Newbie Question Thread

Author Message

Chris Collins

Tuesday 19 July 2005 5:44:25 pm

OK forgive me if I sound like a total noobie but I guess that's what I am. So I will just start asking questions, because after looking around a bit, I still do not have the kind of understanding I want.

1. I am somewhat familiar with the concept of the CMS. If I understand this correctly, it is basically a way to design and edit a website through an online interface. Is this the gist?

2. I am designing my current project in Photoshop to get the layout I want. Then I will go into Dreamweaver and create all the HTML and insert the PHP and other scripts where they are needed. If I am experienced with designing sites already, is this the way I should continue doing it? The CMS concept seems like it would be better suited for clients to maintain their own site once it is created by me, their designer. Is this the idea?

3. I think it might be faster to use a web interface to edit my site, instead of opening Dreamweaver, connecting to the server, etc. If the CMS provides a way for me to edit any element of code online, this will save time. I am getting close?

4. What is this about a scripting language unique to ez publish?

Well, that's about it for now. Sorry if these are really newbie questions. I did look around for answers but could not find the ones I was looking for. Any help is greatly appreciated of course :)

Chris

Frey Staso

Wednesday 20 July 2005 4:24:12 pm

1. Yes. eZpublish has many features available, it all depends on what you want it for. It allows users to add, edit and delete "content objects" which can be anything you wish. These content objects can be files, news articles, links, pictures, etc.

2. Yes, however eZpublish doesn't like php very well and it takes some complicated steps that I haven't figured out to use php scripting. eZpublish does a lot of php stuff automatically though.

Basically it works like this, you create a pagelayout.tpl which is the navigation shell of your webpage. This way you only have to set up navigation once. All your content stuff is loaded into this shell.

3. Instead of traditional web "pages" eZpublish is best used when you take advantage of their override system. There are default "views" so when you say, view a news article, it will be stuffed into your pagelayout.tpl shell but it will ALSO be formatted according to the override. When you first start, it will be formatted with a basic view. These override templates are easily edited online in the admin view.

4. eZpublish has its own syntax for retrieving content objects, if statements, etc.

I strongly suggest that you follow along with the "chess" tutorial found here:
http://ez.no/products/ez_publish_cms/documentation/building_an_ez_publish_site

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