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#109 2025-11-26 16:36:25
Re: Textpattern's face to the public
Kudos to Lab99.
I’m impressed that the tutorial starts with a static website as the subject (counterintuitive to us regular users), but perfect for non technical users. The next lesson inches higher, specifying a single article id instead of the expected <txp:article />. Etc.
They start with the absolute basics and build from there, nothing is assumed. Love ut.
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#110 2025-11-26 22:15:23
Re: Textpattern's face to the public
giz wrote #341364:
Kudos to Lab99.
I’m impressed that the tutorial starts with a static website as the subject (counterintuitive to us regular users), but perfect for non technical users. The next lesson inches higher, specifying a single article id instead of the expected
<txp:article />. Etc.They start with the absolute basics and build from there, nothing is assumed. Love ut.
“…but perfect for non technical users” . . . that is why the cms that shall not be named is so popular
My new site is currently all in a flat pure html format. I am next going to start by adding TxP code to footer and header… and so on. My very first site also started out this way. Marie Poulin also had a great tutorial built along this approach. It was available from FuelYourCoding.com now defunct. I salvaged her tutorial and I may refer to it again for this new project of mine. Her example site with an all the code was for a Portfolio example site. I can’t fathom why no one else has done something similar for 4.8. I remember that in the early days Expression Engine came with a default site when installing the css. It was great to use as a foundation for a new site as it had all the code which one could adopt for one’s use.
Textpattern has a great dedicated core development team for which we’re all grateful. What is lacking is marketing. And an easy to use sample site more fully developed than what is currently distributed.
PS I just came across the old Textpattern Buzzbomb files .. which reminds me // how do we handle dynamic automagical navigation using active class css these days?
Last edited by bici (2025-11-26 22:20:27)
…. texted postive
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#111 2025-11-27 08:01:26
Re: Textpattern's face to the public
bici wrote #341365:
Marie Poulin also had a great tutorial built along this approach … now defunct …
You can still find it on archive.org and several years ago, I updated Marie Poulin’s theme files to work with the current theme folder principle. See this post for the download link and screenshots :-) It is very basic, though.
I remember that in the early days Expression Engine came with a default site when installing the css. It was great to use as a foundation for a new site as it had all the code which one could adopt for one’s use.
Textpattern has a great dedicated core development team for which we’re all grateful. What is lacking is marketing. And an easy-to-use sample site more fully developed than what is currently distributed.
I agree. Or perhaps a mini theme family for a couple of typical situations. I’d suggest that’s to tackle for Textpattern 5. FWIW: Phil’s theme is, I think, well worked out but overshoots in some areas (schema.org detailing, good but clouds the intent) and undershoots in others (structural expansion of a site). It takes the conscious decision to use a minimum of theme assets (images, pre-entered content), which limits it from being more fully developed but also means there is practically nothing to remove when starting a new site.
PS I just came across the old Textpattern Buzzbomb files …
Wow, that was such a long time ago, I had forgotten what that was…
How do we handle dynamic automagical navigation using active class css these days?
txp:section_list and txp:category_list still have an active_class attribute, but it’s really only of use for very simple navigations. I usually use txp:if_section / txp:if_article_section (analogue for categories) as well as txp:if_article_id within a menu loop to determine what is currently active. Menus can be built in so many different ways, but the tools are there for different situations.
The current best practice (as far as I’m aware) is now to use aria-current on the a anchor rather than an active class on the list item, so that assistive devices are informed about which nav item the current page refers to. You can use two approaches together if you prefer.
PS: We’ve gone way off-topic from the original purpose of this thread
TXP Builders – finely-crafted code, design and txp
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#112 2025-11-27 12:18:32
Re: Textpattern's face to the public
bici wrote #341365:
What is lacking is … an easy to use sample site more fully developed than what is currently distributed.
jakob wrote #341370:
Or perhaps a mini theme family for a couple of typical situations.
Or both? A fully working theme for distribution, and a minimal comprehensive playground for the demo site. The latter does not need SEO and other meta stuff. Just few tags to illustrate the basics.
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#113 2025-11-27 18:10:41
Re: Textpattern's face to the public
jakob wrote #341370:
PS: We’ve gone way off-topic from the original purpose of this thread
Perhaps admins can move the discussion to a proper thread? ( apologies if I started it in an inappropriate thread).
…. texted postive
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#114 2025-11-28 10:38:51
Re: Textpattern's face to the public
This cognitive function test shows I’m losing it, so please take my tuppence worth with a pinch of sea salt.
I like the current look and feel – the graphics suggest relaxed, easy-going, hand-made and unique. Words and fonts show the serious side, as they should.
The new look is far more serious. OK, the bouncing balls suggest fun and ingenuity and I love how you’ve continued the theme with circles around descriptions below. I still think it looks too serious, however, and the only idea I have that might help is to perhaps misshape or “chip away” the circles ever so slightly or put some 89 degree angles in there so the graphical side suggests “almost perfect”, which I think Textpattern is and always will be.
The big mustard dot after Textpattern could have a sideways triangle to turn it into a clickable “Play” button, for those of us fascinated by the bouncing balls – with default animation stopping after one play through. But I’m only looking on a big screen. Perhaps on a mobile, default animation would continue and there would be an X in the corner to click to stop it? (I’m totally out of touch with modern CSS and coding, so apologies if my ideas are impractical).
Robert’s ideas on content sound sound. I’d like to see the word play prominent. Also powered by real human intelligence or no artificial sweeteners. Yes, I haven’t embraced AI yet.
Keep up the good work and I look forward to the new design.
Dozy P My attempt at music
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#115 2025-11-30 23:56:28
Re: Textpattern's face to the public
zero wrote #341385:
The new look is far more serious.
Thanks for the feedback. I agree!
I dropped the extra fun? bits as I wanted to focus on the basics …and then I forgot about them entirely, and went all modernist on its ass.
How about a tiny animation (a dot or three, depending on context) which (like a bee) flounces with buzzing wings (dots, blurred) from one ‘important point’ to another – drawing the user’s attention to what we deem relevant. Pace is determined by how fast/where the user is scrolling. Stationary unless scrolling…
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#116 Yesterday 19:03:31
Re: Textpattern's face to the public
giz wrote #341415:
How about a tiny animation (a dot or three, depending on context) which (like a bee) flounces with buzzing wings (dots, blurred) from one ‘important point’ to another – drawing the user’s attention to what we deem relevant. Pace is determined by how fast/where the user is scrolling. Stationary unless scrolling…
Yeah, done right it sounds great to me. But I’m not a graphic designer and I don’t think that’s your main profession either, so I’d love to hear a graphic designer’s thoughts on the look and feel.
I think a lot could be done with dots, circles, balls and colours like in your prototype 2 Reasons To Use.
Dozy P My attempt at music
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#117 Yesterday 19:20:54
Re: Textpattern's face to the public
I’ve been thinking about content taking into account most people’s views and came up with the following. It is mostly modifications of existing content to shorten it a bit and give it my own order of priority. (BTW, I was surprised that I had so much trouble finding the demo site which should definitely be somewhere in the top menu, imho.)
Please use, ignore or trash as you wish.
ABOUT TEXTPATTERN
Happy Owners & Visitors
Fast load times because of lean, reliable core architecture powerful enough for most websites
Happy Owners & Admins
Fast load times and easy plugin extensibility. No “premium optimization packages” or cache gymnastics required. Build only what you need.
Happy Content Creators
Site layout is separate from content creation so you can just write. Use plain text, Textile, Markdown etc and easily manipulate images.
Happy Site Builders
Structure and present your website your way with powerful, flexible, easy to learn TXP Tags.
Solid Foundations
Truly free, open source software built upon proven web technologies. Clean HTML without additional code dependencies or script libraries
Lightweight, Fast & Secure
Better SEO, smoother user experience, built-in simplicity. Less worry, more fun.
TEXTPATTERN KEY FEATURES
Truly Free.
Always.
Alive And Thriving.
Actively developed and refined for over 20 years. Responsive forum.
Live Demos Of Public and Admin Interface.
Easy To Maintain.
Change a section or site-wide item simply by changing a Textpattern Tag.
Simultaneous Themes.
For example, change the default live theme to a newly-developed theme with a single click.
Lightweight, Fast & Secure.
Did we mention the mean, lean, blazing performance?
Dozy P My attempt at music
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#118 Yesterday 21:09:35
Re: Textpattern's face to the public
zero wrote #341419:
Yeah, done right it sounds great to me. But I’m not a graphic designer and I don’t think that’s your main profession either, so I’d love to hear a graphic designer’s thoughts on the look and feel.
I think a lot could be done with dots, circles, balls and colours like in your prototype 2 Reasons To Use.
I like the look and feel, the colour palette is very pleasing.
I like the way the dot ends up as the period. it acts as an emphatic endorsement : Textpattern PERIOD.
I feel the flowing dots before that doesn’t add much and I find it distracting.
A thought: How about having the dots march in from right and then bouncing on the Capital T and then bouncing on the other t’s before ending as a period. The dot marches in as in searching, sees the T and CHOOSES Textpattern! is the message …
…. texted postive
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#119 Yesterday 22:05:19
Re: Textpattern's face to the public
zero wrote #341419:
…. But I’m not a graphic designer and I don’t think that’s your main profession either, so I’d love to hear a graphic designer’s thoughts on the look and feel.
So I’m not misunderstood, Giz, I didn’t mean that I don’t like your graphics, I do, but it would be nice to hear from a long time graphics pro who studied and practised the subject their whole life.
Dozy P My attempt at music
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