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#1 2006-06-14 02:04:31
- razo
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- Registered: 2006-06-14
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How Do I... Edit Forms/Pages/CSS/etc with an external editor (bbedit)
I’m a bit new to this thing, and I’m a bit confused.
Is the Web Front end (admin page/ presentation tab) the only way to edit your site? Looking through the directory structure, I can’t find any of the pages, ie. default page, default.css, any css’s I’ve created for that matter – So how can I use my editor to make my site?
Thank you,
Steven
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Re: How Do I... Edit Forms/Pages/CSS/etc with an external editor (bbedit)
you can use the mcw_template plugin to export your template files and import them after you change them.
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Re: How Do I... Edit Forms/Pages/CSS/etc with an external editor (bbedit)
There’s also <a href=“http://www.woods-fehr.com/txp/8/link-template-2-file”>Link Template 2 File</a>.
<blockquote>Looking through the directory structure, I can’t find any of the pages</blockquote>
Almost everything Textpattern-related (and certainly all page templates and CSS) are stored in the MySQL database. That holds true even if you use one of the methods swf or I linked to. As such, you won’t find any files in your directory structure.
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#4 2006-06-14 03:34:57
- razo
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Re: How Do I... Edit Forms/Pages/CSS/etc with an external editor (bbedit)
Ah, a special plugin! Got it, thanks for the help!
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#5 2006-06-14 16:18:56
- razo
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Re: How Do I... Edit Forms/Pages/CSS/etc with an external editor (bbedit)
Okay sorry I’m back, I don’t think I clearly asked my question. Maybe a reword would help.
* Do you do all your coding/design work on the TextPattern front end (admin/presentation page)?<br /> * If not, I assume you just copy all the text (whether it be a plugin or not) written in the page (including the txp markups) onto an editor (ie skedit) and work from there. But, then I dont see how you can design properly since txp tags wont render until you move it back onto TextPattern.<br /> * Do you go thru the whole process of writing code up, copying into TextPattern, and THEN test to see if it looks right?Offline
Re: How Do I... Edit Forms/Pages/CSS/etc with an external editor (bbedit)
<blockquote>Do you do all your coding/design work on the TextPattern front end (admin/presentation page)?</blockquote>
Essentially yes. Because Textpattern stores all its data in the database, there is no easy way to use an external editor to do all your coding. The plugins linked to above do give you a workaround, but even they require you to import and/or export your code at some point in the process.
<blockquote>Do you go thru the whole process of writing code up, copying into TextPattern, and THEN test to see if it looks right?</blockquote>
That’s a pretty common way of doing it, IMO. An alternative way is to design a template using pure XHTML offline, perfect that, and then replace relevant parts with Textpattern tags. But even then, the final testing would probably take place after copying/pasting (or importing via plugin) into the Textpattern backend.
As a disclaimer, I should probably admit that I haven’t used either plugin myself. So if you think you need plugin-specific help, asking in the appropriate threads of the plugin forum would probably be better.
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#7 2006-06-14 17:27:16
- razo
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- Registered: 2006-06-14
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Re: How Do I... Edit Forms/Pages/CSS/etc with an external editor (bbedit)
Wow, thank Elenita, that totally clears things up.
I guess I’ll try the alternative method you mentioned, and code everything up first, and then replace w/ txp tags as necessary …
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Re: How Do I... Edit Forms/Pages/CSS/etc with an external editor (bbedit)
For what it’s worth, getting the design up and running is always the toughest part. After you’ve got things settled down and only have to worry about tweaks, things become much easier. I suppose it depends on personal preference, but I’ve come to prefer the Textpattern way; opening up a text editor, an FTP client, and going through the hassle of uploading stuff is actually more of an annoyance than using TxP’s interface. Just my two cents.
Good luck with the templating.
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Re: How Do I... Edit Forms/Pages/CSS/etc with an external editor (bbedit)
There is also the option of using mozex with firefox which let’s you edit the contents of textareas with an external editor.
Shoving is the answer – pusher robot
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