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#25 2011-07-24 19:36:52

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,250
Website GitHub

Re: [wiki] What are the 10 most frequently needed developments in a Txp site?

  1. install:

a) rvm_css (for static serving of stylesheets)
b) smd_where_used (to help me locate stuff I’m bound to lose later)
c) rvm_maintenance (for sticking up a nice “under construction” message)

  1. Ditch the default page template and replace with a layout like this:
<txp:output_form form="dtd" />

<txp:hide> Contains a series of sub-forms for meta, page title, css, scripts, etc </txp:hide>
<txp:output_form form="head" />

<body id="<txp:if_section name="">front<txp:else /><txp:section /></txp:if_section>">
<div id="container">

<txp:hide> Banner stuff </txp:hide>
<txp:output_form form="pagehead" />

<div id="content">

<txp:hide> Category / Section / Search landing page and/or individual <txp:article> tags </txp:hide>

</div><!-- end content -->
<txp:output_form form="pagefoot" />

</div><!-- end container -->
<txp:output_form form="piwik" />
</body>
</html>

  1. Delete the crappy forms that are of no interest / use and write the relevant form content to suit the above template

  1. install other plugins to help with the site in hand — this depends on the type of site but will often include:
    a) adi_gps (for capturing URL variables easily)
    b) smd_if (for extreme branching capabilities)
    c) smd_thumbnail (if I need more than one size of thumbnail or a gallery) — and smd_gallery occasionally, although after Txp 4.3.0 this plugin’s usefuless has diminished a lot, yay!
    d) yab_shop for e-commerce (with smd_ipn if the client wants business logic updated on successful PayPal payment)
  1. Coming up with inventive ways to link articles, images and files that the client can understand given their experience with CMSs, publishing workflow, or computers in general. This may involve some cunning use of plugins, or custom code to write a suitable dashboard (smd_tabber) and/or macros (smd_macro)
  1. Theme the admin side to taste — thank heavens for textgarden.org, the community for writing them, and smd_admin_themes to put them in action!
  1. Customisation of the admin-side to turn off as much irrelevant clutter as possible — these days using a combination of smd_user_manager (for priv/role management) bot_wtc (for reconfiguring the Write tab) or some custom code if necessary
  1. Set up visitor tracking: I now tend to use (an often centralised installation of) piwik because its upgrade script rocks and it’s often quicker to hop to a local server than wait for an http connection to Google Analytics
  1. Add zem_contact_reborn if a client wants a contact form and integrate it with any other data capture they may require (an smd_bio/mem_form combo for example)
  1. If I’m feeling lazy or hate the cpanel implementation I will often install rss_admin_db_manager so I can keep tabs on the database and make backups

Howzat?

Last edited by Bloke (2011-07-24 19:38:17)


The smd plugin menagerie — for when you need one more gribble of power from Textpattern. Bleeding-edge code available on GitHub.

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#26 2011-07-24 19:57:40

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: [wiki] What are the 10 most frequently needed developments in a Txp site?

Bloke wrote:

Howzat?

Excellent.

One question pops into mind regarding some of the responses so far: How much will some of these things be moot points in future versions of Txp? For example, we know people don’t like/use the “lofi” form, and we know Phil Wareham is working on a new default template, etc. Thus we can assume that there will be changes in the not distant future. Right?

I’m just wondering if there should be a time dimension on this 10 things selection too…ruling out what eventually won’t be a problem anyway.

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#27 2011-07-24 20:04:31

Pat64
Plugin Author
From: France
Registered: 2005-12-12
Posts: 1,595
GitHub Twitter

Re: [wiki] What are the 10 most frequently needed developments in a Txp site?

After thinking on design (on paper sketchs), opening my favourite editor (coda where I can use my custom clips), my method is very similar to Stef one: same forms, same king of page, same plugins :)


Patrick.

Github | CodePen | Codier | Simplr theme | Wait Me: a maintenance theme | [\a mi.ni.ma]: a “Low Tech” simple Blog theme.

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#28 2011-07-24 20:08:05

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: [wiki] What are the 10 most frequently needed developments in a Txp site?

Speaking of the new template… I have an idea for another series of docs (something new to the wiki) that will help people build and integrate custom themes, which will be written with respect to Phil’s new template, related plugins…whatever and as much of the best practice advice we can give.

I also see this being a good place to introduce docs that cover advanced designer workflows, like what Julian was getting at, and maybe things like rvm_css, etc tie-into this too.

So, you see, it’s not cut and dried with just 10 tutorials. Documentation is contextual in many directions and we can use that in a variety of ways/places.

Last edited by Destry (2011-07-24 20:12:36)

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#29 2011-07-24 20:19:38

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: [wiki] What are the 10 most frequently needed developments in a Txp site?

From Rick Silletti via Facebook…

Though I am currently not working on anything, what seems always to come to the forefront with most projects is smd_calendar and all that it does.

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#30 2011-07-24 22:35:32

michaelkpate
Moderator
From: Avon Park, FL
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 1,379
Website GitHub Mastodon

Re: [wiki] What are the 10 most frequently needed developments in a Txp site?

  • Go to Admin | Diagnostics and check the error messages
    • Delete the setup folder
  • Go to Admin | Preferences and…
    • Set the timezone
    • Set the production status
    • Set the Permanent Link Mode
    • Set Automatically append comments to articles? to No
    • Set Present comments as a numbered list? to No
  • Go to Presentation | Pages and…
    • either create an About page or create a generic page for articles consisting of a single article
    • create a page for single articles
    • create a Search page
    • rename the archive page to Archives
  • Go to Presentation | Sections and…
    • Set the About Section to the About Page
    • Set the Articles Section to the Articles Page
    • Create a Search Section and set the Search Page
    • Create an Archives section and set the Archives Page
  • Go to Admin | Plugins and…
    • Install gbp_permanent_links
    • Install rvm_css
    • Install smd_if
  • Go to Admin | Permanent Links and, if Permanent Link Mode and create permalink structures for the individual sections as needed
  • Go to Presentation | Forms and delete unneeded forms
  • Create three new miscellaneous forms: header, sidebar, and footer
  • I like to work on a live install. This is the most of the default template from the latest site I have been working on. Most of mine are pretty similar to this.
<txp:output_form form="header" />

	<div id="primary">
		<div id="content" role="main">

<txp:variable name="task" value="frontpage" />

<txp:if_category>

	<txp:variable name="task" value="category" />

</txp:if_category>

<txp:if_search>

	<txp:variable name="task" value="search" />

</txp:if_search>

<txp:if_author>

	<txp:variable name="task" value="author" />

</txp:if_author>

<txp:output_form form='task-<txp:variable name="task" />' />

		</div><!-- #content -->
	</div><!-- #primary -->

<txp:output_form form="sidebar" />

<txp:output_form form="footer" />

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#31 2011-07-25 05:33:57

stephan
Plugin Author
From: Bochum, Germany
Registered: 2004-07-26
Posts: 196
Website

Re: [wiki] What are the 10 most frequently needed developments in a Txp site?

So here are the ten things I usually do in a new Textpattern site (sorry, no particular order):

  1. Set up categories for articles, images, links
  2. Remove sections unwanted and set up sections as needed
  3. Add tagging for articles
  4. Customize RSS feed with tags and copyright
  5. Change the theme/look and feel of the front end
  6. improve performance by caching (static css files and aks_cache or aks_header)
  7. Use Google CDN to deliver jQuery and other libraries if used
  8. Improve the write tab to ease content creation (insert images and links while working on an article)
  9. Integrate Piwik to keep track of user stats
  10. Try and get all customizable parts of the front end into variables (using adi_variables)

Yoko for Textpattern – A free blog themeMinimum Theme – If all you want to do is write.
Note: I am currently not actively using Textpattern, so I am not in the forums very often

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#32 2011-07-25 06:57:58

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: [wiki] What are the 10 most frequently needed developments in a Txp site?

Great stuff, guys. Thanks!

The admin-side UI tasks (like prefs, creating categories, associating pages/styles to Sections, etc.) will fit in nicely with the “workflow” idea I have for admin-side docs (see discussion here), so if stuff like that doesn’t get covered in a tutorial, it will certainly be addressed elsewhere.

Again, there are many contexts to user documentation. :)

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#33 2011-07-30 07:29:32

net-carver
Archived Plugin Author
Registered: 2006-03-08
Posts: 1,648

Re: [wiki] What are the 10 most frequently needed developments in a Txp site?

Destry

This addresses some of the tasks listed here about content reset / automatic plugin installation / preferred settings on new sites.

For example, gaekwad wrote…

iii) delete default article comment, then default article, article section, article categories, default image, default image categories, default links, default link categories, all deletable forms and essentially strip it down to the framework

…and Dragondz wrote…

A reset button of the install (erase dummy information: comments, articles, category, …) can save me 10mn in each install

Whilst michaelkpate wrote…

  • Go to Admin | Diagnostics and check the error messages
    • Delete the setup folder

  • Go to Admin | Preferences and…
    • Set the timezone
    • Set the production status
    • Set the Permanent Link Mode
    • Set Automatically append comments to articles? to No
    • Set Present comments as a numbered list? to No

…and…

Go to Admin | Plugins and…

  • Install gbp_permanent_links
  • Install rvm_css
  • Install smd_if

Most of which can now be done automatically with a plugin — all, in fact, if the filesystem permissions allow deletion of the setup folder by a script.

Last edited by net-carver (2011-08-01 17:07:59)


Steve

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