Do/Did anyone else here feel the way that I feel?

deronsizemore · 2006-10-13 22:54:33

I love textpattern, but the more I get into it, obviously the more difficult it’s getting and I just don’t know if it’s for me. I feel like I’ve been working on getting a site set up not FOREVER! Every little thing I try to do NEVER works and then I’m right back here at the forums asking a question on how to do it, and it’s just getting old. I’d love to be able to do what I want and not have to have someone hold my hand the whole way.

I just wish there was some resource out there for textpattern, like a tutorial resource or something that explained how to do various popular things. Textbook is somewhat useful, but I find it pretty confusing as when you look up a tag, it tells you what the tag looks like, but that’s it. It doesn’t really show you any examples or “what ifs”. Seems like no matter what tag I use or whatever, there are always hidden circumstances where if I use that tag, I have to do something else over here in a form, or add another tag somewhere else or just something. The forum members are great and always willing to help me, but even that doesn’t help me sometimes beause I’m such a newb! lol. Like someone will tell me the code that I need to use and I still can’t get things to work because I have no idea how to use it with the html that I’ve already got or if the code is suppose to go into a form, in the page template, other, etc… So then I feel like an even bigger jerk asking more or less the same question over again because I can’t figure out what the person told me.

Sometimes I just think about scrapping the whole deal and trying something else, as much as I hate to try and learn something new…but I feel like I’m just spinning my wheels with textpattern and not going anywhere!

Sorry…just had to get that off my chest. I feel better now. :-)

Last edited by deronsizemore (2006-10-13 22:57:36)

Mary · 2006-10-14 00:28:08

I would say you have not reached the “lightbulb” phase, where you suddenly “get” something after much attempt to understand it (and the little lightbulb appears over your head, if you were a cartoon character). It took me a little while to get there myself, once upon a time (gosh how time flies). It’s not that it is getting more difficult, but that it’s not getting easier as time progresses, like you’d expect it to (by comparison to other things you’ve successfully learned in the past).

As for TextBook, a WIKI can be many things but what it is entirely depends upon those whom contribute to it. While it’d surely be nice, these things don’t create themselves. It isn’t even something you can do once and it’s done forever, it’s an on-going work.

You can’t progress without getting the proper start. What I’d recommend to you is going back to the very basics and go over it until it makes sense to you. That is what I had to do and once I did that, the lightbulb went on and away I could go. :)

Does anyone have a copy of the Txp 101 tutorials?

One tip on that: it is much easier for me to concentrate on reading ink on paper, and so I print off tutorials to read when away from the computer and I find I can come to grips with whatever concept much, much faster. You might try that.

jm · 2006-10-14 01:48:29

Hey, just think there are worse things that make no sense, no matter what, like physical chemistry :P. I think the txpmanual.com site will be pretty useful at getting the basics and more advanced things done. It’ll certainly be easier to read than the wiki.

hcgtv · 2006-10-14 02:42:02

deronsizemore,

I’ve used Textpattern on a daily basis since January 5, 2006. I still have a lot to learn but I know enough of the basics to put up sites and add my content. Rather than try to understand every aspect, I learn a little every week, mostly from responses on this forum.

From using web based apps for a number of years, I know enough not to take on challenging sites at first, that’s why all my current Textpattern sites are using the default template. I first concentrate on using the app until the backend becomes second nature, add content on a regular basis so that the spiders have something to munch on, and then when I feel comfortable, I redo the site.

It will probably take me another year to fully understand Textpattern’s capabilities, but in the mean time, I’m entering content and having fun. When I look back at when I started hcgtv, it makes me cringe to look at those first designs, but those first posts are still there thanks to the separation of content and presentation.

wet · 2006-10-14 08:55:25

Deron,

whenever you feel frustrated and want to dump this whole thing altogether, keep one thing in mind: Whenever you leave the place you currently are, you also need a destination to go to. Alternative: Drop website design as a whole or revert to pure static HTML.

I’ve recently played around with various other smaller blog and CMS packages (WordPress, redaxo, DeDi, ModXCMS, Symphony) and came to the result that Textpattern is a perfect match for the type of sites I build: Small business, brochure ware, a little interactivity and dynamic content. Other candidates either have a pure PHP based templating scheme (which I dislike in favor of the tag based method txp employs), assume a partial way of site layout or trade in flexibility for ease of use.

So I’m stuck here, but with comfort ;-)

Ace of Dubs · 2006-10-14 12:36:58

I was definitely in your shoes buddy. Whats worse is that I was under a deadline to finish a site while I was learning TXP… argh!

All I can say is that you need to push through this phase, eventually you will “get it” but that will only be the beginning. You will start to realize ways to make TXP even better, and who knows it may even spark your interest in learning some PHP.

Personally I will be using TXP for as long as it takes for me to be able to write my own custom CMS. It’s a perfect fit for 90% of the stuff I am doing right now and of all the CMS I have tried it is by far the easiest one to learn. Take that for what it’s worth.

Edit: Dont be afraid to ask dumb questions here. I have certainly asked my share and not once has anyone told me what an idiot I was. This community is an excellent resource. Use it!

Last edited by Ace of Dubs (2006-10-14 12:39:50)

deronsizemore · 2006-10-14 18:51:11

Thanks for all of the kind words everyone! I guess that shows you that I’m using a special product and am a part of a special community, when you have people that don’t even know you telling you not to give up.

As was stated, I think I need to just get back down to more basics and learn to walk before I run so to speak. I know a lot of the basics and feel like I can set up a very basic site, it’s just when I start getting into having to use conditionals and of things of that nature that my head starts to spin. I’m not a coder/programmer at all so before TXP I’ve never laid eyes on a conditional statement, so me trying to write one and actually make it work like I want is like the blind leading the blind.

After sleeping on it I’m definitely sticking with TXP as my CMS of choice, because I do love everything about it, just wish I knew how to use it better, but I guess it will come with practice. When I first started with xthml/css designs I thought I’d never figure out how to use CSS, but after about 6 months of just digging in to try and figure it out it became almost second nature and now I don’t even have to think about most things.

I’ve not read them yet (planning to shortly), but I found these two links somewhere along the way a couple weeks ago and just dug them up in my email. Are these pretty good with getting a better grasp of the inner workings of TXP or could I do better to look elsewhere?

<a href=“http://wion.com/journal/textpattern-building-block-mechanics”>FIRST LINK</a>

<a href=“http://wion.com/journal/understanding-textpattern-building-blocks”>SECOND LINK</a>

Thanks everyone!

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#1 2006-10-13 22:54:33

Do/Did anyone else here feel the way that I feel?

#2 2006-10-14 00:28:08

Re: Do/Did anyone else here feel the way that I feel?

#3 2006-10-14 01:48:29

Re: Do/Did anyone else here feel the way that I feel?

#4 2006-10-14 02:42:02

Re: Do/Did anyone else here feel the way that I feel?

#5 2006-10-14 08:55:25

Re: Do/Did anyone else here feel the way that I feel?

#6 2006-10-14 12:36:58

Re: Do/Did anyone else here feel the way that I feel?

#7 2006-10-14 18:51:11

Re: Do/Did anyone else here feel the way that I feel?

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