Bert Garcia: When all you have is a keyboard

hcgtv · 2007-02-22 17:41:56

413 days after launching BertGarcia.com with the default Textpattern look, I found a design I liked for it.

TerraFirma, a design by NodeThirtyThree, appealed to me on it’s clean look and the simplicity of the backend XHTML code.

It took me a day to port it to Textpattern using my local XAMPPLite install:

Grabbed a copy of my live site and database and installed it locally.
Copy/pasted the html into a page and the css into a style.
Then went about adding txp:tags, adjusting forms and making new ones.
For the CSS images, I created a subdirectory called /images/terrafirma.
When I was done, I exported everything out with mcw_templates.
FTPed up the /images/terrafirma and /textpattern/_templates/terrafirma to my VPS.
Signed on to the backend and imported terrafirma into my live site with mcw_templates.

When Textpattern 4.0.5 is released, which honors your default settings in the sections tab when you go into the Pages and Style tabs, I’ll package up TerraFirma and some other styles I’ve already done.

After a year of using TxP, I think I’ve got the hang of styling it now, and all I can say is that it’s a wonderful system to work with.

(Edit: one of your links wasn’t working. :) -Mary)

Last edited by Mary (2007-02-24 01:05:19)

NyteOwl · 2007-02-22 18:50:29

Nice design. I should finish up the one I started last fall. It’s just a shell but maybe that’s good – as it leaves customizing to the user.

So many projects – so little time :-)

hcgtv · 2007-02-22 20:26:39

NyteOwl wrote:

So many projects – so little time :-)

I hear you, especially with Spring around the corner :)

Jeremie · 2007-02-22 21:26:01

Indeed :-/

Fixed width, but besides that, quite nice design yup.

hcgtv · 2007-02-22 21:54:06

Jeremie wrote:

Fixed width…

Since I started posting with the default template, I got into the habit of wrapping text around images, with a liquid layout, my previous posts would of looked weird.

I guess it depends on the site and the content, for informational sites, I like liquid layouts but for personal sites, I think a fixed width makes it simpler to layout your posts nicely.

marios · 2007-02-23 04:02:14

Nice addition to the TXP Template Suite.

(Which needs a litttle more variety anyway)

regards, marios

maniqui · 2007-02-23 04:16:18

Bert, I’m amazed about the many things you do at the same time… I really envy you.
You have many sites, you collaborate in many OS projects, you are even developer in PunBB and you also moderate at forums here and there and planning integrating Txp and PunBB and Singapore and… McCuba! (?).

Have you read Gettings Things Done or to get things done is something natural to you?

Good work, man!

So many projects – so little time :-)

Listen to “Little Things” at Argenis Britos’s MySpace

hcgtv · 2007-02-23 05:52:45

marios wrote:

Nice addition to the TXP Template Suite.

Remember we touched upon having a naming scheme for Pages, Forms and Styles? When I package up the designs I have, I’d like to follow some kind of scheme, so that importing them into a live site doesn’t clash with anything that already exists. Have you polished your thinking while using Textmate?

maniqui wrote:

Have you read Gettings Things Done or to get things done is something natural to you?

I’ve heard of it, never read the book but I do agree that you should write things down. I’ve always had a notebook by my side throughout my career, today I use a combination of Sunbird and a folder on my computer where I dump things I need to work on or investigate. On my todo list is to buy a mountain top home overlooking one of the beaches at Cayo Saetía and blog from there :)

marios · 2007-02-23 06:55:11

hcgtv wrote

Remember we touched upon having a naming scheme for Pages, Forms and Styles?

Yes, I remember this discussion, I’m still thinking about what would be the best way to go, before I release version 0.8 of the TM Bundle.
I’m a little at a loss myself , hyphens ? underscores ? folder structures ?

I believed, that programmers or open-source people like you could give us some more better clue about a couple of aspects, that might be involved.

( Also in terms of forwards and backwards compatability in regards with TXP)

However, I think this is what I am going to do:

I will write a detailed article about some of these Ideas, and then post the link here, so we can gather some thoughts.

(In fact I’m having trouble sometimes to organize stuff, nice that maniqui casts in with some inspirational material)

regards, marios

Last edited by marios (2007-02-23 06:58:04)

hcgtv · 2007-02-23 07:05:42

marios wrote:

I will write a detailed article about some of these Ideas, and then post the link here, so we can gather some thoughts.

Cool, then I’ll use your ideas to work on a template and we’ll compare notes.

macgyver · 2007-02-26 02:54:54

Bert,

You’ve inspired me. :)

BobbyCox.net

hcgtv · 2007-02-26 05:36:16

macgyver wrote:

You’ve inspired me. :)

Cool, see what happens when you watch less TV ;)

hcgtv · 2009-12-22 20:13:22

1,035 days after TerraFirma, a newer design.

TerraFirma2, a design by NodeThirtyThree.

On Monday, December 14, I began the conversion to the new theme. It took a day to program the pages, forms and style and another day to add my special tweaks. The rest of the time was devoted to checking articles for proper alignment, site navigation and testing.

One of my special tweaks was an Archives section. When I learned that an article can display other articles, thanks to this TXP tip, the Archives became easier to deal with. Now all I have to do is create a new article at the beginning of the year, and add the following code to it, change the month=”“ and remember to turn off textile.

<txp:article_custom limit="999" section="articles" month="2009" sort="Posted desc">

<txp:if_first_article><ul></txp:if_first_article>
<li>
<txp:permlink><txp:title /></txp:permlink>, 
<txp:posted format="%A %B %d, %Y" />, 
<txp:rah_function call="rtrim" string='<txp:category1 title="1" link="1" />, <txp:category2 title="1" link="1" />' charlist=", "/>
</li>
<txp:if_last_article></ul></txp:if_last_article>

</txp:article_custom>

Each Archive article’s title is just the year, 2009. The url is http://bertgarcia.com/2009, short and sweet. One very nice side-effect to this scheme, is that a URL like http://bertgarcia.com/2006/10/07/google-is-your-friend, which doesn’t exist since I changed the permlink mode, will display the 2006 archive page, no more 404’s.

The only Textpattern plugin I used on this new theme, and probably the only plugin I’ll ever need, is Jukka Svahn’s rah_function plugin. As you can see from the above code block, I use rah_function to strip out the lone comma from the category links, if there’s only one category assigned to the article.

On the Archives section, rah_function came to the rescue again to count the number of live articles on the site:

<txp:rah_function call="safe_count" table="textpattern" where='Section="articles" and Status="4"' />

And also in the footer of an archives article to display the number of articles per year:

<txp:rah_function call="safe_count" table="textpattern" where='Posted rlike "<txp:posted format="%Y" />" and section="articles" and Status="4"' />

While working on this new theme, the Textpattern Tag Reference in downloadable PDF format was a time-saver, thanks Destry.

After the holidays, I plan on releasing this new theme as a download. Creating this new theme made me rethink the Textpattern CMS Themes mechanism, how best to move forward, how can the forms tab be adjusted to accommodate multiple themes, etc.

Lastly, thanks to the Textpattern developers, your CMS is a joy to work with.

jstubbs · 2009-12-22 22:09:44

Looks really nice Bert, and thanks for the interesting write up. I think the Archive method might make a good TXP Tip – possibly a follow on from Els’ tip?

hcgtv · 2009-12-23 05:45:12

jstubbs wrote:

Looks really nice Bert, and thanks for the interesting write up. I think the Archive method might make a good TXP Tip – possibly a follow on from Els’ tip?

Thanks Jonathan.

Feel free to add the method I laid out as follow up to Els’ enlightening tidbit of information.

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#1 2007-02-22 17:41:56

Bert Garcia: When all you have is a keyboard

#2 2007-02-22 18:50:29

Re: Bert Garcia: When all you have is a keyboard

#3 2007-02-22 20:26:39

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#4 2007-02-22 21:26:01

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#5 2007-02-22 21:54:06

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#6 2007-02-23 04:02:14

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#7 2007-02-23 04:16:18

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#8 2007-02-23 05:52:45

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#9 2007-02-23 06:55:11

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#10 2007-02-23 07:05:42

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#11 2007-02-26 02:54:54

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#12 2007-02-26 05:36:16

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#13 2009-12-22 20:13:22

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#14 2009-12-22 22:09:44

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#15 2009-12-23 05:45:12

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