A few fundamental questions

Ricky55 · 2009-06-11 12:42:49

Hi

I’ve built quite a few sites now using HTML and CSS and a lot before that using tables. One of my clients has asked me to create a Content Managed site and this will be my first one. I’ve often avoided dynamic sites but I really want to get on top of this and learn a good CMS. I don’t have any real knowledge of PHP although I’m keen to learn.

I’ve been on quite a few sites now and Textpattern is constantly mentioned and seems on the whole to be a good starting point for me to enter the world of CMS’s.

I’ve purchased the Textpattern book and I’ve got the CMS installed and I’ve starting to learn but I have a few questions.

The site I am working on is a typical company website, Home, About Us, Services, Contact etc and my client is wanting to be able to edit pretty much all the text.

Is Textpattern suited to a site of this nature? I’m trying to read the book as quickly as I can but most of the sites seem to blog based. They’ll have comments, articles etc but the site I’m working won’t really have any of that just loads of text that the client wants the ability to edit.

Also Textile is that for the developer to use? ie when I’m creating the site or for the client to use when they are creating content or both?

Basically is Textpattern a good choice for what I’m wanting?

Any advice / tips that you guys experienced when you started using TXP will be most appreciated.

Thanks

Ricky55

jsoo · 2009-06-11 13:47:49

Textile is used (optionally) for writing Articles. Textile makes it very easy for a client to edit content. So the key will be to use Articles for all text you want the client to be able to edit (as opposed to hard-coding any content in a Page [template], as is sometimes done for things such as homepage content).

The admin side of Txp is easy to use, especially with the restricted permissions you typically give to a client. That combined with Textile make Txp a good choice for the situation you describe.

Why has the client requested CMS? With the possible exception of Services, the content areas you list are generally static. If all the material is to be static a CMS is probably overkill.

PzSniper · 2009-06-11 15:04:03

I have same needs but no one helped me yet on how embed those artcles (site page s are like about.php, offers.php…) on another xhtml/php page, using an “include” isn’t possible because TXP doesn’t generate or create a real pagename.php file to link to. How do i link dynamic contest to the specific website pages?

mrdale · 2009-06-11 15:07:39

Yep Ricky,

TXP is your friend.

Think of sections as your primary nav,
Think of categories as a way of tagging items intelligently independent of sections
When you need to add additional information to an article and be able to sort by it and pull it out to display, there are custom fields
Article forms are the mechanism to control how any article is displayed.
You can use misc forms to hold and recall anything in any place and nest them too (eg. page-header, might contain header-scripts and be called on all pages)
You can use variables and conditionals as a switch to present one or more variations based on a TXP state.
Can’t find a straighforward way to do something, look for a plugin

Ricky55 · 2009-06-11 16:02:49

That’s put my mind at ease thanks.

You’re right jsoo this type of content is usually static but this client lists things like Case Studies which change fairly often and their last web designer messed them about so this time around they want the freedom to be able to edit the copy themselves.

So most of my content will be written in Articles, when these are displayed is it possible to not show the date so they just look like normal straight forward copy?

Thanks again, I’m sure I’ll be back again…

Ricky55

Bloke · 2009-06-11 16:16:32

Ricky55 wrote:

So most of my content will be written in Articles

Yup.

is it possible to not show the date so they just look like normal straight forward copy?

Sure, look at the default article Form. It contains tags like <txp:title />, <txp:body /> and <txp:posted />. Just remove the posted tag (and any surrounding HTML) and the date will be gone, leaving the title/body text on its own.

As mrdale says, you often (not always) apply Forms to each item in a list to lay them out in a consistent manner. That list could be a list of articles, a list of categories, a list of sections, a list of files, whatever. In this case you are applying the default form to an individual article but the sentiment is the same: every article in your site that has been told to use this Form will have the same fields displayed and the same markup applied. So if you ever want to change the presentation, alter it ine one Form and the whole site changes.

You can apply one Form to all your articles or use a different Page/Form for each section if you wish, or have a specific Form just for one item of information. It really is up to you how you lay stuff out and employ them in your site. The mechanism you choose for arranging stuff usually comes as you experiment with TXP and become more familiar with its tags. My rule of thumb is if you find yourself repeating the same bit of markup or displaying the same type of content over and over, chuck the layout in a Form and use it from many places to save yourself typing (and also ease of updating over time).

Last edited by Bloke (2009-06-11 16:17:47)

maverick · 2009-06-11 16:24:04

Ricky55 wrote:

So most of my content will be written in Articles, when these are displayed is it possible to not show the date so they just look like normal straight forward copy?

Sure. It might help to sort of think of Txp tags as html tags for dynamic content. (Don’t take the comparison too far). So build your articles to display whatever content you wish — title – there’s a tag for it; author – there’s a tag for it; body – there’s tag for it; excerpt – there’s a tag. date and time – there are tags for them.

Pick and choose what you wish. Leave out what you don’t want.

Put the tags that layout your article in a form, and on your page, use a txp tag that can call the form.

Also, if you have some static content, you may wish to take a look at sticky articles.

maverick · 2009-06-11 16:32:04

PzSniper wrote:

I have same needs but no one helped me yet on how embed those artcles (site page s are like about.php, offers.php…) on another xhtml/php page, using an “include” isn’t possible because TXP doesn’t generate or create a real pagename.php file to link to. How do i link dynamic contest to the specific website pages?

PzSniper

Respectfully, your comment seems out of place in this thread. Ricky55 is asking a different question, so your post hijacks his thread.

You give the impression people have not responded to you when you say no one helped you yet. That reflects poorly on the community, especially when said to another new person new to Txp. The truth is people have helped you. Perhaps they couldn’t solve your issue, but they have tried.

I hope your post wasn’t meant the way it communicated (at least how it communicated to me).

Ricky55 · 2009-06-12 14:35:12

Thanks lads, I must admit I was surprised to read PzSniper’s comments as this seems like one of the most helpful and busy forums I’ve been on.

Thanks again.

PzSniper · 2009-06-25 16:10:45

C’on guys…No need to be so picky… i’m just not native english.. forgive me, not meant to be offensive.

I just stated there wasn’t on board a clear step-by-step guide to help ppl implement TXP on their pages… not everybody can include code inside TXP.

Last edited by PzSniper (2009-06-25 16:27:23)

bici · 2009-06-26 22:23:07

mrdale wrote:

Yep Ricky,

TXP is your friend.

Think of sections as your primary nav,
Think of categories as a way of tagging items intelligently independent of sections
When you need to add additional information to an article and be able to sort by it and pull it out to display, there are custom fields
Article forms are the mechanism to control how any article is displayed.
You can use misc forms to hold and recall anything in any place and nest them too (eg. page-header, might contain header-scripts and be called on all pages)
You can use variables and conditionals as a switch to present one or more variations based on a TXP state.
Can’t find a straighforward way to do something, look for a plugin

Thanks! this is very helpful. I wonder if this is the right place to ask?… i notice that on many txp sites there are typically 4-5 navigation tabs/buttons along the top and i have not seen any sites that have drop-down menus wherein one to could point to sub-categories or sections… is this doable with TxP.

jakob · 2009-06-27 07:25:12

drop-down menus wherein one to could point to sub-categories or sections… is this doable with TxP

You have complete control over the (X)HTML output so you can concoct your navigation as you please. There are any number of ways of achieving what you want depending on your exact needs (“many roads lead to Rome”).
Check some of the tutorials on txptips, (e.g. in the navigation section) for example this one on drop down menus using txp tags in combination with jquery suckerfish or superfish. Also take a look at gomedia’s plugins adi_menu or adi_cat_menu or take a stroll through the navigation section of the textpattern resources. I’m sure there are other ways too.

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#1 2009-06-11 12:42:49

A few fundamental questions

#2 2009-06-11 13:47:49

Re: A few fundamental questions

#3 2009-06-11 15:04:03

Re: A few fundamental questions

#4 2009-06-11 15:07:39

Re: A few fundamental questions

#5 2009-06-11 16:02:49

Re: A few fundamental questions

#6 2009-06-11 16:16:32

Re: A few fundamental questions

#7 2009-06-11 16:24:04

Re: A few fundamental questions

#8 2009-06-11 16:32:04

Re: A few fundamental questions

#9 2009-06-12 14:35:12

Re: A few fundamental questions

#10 2009-06-25 16:10:45

Re: A few fundamental questions

#11 2009-06-26 22:23:07

Re: A few fundamental questions

#12 2009-06-27 07:25:12

Re: A few fundamental questions

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