Using Textpattern

[ktinkel]

Okay, Ian (and anyone else who knows). I am tearing my hair out trying to set up this dratted thing. You can look at the mess I have made.

Here is what I know I cannot figure out how to do:

• Delete date and author name at top of an entry (must be in the Default, but haven’t found it).

• Replace the links at left with my own (I know it has to do with those dratted popups but I cannot figure out which one nor how to enter the data as most are simply blank screens).

• Use my own HTML code (I know I can fix the list item and other details with CSS changes, but not how to fix the <h2> at the top — unless I just leave the header blank and start in the main message window).

• Delete the ornamental rule at the bottom (I can’t find it in the content page default).

What this frustrating exercise demonstrates most clearly to me is that all I really want is something that helps me organize my site. I can make pages just fine.

[Steve Rindsberg]

Change:

<h3><a href="http://www.htides.com/txp/food/pane-cotto" title="Permanent link to this article"><h2>Pane cotto</h2></a> · 11 December 2005, 13:09 by Kathleen Tinkel</h3>

to:

<h3><a href="http://www.htides.com/txp/food/pane-cotto" title="Permanent link to this article">Pane cotto</a> · 11 December 2005, 13:09 by Kathleen Tinkel</h3>

maybe? But my guess is that you didn't put all the escaped <h2> stuff in there yourself? Or you typed it as text and the ... er ... what program are you doing this with? ... app decided you really meant that as text and not as markup. Oh wait. TextPattern is the app and not a feature.

Is there a template that supplies the headings?

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by Steve Rindsberg

Change … Oh wait. TextPattern is the app and not a feature.

Is there a template that supplies the headings?

You got it. Textpattern is a CMS, one that Ian champions (and I rather admire, conceptually, at least).

But there are few (or only lousy) docs, and I cannot figure out how to customize anything except the CSS.

Thus my cry for help. Ian promised to help, so I figured he would jump right in! <g>

[Ian Petersen]

OK

Delete date and author name at top of an entry

You want to edit the default article form (unless you've made your own): Admin > Presentation > Forms. The date is created by the <txp:posted /> tag and the author name is created by <txp:author />. Just delete those two lines from your default article form and save it.

Replace the links at left with my own

In your default page template you should see those links in the 'left' DIV somewhere. They may be generated by a form, directly by a textpattern tag (something like <txp:linklist />) or simply by manually entering the html for the links. I can't tell from the code how they are generated, but that doesn't matter. It's probably a <txp:linklist />. Any links you have defined in Admin > Content > Links will show up here. If you can't be bothered to create any Links just replace the linklist with some plain old fashioned HTML in the page template.

those dratted popups

If you mean the tag generator popup thingies then yes, I agree, they can be a bit irritating. You don't have to use them at all. I rarely do. I prefer to look up the syntax for a tag in the TextBook wiki and write the tag manually.

Use my own HTML code

You can use as much or as little of your own code as you want. I usually start a site by building the page the old-fashioned way in my favorite editor and some dummy content. Once I'm satisfied with the basic layout and CSS I copy the HTML into the default Textpattern page template (completely replace the whole template) and the CSS into TP's CSS editor. Then I upload any interface images, either via TP's image admin panel or simply by FTP. Once TP is is nicely serving my page I can begin to replace the various parts of my page with TP's features (article content, links, menus, forms etc.)

how to fix the <h2> at the top

That should be in your default article form too. It probably looks something like: <h2><txp:permlink><txp:title /></txp:permlink></h2> which means the title you enter in the write tab will be an active link to the permanent address of the article formatted as an H2 header. Yoou don't need to enter the HTML in the article title itself.

Delete the ornamental rule at the bottom

That's probably in your article form too.

Hope this helps a bit!

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by Ian Petersen

Hope this helps a bit!

I think so. It never occurred to me that I could simply replace those pages with my own. On the other hand, what I mostly want out of this is the automation that lurks in those pages.

The links at left are in a txp:linklist and it didn’t occur to me that I do those in the Links area — thought I was supposed to enter something in the popup. Now I will try the Links tab.

I did realize last night that the literal HTML came from using Textile; I turned that off last night and will try again, hoping that all my own html will be applied.

I will go rummage in the forms and templates some more. I got so frustrated yesterday that I could barely focus.

Thanks.

[Ian Petersen]

It never occurred to me that I could simply replace those pages with my own. On the other hand, what I mostly want out of this is the automation that lurks in those pages.

The page template for each TP section is simply bog standard xhtml. You build your pages however you like with regard to the actual html coding. Wherever you place a textpattern tag <txp:something /> Texpattern parses the template and will replace that tag with the 'something' defined by the tag. Many tags have an associated form where you can fine tune the output of the tag. Thus, the simplest TP page contains your lovingly hand coded html with the addition of a single <txp:article /> tag where you want your content to appear. The article tag will be replaced by a list of articles each of which is, in turn, defined by the article form. By adding attributes to the article tag you can control how many articles are shown at a time, what order they appear etc. Similarly, there are tags for linklists, menus, category lists, comments and powerful conditional tags that allow you add some simple logic to your pages: If this is true then do that ... But you are at liberty to use as much or as little 'automation' as you want. That, for me, is the whole beauty of Texpattern. It doesn't get in the way if you don't want it to.

the literal HTML came from using Textile; I turned that off last night and will try again

Textile is an aquired taste. It's useful for quickly formatting your article content - remember to use the preview tab on the write pane - especially for 'blog' type sites I think it's useful. For highly formatted or complicated article content it may be just as easy to write the html directly, but in general I'd leave it turned on.

[Steve Rindsberg]

From Ian's description, it looks like you can think of this as a kind of merge printing. The template is your document, the <txt:thingies /> are your merge fields that tell the app where to slug in replacement data.

If it helps to think of it that way and has Ian's blessing, go forth and do so. Else, ignore me. <g>

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by Steve Rindsberg

From Ian's description, it looks like you can think of this as a kind of merge printing. The template is your document, the <txt:thingies /> are your merge fields that tell the app where to slug in replacement data.

Textpattern is a Content Management System, so I suppose you can think of as a merge-data sort of thing. Except that it is PHP that controls all this, and my mind goes blank whenever I try to wrap it around PHP.

And the documentation consists of several varieties of open-source contributions (a FAQ, a forum, a Wiki), some of it dealing with older versions.

You can theoretically use it pretty much as-is, but then it is more blog-like than I want. Thus all my frustration. Most of the example sites are blogs, so I can’t even crib from them.

It is one of the most elegant mid-range CMS systems I have seen. (It wouldn’t satisfy Kelvyn, say — too much serious automation is missing.)

[Kelvyn]

Originally Posted by ktinkel

It is one of the most elegant mid-range CMS systems I have seen. (It wouldn’t satisfy Kelvyn, say — too much serious automation is missing.)

Quite right! A CMS has to be easy to set up and use, although a knowledge of PHP and MySQL is an advantage when initially setting the site up. I did look at Textpattern for a blog, but use Wordpress - even if it is so easy to use that it can get abused by the client (see http://blog.protekdor.co.uk/ )

Although I now have "standardised" on Joomla! I still look at other options from time to time.

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by Kelvyn

I did look at Textpattern for a blog, but use Wordpress - even if it is so easy to use that it can get abused by the client …

I looked at Wordpress before Textpattern. I want simple but not a blog, so think I have set myself up for frustration.

Originally Posted by Kelvyn

Although I now have "standardised" on Joomla! …

I wonder if that might not be easier to tame. At least I would be simplifying something like what I want rather than trying to twist something simple to my purposes.

I figure it is all good for the brain (well, not the frustration, but the figuring things out).