Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

jstubbs · 2009-09-29 06:11:56

Reading through the forum post by Sarah re beginner tutorials, I see a need for this to be addressed. I see Jeff has written on this already. (Jeff – can we post this on TXP Tips?)

We need to write a tutorial for single page installs for beginners. I can do this (if Jeff’s is not enough), and further, I will create a new TXP Minima template that uses no forms at all, which is a good way to start – copy/paste a page template.

I agree on the forum – the search sucks and the look is dated.

tennapel · 2009-09-29 07:18:27

I have been looking at CMS-es for a long time, trying out several but never have been able to find one that served my needs. Untill I was asked to upgrade a website and the complexity of the site required the use of a CMS.

I fiddled with different solutions and Textpattern was absolutely the most difficult one to understand. The layout of the Textbook pages is the main problem, the organisation of the page is somehow illogical, I can understand Sarah’s complaint very well.
If there should be an effort, I think it would be reorganising Textbook and reorganising the layout of the different textpattern related sites, it is a bit confusing. Somehow it belongs together but not quite. I think the quality of the content of most articles is good enough.

The only reason I did dive into Textpattern was that in a few simple setups I tested out to make a proof of concept of what was in my head, most of the other CMS-es did fail.

I bought the book in the end and that clarified a lot! To be honest, I think you need the steps of explanation in the book to be able to grasp Textpattern.

I can understand the appeal of Modx like solutions, but I pray that is NOT the way Textpattern will ever go. The learning curve is steep just because it’s simplicity gives you an enormous flexibility and the flip side of flexibility is complexity.

Last edited by tennapel (2009-09-29 07:28:25)

Bloke · 2009-09-29 08:38:31

tennapel wrote:

The layout of the Textbook pages is the main problem, the organisation of the page is somehow illogical

Work is ongoing to make Textbook more logical. Els has done some great stuff behind the scenes lately and jsoo and Uli have been putting plenty of hours in. Plus of course Destry showed us all the light switch and how to do stuff right.

Sadly there’s still a lot of old content floating around. A lot of the admin side documentation needs to be brought up to 4.2.0. I’ve been off the boil on Textbook of late but as I stumble across outdated content I mark it as such and see if it can be moved elsewhere / updated / consolidated / deleted. You could help too.

If there should be an effort, I think it would be reorganising Textbook and reorganising the layout of the different textpattern related sites

When the relaunch of textpattern.com takes place, the other sites will follow behind with a more consistent look. I believe Textgarden and Textbook are planned; textpattern.org needs a big make-over imho but I don’t know who has a login there. The sticking point is always this forum. It’s heavily modded so it’s tricky to update or replace and this kind of thing is out of my league. Needs a good champion. Know anyone?

tennapel · 2009-09-29 09:06:00

Bloke wrote:

tennapel wrote:
The layout of the Textbook pages is the main problem, the organisation of the page is somehow illogical
Work is ongoing to make Textbook more logical. Els has done some great stuff behind the scenes lately and jsoo and Uli have been putting plenty of hours in. Plus of course Destry showed us all the light switch and how to do stuff right.

That is good news.

Last edited by tennapel (2009-09-29 09:06:44)

jsoo · 2009-09-29 09:52:58

jstubbs wrote:

Reading through the forum post by Sarah re beginner tutorials, I see a need for this to be addressed. I see Jeff has written on this already. (Jeff – can we post this on TXP Tips?)

If you mean my four-step sequence for overwriting the default template, I don’t see that as ready to be posted as a Tip. I am giving some thought to a more complete walk-through along these lines.

ndrwtrvrs · 2009-09-29 10:18:24

Hi Sarah,

Just to share my own experience, I like others initially found the model that Textpattern uses a little hard to get my head around and the thing that really caused the lightbulb moment for me was reading ‘Textpattern Solutions: PHP-based content management made easy’ by Kevin Potts et al.

You can see a preview of the book on Google Books here: http://books.google.com/books?id=Z4n709JIOL0C
…but, I’d strongly recommend buying it – it’s a really easy read, it takes you from just about exactly where it sounds like you are to where you need to be.

Marie Poulin’s tutorial linked to by JanDW is a really good starting place too.

Good luck with MODx, it’s a good alternative, but hope you get the chance to give Textpattern another go – you won’t regret it.

towndock · 2009-09-29 13:46:46

Textpattern posters have been extremely kind, supportive, helpful and even critical of themselves through this thread. The original poster had a rather oblique question – and despite that after being provided with support was really just simply rude.

MODx has a pretty site. I have looked at the admin demos before. It doesn’t make sense to me – which isn’t to say it doesn’t make sense – the structure just isn’t quickly logical – to me. This appears to have been the case with Textpattern for the original poster.

We all had a point when we checked out several different CMSs. For some reason, for my brain Textpattern was the easiest to use. It works, I love it. My site(s) could be done with MODx – but I don’t get it. I’m sure they could be done with Drupal, but I think I could more easily figure out Rubik’s Cube and interplanetary space travel.

Textpattern’s site (and forum) have a rather sparse look. It works. It won’t appeal to some. But Google and the New York Times site have a sparse look compared to some too.

At some point when someone is rude towards free software and free support… tweaking the wiki ain’t gonna make ‘em happy.

Thank you for the support I read here. 4.20 is great – and so is the kind and civil support on this forum.

nabrown78 · 2009-09-29 14:02:57

I agree on the forum – the search sucks and the look is dated.

This has really been a stumbling block for me at times. The search on this forum is really poor, and it sometimes even prevents you from finding content you know exists! I don’t know anything about forum software…I’m sure it would be extremely difficult to port old content to a new system, but if the search could be improved that would help immensely.

masa · 2009-09-29 14:10:06

nabrown78 wrote:

I’m sure it would be extremely difficult to port old content to a new system, but if the search could be improved that would help immensely.

Agreed, search isn’t useful.
I resort to google most of the time. A string like site:forum.textpattern.com (your search terms here) does the trick.

MattD · 2009-09-29 14:17:42

smdnetau put up a few videos demonstrating how he converted a static website to textpattern.

Last edited by MattD (2009-09-29 14:18:25)

towndock · 2009-09-29 15:45:15

“the search on this forum is really poor”

OK – can’t argue there.

jsoo · 2009-09-29 16:43:14

I’d argue that “really poor” is giving it way too much credit for usefulness.

iblastoff · 2009-09-29 16:57:38

jsoo wrote:

I’d argue that “really poor” is giving it way too much credit for usefulness.

especially considering a ton of the most useful TXP information is generally buried in the forum somewhere and the fact that plugin developers generally use a forum thread for feedback/troubleshooting etc etc.

unless someone has been around for a long time, i can’t see a new user going to the plugin author support section and wading through half of the threads there that run from 30 to 140+ pages each! especially with the inability to actually search within a thread.

is the general consensus saying that this particular forum finally has to go/be updated? how is this forum heavily modded anyway? i know mary did some magical work in the backend to ‘improve’ the search functionality though i have no idea how.

Last edited by iblastoff (2009-09-29 17:01:23)

hcgtv · 2009-09-29 19:49:35

iblastoff wrote:

is the general consensus saying that this particular forum finally has to go/be updated? how is this forum heavily modded anyway? i know mary did some magical work in the backend to ‘improve’ the search functionality though i have no idea how.

If those in charge would like to seriously explore moving to another forum, then a new thread can be started where we can talk openly about the pros and cons of a move and what software to use. The front page is getting a makeover, sure would be nice to have a new forum to go with it.

jstubbs · 2009-09-29 19:59:38

Good idea Bert – opened a thread here

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#31 2009-09-29 06:11:56

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#32 2009-09-29 07:18:27

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#33 2009-09-29 08:38:31

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#34 2009-09-29 09:06:00

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#35 2009-09-29 09:52:58

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#36 2009-09-29 10:18:24

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#37 2009-09-29 13:46:46

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#38 2009-09-29 14:02:57

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#39 2009-09-29 14:10:06

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#40 2009-09-29 14:17:42

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#41 2009-09-29 15:45:15

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#42 2009-09-29 16:43:14

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#43 2009-09-29 16:57:38

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#44 2009-09-29 19:49:35

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

#45 2009-09-29 19:59:38

Re: Detailed instructions on how to create a site with textpattern?

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