Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

My great doomed CMS search continues...

<< < (3/4) > >>

Carol Haynes:
I haven't had any problems with JCE installing? Maybe something is corrupt or as you say maybe there is a mistmatch. I have attached the 1.52 version plugin to this post - see if that helps.

You don't have to create menus for every article - you can include category pages or section pages in list or blog formats. I haven't tried applying different templates to different pages much so I am not sure how that works but are you actually sure that is what you want? I thought you wanted to use a standard layout for articles within the current template - have I got that wrong (sort of an article template that displays within the normal page)? I am not sure that exists as a standard feature but you could do it by creating your own 'artlicle template' in HTML and paste that into each article before you fill in the content.

If you actually want different templates for different parts of your site these are linked to menu entries but they don't have to be single articles - I have just tried this out on my own server and I can change template for a category blog layout and it works fine with a number of articles list underneath.

I know what you mean about moving a static site to Joomla (it also applies to moving WordPress sites to Joomla!) - there is a lot of work but using internal links does work (and they are automatically updated if you change an article). Granted doing each link via a dialogue is a bit slow and irritating (especially as it doesn't remember where you were last time so you have to navigate the tree from scratch each time). I suppose the simplest solution would be to use something like clipboard help and spell (one of Mousers applications) or AceText (from JGSoft) to keep a list of content link prefixes which you just add the article alias too manually - which would do what you want - though not as neatly.

Have you looked to see if there is a link plugin that will do what you want? If not do you fancy writing one - I am sure it would be really appreciated!)

Picking a link from a dialog box is fun the first three times, but not when you're migrating content from a static site and will be creating / updating hundreds of links between articles.
--- End quote ---

Just a thought have you considered using Search and Replace on the original static HTML pages to replace all the links with the new ones. Create a set of sdummy pages, update all the links en masse in the original HTML files and then import them to the new empty pages?

tranglos:
Why not just decide on your the layouts you want and then copy the HTML to a text editor and simply paste it in to each new document.
-Carol Haynes (May 11, 2009, 07:54 PM)
--- End quote ---

Only because if that's what I end up doing, what good is the CMS, other than giving me the Search button out of the box? That process has no advantage over a static site typed up by hand in an html editor.

To be honest I have looked at a lot of CMS systems and haven't seen any that provide a way of applying standard layouts to each article other than by coding the layout yourself as I have suggested here.-Carol Haynes (May 11, 2009, 07:54 PM)
--- End quote ---

TextPattern does that, and it's a fantastic feature. You design "forms", which are reusable blocks of code that you can then display anywhere (really anywhere) on the site. A form can be something relatively big, as a common page header, or something very small, such as a div with a download link. And wherever you include that form, it's going to look and work exactly the same. This is a great way of subdividing the functional elements of a site and maintaining consistency.

But as I said in my OP, it's practically the only real "feature" TextPattern has. Out of the box it's not even a functional blog (no archive links, for example, until you install a plugin.) The free themes are few and badly designed (IMO; no usability, no fluid css layouts), and I haven't found any good commercial vendor of TextPattern themes. Also, installing themes is a pain in TextPattern, because themes are css + forms, so you have to manually copy and paste a dozen or so of these forms to install a single theme. And since there is no way to switch between themes, even trying out a theme can take hours just to see what it looks like on your site.

CmputrAce:
except for the easy theming, I would recommend Drupal. Mind you, however, such a rich feature set comes at a price: complexity.

To get started quickly you could try the package from acquia which bundles drupal and load of modules.

Drupal will not be perfect. I can help a little if need be.
-housetier (May 11, 2009, 07:24 PM)
--- End quote ---

I completely uninstalled Acquia - you don't get any of the real benefit of it unless you want to pay them.

Take a little time to learn about Drupal. I am a LONG TIME Mambo / Joomla site builder who finally made the switch.

Joomla has some real coolnes and ease-of-initial-setup, but you quickly run into problems if you want to deal with EVENTS. com_events is pretty much dead, and the new version they are coming out with kinda sucks (at least when I tested it). Have you ever looked at the DATABASE?? ?OMG someone needs to be shot (OK, I'm a database NAZI). And the new rage on Joomla is to offer open source components, but charge for the download service. Sure, it's legal, but don't start b****ing when someone takes your open-source component and offers it for free to the world - also perfectly legal.

I rant.

Drupal is a minor pain to get right, but you get so much more control, and even true MULTISITE ability.

Other than that, go with Typo3 (v4)

psionics:
would you like to try http://websitebaker.com its very flexible, allows to use .js and htmls in it and easy to manage. that is for CMS.
my sample: http://careexclusive.com

if you would like to try using http://opencart.com for your business site, I can recommend that also.
my sample: http://bico.shop-ph.com (not yet migrated to the new version)

I also done some searching with these and drupal and joomla didn't bring me justice. so thats the result for now.  :)

compeek:
tranglos, have you considered MODx? I recently became interested in the project, and my initial experimenting with it has been positive. Since I'm not completely familiar with it yet, I can't guarantee it does everything you specifying, but I think that most or all of it is attainable. In fact, just today or yesterday they released a beta of the new version, which is completely rewritten, and it's supposed to be even better than the first. You can find it on the downloads page. The original is called Evolution, and the new version is called Revolution.

MODx definitely relies a lot more on custom designing than Joomla or Drupal which lean towards preexisting themes or user-submitted themes, but that's the beauty of it. MODx makes it very easy to base your site around the MODx engine without it taking over the design of the site also. It isn't for everybody, but it may be what you're looking for, so give it a look.

Hope this helps!

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page