Content Management Systems

off.the.walls · 23-06-2013 6:54pm #1

Hi guys, how can i get a content management system to interact with a page that I have designed myself. I don't want to use themes or anything like that that these things provide I just want to use my own design.

thanks
evan

Fanny Cradock · 23-06-2013 7:16pm

You'll have to integrate your static chop (typically HTML, CSS and JS) into the CMS. This typically involves you stripping out parts of the HTML and inserting CMS specific syntax/ tags into your markup.

For example, in Wordpress (admittedly a CMS I have very little experience in ) you would replace the appropriate sections with the following tags. This means that if you have some content in your markup (say text and pictures int he About US page) that you will then have to re-enter this through the CMS content editor.

KonFusion · 23-06-2013 7:28pm

Depends on the CMS.

For wordpress a usual setup is:

Your header and <head>/opening html tags etc go in header.php

For you're body, you can make a custom template (usually an example one comes stock) and apply it to that page via the wp admin area/dash

And then you've got single.php, sidebar.php, page.php, and footer.php - You can research what these do yourself, it's fairly self explanatory

The rest as Cranny outlined above. For Joomla it's somewhat similar. Can't remember the setup for Drupal but I imagine it's the same, and Squarespace has some great documentation that'll get you started with that.

If you're working with wordpress, the codex is usually your one stop shop for info.

off.the.walls · 23-06-2013 7:33pm

How do i get started on wordpress already have my hosting and such so do i install it onto my hosting or do i just make an account?

KonFusion · 23-06-2013 8:47pm

off.the.walls wrote: »

How do i get started on wordpress already have my hosting and such so do i install it onto my hosting or do i just make an account?

You...read the codex

ThrowinShapes · 23-06-2013 9:00pm

In your hosting control panel there might be an Applications section that lets you install WordPress, other wise follow the Codex as stated above

http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

After that you'll probably work in the wp-content/themes/ directory. I use this http://underscores.me/ to generate a blank theme so I can bring in my own styles rather than editing the existing default theme that comes with WordPress.
Just edit the header & footer files along with the index file, or in the case of http://underscores.me/ the content.php file.

KonFusion · 23-06-2013 9:17pm

ThrowinShapes wrote: »

I use this http://underscores.me/ to generate a blank theme so I can bring in my own styles rather than editing the existing default theme that comes with WordPress.

I'm a Bones fan myself.

off.the.walls · 23-06-2013 9:22pm

Thanks for the help guys

ThrowinShapes · 23-06-2013 9:24pm

off.the.walls wrote: »

Thanks for the help guys

Best of luck

KonFusion wrote: »

I'm a Bones fan myself.

I've modified underscores for something that's set up for my own workflow e.g. grid system, folder layout, Sass structure, functions etc... but I really like the setup used in Bones as well

KonFusion · 23-06-2013 9:31pm

ThrowinShapes wrote: »

I've modified underscores for something that's set up for my own workflow e.g. grid system, folder layout, Sass structure, functions etc... but I really like the setup used in Bones as well

Same here. We've our own in house starter theme as mentioned above. It's pretty heavy-weight as we include pluginsand various other bits and bobs we generally find ourselves using per project. We clone the repo each time we start a new wordpress build and go from there. Saves quite a few hours.

ThrowinShapes · 23-06-2013 9:43pm

KonFusion wrote: »

Same here. We've our own in house starter theme as mentioned above. It's pretty heavy-weight as we include pluginsand various other bits and bobs we generally find ourselves using per project. We clone the repo each time we start a new wordpress build and go from there. Saves quite a few hours.

A very similar setup as us then. Good to know I'm doing something right haha.

sheesh · 23-06-2013 9:45pm

I use modx for sites

Fanny Cradock · 24-06-2013 12:28am

I'm another MODX user. It takes a while to get into the specifics (same for any CMS) but it's quite nice - mostly for simple sites though.

KonFusion · 24-06-2013 12:33am

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

I'm another MODX user. It takes a while to get into the specifics (same for any CMS) but it's quite nice - mostly for simple sites though.

Never used it myself. How does it compare to the likes of wordpress?

You say its for simpler sites, how come? Would it be something like perch or squarespace?

Curious as I've never used it.

Graham · 24-06-2013 7:46am

off.the.walls wrote: »

How do i get started on wordpress already have my hosting and such so do i install it onto my hosting or do i just make an account?

Good intro/tutorial to Wordpress themes here, I think this one targets underscore rather than bones:

http://themeshaper.com/2012/10/22/the-themeshaper-wordpress-theme-tutorial-2nd-edition/

sheesh · 24-06-2013 8:56pm

KonFusion wrote: »

Never used it myself. How does it compare to the likes of wordpress?

You say its for simpler sites, how come? Would it be something like perch or squarespace?

Curious as I've never used it.

I find the theming quiet good the reason I started using it is the back end was alot simpler looking than something like drupal or joomla for people that were not very proficient with computers, updates were easy to install too but wordpress does all that stuff really well now. And yes I would only use it for smaller sites.

Fanny Cradock · 25-06-2013 12:51am

KonFusion wrote: »

Never used it myself. How does it compare to the likes of wordpress?

You say its for simpler sites, how come? Would it be something like perch or squarespace?

Curious as I've never used it.

It is possible to build some very complex sties in MODX - e.g. extensive membership features. I'm not familiar with the CMSs you mention so I son't know if they are extensible to the same degree.

However, such complexity does strain MODX and you will soon run into issues. (I'll qualify this by stating 1) that I'm not a back-end dev and 2) no CMS is perfect.) It also a poorer CMS for the lack of a strong community. It may have gotten better since the release of Revolution but back in the day the previous release, Evolution, was horribly documented and had not got much in the way of a community.

All that said, for smaller sites I think it's a fine option and it's particularly handy for clients with no CMS experience to pick-up and use. I don't think the latter can be said about popular rivals like Joomla or EE.

Content Management Systems

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