Extraneous website(s)
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I have spent the best part of the last day or so familiarising myself with Concrete5. Admittedly I am scratching the surface. However this is my take: (1) Concrete5 is best used for websites created from within. (2) Importing pre-extising pages or sites is impossible/difficult/not really recommended (3) It is possible to port parts of code over but it is an onerous task at best.
Right/Wrong? (please let me know anyone)
Right/Wrong? (please let me know anyone)
First off..............
Thank you so much for the reply and so quickly too. Impressive.
I have been waiting for a reply for 5 days+ on a Google Chrome forum.
Yes. You are probably spot on.
I was rather trying to put a Nissan engine in a Toyota.
Here are the specifics:
I have a responsive site herehttp://www.syntagm.co.za/hpc that I will publish in January.
The client needs CMS access to several pages but not the whole site.
I am reluctant to go the WP route but it is an option.
I was hoping to use Conc; in fact the more I read 'eager'.
Some of what you write is heartening and strikes a hopeful cord i.e. "...a two minute job". Perhaps you can point me in the direction of some relevant reading material.
with appreciation.
..................../Chris
Thank you so much for the reply and so quickly too. Impressive.
I have been waiting for a reply for 5 days+ on a Google Chrome forum.
Yes. You are probably spot on.
I was rather trying to put a Nissan engine in a Toyota.
Here are the specifics:
I have a responsive site herehttp://www.syntagm.co.za/hpc that I will publish in January.
The client needs CMS access to several pages but not the whole site.
I am reluctant to go the WP route but it is an option.
I was hoping to use Conc; in fact the more I read 'eager'.
Some of what you write is heartening and strikes a hopeful cord i.e. "...a two minute job". Perhaps you can point me in the direction of some relevant reading material.
with appreciation.
..................../Chris
Hi Chris,
I had a quick look at the site you wanting to port over, and I cant see anything that should pose you too many problems.
there is a great how to about building a theme from scratch:
http://goo.gl/T1bh3
and some info from the dev docs about themes:
http://goo.gl/CjOAhs
And there is also a video from Concrete5 showing how to "Concreteise" a html theme in minutes, please be a little cautious with this video as its old and I am not sure if some of it is relevant anymore, but it will give you a basic idea of how to create a theme:
http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/how-tos/designers/make-a-the...
There is also a full theme building course, which is more up to date:
http://goo.gl/RMlmT
Basically creating a new page type for Concrete5 is pretty simple, all you really need to do is name your page, for example "my_page.php" and drop this into your theme, go to your concrete5 dash and go to "themes" beside the thumb of your activated theme, click "inspect" and that will show your new page type ready for instal, click "Ok" and your new page type is ready to go, now obviously you have to have the correct Concrete5 specific tags in your page, but adding them is very simple and is covered in detail in the resources above.
My recommendation is to have a look at the "Greek yoghurt" theme that comes installed in your Concrete5 instal, it will pretty much show you all you need to know for a basic theme, and I think you may be surprised at exactly how simple theming is in C5.
Good luck, any questions fire me off a PM and I will try advise.
Regards
David
I had a quick look at the site you wanting to port over, and I cant see anything that should pose you too many problems.
there is a great how to about building a theme from scratch:
http://goo.gl/T1bh3
and some info from the dev docs about themes:
http://goo.gl/CjOAhs
And there is also a video from Concrete5 showing how to "Concreteise" a html theme in minutes, please be a little cautious with this video as its old and I am not sure if some of it is relevant anymore, but it will give you a basic idea of how to create a theme:
http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/how-tos/designers/make-a-the...
There is also a full theme building course, which is more up to date:
http://goo.gl/RMlmT
Basically creating a new page type for Concrete5 is pretty simple, all you really need to do is name your page, for example "my_page.php" and drop this into your theme, go to your concrete5 dash and go to "themes" beside the thumb of your activated theme, click "inspect" and that will show your new page type ready for instal, click "Ok" and your new page type is ready to go, now obviously you have to have the correct Concrete5 specific tags in your page, but adding them is very simple and is covered in detail in the resources above.
My recommendation is to have a look at the "Greek yoghurt" theme that comes installed in your Concrete5 instal, it will pretty much show you all you need to know for a basic theme, and I think you may be surprised at exactly how simple theming is in C5.
Good luck, any questions fire me off a PM and I will try advise.
Regards
David
Dear David
Software solutions are seldom greater than the support by and enthusiasm of its community. This augers well for Concrete5. I am really greatful and will study your notes and the resources you recommend carefully.
kind regards............./Chris
Software solutions are seldom greater than the support by and enthusiasm of its community. This augers well for Concrete5. I am really greatful and will study your notes and the resources you recommend carefully.
kind regards............./Chris
David
I am trying to install WAMP. It seems to have gone well up to "If you scroll down the screen you will see a section titled "Projects", and underneath there should be a link to the new directory that you just created earlier." [ref:http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/how-tos/designers/installing-concrete5-on-wamp-windows-local-server/]
I do not get a test result, just a blank screen and cannot go onto to what seems to be a C5 (local) install sequence. I am at a dead-end; can you perhaps assist. For the record I have totally removed XAMP installed last week and anything else that may interfere before doing a totally fresh install. The C5 files in /www are from the appropriate directory via GitHub........./Chris
I am trying to install WAMP. It seems to have gone well up to "If you scroll down the screen you will see a section titled "Projects", and underneath there should be a link to the new directory that you just created earlier." [ref:http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/how-tos/designers/installing-concrete5-on-wamp-windows-local-server/]
I do not get a test result, just a blank screen and cannot go onto to what seems to be a C5 (local) install sequence. I am at a dead-end; can you perhaps assist. For the record I have totally removed XAMP installed last week and anything else that may interfere before doing a totally fresh install. The C5 files in /www are from the appropriate directory via GitHub........./Chris
Hi Chris,
Unfortunately I will be of limited use to you on this, I use a Mac and use VM's for testing windows versions so I have no need to use WAMP or XAMP.
The closest I have come to the problem you are experiencing was on MAMP and that was down to me having to switch to a slightly newer version of PHP, but I did at least get some error messages not just a blank screen.
The only thing I will suggest is downloading a clean copy of C5 from here:http://goo.gl/uSg14
and see if you have the same problems, there are a few branches of C5 on Github and I think they come with some other files, when you downloaded did you place the whole "Concrete5-master" file in your WAMP folder? if you did, try just putting the folder called "web" into your WAMP C:\wamp\www\ folder, you can re-name that outer folder if you wish.
I know MAMP does not like having directories with a space in, no idea if WAMP is the same, but could be worth trying taking the space out of any directory you have at C:\wamp\www\, for example "concrete5 install" to "concrete5install"
If none of that helps, probably your best bet is to start a new thread on the subject and see if a WAMP user can help you out, sorry I couldn't be of more help.
Regards
David
Unfortunately I will be of limited use to you on this, I use a Mac and use VM's for testing windows versions so I have no need to use WAMP or XAMP.
The closest I have come to the problem you are experiencing was on MAMP and that was down to me having to switch to a slightly newer version of PHP, but I did at least get some error messages not just a blank screen.
The only thing I will suggest is downloading a clean copy of C5 from here:http://goo.gl/uSg14
and see if you have the same problems, there are a few branches of C5 on Github and I think they come with some other files, when you downloaded did you place the whole "Concrete5-master" file in your WAMP folder? if you did, try just putting the folder called "web" into your WAMP C:\wamp\www\ folder, you can re-name that outer folder if you wish.
I know MAMP does not like having directories with a space in, no idea if WAMP is the same, but could be worth trying taking the space out of any directory you have at C:\wamp\www\, for example "concrete5 install" to "concrete5install"
If none of that helps, probably your best bet is to start a new thread on the subject and see if a WAMP user can help you out, sorry I couldn't be of more help.
Regards
David
David
Thanks.
No worries.
Chris
Thanks.
No worries.
Chris
yep, but then, thats probably true of 99% of CMS.
(2) Importing pre-extising pages or sites is impossible/difficult/not really recommended
Depends what you mean by pages? if you mean an entire page, content and all, then it would be tricky, I hesitate to say impossible. if you just mean a page structure, thats very easy, literally a 2 minute job to turn a static HTML page into a usable Concrete5 page.
Wholesale importing of a site or pages is always going to be difficult, doesn't matter if you are using Concrete5, Drupal, Wordpress etc etc you are going to have problems, every system is slightly different in its approach, imagine putting a Toyota engine in a Nissan, it can probably be done, but would take some effort.
(3) It is possible to port parts of code over but it is an onerous task at best.
Hugely depends on what the code is and what it does, just dropping in chunks of code from an existing site and expecting it to just work is rarely going to happen, no matter what CMS you use.
Sounds like you have come up against a few frustrations, if you post specific problems then there are plenty of people who can advise.