need the steps of explanation in the book to be able to grasp Textpattern.

I can understand the appeal of Modx like solutions, but I pray that is NOT the way Textpattern will ever go. The learning curve is steep just because it’s simplicity gives you an enormous flexibility and the flip side of flexibility is complexity.

Thank you for your post- it’s good to know that I’m not the only one who struggled to use textpattern!

Last edited by sarah (2009-09-30 20:36:26)

sarah · 2009-09-30 20:42:49

Els wrote:

jstubbs wrote:

Good idea Bert – opened a thread here

Please continue the discussion about the forum software in Jonathan’s thread. Jonathan, I took the liberty to move it to ‘Forum and website’ :)

Interesting to see how this topic developed. Useful discussion, nice ideas, but I find it a lot of attention for a new user who moves away from Txp to another CMS after one day, and to yet another one the next day…
We have places for ideas and contributions for the forum and Textbook, please use them. Reading them from time to time wouldn’t be a bad idea either… ;)*

???

Ummmm…. I have not moved on through three CM’s.

I did check out security websites to see what they had to say about CMS made Simple- and I was alarmed by the number of vulnerabilities I found so I never downloaded it.

I never actually installed CMSMS- but have now installed Modx, although Modx is not as secure as Textpattern.

Last edited by sarah (2009-09-30 20:46:56)

JanDW · 2009-09-30 20:48:45

I don’t understand how the article on fuel your code is not a simple tutorial?

I’m not big on buying books in order to learn how to use a piece of software too… I did this with Microsoft Expression Web 2- the website creation software I’ve now mastered- only I rarely used it…

Errr… I don’t know what to tell you… if it is the paper that is upsetting you, you can buy the book as a PDF, and imagine that it is a website full of short tutorials?

So how did you learn Expression Web then?

JanDW · 2009-09-30 20:57:28

sarah wrote

Thank you for your post- it’s good to know that I’m not the only one who struggled to use textpattern!

I agree that the documentation is spread out, and can be improved and it’s not easy to know where to start. But I think there have been a lot of excellent suggestions in this thread on where to start (including a beginners tutorial). The rest is a matter of diving in, knowing where the resources are and coming to the forum if you get stuck.

Last edited by JanDW (2009-09-30 20:58:38)

sarah · 2009-09-30 21:06:30

jsoo wrote:

sarah wrote:

Textpattern has yet to produce an indepth tutorial example on how to create a single page website, which is the most effective way for a person to develop their undestanding on how textpattern works.

It’s an interesting comment, because it is clearly the most effective way for you to start down that road, and you have helped us indentify a clear need in the docs. It might well be that this is a minority preference; on the other hand it might be that the Txp community has self-selected to users who prefer to start with theory before wading in to tags, and hence all the tutorials get written that way. Effective teaching has to cater to different learning styles. I would characterize this one as the “Hello, World!” approach — get something, anything, happening as soon as possible to give the learner a feeling of control and familiarity.

Somewhat tangentially, even before this thread came up I was musing about available tutorials, tips, and so on (here and here, for instance), and about taking a stab at something broader in scope than isolated “tips”. Just posted what I see as the first installment in a projected series with a focus on basics. This first piece certainly isn’t advocacy, nor is it a tutorial, more of an opinionated overview. “Long Winded” are my middle names, so it’s none too concise. I don’t see this one as fitting in to TextBook so will leave it on my personal site for now.

Some high-quality screencasts would be very helpful too. I have this vague idea of trying some when I finally get around to upgrading my laptop to something that will run OS X.6, which apparently has built-in support for this.

Yes, you’re correct. It is the best way for me, and I’m sure- many othes- to learn. Sorry if I seem peeved, it’s that I’ve done so much googling for tutorial material for weeks on end but with little success. Some of the videos on youtube are quite blurry when it comes to the text in the video, so I felt even more disheartened.

sarah · 2009-09-30 21:14:03

JanDW wrote:

I don’t understand how the article on fuel your code is not a simple tutorial?

I’m not big on buying books in order to learn how to use a piece of software too… I did this with Microsoft Expression Web 2- the website creation software I’ve now mastered- only I rarely used it…

Errr… I don’t know what to tell you… if it is the paper that is upsetting you, you can buy the book as a PDF, and imagine that it is a website full of short tutorials?

So how did you learn Expression Web then?

I learnt Expression web by using online written tutorials/ video tutorials. Doing it this way was much quicker than reading the theory behind it first. Occasionally, I do flip through the book to build up on knowledge. I did feel the Expresion web book had too much fluff in it and didn’t get to the point…

When it comes to anything computer related, I learn best by doing, and not so much reading.

The link you provided is not what I’m after… sorry…

But thank you all guys, I think I’m sticking with Modx- as it’s suited to more of “my type”. I didn’t anticipate this thread stretching to this point, and consuming the valuable time and effort of admin members and other posters

JanDW · 2009-09-30 21:18:36

No need to apologize, I just wondered how it doesn’t fit “a simple tutorial”. Have fun with modX.

Last edited by JanDW (2009-09-30 21:18:50)

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#49 2009-09-29 23:52:16

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#50 2009-09-30 08:45:23

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#51 2009-09-30 17:25:27

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#52 2009-09-30 20:29:25

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#53 2009-09-30 20:32:41

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#54 2009-09-30 20:35:09

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#55 2009-09-30 20:42:49

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#56 2009-09-30 20:48:45

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#57 2009-09-30 20:57:28

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#58 2009-09-30 21:06:30

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#59 2009-09-30 21:14:03

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#60 2009-09-30 21:18:36

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

Board footer