New to CMS, is TextPattern right for me?

beefchimi · 2011-02-07 02:26:35

Hello,

I am a graphic designer / web developer who is (finally) trying to make the transition to CMS. I consider myself very fluent with HTML5 and CSS3, some jQuery and a little bit of PHP.

I have been reading a lot of material on different CMS sites (TextPattern, WordPress, LightCMS, CushyCMS, etc) and am trying to find what is right for me. I did the installation of TextPattern on my site and inspected all the files, and basically, I just feel really lost. What I want to be able to do is:

- Build a site like a normally would: start from scratch, design in Illustrator, write all my HTML5 and CSS3 in Coda… the things that I love most about my job and the reason why I love design / development
- Install a CMS to the root directory and upload all my files
- Designate specific areas in my markup that are editable / update-able by a client

So far, my impressions of TextPattern make me feel very boxed in. I am extremely organized and would like to maintain a consistent file structure. When using css I usually have a master.css that uses @import to bring in my reset.css, grid.css, styles.css, and any font embedding I may be using. I cannot seem to find where any of these css files are in my textpattern directory. I see several css.php files, and a textpattern.css, but what is in textpattern.css doesn’t seem to be what is displayed when looking in the ‘styles’ tab when signed into TextPattern.

I really considered myself a technically savy person until I started trying to figure out CMS. Can someone help me understand if any of this is right for me? Is it possible to have complete freedom when it comes to design and markup? I do not want any additional code in my markup that shouldn’t be there.

Any advice or input is greatly appreciated. I apologize if I come across as extremely newbish.

Thanks,

michaelkpate · 2011-02-07 04:50:52

beefchimi wrote:

When using css I usually have a master.css that uses @import to bring in my reset.css, grid.css, styles.css, and any font embedding I may be using. I cannot seem to find where any of these css files are in my textpattern directory. I see several css.php files, and a textpattern.css, but what is in textpattern.css doesn’t seem to be what is displayed when looking in the ‘styles’ tab when signed into TextPattern.

The contents of the styles tab are not located in any of the css.php files you mentioned. Those are all used by the backend interface. By default, there is one stylesheet preloaded, named default.

You have two options:

1) Upload your .css files to your website and then edit the default style to import them.

or

2) Create multiple stylesheets within textpattern and call them from your page template using <txp:css />.

Either will work, it just depends on how you prefer to manage things.

maruchan · 2011-02-07 05:44:36

So far, my impressions of TextPattern make me feel very boxed in.

Absolutely normal, in my experience. Mainly because:

I am extremely organized and would like to maintain a consistent file structure.

Textpattern also wants you to be extremely organized, so it can teach you to be a CMS ninja. But you must learn its ways first. You must learn that it stores that stuff in a database by default, not in files, for example. But there’s more than just that.

You said “consistent file structure,” and while that’s wonderful for a front-end person, for someone learning a CMS, you are also going to have to learn what it wants your consistent file structure to be, and learn what you can do then to make it your own. That applies to any CMS.

If I were you, I’d hang in there, learn it, even though Textpattern has a much steeper initial learning curve than other CMSes do. I spent 5 years using other CMS packages because they were simpler to start with, had more plugins, etc., even though I knew about Textpattern. I wish I would have taken the time to just learn it. Now I come back and feel like I had 5 years stolen from me. I can build things in Textpattern that make me feel like I am a veteran programmer. With other CMS software I would set up a plugin, get it configured, and find that it needed both front-end AND back-end work to be usable or extendable. But when your plugin is just a tag with some attributes, like plugins are in Textpattern, you don’t have to worry about that stuff nearly as much.

Oh, and once you learn Textpattern you will be able to drop your HTML and CSS in. That part is still fun.

I would advise you to purchase the Textpattern Solutions book and work your way through it. I bought both the Kindle and the paper versions, read those, and started looking in the “How Do I…” and “Let’s See Yours, Then” sections of the forum, saving interesting threads to a private wiki. After about 6 months of that, I feel like I’m planning some pretty advanced stuff, stuff I would have had to hire a developer to do with other CMS packages.

Last edited by maruchan (2011-02-07 05:50:39)

maruchan · 2011-02-07 05:57:59

BTW, I noticed you are looking at some hosted commercial CMS software as well. Webvanta was the closest I could find to Textpattern in that arena — tag-based, very flexible, etc.

Algaris · 2011-02-07 09:43:17

Hi beefchimi

Hers are some good articles to read when learning Textpattern:

http://textpattern.net/wiki/index.php?title=Textpattern_Semantic_Model
http://ipsedixit.net/txp/146/textpattern-context-in-depth

I’d also recommend you taking a look at the the Textpattern Tags to see what you can achieve:
http://textpattern.net/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Tag_Reference

If you want to edit your files in Coda a good plugin for you would be cnk_versioning. I use it so that I can work in Espresso and when I save my page templates and CSS files it automatically updates the CMS.

http://forum.textpattern.com/viewtopic.php?id=27516

You might need to edit the plugin code to work with the latest version of Textpattern but it is very easy and pain free to do.

http://forum.textpattern.com/viewtopic.php?pid=235069#p235069

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2011-02-07 02:26:35

New to CMS, is TextPattern right for me?

#2 2011-02-07 04:50:52

Re: New to CMS, is TextPattern right for me?

#3 2011-02-07 05:44:36

Re: New to CMS, is TextPattern right for me?

#4 2011-02-07 05:57:59

Re: New to CMS, is TextPattern right for me?

#5 2011-02-07 09:43:17

Re: New to CMS, is TextPattern right for me?

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