trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site....

adamtal · 2006-09-14 22:11:49

First of all, I apologize if this sounds lazy. i did look around, trying to figure out things.*

What i’m trying to achieve is a very simple site: no blogging, no articles, no sections. just 5-6 pages, with a side navigation menu to get to all of those pages.

i might add comments and a news ticker later, when i really have time to get into this, but for now that’s all i need.

I have already created my static site using html/css, and the main reason i want to use TXP is to let some guys edit the content of the pages with a WYSIWYG editor.

*I would really appreciate a short guide to explain how would i go about this.
The point is i have been working with CMSs for lesss than a month, and i already tried ‘joomla’, ‘drupal’ and ‘CMSMS’. the learning curve is just too steep, especially figuring out how every component is called in each of the different CMS, and what php snippet to use to call each component… I was just looking for something easy to set up my site in a few days:)

Any help would be appreciated…
Thanks,
Adam

Last edited by adamtal (2006-09-14 22:16:18)

Walker · 2006-09-14 23:14:18

Make 6 sections in presentation->sections.
Make extra pages in presentation->pages (call them what you’re calling the sections).
Set each section to Uses Page: The page that corresponds to the section.
Set up a form in Presentation->Forms called “MainMenu”
Put your menu in the form, make it a “Misc” form.
Put the main menu on each page this way: <code><txp:output_form form=“MainMenu” /></code>
Write an article for each page and assign it to the section that is that page.
You’re done.

There will be more, but this is easiest to start out with.

nardo · 2006-09-14 23:41:11

Walker wrote:

Make extra pages in presentation->pages (call them what you’re calling the sections).
Set each section to Uses Page: The page that corresponds to the section.

I think it’s eaasier to manage if you use one page template and and use conditional tags … e.g. <txp:if_section name="about">unique code chunk for about page</txp:if_section>

although you can usually avoid even this! a simple <txp:article /> tag will display the ‘article’ assigned to your section

adamtal, everything has a learning curve – but stick with txp, very simple and lightweight to setup what you’re after

adamtal · 2006-09-15 18:12:01

alpha

Re: trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site….

Thanks guys, i appreciate your help.

Walker, i started doing it your way – i’m missing two points though –
1. what do i use to get article X to show up on page X, in the place that i want it to be placed? what code do i use in my template?
(or at least – how is it done on the default page?)

2. the menu – how do i link to a page?

Mary · 2006-09-15 21:36:52

I think it’s eaasier to manage if you use one page template and and use conditional tags…

I find it just the opposite ;) : you end up with a lot less conditionals that way, but you could end up with a lot of pages, depending upon how you’re setting up your site. I just name my pages the same name as my sections, and I never get them confused.

…what do i use to get article X to show up on page X, in the place that i want it to be placed?

If your article appears in that section, it’ll show up on it’s own if you put the article tag on that page.
If you want a specific article to show up always at the top of the list, you can make use of the sticky attribute.
If, for some reason, you want a specific article to show up in a specific place, then use article_custom with its id attribute.

adamtal · 2006-09-18 19:06:43

Thanks, Mary:)

i’ve got everything in place now, the question is how do i make the menu work? i mean, if i have a section named “history”, using a page named “history”, and an article, how do i get to see it? what is the url i should use in the browser to view this, or in my main menu to link to this?

I tried mysite.com/history, but i get a 404.

Thanks again for all the help, i really appreciate your patiance.

els · 2006-09-18 20:48:50

The URL is mysite.com/history/ or mysite.com/index.php?s=history, depending on the URL mode you’ve set in the site preferences. Using <txp:section name="history" title="1" link="1" /> will automatically output a hyperlink with the correct URL.

adamtal · 2006-09-19 15:16:47

Ok, now for some reason the homepage is gone (404 – “Unknown section”)… i have a main article using section “article”, which is using the “default” page.

“Selected by default?” = yes
“On front page?” = yes

this is happenning with all Permanent link modes.

“index.php?s=history” and “index.php?s=article” both work fine.

Mary · 2006-09-20 02:52:34

What page do you have your “default” section using? (should be a dropdown at the very top of the page) does it have anything in it?

If index.php?s=history works, but the others do not, that means clean urls won’t work for you.

Remember to check the tag listing for the various navigation tags available to you. There are a bunch of plugins for this purpose as well.

adamtal · 2006-09-20 06:21:44

Don’t want to sound too emotional or something, but…:)
You guys just make it so much easier, i really didn’t expect that, thanks a milion.

Mary, the default section was using the wrong page, fixed and working now. thanks. i’m checking out your links.

Thanks again

adamtal · 2006-09-24 11:22:51

Mary wrote:

If index.php?s=history works, but the others do not, that means clean urls won’t work for you.

ummm, i’m trying to move over to clean url’s now. problem is Permanent link mode in the admin only has “?=messy’, “/id/title” “/section/id/title”, “/year/month/day/title”, “/section/title” and “/title”. there’s no “/section” option. how do i go about this? i mean, right now i can’t tell if clean url’s work or not…

Adam

jm · 2006-09-24 11:50:58

/section/title = /section/ (the title part is for the articles).

To see if clean url’s work, select one of the Permanent Link Modes, the click View Site. Your TXP-generated article permlinks should be like <samp>site.com/news/a-post-title</samp>, where /news = section “a post title” is posted to.

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#1 2006-09-14 22:11:49

trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site....

#2 2006-09-14 23:14:18

Re: trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site....

#3 2006-09-14 23:41:11

Re: trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site....

#4 2006-09-15 18:12:01

Re: trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site....

#5 2006-09-15 21:36:52

Re: trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site....

#6 2006-09-18 19:06:43

Re: trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site....

#7 2006-09-18 20:48:50

Re: trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site....

#8 2006-09-19 15:16:47

Re: trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site....

#9 2006-09-20 02:52:34

Re: trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site....

#10 2006-09-20 06:21:44

Re: trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site....

#11 2006-09-24 11:22:51

Re: trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site....

#12 2006-09-24 11:50:58

Re: trying to shorten Learning curve; very simple almost static site....

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