Just a question

[bigjoe11a]

I didn't think that I would have to know all the this new code. for setting up pages. and the content. does any one have any ideas with out me having to read the pages on setting this up.

Theres all new kinds of code and I only been php programing for a bout 4 months now. 

I have no idea on what to do

any one have any ideas

[Dee]

Hello,

Actually, to simply set up some pages and content you wouldn't need to know much code. All you need to know should be in the Wiki or can be found on the forum.
If you want to adjust your templates/create your own theme you'll need some knowledge of (X)HTML and CSS.
The official starting point for those is the W3C site, but there's lots of good HTML/CSS info on the web.
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/
http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21
http://w3schools.com/
You also may wanna read up on Smarty, the template engine used by CMS Made Simple. It has an extensive manual.
When you are going to use PHP in User Defined Tags or even your own tags or modules it's good to get familiar with the ADOdb Lite database abstraction library (based on ADOdb and used for database access).

Regards,
D

[bigjoe11a]

Thats what I mean, I wish it was easy to make pages and setup a web site with cms. and I guess its not as easy as every one think it is. May be for a pro. not a beginner. thats what I'm saying that I didn't want to have to learn a new code. The codes that are in the menu setup and the templates. You need a way of setting up a default template that loads in when someone starts a new menu or content.

If you under stand what I mean. When I start a new template for a menu. or what ever. it should load in a default template. this would give the beginners some kind of idea on what codes to use and a better under standing of it.

I think what you should do is have lots of templates that we can load in to do all kinds of things. including options for logging in. message areas. new areas and I see you already have that opton.

You get what I'm trying to say. what you need is a way to load a default template when some one wants to create a new menu or content for there web site. or an option to load one in.

sample:

if some one wants a page that has other links to other pages. But. the web master wants them to be log in. what do you do. the template should be loading in or you should be able to pick one. when a new template is created. then you can add content. your log in form. and so on, I can create a html form and the content. I just don't under stand the code use in the templates.

get the idea. I don't want to spend hours reading manuals to find out how to use the new code.
look at the sample templates you have. I would have to learn how to write them. well thats way over my head. I would have to spend months learning the new codes.

thanks for your time

Joe

[Dopple]

I take it you have the CMS installed ok?
First off, create a template. call it something generic like My_First_Template. It should give you the basic code in HTML. Where you see {stylesheet}, your stylesheet will automatically be inserted once you have made it and attached it to the template. Where you see {content} this is where your content from your pages will go.

It's really just a case of ensuring that things are linked. Just give it a shot (there is a javascript WYSIWYG editor so you can even not bother using html) and if you post any issues here you'll usually get a prompt response.

I would advise reading the info on the wiki http://wiki.cmsmadesimple.org/ as I beleive there is a getting started section there.

[Pierre M.]

@bigjoe11a : CMSms doesn't require PHP knowledge. only basic HTML/CSS.
My advice : install with sample content and play (copy/modify) the pages' content, templates and stylesheets. See themes in the wiki. Then make your own templates maybe by copying existing ones.
I think almost all web sites can be made with less than 15 HTML tags and less than 15 CSS attributes. What is nice with CMSms is than it allows to stick to this and doesn't require to learn something new.
Have fun
Pierre M.

[bigjoe11a]

Ok, I don't think you under stand what I mean. I mean I would have to edit the templates to get the design look of the  web site that I want to use.

this is the code

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
{* CSS classes used in this template:
.currentpage - The active/current page
.bullet_sectionheader - To style section header
hr.separator - To style the ruler for the separator *}
{if $count > 0}

{foreach from=$nodelist item=node}
{if $node->depth > $node->prevdepth}
{repeat string="" times=$node->depth-$node->prevdepth}
{elseif $node->depth prevdepth}
{repeat string="" times=$node->prevdepth-$node->depth}

{elseif $node->index > 0}
{/if}

{if $node->current == true}
url}" class="currentpage"{if $node->target ne ""} target="{$node->target}"{/if}> {$node->menutext}

{elseif $node->parent == true && $node->depth == 1}
<a href=

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would have to learn a new code. in order to setup my pages right, or the way I want them.
I have no way of knowing what these codes mean or how to use them.

I'm trying to find out how to add a menu option. and I'm not getting any closer to finding out how to do it.

And Yes I do know HTML and CCS. I made some real cool parts to a web site that I am putting together. With login options in mysql database.

Now as for adding content. and other things, Yes I can do all that. theres some things I can't and can do.

[Vin]

Well, HTML and CSS are basics for customizing your template. If you want to customize the templates even better, you have to either learn the Smarty template engine - http://smarty.php.net/, or rely on forums. A lot of people ask here, but consider learning a little Smarty. Smarty and online help in cmsms sufficed to me. And there are some sample codes in Documentation which can help you understand too / do the work for you.

[Vin]

And Yes I do know HTML and CCS.

CCS?

[moorezilla]

How does CMSMS make Web site development simple? A few ideas, none of which are new:

1. It installs tables and handles all database transactions. You don't have to touch sql or phpmyadmin-type-fronts for anything more than setting up a database, a user, and a password.
2. It upgrades easily.
3. It runs on just about any conceivable Web platform.
4. It separates css and html for you, and if you don't want to play with php, you really don't need to play with php.
5. If you shut off the wysiwyg editor and learn 6 tags, the content of your documents will be clean, and you won't run into any significant editing issues. Basically, you get almost all of the benefits of hand-coding html, without needing to ftp. If you don't shut off the wysiwyg, you don't have to learn ANYTHING, but of course, you'll give up a significant amount of control.
6. Modules and tags handle the basics of just about every Web situation. Sure, you might have to ask a module or tag to provide a function for which it is not necessarily built, but there is a great deal of flexibility inherent within the system.
7. It offers a means for which a Web developer to hand off the management of site content to someone who doesn't want to be a Web developer. Will the person need to learn something? Yeah... they will probably have to learn something, but if they can't learn just about all of what they need to learn from a brief checklist and a day (at most!) completing basic site edits, they should really shouldn't be managing a site any way.
8. Cmsms is constantly under development, it's free of charge, and it actually improves over time. This cannot be said for all open source projects.
9. If you have a specific question, many people here are more than willing to answer it.

How does CMSMS NOT make Web site development simple? A few ideas, none of which are new:

1. It will never completely protect you from learning something, or from needing to learn something to fulfill all of your Web publishing dreams.
2. It will not necessarily anticipate your particular Web publishing needs, create modules and extensions, and release solutions to your needs before you know you need them. In many cases it will, but it's not set in stone.
3. It will never (I'm guessing) have entirely adequate documentation until everyone who uses the system reads the documentation, works through any difficulties with help from the forum, and then adds to the documentation by discussing and highlighting the solution to any difficulties they may have had installing, using, and extending cmsms.
4. It will never be able to overcome the fact that most Web development difficulties come not from an inherent difficulty with applications, but from the underdevelopment and adherence to open standards. And unfortunately, one of the largest hurdles preventing workable open standards is a pervasive attitude of, "I don't want to learn anything new."

[bigjoe11a]

Hi! moorezilla, and your right, what I'm trying to say is that I just spent the last 4 months learning PHP and CSS. well then I find out cmsms, and what happens is that now I have to learn something new and start from scratch. Well thats true too. Maybe your not getting the idea. I mean I don't want to spend 4 more months learning how to make templates, or mods. Because of the health. thats just not possaible for me. I get headaches that I can't control. 

I been playing with cms, and I like it. I like the idea that you can add mods to do all kinds of things. from a forums message board to the formsBuilder. Build email forms and theres lots more that you know of.

Now for me to do this would mean months more of headaches. and trying to under stand the template codes.

Plus I would have to under stand the use of the templates. How it connects to a mydql database. how to display information from a database and so on. or if thats how that works. I would also have to under stand how to edit the CSS and templates to create my web site.

If I new more about the templates. This project of mind would be simple.

any how, let me play with it some more. or if you have a simple way for me to learn templates and use them. Let me know

[Dee]

Plus I would have to under stand the use of the templates. How it connects to a mydql database. how to display information from a database and so on. or if thats how that works. I would also have to under stand how to edit the CSS and templates to create my web site.

If I new more about the templates. This project of mind would be simple.

You also may wanna read up on Smarty, the template engine used by CMS Made Simple. It has an extensive manual.

There's also some info in the parts about Templates in the I'm a Designer and the Admin Panel sections of the User Handbook.

Regards,
D

[bigjoe11a]

Thanks Dee, I already downloaded smarty, and I don't what to do with or how to use it, and agian here we go. More manuals. right now thats what I'm trying to avoid.

thanks

[Dee]

There's no need to download smarty, unless you want to use it in your own PHP scripts.
It is included (in lib/smarty) and used in CMS Made Simple for all (core and module) templates.
As it is a widely used template system many PHP programmers use it, so they will not have to learn it to write modules or other extensions to CMS Made Simple.
The syntax is fairly simple but it is very powerful. Actually, using it makes it possible to separate application code from presentation so unexperienced users won't have to learn PHP and mess around with code when they want to change the presentation.

Regards,
D

[moorezilla]

Yeah... one thing to keep in mind as well is that you're not learning anything here that you probably won't use again in open source web development. None of these technologies is cmsms-specific, and even if you want to build everything from scratch, you're going to end up using either these technologies, or something similar to them.

[Pierre M.]

...Maybe your not getting the idea....

May be I don't understand.
But I respectfully repeat that if you know HTML and CSS, you know what a stylesheet is, even in a word processor, so you know what templating is. Moreover I repeat you don't need Smarty nor PHP knowledge. Your HTML/CSS abilities, combined with themes.cmsmadesimple.org, are very good to modify the layout of your site from the admin interface.
No learning, no headaches, just plain HTML/CSS you already know. CMSms is simple because it is intuitive.
Have fun
Pierre M.