I'm new to ExpressionEngine and ModX, well I've barely started reading up on it and I need some encouragement before I dig dipper into learning either of them.
I've know they're both CMS utilities which allow you to create websites and manage them as wordpress would but I'd like to know if instead of building it completely from the ground up, if one can simply use a template, like one of those free HTML templates or a premium template and use one of those two CMS utilities to manage/update the content of the site.
I've looked around for some tutorials but the ones I've found only teach how to create a site from the ground up and I don't mind reading and learning as long as someone can tell me if it's possible to do what I mentioned before.
Thanks.
Yes, you can with MODx. You can use any HTML, css, javascript you want, no restrictions.
I don't know about ExpressEngine.
Yes you can use whatever HTML you like with ExpressionEngine, whether it's code you write yourself or whether it comes from a template.
Related
I am currently developing a website. I would like to separate content and presentation. I am currently using a Dreamweaver Template to achieve this. However, I find that Dreamweaver's edit regions are very limiting in the design view. I have found that the same goal can be achieved by including the header and footer of my website.
What are the pros and cons of using includes rather than using templates?
First, if I were to rephrase your question, it's more like asking "Should I by a wire frame of a kite or by the glue to stick together what I'm making?" And then, you ask about the pros and cons of buying the wireframe against buying the glue. There are far too many variables as you can see...
And back on your your question... At some point your template will use include files. And for a start, it's worth knowing what you're thinking... Let's look at some basics.
Web design - usually refers to making websites that aren't really interactive. They don't have server-side elements. So most of the site has 'static' contents. If this were the case, you're better off with DreamWeaver, particularly if you're not into html/css editing.
Web development/programming - starts off with something as elementary as mailing a form, to highly interactive sites like FaceBook. Here you'll need to use some server-side language, usually like PHP, ASP or JSP. The choices are many but you've got to choose your own platform or combination of them.
Now to the second option (above). If for example, you were building a site using PHP, one of the nice things you'll do is to include your header, footer and side panels that need to be repeated across all pages. This way, you'll eliminate the need to re-write those sections. But if you were using a program like DreamWeaver, it does this duplication for you. Yes, it physically copy-pastes those sections into every file that needs it. Of course the end result may not be any different. But as a developer, you will be tied down to the DreamWeaver platform or for that matter, any other specific platform.
On the other hand, if you get used to working with an editor like NotePad++ or GEdit, you may switch between editors at any time. But you have the task of hand-coding everything from scratch. But then again, since you would use include files to bring in your headers and stuff, you save development time as well.
I don't know how much of html/css or php you know, but here's one of my demos to show you how to hand-code a site. This ain't complete but you should get an idea.
Link to the video introduction
Link to the video on youtube
What are some common use cases for implementing CFML Custom Tag (not CFX tag)? In 3 yrs of my CF exp I've never written one. Would someone please enlighten me, under which use case / situation would one choose custom tag over cfc / udf?
Remember that custom tags were, at one time, the only method available to extend CFML (up until version 4) - UDFs came later (CF 5) and CFCs later still (CF MX). They're not as commonly used as they once were for the simple reason that there are more options.
Custom tags are basically procedural in nature in a language that, with CFCs, become more and more OO in practice. This is another reason that they're not very common.
But there's still cases where they come in handy (but are never required) - mostly for interface work. The ability to create both a start and end state can definately come in handy. A simple example could be a "wrapper" for page content the opening tag might add the HTML header and page navigation while the closing tag would add the footer and end the page.
In this way your page content could be nothing more than:
<cfmodule... >
Page Content!
</cfmodule>
Of course there are other ways to do this as well - but sometimes the classics still have value. ;^)
Look at the CFUniform project for a great example of custom tag usage. Custom Tags are great when building reusable pieces for the UI portion of an application.
I think that, for the most part, custom tags have mostly fallen by the wayside since UDFs, CFCs, and integration with Java (and to a lesser degree .NET) allowed easier and more straightforward ways to do similar things.
Looking back to when I started in CF5, I can think of several examples. A good one might be CFX)Zip, which allowed interaction with Zip files before that was available directly through CF.
The only use I can think of offhand in a more modern context would be to provide precompiled code that wasn't written in Java or .NET, such as proprietary doodads written in C. That's a pretty niche use, though.
Honestly, I imagine at this point they exist more or backwards comatibility than anything else.
Ever since CFCs came out I've stopped using custom tags simply because of the overhead. They take too long to initiate and execute. But like #Jim Davis said, they may be useful where you need to write a tag that wraps around other content.
But in a well defined solution, you can do way with them all together.
I'd like to create a technical wiki site and it requires the full use of HTML/CSS and maybe Javascript when editing a page. Is this something I can easily configure in MediaWiki? If not, is there any other wiki software that you'd recommend?
Thanks!
You can enable raw HTML support by setting $wgRawHtml = true; in your LocalSettings.php:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgRawHtml
However, as noted above this is rather insecure for a public site. (If locked down to registered usage only by known folks it's ok -- but you need to trust your users.)
There are some links on that manual page to extensions organized around letting you put specific known bits of HTML/JS in your output code as well, which may or may not fit your needs better.
Well, while MediaWiki itself does not support this, there are some extensions which allow at least HTML in a page. See for example this extension list. SecureHTML might so what you are looking for.
That said, I'd like to point out that allowing raw HTML rather defeats the purpose of a wiki:
it can and will mess up formatting and create weird problems (clashes between generated and user-provided HTML)
it makes it hard/impossible to convert the wiki to other formats (such as to print it)
it makes searching harder
it makes any kind of security impossible (think XSS)
This is doubly true for allowing Javascript.
So I'd like to ask why you need this. If you need special formatting that MediaWiki does not offer, consider using (or writing) an extension for this.
If you really need arbitrary HTML, a Wiki might not be the best tool for you. You should consider a CMS, or just put HTML files into Subversion.
So what are you trying to do?
Use nowiki tags. Docs can be found here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Formatting
Currently I'm using DokuWiki to manage my apps/scripts documentation, some articles I write and stuff like that... I like DokuWiki very much, it's simple and powerful but it's still too much for the use I've given it in the last 1/2 years.
I need something else, something different...
I'm looking for a way to integrate the little things I like in DokuWiki into my own website without needing a script, like DokuWiki, with it's own admin page. The website itself, my homepage, I like to code myself most of the things so it becomes exactly what I want. However, somethings I don't have much time for, that is why I'm using DokuWiki.
I want to ditch DokuWiki and scripts like these because I don't even use half of their capabilities. A wiki is a platform where people join their efforts and collaborate together to write stuff, it also has a revision system. These are two very important aspects about wikis that I don't care about for my own. I'm the only one writing stuff there and I don't care about revisions, never needed them.
What I like about DokuWiki is that I can point my browser to any URL within the wiki domain and create a page from there if it doesn't exist. I also like DokuWiki's syntax very much but sometimes it's very limited and I can't do what I want. The way you link between namespaces and such is also very nice. Too finish, a media/file manager is also very handy. These are probably the most important aspects for me in DokuWiki.
Basically, I'm looking for something, maybe a script, that would allow me to do the stuff I described above in a way I could integrate into my own website without needing a special administration area.
Does anyone know about such thing or I'm better off coding my own since my requirements are not that tricky to begin with, I just didn't want to have the extra work...
Or maybe any other suggestions?
Maybe you'll want to have a look at something like TiddlyWiki, which is a single-file wiki, that you can even put on a USB stick.
I chose xwiki over dokuwiki.
Another simple wiki is the one included with fogbugz. It is hosted for free for up to 2 users and might suit your project.
I may be off but very simple wiki with no administration and no users is LionWiki. I don't know how easy it's gonna be to integrate it into your website.
It's just one file and does not use database (like DokuWiki).
It does not have a lot of features though. It also uses a different syntax from that of DokuWiki.
Brand new to CMS:
With Joomla or other CMS, If I want to use my own design, do I have to make it a template first using proprietary code of some sort = ie using some Joomla templating language - or is using my own design with Joomla simple and independent?
I am not sure the role "templates" play with Joomla and other CMS. I gather they can be used as a complete "pre-made" design where you just tweak it, but are they necessary as a base of some sort to using my own designs? I am proficient with HTML and CSS. I also have been playing around with various Jquery Plugin's for my UI.
Ideally I would like to create any design I can think of with any layout I create and use CMS simply for its database and plugins etc such as a blog or calender back end. I might use it for more features as I learn about them. Do I need to use a "template" or create a "template" to do this?
Thanks!
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You have to create a template (or change an existing one), how else will the CMS know where to add the information into as the template is a HTML, CSS and Javascript Page group devoid of information and some HTML Tags replaced with CMS Specific tags, which tells the CMS where to add the information. It also include certain files telling the CMS the Name, and othe information of the template.
The First step in creating a template is to have a design.
Do your design in HTML and CSS. (Preferably using the CMS Template folder/directory structure.)
For Joomla use the information in this post: How should I go about writing a Joomla! template?
In Joomla jQuery have to be used in compatibility mode.
The CMS will supply the information, you supply the design and tell the CMS
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The Template is the design container, whether you create one from scratch or reuse a current template. I initially used one of the pre-installed templates (together with the documentation) to learn some of the complexities of designing the template. (ex. structure, and what is possible.)
Please also look at my answer to this question How should I go about writing a Joomla! template? as it is a pretty good beginners guideline for template designers in Joomla (Even if I have to say it myself) with a couple of other resources linked in as well.
A Joomla template is nothing but HTML layout stylised using CSS. So to create your own templates you need a good grasp on HTML and CSS.
Joomla, by default provides a couple of templates to start with.
If you are just beginning, creating your own template is not where you want to start...learn more about setting up Joomla. You have enough problems there :)
Joomla! 1.5: A User's Guide is a great beginner book. It takes you through learning Joomla, what templates are, how to make them, and even walks you through setting up WAMP so you can experiment on your local machine.
The templates only affect the styling of your site. If you are starting out, I would work on getting your content in place first and wait on templates until later on.
My experience has been revamping my two websites to use WordPress, then moving to ModX, then moving back to HTML. I believe that you don't need a template but it will make some things easier as it bundles a lot of stuff you'd otherwise have to do manually. --At least for WordPress. I'm not even sure we found a good ModX template but adapted [poorly] a WordPress one. ModX is a good but little known CMS.
With one of my sites I found that it was impossible for WordPress to handle the images, thus I began working with a plug-in developer to create a custom plug-in. He took about a year and it still wasn't useable. Also I hired some consultants along the way. Their biggest contribution was "to complexify things" so I couldn't make any changes myself without going back to them & paying hundreds of $ to change a phone # for example.
I chucked all that and redid everything in HTML5 with Javascript, css and a little php. People here on S.Overflow actually helped me with the coding. I have a 3rd simple site that I may go back to WordPress for but only to use some particular functions which might be a pain to program otherwise.
Here is one of my 2 HTML sites:
coinsandhistory.com