I hate to admit it, but I can't seem to get even the slightest clue how to use this program. I guess it is because all I have ever known is FrontPage.
Several questions.
My hosting service has ImageMagick pre installed on my server, but how do I tell phpwcms where it is and how do I use it?
I see in the directories that there are already many images of different kinds available, but how do I see them in order to select them while I am designing pages?
I need to upload some of my own images of logos, etc., but I have no idea how to do this, and what directory to upload them to?
Last question. How can I view my pages as I am working on them so I can see how they will look on the web to a visitor? In FrontPage you just clicked preview and there the page was. For instance, once I have my home page laid out the way I think I want it, how do I see the thing in my browser so I can at least check the layout?
I am really lost. I have built many pages and sites in FrontPage but here I don't have a clue!
Rich
Really Confused
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darkknight
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Sat 2. Oct 2004, 15:45
- Contact:
Hi
It is quite understandable that you are really confused. Your first problem is that you have been using FrontPage. The second problem is that the foundations of a phpwcms site are as different from that used by FrontPage as jet aircraft are from an ox cart. The third problem is the support documentation available here as it relates to the total newbie.
Please do not misunderstand. Oliver Georgie and others have made a heroic effort to document the operation of this cms. However, the documentors have come to the project with a much higher level of understanding of php, mysql and cms than the average newbie. As a result, the documentation speaks to the experienced php-mysql user rather than the neophyte.
So, where to begin. Ok, the structural concept of phpwcms. Think of the Russian dolls - those little dolls where the smallest fits inside the next one and that one fits inside the next and so on until you have the whole collection of dolls all fitting inside just one doll. (If you don't know what a Russian doll is, go find one on the net. It makes understanding phpwcms a lot easier.)
The smallest phpwcms part or building block is the 'replacement tag'. The replacement tag is an 'alias' for a bunch of code that is substituted into the page when the page is called for by the web visitor. For example, the {NAV_TABLE_SIMPLE} replacement tag generates the menu you see on the left side of the page on the 'www.phpwcms.de' site.
These tags are grouped based on functionality into system tags, link tags, article tags, navigation tags, image tags and mod tags.
I will come back to where the tags are used in a moment.
The next largest Russian doll is the 'content part'. These are a more extensive version of the 'replacement tag'. The parts come in a number of types - plain text, text with image, link list, file list, search, guestbook and so on.
These content parts fit into the 'article' which is the next largest structure (ie the next Russian doll up the chain) in phpwcms. And since you are a FrontPage user, one of the content parts is WYSIWYG HTML. You can use this 'content' type in much the same way as FrontPage.
The article then goes into a 'site structure'. You can think of site structures as a 'web page category'. For example, if you were creating a site on household pets, you might have a category for dogs, another for cats, and another for tropical fish. The individual 'site structure' would be 'dogs', 'cats', and 'fish'. Into these categories is where you place your articles.
Finally, the largest doll is the 'Home' category which contains all the individual categories.
In reverse order, the 'home' structure contains the 'category' structures which contain the articles which contain the content parts which are made of plain text, html code, images, and replacement tags an so on.
The one thing that is missing from this description is the shape of the dolls. That is defined by the 'template'. 'Templates' as used on phpwcms are not the same as those used in other cms systems. In phpwcms you create your own template(s) in the admin section. The phpwcms system provides an extensive set of options that enable you to create a wide variety of page layouts. It also includes the ability to include some of the replacement tags. You can create as many templates as you see fit. These templates define what the content will look like to the web visitor. You do this by assigning to each 'site structure' a template that you have created. Thus, you give the doll its shape.
With this in mind, go to the home site for phpwcms (http://www.phpwcms.de). This is a fully functional demo of the phpwcms system. More importantly, take a look at each of the 'pages' in the site. They provide a more advanced conceptual description description of the phpwcms system than I. Then get a copy of the excellent 'phpwcms_docu_en.pdf' file. It is available from the main phpwcms site (downloads). This is a more technical description of how to use the system. There is also a 'quick start' which is useful. It can be found in the forum under the heading 'phpWCMS Quick Start'
Be sure to read the documentation with care. phpWCMS is not one of those things where the adage 'If all else fails, read the manual' has any application.
Other than the 'Quick Start', the last thing to look at for guidance is the forum. I say it should be the last because the individuals adding comments here vary from the highly experienced to the newbie, or even more challenged, the newbie who has to unlearn all the crap foisted on them by things such as FrontPage and its kindred.
It is quite understandable that you are really confused. Your first problem is that you have been using FrontPage. The second problem is that the foundations of a phpwcms site are as different from that used by FrontPage as jet aircraft are from an ox cart. The third problem is the support documentation available here as it relates to the total newbie.
Please do not misunderstand. Oliver Georgie and others have made a heroic effort to document the operation of this cms. However, the documentors have come to the project with a much higher level of understanding of php, mysql and cms than the average newbie. As a result, the documentation speaks to the experienced php-mysql user rather than the neophyte.
So, where to begin. Ok, the structural concept of phpwcms. Think of the Russian dolls - those little dolls where the smallest fits inside the next one and that one fits inside the next and so on until you have the whole collection of dolls all fitting inside just one doll. (If you don't know what a Russian doll is, go find one on the net. It makes understanding phpwcms a lot easier.)
The smallest phpwcms part or building block is the 'replacement tag'. The replacement tag is an 'alias' for a bunch of code that is substituted into the page when the page is called for by the web visitor. For example, the {NAV_TABLE_SIMPLE} replacement tag generates the menu you see on the left side of the page on the 'www.phpwcms.de' site.
These tags are grouped based on functionality into system tags, link tags, article tags, navigation tags, image tags and mod tags.
I will come back to where the tags are used in a moment.
The next largest Russian doll is the 'content part'. These are a more extensive version of the 'replacement tag'. The parts come in a number of types - plain text, text with image, link list, file list, search, guestbook and so on.
These content parts fit into the 'article' which is the next largest structure (ie the next Russian doll up the chain) in phpwcms. And since you are a FrontPage user, one of the content parts is WYSIWYG HTML. You can use this 'content' type in much the same way as FrontPage.
The article then goes into a 'site structure'. You can think of site structures as a 'web page category'. For example, if you were creating a site on household pets, you might have a category for dogs, another for cats, and another for tropical fish. The individual 'site structure' would be 'dogs', 'cats', and 'fish'. Into these categories is where you place your articles.
Finally, the largest doll is the 'Home' category which contains all the individual categories.
In reverse order, the 'home' structure contains the 'category' structures which contain the articles which contain the content parts which are made of plain text, html code, images, and replacement tags an so on.
The one thing that is missing from this description is the shape of the dolls. That is defined by the 'template'. 'Templates' as used on phpwcms are not the same as those used in other cms systems. In phpwcms you create your own template(s) in the admin section. The phpwcms system provides an extensive set of options that enable you to create a wide variety of page layouts. It also includes the ability to include some of the replacement tags. You can create as many templates as you see fit. These templates define what the content will look like to the web visitor. You do this by assigning to each 'site structure' a template that you have created. Thus, you give the doll its shape.
With this in mind, go to the home site for phpwcms (http://www.phpwcms.de). This is a fully functional demo of the phpwcms system. More importantly, take a look at each of the 'pages' in the site. They provide a more advanced conceptual description description of the phpwcms system than I. Then get a copy of the excellent 'phpwcms_docu_en.pdf' file. It is available from the main phpwcms site (downloads). This is a more technical description of how to use the system. There is also a 'quick start' which is useful. It can be found in the forum under the heading 'phpWCMS Quick Start'
Be sure to read the documentation with care. phpWCMS is not one of those things where the adage 'If all else fails, read the manual' has any application.
Other than the 'Quick Start', the last thing to look at for guidance is the forum. I say it should be the last because the individuals adding comments here vary from the highly experienced to the newbie, or even more challenged, the newbie who has to unlearn all the crap foisted on them by things such as FrontPage and its kindred.
2 + 2 = 5 for really large values of 2
Great article darkknight
http://russian-crafts.com/nest/history.html(If you don't know what a Russian doll is, go find one on the net. It makes understanding phpwcms a lot easier.)
Darkknight,
Thank you for such a thorough explaination! I now have a better understanding of how all the parts fit together. I downloaded the pdf file you mentioned and will give it a serious reading.
I still am puzzled by one thing. Let's say I build a basic layout of what I want to use for my home page of my new site. I have selected the size of the pace, the columns, the colors I want to use, etc. Once I have this basic layout completed, how can I see what it looks like before I proceed to adding articles and content? I would want to confirm that the basic page layout is what I envisioned it to be befor I proceeded to fill it with other things.
Thanks again for taking the time to write such a clear explaination!
Rich
Thank you for such a thorough explaination! I now have a better understanding of how all the parts fit together. I downloaded the pdf file you mentioned and will give it a serious reading.
I still am puzzled by one thing. Let's say I build a basic layout of what I want to use for my home page of my new site. I have selected the size of the pace, the columns, the colors I want to use, etc. Once I have this basic layout completed, how can I see what it looks like before I proceed to adding articles and content? I would want to confirm that the basic page layout is what I envisioned it to be befor I proceeded to fill it with other things.
Thanks again for taking the time to write such a clear explaination!
Rich
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marco
Thanks to all of you for your help. I have made considerable progress, and now have my basic home page put together!
However, I have this problem. I am using a page with three columns. In the left is my navigation bar and an article with content in the center column. I want to place some content in the right column which will be different on each page of the site. I can not figure out how to place content in the right column???
What I have managed to do so far is here
http://www.amsalescentral.com/phpwcms/index.php
It is just the basics, and needs much work. You can see my layout, and the empty right column.
Help please!
Rich
However, I have this problem. I am using a page with three columns. In the left is my navigation bar and an article with content in the center column. I want to place some content in the right column which will be different on each page of the site. I can not figure out how to place content in the right column???
What I have managed to do so far is here
http://www.amsalescentral.com/phpwcms/index.php
It is just the basics, and needs much work. You can see my layout, and the empty right column.
Help please!
Rich
-
marco
-
darkknight
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Sat 2. Oct 2004, 15:45
- Contact:
Hi Richk
During the day you raised two questions. You really like jumping imto the deep end of the pool right off the bat. Well, your not alone. I just got there before you. So here's some thoughts on your questions.
1) how do you check the development of a page before proceeding to the next phase of development.
There are two answers. The first one appears to be the one you have chosen. Put phpwcms online and do your development there. As Marco said, just access the index.php page though your browser.
The second solution is more involved but it is the one I prefer (especially considering that this is the way I develop all my PHP/MYSQL sites). Get yourself an old Pentium box and load a LAMP system. This is a lot easier than you may think. I recently had to replace my LAMP system hard drive and reinstall everything so I will give you the steps based on my dev system.
My dev computer is literally made up of recycled parts. It runs on a 266mhz Pentium II mother board. The hard drive is a 20gig IDE is out of a Mac G4 that was left over when I upped the hard drive capacity on the Mac. The Pentium has 128 megs of RAM. I installed a copy of Fedora Core 2 (quite an impressive piece of work). That gave me the os (free). As this machine is rather slow, it took about an hour to install the os. To Fedora Core's great credit, it worked flawlessly.
I then downloaded 'xampp-linux' from http://www.apachefriends.org. This is an omnibus application including the Apache server, Mysql, PHP, phpMyAdmin and a whole lot more. I followed the four lines of instructions provided at 'apachefriends' and had the whole thing installed and running in less than three minutes. Then I installed phpwcms and began building a site.
Almost forgot. Get a copy of the 'Bluefish' editor for Linux. It is very good.
Why go this route. First, I don't have to go online to do my work. Second, I get to experiment freely. Third, I get to test out plugins and mods without fear of messing up my active online site. Fourth, when the site is ready, I archive the files (including a table dump from mysql), upload it to the final destination, load the mysql dump into the local database and the site is operational (assuming that the configuration values have been adjusted).
If you are using phpwcms on just one or two sites, then the online solution is acceptable. But if phpwcms is going to be used regularly, then go find an old Pentium somewhere. There's lots of Pentium II's around looking for a home. While a Pentium II would be excruciatingly slow under Windoze, it zips right along under Fedora Core (other than the install of the os itself).
2) The second question related to placing content in a layout part other than 'main', and in particular, the right column.
Assuming for the moment that the content is composed of a content part available through phpwcms, there are two solutions. These have been discussed in the forum. One by Pappnase and the other by Spirou.
These can be found at http://www.phpwcms.de/forum/viewtopic.p ... tent+other.
The solution provided by Pappnase has the advantage of living within the core programming of phpwcms. The other by Spirou does not. It requires a modification of the code. Spirou's solution is more appealing and it should be written into the core programming. Unfortunately, Spirou's mod seems to have fallen by the way side as it was not maintained though a successive series of core releases. That leaves Pappnase's solution. Be sure to use the [URL..] replacement tag and not the {PHP ...} tag.
I have used Pappnase's solution several times with mixed results. It will import content into layout parts other than the main one quite successfully. Where I ran into trouble was with the structure of some links once they were imported. For example, I wanted to put a 'news' section in the left column with links imbedded in the items. The links were modified by the system so that I got links that read 'www.mysite.com/phpwcms/phpwcms/index.php?news_thingy'. The process for some reason doubled the reference to the subdirectory where 'phpwcms' is to be found.
In the alternative, if what you want to place in the right column is not phpwcms content but rather a call to an external script - a random quote, a 'tell a friend', a web visitor tracking, or some other php script, then use the {PHP: my external script} replacement tag. That works reliably.
During the day you raised two questions. You really like jumping imto the deep end of the pool right off the bat. Well, your not alone. I just got there before you. So here's some thoughts on your questions.
1) how do you check the development of a page before proceeding to the next phase of development.
There are two answers. The first one appears to be the one you have chosen. Put phpwcms online and do your development there. As Marco said, just access the index.php page though your browser.
The second solution is more involved but it is the one I prefer (especially considering that this is the way I develop all my PHP/MYSQL sites). Get yourself an old Pentium box and load a LAMP system. This is a lot easier than you may think. I recently had to replace my LAMP system hard drive and reinstall everything so I will give you the steps based on my dev system.
My dev computer is literally made up of recycled parts. It runs on a 266mhz Pentium II mother board. The hard drive is a 20gig IDE is out of a Mac G4 that was left over when I upped the hard drive capacity on the Mac. The Pentium has 128 megs of RAM. I installed a copy of Fedora Core 2 (quite an impressive piece of work). That gave me the os (free). As this machine is rather slow, it took about an hour to install the os. To Fedora Core's great credit, it worked flawlessly.
I then downloaded 'xampp-linux' from http://www.apachefriends.org. This is an omnibus application including the Apache server, Mysql, PHP, phpMyAdmin and a whole lot more. I followed the four lines of instructions provided at 'apachefriends' and had the whole thing installed and running in less than three minutes. Then I installed phpwcms and began building a site.
Almost forgot. Get a copy of the 'Bluefish' editor for Linux. It is very good.
Why go this route. First, I don't have to go online to do my work. Second, I get to experiment freely. Third, I get to test out plugins and mods without fear of messing up my active online site. Fourth, when the site is ready, I archive the files (including a table dump from mysql), upload it to the final destination, load the mysql dump into the local database and the site is operational (assuming that the configuration values have been adjusted).
If you are using phpwcms on just one or two sites, then the online solution is acceptable. But if phpwcms is going to be used regularly, then go find an old Pentium somewhere. There's lots of Pentium II's around looking for a home. While a Pentium II would be excruciatingly slow under Windoze, it zips right along under Fedora Core (other than the install of the os itself).
2) The second question related to placing content in a layout part other than 'main', and in particular, the right column.
Assuming for the moment that the content is composed of a content part available through phpwcms, there are two solutions. These have been discussed in the forum. One by Pappnase and the other by Spirou.
These can be found at http://www.phpwcms.de/forum/viewtopic.p ... tent+other.
The solution provided by Pappnase has the advantage of living within the core programming of phpwcms. The other by Spirou does not. It requires a modification of the code. Spirou's solution is more appealing and it should be written into the core programming. Unfortunately, Spirou's mod seems to have fallen by the way side as it was not maintained though a successive series of core releases. That leaves Pappnase's solution. Be sure to use the [URL..] replacement tag and not the {PHP ...} tag.
I have used Pappnase's solution several times with mixed results. It will import content into layout parts other than the main one quite successfully. Where I ran into trouble was with the structure of some links once they were imported. For example, I wanted to put a 'news' section in the left column with links imbedded in the items. The links were modified by the system so that I got links that read 'www.mysite.com/phpwcms/phpwcms/index.php?news_thingy'. The process for some reason doubled the reference to the subdirectory where 'phpwcms' is to be found.
In the alternative, if what you want to place in the right column is not phpwcms content but rather a call to an external script - a random quote, a 'tell a friend', a web visitor tracking, or some other php script, then use the {PHP: my external script} replacement tag. That works reliably.
2 + 2 = 5 for really large values of 2