Make default template more user ready

colak · 2020-09-03 05:51:03

The default template basically has one section, Articles, but even on the simplest of blog sites, an about page is usually present. The excerpt of this page is usually shown on the home page and the full article in what is normally called by the About section. Furthermore, according to GDPR, we also have to have privacy policies, cookie information etc which have not been discussed here yet in the context of the comments offered in the default install.

I believe that the default template could become more user ready by including this basic content. It could also include a pageless article for learning purposes.

philwareham · 2020-09-03 08:41:03

Not in scope, in my opinion.

Myusername · 2020-09-03 12:00:32

Interesting this topic. Although I am a simple Textpattern user, I have been thinking in recent days about new users arriving at CMS. I think anything that helps the new user is excellent. This conversation makes me think of several other things. Look…

I do not mean that it is difficult to develop a website on Textpattern, in fact, it is too easy. With only knowledge of CSS and HTML it is possible to do something very cool. But for example, if the user does not fall in love with the platform and goes on the internet looking for plugins for his needs, he will never know that there are plugins for everything that is out there. A tab for searching for plugins would be very useful for this. And that is just an example.

Another thing that follows this same reasoning is the textile model that Textpattern uses in its publications. It is great, but it is not common in others CMS’s. So the user arrives at Textpattern and needs to read a doc about it to learn how to add an image in the body of the article, I don’t think it is “inviting”. Adding something like simplemde or markitup would be great in that regard.

Just one more thing that I think is great for both new users and customers: dynamic sidebars, to be modified by a widget tab. If you have a customer who has no knowledge, then he will not find it legal to have to make a direct change to the forms.

Anyway, say what you think, if you think it’s silly, just ignore it. I’m just an amateur.

Last edited by Myusername (2020-09-03 12:01:32)

dos · 2020-09-03 12:49:25

I think it really depends on what/who is actually the target group of textpattern? Is it developers who create client projects and need a flexible system or is it the blogger/writer who just wants to get it going?

colak · 2020-09-03 14:15:17

dos wrote #325752:

I think it really depends on what/who is actually the target group of textpattern? Is it developers who create client projects and need a flexible system or is it the blogger/writer who just wants to get it going?

You hit the nail on the head! txp is promoting itself as a designer’s tool, but we have enough non-designers using the CMS who may just want to install and start publishing. Our theming system is excellent but what happens to those themes installed on fresh installs with the 2 pre-installed sections? This is like telling people that txp is just a blog software and not a CMS. The default template should, in my view reflect the flexibility of the system beyond the blog sphere.

philwareham · 2020-09-03 14:51:08

My feeling is that themes should be able to provide a ‘dummy’ database file that users can optionally manually load in, which contains sections, placeholder content, etc. appropriate to that theme – rather than add more sections and articles into the core installation itself.

Obviously the caveat is that by loading a new database file into the CMS you would destroy the current content – so the utmost care and fair warnings should be made clear to users before they do that.

It’s been discussed in the past but not sure where we got to with any decisions/plans.

dos · 2020-09-03 15:06:31

I’ve recently played with Yellow CMS. When installing, you are asked if you want to set up a blog, a website or a wiki. The default installation has been adjusted accordingly – templates and even suitable plugins for whatever you choose… Clever, maybe also suitable for the “slim” approach of Textpattern?

Last edited by dos (2020-09-03 15:07:29)

etc · 2020-09-03 15:22:05

dos wrote #325764:

When installing, you are asked if you want to set up a blog, a website or a wiki. The default installation has been adjusted accordingly – templates and even suitable plugins for whatever you choose… Clever, maybe also suitable for the “slim” approach of Textpattern?

That’s what we do – kinda – proposing to choose a theme on install, though the choice is very limited atm. But txp is more complex – you can have blog, wiki etc sections coexist and use different themes, from different sources. Which rises prefs/plugins compatibility questions that we are not sure how to answer atm.

bici · 2020-09-03 15:24:33

philwareham wrote #325762:

My feeling is that themes should be able to provide a ‘dummy’ database file that users can optionally manually load in, which contains sections, placeholder content, etc. appropriate to that theme – rather than add more sections and articles into the core installation itself.

agreed

etc · 2020-09-03 15:36:11

philwareham wrote #325762:

It’s been discussed in the past but not sure where we got to with any decisions/plans.

I remember some structure/content separation arguments, but not the conclusion.

If we had enough themes (and a repository) to choose from, I would even vote for themeless txp distribution.

philwareham · 2020-09-03 15:42:57

etc wrote #325768:

If we had enough themes (and a repository) to choose from, I would even vote for themeless txp distribution.

Funny that, I’ve just today created this repo which will be used by the themes website. 😀

gu · 2020-09-04 14:44:11

> edited to try to say something more useful, from the mouth of a programming babe, just to submit 2 cents:

if I were advertising this to people, I would promote it to a potentially new audience through IndieWeb; there’s even https://txp.kpw.fyi/articles/step-3-add-support-for-receiving-webmentions site on IndieWeb textpattern
also there is a good external learning page on texpattern http://ipsedixit.net/txp/116/textpattern-quickstart-hello-world. One or both of these resources were written by former textpattern devs
I am sharing this because at some point, if I make it through the weeds, I would like to try to share an explanation of how I did my set up because I think that textpattern offers something very unique for x-professionals, like teachers, so they should use it. Think of how neat it would be for x-professionals, to interlink to each other’s sites through webmentions and such and for x-contributors, like students, to actually see their work go “live” – I do this already but I am hoping the new site design will improve this (if I ever get it done).
as for the learning pages on the textpattern site, I would like to point out that there is a link 404 to Page templates (reached through the article/tags page).
I am really struggling with 1) the search results and 2) the categories showing the articles they contain. Useless anecdote: I fixed 2) late last night but in trying to solve 1) lost the solution – and think I will delete lots of things to start again… (also a useful tip in writing).

Last edited by gu (2020-09-05 07:43:22)

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