Is TXP best for the job of CMS?

sirNemanjapro · 2009-02-07 13:31:56

I have a little problem. :)

I suppose that this start of thread is more than often, than not. Since I was given a task to develop a membership type web site Im having problem with Textpattern on the basis that I can’t imagine of sending users to domain.com/textpattern/ to register.

I need something like Drupal or Joomla! have. User registration on the front page, and ability to create user groups from registered users.
Since I have gotten to know TXP over the last 2 years, Im so into it, that I cant imagine of using anything else.

Also I would need a forum to use on this project and it needs to be integrated with the website.
I was thinking of pulling the users from the forum, to the main website, but I dont have a clue can it or how can it be achieved with TXP. Forum software will most likely be SMF or phpBB.

HELP?

Neko · 2009-02-07 13:45:15

It can be done but those are not the defining features of Textpattern. I suggest looking for alternative CMS like Drupal or Joomla, that you mentioned, which offer such features out of the box.

sirNemanjapro · 2009-02-07 14:17:43

I did consider that solution, a lot in past 24h, but as I see it. Joomla! is peace of crap, Drupal I dont know where to start. Simply I need some features of those “others” in TXP. :)
I’ve been browsing plugins and mods in search of something that could help, and I still am. I found few of them, but they are all usable to a limit. Next I need to contact the plugin writer, to ask him if he would… You get the picture.

Also I was wondering can there be integration of some forum (board) software with TXP? But I figured that there is another problem appearing, of managing user groups, allowing pages and content to be seen… So its messed up a lot.

I would like to help out to create somethig like that for TXP, like in Joomla!, Drupal and Typo3.

Here is what I think of those three.
Joomla! – I know its made to be simple, but moronic? I can’t use it.
Drupal – Strange to me.
Typo3 – to me it looks like C++ with its syntax. I don’t know C++.

And its hard for me to create a template for them. So Im bit in a pickle. I know how to do it in TXP, but not all the way. :\

Zanza · 2009-02-07 17:43:04

Snooz Tennis is an example of paying membership, using Amember: here are some useful explanations.

If you don’t bother with paying members, you can use mem_self_register and ign_password_protect. Check out the latest versions. I once managed to make them work, but it may be tricky at first.

As Neko said, Drupal and Joomla! are more membership oriented, but, especially with latest versions of TXP, the mentioned plugin and some working, you could do the trick. It all depends on your inclinations about using this or that. And the actual membership details you have to manage. Share the experience!

Z-

Last edited by Zanza (2009-02-07 17:43:35)

Bloke · 2009-02-07 17:46:29

sirNemanjapro wrote:

I can’t imagine of sending users to domain.com/textpattern/ to register

Know how you feel. Like Zanza, that’s why I started with mem_self_register recently to offer public-side sign-up. Bear in mind you can only assign users to a single, pre-defined group; to move them later to other groups requires either admin-side rights or some cunning with mem_form to offer a dropdown of users/groups and some way of assigning them to each other.

Also I was wondering can there be integration of some forum (board) software with TXP?

Integration is possible, but it’s not fun. I’ve done it with PunBB (as was) so it shared a common users table with TXP, and called some TXP forms for its content (banners, menu bar, etc). I then copied the PunBB styling over to my TXP and mucked about with it until the two looked the same and you could click “forum” from TXP and it still looks like the same site. I also incorporated MarkDown and Textile as well as BBCode for all users. But it’s a lot of work.

The only other option is TXPhorum. Out of (Ben’s) box it’s, shall we say, a challenge to work with. It’s a marvellous idea, genius implementation and fits really well with TXP’s logic. But it needs polish to make it truly awesomely usable from day 1.

Between myself, Uli and jakob we’ve put together what I consider a Bells & Whistles version of TXPhorum for a client. It still uses a single section for posts and one for replies, but offers (nested) categories for sub-topics, Last Post By User NNN indicator, sticky posts, cleaner markup with a complete restyling of HTML and CSS, a couple of extra tags for outputting various bits of user-based info and some 4.0.7/4.0.8 goodness (e.g. removing the need for asy_wondertag and upgrading some of the default forms so they take advantage of nested tags). I’m also going to add some admin-side config options to avoid the need for modding the plugin.

When the plugin is finalised, we intend to package the forum up into an installable whatnot and offer it back to Ben for his perusal. If he likes it, it’s his to support/keep. If not, umm, I guess I’ll consider releasing it under my smd_ banner and see how it goes. Ben is a very busy man, after all.

One thing to remember with the forum is that all posts and replies end up as TXP articles, so when you go to the admin side Content->Articles you have to wade through a lot of them! The next part of the revamp I’m going to try and tackle is the ability to temporarily “turn off” the display of posts, replies, or both from the admin side so it doesn’t clutter the list too much. If you can live with a cluttered article list then TXPhorum is an excellent choice and can be made to feel like a real forum… ish; perhaps without all the super-duper moderator stuff.

The upshot is that it is definitely doable; it just depeneds how complicated you want it and how dirty you wanna get your hands. The site I’ve just completed is like a complete (very specific) management system from the public side. The users and admins don’t even know TXP exists and should never need to visit the back-end to do their jobs. It took quite a bit of PHP snippets to tweak it, but mem_form, ign_password_protect, mem_self_register, TXPhorum and smd_if eased the development no end.

Last edited by Bloke (2009-02-07 17:53:55)

jakob · 2009-02-07 18:31:53

What Stef (Bloke) eloquently said and a couple of further thoughts. TXphorum is fine for basic needs but if you want a forum where users have more facilities you may want to go for a dedicated forum solution.

It also depends what you mean by a “membership type website” and whether the forum plays a larger part in that and what bits of it you want to do with txp.
I’ve used vanilla for a forum before and that has detailed and granular user groups that you can define yourself (you define your member role groups, then assign what rights each group has). You can have user profiles, polls and so on, users can bookmark threads of interest etc. … and it’s all minutely themable. With the help of a blog extension you can also make certain forums behave like a blog with articles contributed by different users. If a blog is all you were wanting to do with txp, you might find vanilla does all you want without mixing two systems. Vanilla is easy to set up and use and there are multiple add-ons and themes available. The hardest part is theming it.
Finally, if you have some specific use for txp, Dave Harper did manage to achieve a form of textpattern-vanilla-integration but I’ve never tried it.

sirNemanjapro · 2009-02-07 21:34:51

First and foremost, I’m pretty amazed about Stef’s reply. Thanks mate, I mean it! :)

@Zanza, thanks for the links. This aMember is nice tool, I think. I will try it, don’t know will I use it, but I’ll give it a go.

Since I can’t talk about the project it self or show you any “designs” I have done, I’ll try to explain to best of my abilities.

The website is supposed to be a personal page of a celebrity. :) I’m not telling . :P Home page is an aggregation, so to say, of the content of other pages.

Latest blog post excerpt,
Latest news excerpt,
Some other text excerpt,
tweeter “display”,
few of new photos added,
latest YouTube video “thumb”,
USER REGISTRATION,
Latest post’s on the board.

Some of special features will be:

- some of the sections of the forum will be disabled to unregistered user. For example, I’m thinking on disabling comments check, so they could always leave a comment with no preview or some other check. And I don’t have to run after them and delete spam. Since the registration will be checked by human. Me. :)

- When the user is registered I want to pull out on the front page (or on all pages) his Avatar, Username, PM (inbox), total number of posts.
That is what I meant, when I said forum integration.

——————————————————————————————
Basically my first idea was to use the board as “member manipulation” and registration. TXP would access the board to check permissions for user is he registered or not, and if registered is he “approved”. Since you can register and wait for confirmation.

So the question is half for TXP, half for SMF.

I have used vBulletin for a year now, and I defiantly moving to some open source software. I’m thinking on using SMF.

Since I have two projects (one is this, one is my city’s community website) I am willing and able to give this other one for “testing”. And later on we can share the “findings”. I guess its easier when 4-5 people do it, than one *person.

That doesn’t know php, mysql, and other strange web development acronyms that well. :)

Last edited by sirNemanjapro (2009-02-07 21:36:04)

Algaris · 2009-02-09 10:08:07

If you’re willing to go down the paid root ExpressionEngine has all the main features you’re looking for. It has built in membership features and an integrated forum option for an additional cost.

Anyway good luck with the project.

sirNemanjapro · 2009-02-09 11:15:13

No CMS is easy to “template” as TXP, period.

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2009-02-07 13:31:56

Is TXP best for the job of CMS?

#2 2009-02-07 13:45:15

Re: Is TXP best for the job of CMS?

#3 2009-02-07 14:17:43

Re: Is TXP best for the job of CMS?

#4 2009-02-07 17:43:04

Re: Is TXP best for the job of CMS?

#5 2009-02-07 17:46:29

Re: Is TXP best for the job of CMS?

#6 2009-02-07 18:31:53

Re: Is TXP best for the job of CMS?

#7 2009-02-07 21:34:51

Re: Is TXP best for the job of CMS?

#8 2009-02-09 10:08:07

Re: Is TXP best for the job of CMS?

#9 2009-02-09 11:15:13

Re: Is TXP best for the job of CMS?

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