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New to Textpattern... have some simple questions
Hi everyone,
I’ve been toying with Textpattern on-and-off for the last week, and while I’m slowly orienting myself, I have some basic questions I thought someone here might answer.
I plan on using Textpattern primarily as a CMS. I’ll build the occasional blog I’m sure, but for the most part I want to provide clients with the option of updating elements of their site without calling me and manually digging through the html.
Essentially, most projects would be comprised of static pages, with one or two dynamic pages controlled by Textpattern. In this situation, do you normally build the site in your regular web dev application, then dump the near finalized code into the pages fields in TP admin? So far, I’ve found writing xhtml/css in the admin panel somewhat unwieldy, and would much prefer to do it in Dreamweaver where I have more control.
Can anyone point me towards some good tutorials on integrating texpattern forms into otherwise static pages?
I apologize in advance if these questions are daft. I’m trained as print designer but the css bug bit me last year, and learning a CMS seems a logical extension of that.
Thanks.
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Re: New to Textpattern... have some simple questions
Hi eggnog and welcome,
Yes, you can do exactly what you describe with txp. Just switch off the comment function and you have an admin area from which you or the site owner can modify the content without having to be confronted with code. If you give your owner different rights, they can edit content without seeing the ‘internal workings’ of the site code.
You can develop your site outline and basic page types however you like, i.e. in Dreamweaver or whatever. Think of them as page templates, e.g. without the actual content and think about how you might break down your site and the content into modular elements.
You can then use these as the basis for your page templates in txp and drop txp:tags in where information is supposed to change with each page.
The textbook is a valuable reference and it is worthwhile reading Destry’s three longer articles which are linked to at the bottom of this page on article contributions in the textbook. They are quite long but you’ll have a good overview of how txp works once you’ve read them.
TXP Builders – finely-crafted code, design and txp
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#3 2008-03-10 21:39:01
- lister
- Member
- Registered: 2008-02-13
- Posts: 76
Re: New to Textpattern... have some simple questions
Hi there eggnog,
sounds like your on the same path as me! I’m looking into building CMS sites for clients without a the need for blogging etc. textpattern seems a little confusing in the beginning, but after a little determination things start to click into place.
A couple of things ive found along the way are these links, take a look..
http://thresholdstate.com/articles/3667/managing-static-pages
http://publishingpipelines.com/ppl/articles/20/building-a-static-website-with-textpattern
let me know how you get on.
take care
lister
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Re: New to Textpattern... have some simple questions
Thanks for the help guys. Jakob, I’ve started reading the first article in the link you posted and it’s already cleared some things up. Lister, thanks for the links also. They’re exactly what I was looking for.
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