Forum Moderators: phranque
I run a buncha forums, and as time has gone on, I've amassed a lot of articles and reviews as well. I've been maintaining them by hand, and it's gotten out of hand! I've compared features of various content management systems and found them all lacking in many ways; all offer waaaay too many features (including forums!) when all I want to do is manage the articles. I have a couple different templates; I just wanna plus text in them and go.
I've been steered toward a couple which were simpler and less weighed-down by features (like GreyMatter), but found the documentation to be non-existent.
I don't need to manage to files on my (Unix) host; I could manage 'em on my Mac. Doesn't matter to me. I'd just like to be able to see my site in an outline or tree layout, 2click a page to edit it, and know that all the links will work. When I wanna create a new page, I select which branch of the tree it belongs under, paste some text, and it's ftped to my server. That's all I want. I don't want forums, blogs, chat, shopping carts, blah, blah, blah.
I'm beginning to think that what I wnt doesn't exist, but I guess I need confirmation so I can put this issue to rest and quit worrying about.
I would suggest looking at some blog software
What an idea! And it's doable, too! Yes, you're right: portal software's just too much; blog software's little enough that it should do the trick!
<snip> [Do] you believe the layout I'm currently using (three columns: one for navigation, one for content, one for advertising) can be done with a blog? I seldom read blogs, and can't remember whether I've ever seen one in a three-column layout.
Hmmmm; a lot of my front page uses server-side includes. May I pull those in from my server into a blog? (I've always used SSIs on a local server, and never stopped to wonder whether I could pull them from a remote server.)
Meanwhile, thanks for the great idea to chew on!
[edited by: physics at 5:54 am (utc) on Nov. 1, 2005]
[edit reason] See sticky mail [/edit]
Binky
[Do] you believe the layout I'm currently using (three columns: one for navigation, one for content, one for advertising) can be done with a blog?
All you're doing is populating a template
I got all excited and installed Movable Type, and (you're gonna laugh) started setting things up. I've been sick, though, so I'm really weak, and went to lay down for awhile. When I got some strength, I came back to check into my site and got a page telling me there was no site! Movable Type had installed an index.html (which apparently overrode my index.shtml) but since I hadn't finished setting things up, it was stuck in a netherworld somewhere. Ack!
Now I'll hafta ask the movable Type people how to set up the Movable Type stuff without disrupting the existing site!
(I get over-excited sometimes, and I had no clue Movable Type was gonna go sticking up an incomplete index.html file for me!)
Binky
I suggest that while you're getting the feel of the system that you put things in a temporary directory. It's very easy to do this. In MT go to your new blog and click on the Settings button. Then click on the Publishing tab. Here you should change the Site Root to a temporary directory. If your site directory is:
/home/mysite/www/home/mysite/www/[b]blog[/b]
MT doesn't make pages unless you tell it to
Aha! I clicked "Rebuild" or "Republish" or some such at some point because I'm very anal, and thought it the proper thing to do to clean up any loose ends lying around. I apparently shouldn't have done that when I didn't even have anything to build or publish anyway!
(extremely helpful info here)
Thanks a 1,024,000! I'm sure you just saved me a *lot* of work, as well as hours waiting for responses from the MT people, and then further messages asking them to elucidate more in language I can understand; you rock! Smooches!
Binky
Since you seem to know MT quite well, I wanna double-check something with you:
I have need of a second MT site now, and Iwanna put it on the same host as my first. (I have another host, but they'll only allow me *one* SQL db; I hafta pay for another!). The MT docs say the installation will take care of *everything*, that I can have just a single blog. This doesn't sound right to me; seems to me that if I configure things properly, I should be able to run as many MY installs on a single host as I want to.
Am I misunderstanding, or just not wanting to believe it?
Thanks for any info,
Binky
You simply change the settings of each weblog to point to a different folder in your web server. If your hosting account allows for multiple domains or subdomains you can point each weblog to a different folder and then adjust your control panel appropriately.
Don't get confused with the weblog terminology. You can have multiple weblogs making up one site or each weblog can comprise an individual site.
The different weblogs are all contained in that one DB
OIC now! No wonder I florfed my first MT installation when I put the second one in. And I also noticed on the main page that there was a menu for me to select another blog. Duh! I didn't see it because the type is so small.
Now to try to suss this all out. The new dox look infinitely more helpful, 'cept that the images are all 404s. Rats; I have no idea what any of the built-in templates looks like. (I'd like to start with an existing template, and then go from there.)
They don't make it very easy!
Thanks for all your help, Bill; I don't know where I'd be without you!
Binky
In order for MT to generate something you have to make an entry or two. That will show you how the templates look. The defaults aren't very fancy. Add a few articles in just for testing so that you can see what is generated.
In order for MT to generate something you have to make an entry or two
(blush) Oh, okay. (I swear, I get more Polish every day! It's my mom and her danged genes!)
I think I'll be able to find something in that Style Library I can use as a startingpoint. Thanks for steering me toward that.
Binky
I have a dopey question. This blog I'm working on isn't live yet; I've given it the URL which *will* be pointing to it when I'm done, but for now, it's in a practice directory. (Well, the URL will point to the practice directory.)
I've made three entries, and assigned a template, too, but now I'd like to see how they look. Where should I be looking? I tried the index.shtml at the root of the directory where I'm working, but it just shows me yucky black text with default blue links, and not the entries themselves.
Thanks for pointing me to where I oughtta be looking.
Binky
On that same page note the File Extension you're using. The default is html not shtml.
In the Settings under Publishing you have your Publishing Paths. That's were MT will publish things
Ah! Got it now. Now to try to make it look the way I want it to! (Argh! There's sooooo much stuff in here I'll never use, like the calendar!)
Bill, I feel bad about using you as my own personal MT documentation; the existing dox assume altogether too much info. What I'm setting up with MT is *not* a blog; it's merely a way to keep pages neatly together. Unfortunately, MT assumes I know what a "trackback" is, and insists on dating my "post" (which is merely my content). I've located the css files it's using and I'm modifying those, but I apparently need to locate the index file it's using to lay out my pages so I can remove things like the date, "Posted by Binky Melnik at 04:09 AM ¦ Permalink ¦ TrackBacks (0)," "Subscribe to this blog's feed," "Recent Posts," etc, and replace it with what I'd like to be there. Can you help me to locate where it's hiding that file?
This site I'm working on is small, and will be a portfolio of banners I've created, as several people have suggested I sell my banner-making services. All I want is to group pages by type, size, and so on. It's not a blog; I don't expect to be updating it, and people won't wanna visit it every day looking for posts. This will be good practice for when I move my discussion forums site over to MT; they were the impetus behind this thread in the first place. If I can figger all this out with my little banner site, I expect (HOPE!) that I'll tear out much less hair when it comes time to move the discussion forums site content into MT.
I just wish they didn't assume so much blog knowledge on the part of the user! I had no use for blogs up untilyou suggested they'd make a better CMS system than the one I was using (called "Bink does it by hand with BBEdit").
If it'd help repay you back any, I'm a Mac expert. Oh! And banners! I'd make you some banners for free if you need 'em since you've been such a good egg about this whole MT thing.
Binky
Please ignore my last message. I've found the index file (which is apparently also my template), and have been busy tearing stuff out of it. It may even go live tomorrow (if I'm finished dithering with colors by then!).
It's kind of a shame they try to put a pretty face on it, and here I am in BBEdit editing the files anyway. Maybe once I get 'em to where I like 'em, then it'll be easy to pop new stuff in when the need arises.
Binky
Templates ¦ Indexes ¦ Main IndexI just wish they didn't assume so much blog knowledge on the part of the user!
Keep in mind that using MT as a CMS allows you to separate the content from the design. Template design is still best accomplished with your editor. However, once you have that completed you can create your site quite easily.
