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#1 2010-07-13 17:24:53
- esebm
- New Member
- Registered: 2010-07-13
- Posts: 9
Newbie question
Hi,
I’m new to CMS and I’d like to ask a (probably stupid) question:
I am supposed to modify the layout of a 10 page Textpattern website. What I usually do when I modify a website, I ftp the entire site down to my PC, alter it offline and upload it again, overwriting the old files.
However, when I download this Textpattern website, no html files can be found to be altered, only the textpattern php files and the CSS files.
What am I doing wrong here?
Thanks,
Ed
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Re: Newbie question
Textpattern stores the templates inside the MySQL database. No external files are used. The templates can be edited from TXP’s admin panel, directly from the database or with a various TXP plugin.
Some links and guides:
- Textpattern Semantic Model
- Forms Explained
- I’ve installed Textpattern, now what
- Textpattern First Steps
- Textpattern 101
- Textpattern Plugins
- TextBook Wiki
You can also set a development enviroment (server) up and running to your computer, and develope the site there:
Or use plugins to help with the transfer:
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Re: Newbie question
Hi esebm,
No html files:)
Txp saves all in the database. If you login in the back end (admin) side of the site the presentation is all under the “presentation” tab. You will need an account which grants you privileges to commit those updates.
Yiannis
——————————
NeMe | hblack.art | EMAP | A Sea change | Toolkit of Care
I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.
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#4 2010-07-13 17:35:41
- els
- Moderator

- From: The Netherlands
- Registered: 2004-06-06
- Posts: 7,458
Re: Newbie question
Hi, welcome to Textpattern :) In Textpattern (almost) everything is in the database, which means you can edit your pages and css online. Login to yoursite.com/textpattern/index.php and find the pages in Presentation > Pages and the CSS in Presentation > Style.
A couple of things you might want to read:
- Textpattern Semantic Model
- Everything under Admin-side
- and Textbook in general :)
Edit: late again ;)
Last edited by els (2010-07-13 17:36:01)
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#5 2010-07-13 17:53:02
- esebm
- New Member
- Registered: 2010-07-13
- Posts: 9
Re: Newbie question
Guys,
Thanks for the quick responses.
Ed
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#6 2010-07-14 14:36:30
- esebm
- New Member
- Registered: 2010-07-13
- Posts: 9
Re: Newbie question
Guys,
When I open the Presentation tab, all I see is a default template that resembles only a small portion of the website. I can’t find any actual live pages that I need to modify.
Any tips?
Thanks,
Ed
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Re: Newbie question
How far are you through the lists of resources linked above :)? I’ll link to yet another, one of my own: http://textpattern.net/wiki/index.php?title=Textpattern_Quickstart:_Hello_World.
If those aren’t getting you there, you might try posting a link to the site in question, then listing a few specific modifications you’re trying to make.
Code is topiary
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#8 2010-07-14 16:02:36
- esebm
- New Member
- Registered: 2010-07-13
- Posts: 9
Re: Newbie question
Okay,
Here’s the website I need to modify: http://www.mickiebellahart.com/
For starters, I need to move the 4 links below the slide show into the right column below those links. I can’t find neither set of links anywhere.
Thanks for the help.
Ed
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Re: Newbie question
esebm wrote:
I need to move the 4 links below the slide show into the right column below those links. I can’t find neither set of links anywhere.
It’s a category list. Notice the URLs, they all have “category” as the first URL slug. Look for a <txp:category_list /> tag in the default page template.
Code is topiary
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#10 2010-07-14 17:10:00
- esebm
- New Member
- Registered: 2010-07-13
- Posts: 9
Re: Newbie question
The <txp:category_list /> is nowhere to be found in the default page template!
It looks like the entire right column is not part of this template.
Ed
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Re: Newbie question
Could be in another page template, or in a form, or even in the body of the article used to display the home page content.
Two good ways to find a tag:
- Install the smd_where_used plugin.
- Follow the advice in my sig. (Note that this entails putting the site into debugging mode, which will cause it to prominently display any error messages, so it’s best not to do this on a live site.)
Code is topiary
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#12 2010-07-14 17:28:50
- esebm
- New Member
- Registered: 2010-07-13
- Posts: 9
Re: Newbie question
How can I find other page templates? There’s only the default template.
Shouldn’t the default template have all columns of a page?
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#13 2010-07-14 17:43:59
- els
- Moderator

- From: The Netherlands
- Registered: 2004-06-06
- Posts: 7,458
Re: Newbie question
If there is only the default page template, there must be a tag somewhere ;) Can you post the code of that page?
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#14 2010-07-14 17:46:39
- esebm
- New Member
- Registered: 2010-07-13
- Posts: 9
Re: Newbie question
Here’s the code:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<txp:if_individual_article>
<title><txp:ob1_title order="%article,%section,%sitename" separator=" : " /></title>
</txp:if_individual_article>
<txp:if_article_list>
<txp:if_section name="tag">
<title><txp:site_name /> : Paintings tagged "<txp:tru_tags_tag_parameter />"</title></txp:if_section>
<txp:if_section name="">
<txp:if_category>
<title><txp:ob1_title order="%category,%sitename" separator=" : "/></title>
<txp:else />
<title><txp:site_name /> : Austin, Texas abstract fine art oil paintings and spiritual artwork for sale</title>
</txp:if_category>
<txp:else /> <title><txp:ob1_title order="%section,%sitename" separator=" : "/></title>
</txp:if_section>
</txp:if_article_list>
<txp:if_section name=""><meta name="description" content="Austin, Texas artist Mickie Bellah paints original, one-of-a-kind fine art abstract and surrealist oil paintings and custom astrology birth chart paintings based on the colors of the Zodiac signs in your horoscope." /><txp:else />
<txp:if_category><txp:article form="meta-description" status="sticky" limit="1"/></txp:if_category>
<txp:if_individual_article>
<txp:article form="meta-description"/>
</txp:if_individual_article>
</txp:if_section>
<meta name="keywords" content="<txp:output_form form="keywords-sitewide"/>
<txp:if_category><txp:article form="meta-keywords" status="sticky" limit="1" /></txp:if_category><txp:if_individual_article><txp:article form="meta-keywords" /></txp:if_individual_article> "/>
<txp:if_section name="manual">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" />
<txp:else />
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOODP"/>
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow" />
</txp:if_section>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta name="generator" content="TextPattern" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="<txp:link_to_home />anthurium.css" type="text/css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print" href="<txp:css n="print" />" />
<txp:feed_link flavor="rss" format="link" section="abstract-art-gallery" />
<script src="/mint/?js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<txp:if_article_category name="zodiac-series">
<txp:output_form form="javascript-hide-div" />
</txp:if_article_category>
</head>
<body>
<div id="rap"><!-- added -->
<!-- head -->
<txp:link_to_home><div id="masthead"><!-- renamed from header -->
<h1 id="header"><span class="no-display"><txp:site_name /></span></h1>
</div></txp:link_to_home>
<div id="main">
<div id="hmenu">
<div id="hnav"></div>
</div><!-- end hmenu -->
<!-- content -->
<div id="content">
<txp:if_section name="test">
<div class="post">
<txp:article />
</txp:if_section>
<txp:if_section name="tag">
<div class="post">
<txp:tru_tags_if_tag_search><h3 class="posttitle">Paintings tagged: <txp:tru_tags_tag_parameter /></h3></txp:tru_tags_if_tag_search>
<txp:tru_tags_handler form="gallery-list" limit="10" />
<div class="tag-cloud">
<txp:tru_tags_cloud />
</div>
</txp:if_section>
<txp:if_section name="abstract-art-gallery">
<div class="post">
<txp:if_individual_article>
<div align="center">
<p><txp:if_first_article> <!-- Nothing to see here. -->
<txp:else />Previous: <txp:link_to_prev><txp:prev_title /></txp:link_to_prev>
</txp:if_first_article>
|
<txp:if_last_article> <!-- Nothing to see here. -->
<txp:else />Next: <txp:link_to_next><txp:next_title /></txp:link_to_next>
</txp:if_last_article>
</div>
<txp:article form="gallery" />
<txp:else/>
<txp:article_custom allowoverride="0" form="default" id="13" pgonly="0" />
<txp:rss_suparchive_bycat section="abstract-art-gallery" form="gallery-list" status="4" limit="3" />
</txp:if_individual_article>
</txp:if_section>
<txp:if_section name=""> <!-- if default section -->
<txp:if_category>
<div class="post">
<h3><txp:category title="1" /></h3>
<txp:wet_if_page page="1"><txp:article allowoverride="0" form="category-stickies" limit="1" pgonly="0" searchall="0" searchsticky="0" status="5" /></txp:wet_if_page>
<txp:article allowoverride="0" form="gallery" listform="gallery-list" limit="12" />
<hr class="clear" />
<p align="center" class="pageturners"><txp:newer>< Previous page</txp:newer> <txp:older>Next page ></txp:older></p>
<txp:else />
<!-- Art Gallery links -->
<a href="<txp:link_to_home />category/astrology-birth-chart-paintings">
<div id="astro-paintings">
<span class="no-display">Astrology Birth Chart Paintings</span>
</div>
</a>
<a href="<txp:link_to_home />category/luminescence-series">
<div id="luminescence-series">
<span class="no-display">Luminescence Series</span>
</div>
</a>
<a href="<txp:link_to_home />category/1-surrealistic-abstracts">
<div id="surrealistic-abstracts">
<span class="no-display">Surrealistic Abstracts</span>
</div>
</a>
<a href="<txp:link_to_home />category/zodiac-series">
<div id="zodiac">
<span class="no-display">Zodiac Series</span>
</div>
</a>
<!-- end art gallery links -->
<hr style="clear:both;width:0px;"/>
<div class="post">
<txp:article_custom form="default" allowoverride="0" id="2" pgonly="0" /> <!-- display welcome message -->
<h3>Recent Comments</h3>
<txp:wet_recent_comments limit="6" showcomment="yes" maxwords="12" striptags="yes" dateformat="%b %e" />
<strong><a href="<txp:link_to_home />comments">More Comments...</a></strong>
</div> <!-- close post div -->
<div style="margin:5px;" align="center"><a href="http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/tpc/ARS_linktous_468x60_01"><img alt="The Animal Rescue Site" src="http://www.greatergood.com/images/linktous/468x60_ars-oneclick.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="post">
</txp:if_category>
</txp:if_section>
<txp:if_section name="about,press">
<div class="post">
<txp:if_category>
<txp:article form="default" listform="excerpt-list" />
<txp:else />
<txp:if_individual_article>
<txp:article form="default" />
<txp:else />
<txp:if_section name="about"><div class="post"><txp:article_custom id="18" /><txp:else /><txp:article form="default" listform="excerpt-list" /></txp:if_section>
</txp:if_individual_article>
</txp:if_category>
</txp:if_section>
<txp:if_section name="comments">
<div class="post">
<h3>Recent Comments</h3>
<txp:wet_recent_comments limit="60" showcomment="yes" maxwords="33" striptags="yes" dateformat="%b %e" />
</txp:if_section>
<txp:if_section name="manual,contact-mickie-bellah,articles">
<div class="post">
<txp:article form="default" limit="1" />
</txp:if_section>
<txp:if_section name="links">
<div class="post">
<h3>Links</h3>
<txp:linklist form="Links" sort="linksort asc" />
</txp:if_section>
</div></div><!--end content and post-->
</div><!-- added to close main -->
<!-- menu -->
<div id="menu">
<div id="nav"><!-- added -->
<txp:output_form form="menu" />
</div><!-- end nav -->
</div><!-- end menu -->
<!-- footer -->
<div id="clearer"> </div><!-- added -->
<div id="footer">
<txp:article_custom form="footer" allowoverride="0" id="19" pgonly="0" />
<div class="credit"><cite>All text and images copyright Mickie Bellah. <!-- Site by <a href="http://www.ramettedesigns.com/" title="Ramette Designs"><strong>Ramette Designs</strong></a> --> </cite></div>
</div>
</div><!-- added to close rap -->
</body>
</html>
(added bc.. for better code display. -Els)
Last edited by els (2010-07-14 18:01:20)
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Re: Newbie question
The links in question: or not, see Els’s post below.
<!-- Art Gallery links -->
<a href="<txp:link_to_home />category/astrology-birth-chart-paintings">
<div id="astro-paintings">
<span class="no-display">Astrology Birth Chart Paintings</span>
</div>
</a>
<a href="<txp:link_to_home />category/luminescence-series">
<div id="luminescence-series">
<span class="no-display">Luminescence Series</span>
</div>
</a>
<a href="<txp:link_to_home />category/1-surrealistic-abstracts">
<div id="surrealistic-abstracts">
<span class="no-display">Surrealistic Abstracts</span>
</div>
</a>
<a href="<txp:link_to_home />category/zodiac-series">
<div id="zodiac">
<span class="no-display">Zodiac Series</span>
</div>
</a>
<!-- end art gallery links -->
Last edited by jsoo (2010-07-14 18:02:19)
Code is topiary
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