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I would fully expect those guys to come up with a pretty implementation for matrix fields. After all, aren't they the ones that wrote the EE matrix fields plugin? I think that matrix fields make good eye candy, and provide a quick n' dirty way to solve some things in lieu of real structure. But I don't think they are great for the long term or large scale. I'm much more interested in creating timeless tools with well defined data formats and structure, and separating our clients from getting involved with defining schema. I can see the solution presented there being a bit of a monster as the format of data becomes more ambiguous than a rich text field (chances are it actually isn't much more than a rich text field from the storage end). Chances are that data can't be indexed, searched and plucked field-by-field the way ProcessWire's repeaters can. But I haven't actually used it, so maybe I'm making assumptions from what I see on that page. Such things would certainly be possible in ProcessWire, but I'm just not convinced it's right. I can see why the Craft guys are doing it, because they are trying to sell stuff and candy sells. Whereas we're trying to make the best, most sustainable tools for the long term and large scale... the meat and potatoes rather than the candy. So something like this from Craft is not something to "catch up" to, because their bottom line is to make candy you will buy, not on providing what's really the best. My full time job is to develop web sites and applications that use ProcessWire (rather than to sell you something), so I'm simply not interested in colorful gadgetry and instead want the best foundation of quality and substance, at least when it comes to the core. Matrix fields and repeaters are somewhat at odds with that goal (even ours to some extent). These types of fields should be used occasionally and sparingly, for specific purposes. As it is now, I don't personally use repeaters very often. Half the time that I see people using them, they are being used in situations when the person really would have been better off without them. So I'm not so enthusiastic about pushing the core further in encouraging use of repeater/matrix type fields, when I don't personally use them very often, nor do I often recommend them. Don't get me wrong though, I do like candy too (sparingly), but really want to limit it in our core. When you get down to the core, Craft doesn't hold a candle ProcessWire. But I'm always glad to support whatever people want to build as 3rd party modules, and ProcessWire is a good engine for this.

Hi there, just launched a new website with ProcessWire! Here it is -> LINK Cya, devcow

ProcessWire 2.4 (2.3 dev) also has the ability to install modules, check for updates, and and update modules individually, pulling from the modules directory. It uses the same method as ModulesManager (actually Soma's code for the most part). But ModulesManager has a nice advantage in that it can check for updates on all your installed modules at once.

Presentation site which i made for my little one man company. http://www.rapidlab.cz/

Foundation 5 will be released in a week's time (info from their Twitter account): http://zurb.com/article/1274/we-feel-the-need-the-need-for-speed-what-

Just finished the first post of an upcoming series about processwire (sorry: it's written in german )

You could always install your own copy of CKEditor or TinyMCE (or Redactor might be worth a look) and install it according to the manufacturers instructions. When you get down to it, a rich text field is nothing more than a regular HTML textarea with some Javascript (from TinyMCE, etc.) being run on it. However, I think that non-administrative use of a rich text editor is asking for security issues. You are enabling the user to enter markup, and markup can be used to insert javascript, and it can sometimes be very difficult to identify. Well crafted javascript can be used to break into just about anything. At minimum, you'd want to run anything submitted through it with HTML Purifier before saving it. I think you may be better off using a restricted lightweight markup language like Textile Restricted, BBCode, or GitHub flavored Markdown (there's very good reasons why sites use these for front-end content input). But if you go the rich text route, just be certain to get HTML Purifier involved.

To create a sitemap.xml you can use Pete's Sitemap XML module, or you can create a template file and page to do it for you. This post explains how to create a template to do it for you. The benefit here is that you may find it simpler to tweak a template file than a module, though either is a good solution. Here is how to do it with a template file and a page: sitemap-xml.php <?php namespace ProcessWire; /** * ProcessWire Template to power a sitemap.xml * * 1. Copy this file to /site/templates/sitemap-xml.php * 2. Add the new template from the admin. * Under the "URLs" section, set it to NOT use trailing slashes. * 3. Create a new page at the root level, use your sitemap-xml template * and name the page "sitemap.xml". * * Note: hidden pages (and their children) are excluded from the sitemap. * If you have hidden pages that you want to be included, you can do so * by specifying the ID or path to them in an array sent to the * renderSiteMapXML() method at the bottom of this file. For instance: * * echo renderSiteMapXML(array('/hidden/page/', '/another/hidden/page/')); * */ function renderSitemapPage(Page $page) { return "\n<url>" . "\n\t<loc>" . $page->httpUrl . "</loc>" . "\n\t<lastmod>" . date("Y-m-d", $page->modified) . "</lastmod>" . "\n</url>"; } function renderSitemapChildren(Page $page) { $out = ''; $newParents = new PageArray(); $children = $page->children; foreach($children as $child) { $out .= renderSitemapPage($child); if($child->numChildren) $newParents->add($child); else wire('pages')->uncache($child); } foreach($newParents as $newParent) { $out .= renderSitemapChildren($newParent); wire('pages')->uncache($newParent); } return $out; } function renderSitemapXML(array $paths = array()) { $out = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>' . "\n" . '<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">'; array_unshift($paths, '/'); // prepend homepage foreach($paths as $path) { $page = wire('pages')->get($path); if(!$page->id) continue; $out .= renderSitemapPage($page); if($page->numChildren) $out .= renderSitemapChildren($page); } $out .= "\n</urlset>"; return $out; } header("Content-Type: text/xml"); echo renderSitemapXML(); // If you want to include other hidden pages: // echo renderSitemapXML(array('/path/to/hidden/page/'));

This thread is used as a place to collect: 1. links to posts in the forum answering (repeating) newbie questions 2. links to posts in the forum and elsewhere on the net giving good insight in processwire 3. links to good articles about processwire 4. links to good tutorials posted in the forum 5. links to movie clips 6. links to posts in the forum talking about modules 7. code snippets or links to code snippets 8. Usefull Helpfiles Many good posts that answers (repeating) newbie questions or give good insight in the how and why of processwire, links to tutorial posts, (also on the net), movie clips, clarifying articles and code snippets are spread over the forum. PM me if you know a link. About this kick start see this post: http://processwire.com/talk/topic/4143-wordpress-dominates-19-of-the-web/page-2#entry40910 This is a work in progress, it takes time to make it grow bigger and better. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = STARTING NEWBIES AND DESIGNERS Link1: Starting and growing with processwire. https://processwire.com/talk/topic/3990-another-simple-photo-gallery-tutorial/page-4#entry61069 Link2: I am basically a designer with some programming skills. My question is this: Can I go ahead to use processwire for this even though i am still learning php. http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3954-starting-out-with-website-intranet-and-internet/ Link3: Feeling overwhelmed http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3215-newbie-overwhelmed/ Link4: Questions concerning PW and it's capabilities http://processwire.com/talk/topic/1557-questions-concerning-pw-and-its-capabilities/ NEWBIES FIRST CODING QUESTIONS link1: Using a default install, I'm stepping through the tutorials, templates, etc and trying to understand the basic concepts behind processwire and at this point in time "head.inc" & "foot.inc". http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3421-footinc/ Link2: I am puzzled why some html tags are starting in head.inc but don't end in head.inc Instead they are ended in foot.inc http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3388-question-about-headinc-and-footerinc/ Link3: Question about not using ?> in processwire http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3370-question-about-missing/ Link4: After you installed processwire, it comes with a default website. What is the best way to fill in your own website ? How do you replace the default processwire website with your own ? http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3379-how-to-fill-in-your-own-website/ Link5:How much extra work/time will I have to put in, as far as understanding and writing php and getting the hang of the PW system, just to be able to create the same responsive designs I would make in HTML/CSS/Javascrip, while also achieving the easiest type of content editing capabilities (in line with what you can get with a CushyCMS type product)? http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3961-new-to-cms/ Link6: I realize what I am confused about was really something quite basic, such as where are the snippets of php code go beside on templates? Can they go on a page as the value of body field for example? http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3383-back-to-basic/ Link7: I'm stuck in something that should be very simple. http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3720-my-first-doubt-using-pw/ Link8: Several questions before I can start. http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3589-several-questions-before-i-can-start/ PROCESSWIRE CMS INSIGHTS Link1: Reading this thread makes you understand processwire real quick. http://processwire.com/talk/topic/5667-help-a-noob-get-started/ Link2: Very good case study from RayDale giving good insight in processwire http://processwire.c...a-a-case-study/ Link3: Symphony or Processwire ? Another good insight. http://getsymphony.com/discuss/thread/79645/ ARTICLES Link1: Why he choses processwire over modx http://www.mademyday.de/why-i-chose-processwire-over-modx.html COMING FROM MODX ? Link1: You've been using MODX but now you've found ProcessWire. It’s totally amazed you and you can’t wait to get started. But…you are wondering where everything is. If this is you, read on… http://processwire.c...ning-from-modx/ Link2: A MODX refugee: questions on features of ProcessWire http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3111-a-modx-refugee-questions-on-features-of-processwire/ Link3: Code comparison between modx and processwire. http://processwire.com/talk/topic/2850-processwire-for-designers/page-2#entry30349 COMING FROM DRUPAL ? Link1: How to move your site from Drupal to ProcessWire. http://processwire.c...ndpost__p__8988 PAGES IN PROCESSWIRE Link1: Understanding pages in processwire http://processwire.com/talk/topic/5667-help-a-noob-get-started/page-2#entry55820 Link2: More about the function of pages in processwire http://processwire.c...fused-by-pages/ Link3: How to hide Pages from the Topnavi via Adminmenu http://processwire.com/talk/topic/2037-how-to-hide-pages-from-the-topnavi-via-adminmenu/ TEMPLATES IN PROCESSWIRE Link1: A good post with code examples to start a template http://processwire.com/talk/topic/43-template-tutorial/ Link2: Template design a better route http://processwire.com/talk/topic/2782-template-design-better-route/ Link3: A different way of using templates http://processwire.com/talk/topic/740-a-different-way-of-using-templates-delegate-approach/ FRONT-END / BACK-END Link1: ProcessWire Setup and front-end editing made easy http://processwire.com/talk/topic/2382-processwire-setup-and-front-end-editing-made-easy/ Link2: Creating a front-end admin http://processwire.com/talk/topic/2937-creating-a-front-end-admin/ Link3: How would I build functionality and write information from the front-end to the back-end? http://processwire.com/talk/topic/2174-writing-from-front-end-to-back-end/ Link4: Is it possible to create a custom login page like a template ? http://processwire.com/talk/topic/107-custom-login/ Link5: A "members-only" section in the front-end. Integrating a member / visitor login form http://processwire.com/talk/topic/1716-integrating-a-member-visitor-login-form/ Link6: Trouble deleting pages from the front-end. http://processwire.com/talk/topic/2290-trouble-deleting-pages-from-the-frontend/ MODULE Front-end Edit. It turns the content of $page->body into a clickable area and gives the ability to frontend edit the content via tinyMCE http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3210-module-frontend-edit https://github.com/Luis85/PageInlineEdit/ MODULE Fredi, friendly frontend editing. http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3265-fredi-friendly-frontend-editing/?hl=fredi http://modules.processwire.com/modules/fredi/ MODULE Admin-bar Provides easy front-end admin bar for editing page content in ProcessWire 2.1+. http://processwire.com/talk/topic/44-is-there-way-to-get-information-about-current-user-in-templates/ http://processwire.com/talk/topic/50-adminbar/ http://modules.processwire.com/modules/admin-bar/ MULTI LANGUAGE WEBSITE IN PROCESSWIRE Link1: Multi-language website page names / URLs http://processwire.com/talk/topic/2979-multi-language-page-names-urls/ Link2: API http://processwire.com/api/multi-language-support/multi-language-urls/ Link3: The name of the default language can't be changed in Pw, but the title. http://processwire.com/talk/topic/4145-recoverable-fatal-error/#entry40611 ADD NEW USER TO YOUR WEBSITE AND PASSWORD RESET Link1: Integrating a member / visitor login form http://processwire.com/talk/topic/1716-integrating-a-member-visitor-login-form/?hl=%2Bpassword+%2Breset#entry15894 Module http://processwire.com/talk/topic/2145-module-send-user-credentials/?hl=%2Bpassword+%2Breset BASIC TUTORIALS FOR NEWBIES Link1: Approaches to categorising site content http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3579-tutorial-approaches-to-categorising-site-content/ CODE SNIPPETS AND FUNCTIONS Link1: Get page id from images object https://processwire.com/talk/topic/6176-get-page-id-from-images-object/ Link2: Function to render Bootstrap 3 carousel markup from ProcessWire images object https://gist.github.com/gebeer/11200288 .HTACCESS EXAMPLES ON YOUR HOSTING SERVER Example1: A working .htaccess file. The issues were that the .htaccess file must exist on the server before installing processwire and that the server did not allow options in the .htaccess file. After fixing that processwire could be installed on the server without any problem. Note that such restrictions might be different on your server that you need to find in the faq of your host. RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA,NC] HTML KICKSTARTER Link1: How can i integrate HTML Kickstarter with processwire? http://processwire.com/talk/topic/2731-how-can-i-integrate-html-kickstarter-with-processwire/ MOVIE CLIPS Field dependencies are coming in ProcessWire 2.4. Field dependencies are basically just a way of saying that one field depends on another. It dictates which fields should be shown in a given context. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hqLs9YNYKMM HELP FILES Cheatsheet Link1 Cheatsheet 1.1 as pdf file Download: http://processwire.com/talk/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=1299 Link2 Cheatsheet is now a processwire site (great work by Soma) http://cheatsheet.processwire.com/pages/built-in-methods-reference/pages-find-selector/ INTERVIEWS Link1: About the history and coming to be of processwire http://processwire.com/talk/topic/4084-about-ryan-and-processwire-an-interview-with-ryan-cramer/

If the template where the pdf's are stored is not viewable by the guest role, then you can set $config->pageFileSecure to true. Then only roles that have view permission to the template are able to access the files directly.

Wanze, soooooo helpful thank you. I have lots of work to do to explore the API and "get" the pseudo code to the fullest, but this conceptualization was great. I think that was a stiff push in the right direction. Thank you again for taking the time to reply.

This project was made from scratch (default profile and deleted all content, fields, templates, files). It uses /site/templates/inc directory where is main.php menu.php and other shared parts. In main.php file is basic html document and have some minimal layout (basicaly some 3 column with simple logic which column show). Templates in /site/templates/ contains more complex layout, logic .... if needed. Processwire is awesome if come to let me do things my way. In newer projects i am using little different way with _init.php and _main.php (prependTemplateFile, appendTemplateFile) that is inspired by Foundation Profile.

Hi darrenc, Your project sounds perfect for Pw (and vice versa ). For the site-structure: I suggest to look at kongondo's excellent tutorial here: http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3579-tutorial-approaches-to-categorising-site-content/ Bookmarking: I would just store the ids of the products a visitor has bookmarked in the session. On the review-page, display them together with a form and send the data to the client afterwards. Some pseudo code: // in template product // .... // Check if this product was bookmarked, e.g. on top of the product template if ($bookmark = $input->get->bookmark) { $bookmarks = ($session->bookmarks) ? $session->bookmarks : array(); $bookmarks[] = (int) $bookmark; $session->bookmarks = $bookmarks; } // this is the link to bookmark the actual product <a href='<?= $page->url; ?>?bookmark=<?= $page->id; ?>'>Bookmark me!</a> // in template review if (count($session->bookmarks)) { foreach ($session->bookmarks as $b) { echo 'You bookmarked ' . $b->title; } } else { echo 'no bookmarks'; }

I've committed some updates to the admin theme, including a bump of the font size up a bit to hopefully look better in Chrome/Windows. I'm curious if you guys running on that platform find it makes an improvement?

@Hari the idea of recording SQL statements and using that as a means of implementing migrations was already discussed earlier - it isn't viable. If you examine the queries that get executed, you will realize quickly why this approach doesn't really work. For one, template-names and field-names are not used in queries - the primary keys are. For another, some modules cause INSERT/DELETE/UPDATE statements that make changes to meta-data - these queries would be impossible to distinguish from queries that make changes to content. I haven't made any progress on the module these past couple of months because I've been too busy, but the module is actually very far along. I haven't done any ProcessWire work recently, so I haven't had an occasion to get my head back in this project... I still want to finish it, and it's actually not too far from usable.

Admin pages can have segments and they're mapped to the function in the process module attached to it. But that's not the urlSegments you can use on frontend. Like /adminpage/edit Will call executeEdit() method in the process module. I'm not sure how custom admin pages work and that's maybe not possible as you don't use process module to make the admin page.

Can't be. The admin template doesn't have segments activated. I did activate them just to try out, and I get the same error anytime I add a segment to any page in the admin.

Thanks kongondo! I think that first thread you posted might be the ticket! Excited to give it a try Thanks much! The Processwire community is just wonderful

A few more for you Mary Create Pages (with File-Upload Field) via API http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3105-create-pages-with-file-upload-field-via-api/ And my favorite repo, especially for all things forms, Soma's Gist https://gist.github.com/somatonic

Agreed with Ryan, and could read it. ( living 10 kilometers from the German border, listening funkhaus europa every day ) Wonderful article, Thanks for you effort !

Hi Roope, thanks for reporting. I can't have a look at it now, but can you clarify how you are using the url segments? is it on the admin side? I never tried that... edit: ok, i can recreate this behaviour. I'm not sure if Ryan established some kind of limitation to using URL segments in the admin (all other admin pages use get), but it's something to find out

Great article Felix! I had to use Google translate to read it, and German is one of the languages it doesn't translate to English particularly well, but I think I caught most of it and thought it was really fantastic. Thanks for writing it! It sounds like you are going to do more and I look forward to it.

Don't you know ModulesManager?

Update: Pushed new version to GitHub just moments ago. This fixes some minor glitches and adds new "quick diff" feature. See attached screenshot for more details. It's very primitive at the moment, but I'm hoping to improve it (and some other parts of this module) soon. This is first actual "feature update" for this module, so I'm a bit nervous and would very much like to hear how it works for you. Tested it here with multiple browsers and fields etc. but I've probably again overlooked some issues. Regarding the diff feature, Google did most of the heavy lifting there; all I did was integrate their Diff Match and Patch library (JavaScript version) to my code. For the record I was going to use jQuery PrettyTextDiff, but that really didn't feel necessary considering that it's just an attempt to simplify the (already simple) DMP API.

Some new $options have been added to MarkupGoogleMap: 'icon' => 'http://domain.com/path/to/icon.png', Full URL to icon file to use for markers. Blank=use default Google marker icon. 'useHoverBox' => false Use hover box? When true, shows a tooltip-type box when you hover the marker, that is populated with the markerTitleField. This is often more useful than the default presentation google maps uses. 'hoverBoxMarkup' => "<div> (see below) </div>" When useHoverBox is true, you can specify the markup used for it. Use the following (which is the default) as your starting point: <div data-top='-10' <!-- offset from top of marker (in pixels) --> data-left='15' <!-- offset from left of marker (in pixels) --> style=' <!-- inline styles, or specify your own class attribute --> background: #000; color: #fff; padding: 0.25em 0.5em; border-radius: 3px; '> </div>

For those who may have struggled to get TinyMCE to save colours, make sure to add `span` to valid_elements, in addition to the style attribute. valid_elements should look like the following to enable users to set their own colours (in addition to adding `forecolorpicker` or 'forecolor' to theme_advanced_button[n]): @[id|class|style],a[href|target|name],strong/b,em/i,span,br,img[src|id|class|width|height|alt],ul,ol,li,p[class],h2,h3,h4,blockquote,-p,-table[border=0|cellspacing|cellpadding|width|frame|rules|height|align|summary|bgcolor|background|bordercolor],-tr[rowspan|width|height|align|valign|bgcolor|background|bordercolor],tbody,thead,tfoot,#td[colspan|rowspan|width|height|align|valign|bgcolor|background|bordercolor|scope],#th[colspan|rowspan|width|height|align|valign|scope],code,pre

I pushed a little update to 1.0.9 fixes dependency issue with extending module that isn't installed yet installing module now only possible if requirements are met by the module info some changes to the module table columns and showing summary directly, added "added" date column and number of likes from users module dependencies now shown below summary if any.

@ceberlin: just a guess, but have you tried get instead of find? Find returns PageArray, which could be the issue here. Get, on the other hand, always returns Page. Edit: that didn't help at all. This isn't possible at the moment.

It supports multiple content types, meaning that you could choose multiple templates for repeater. That is powerful feature in some cases.

If it's just one page that you have that situation on, then you can check for the page in the _main.php file and bypass the usual output, i.e. _main.php <div id='content' class='row'> <? if($page->id == 1): // homepage ?> <div class='large-12 columns'> <?=$body?> </div> <? else: // regular 2-column output ?> <div class='large-8 columns'> <?=$body?> </div> <div class='large-4 columns'> <?=$side?> </div> <? endif; ?> </div><!--/#content--> For cases where I want the option of specifying something entirely different for <div id='content'> from any template, I'll setup the option to specify a $content variable. From the _init.php you set it to be blank (the default value): _init.php $body = $page->body; $side = ''; $content = ''; // add this Then in your _main.php, you check for the presence of it. When present, the usual body/sidebar layout is bypassed and you get to specify something entirely different, simply by populating the $content variable, rather than $body or $side. _main.php <? if($content): // custom $content ?> <?=$content?> <? else: // regular 2-column output ?> <div id='content' class='row'> <div class='large-8 columns'> <?=$body?> </div> <div class='large-4 columns'> <?=$side?> </div> </div><!--/#content--> <? endif; ?> From that point forward, your templates can choose to populate $body and $side, or if the layout needs are different, then populate $content instead. Here's an example of what a hero + 3 boxes below homepage template might look like: home.php $content = " <div id='content' class='row'> <div class='large-12 columns'> <img src='...' /><!-- giant hero image --> </div> </div><!--/#content--> <div id='features' class='row'> <div class='large-3 columns'> <p>Feature box 1</p> </div> <div class='large-3 columns'> <p>Feature box 2</p> </div> <div class='large-3 columns'> <p>Feature box 3</p> </div> </div><!--/#features--> ";

Thanks for posting this Matthew. A couple things I found that I wanted to mention, since this is a front-end form: // Set a temporary upload location where the submitted files are stored during form processing $upload_path = $config->paths->assets . "files/contact_files/"; You want your temporary upload path to be a non web accessible path. Also, if you've got multiple users uploading at the same time, it seems like there is potential for filename collisions, though not sure how big of a concern that is in this case. But you can at least make the directory non web accessible by preceding it with a period, i.e. ".contact_files" rather than "contact_files". $other_photos->setValidExtensions(array('jpg', 'jpeg', 'png', 'gif')); Keep in mind that WireUpload is only validating the extension. It is not telling you for sure that it's an image. It could very well be some kind of executable with a jpg extension. I don't necessarily know how such a thing could be exploited, other than that I'm not so comfortable with letting a front-end user upload files that end up untouched in a publicly accessible directory. What would probably be safer is to make a new copy of any uploaded images before adding them to the page, and validate the size is within allowed limits while you are at it. $error = ''; $imageInfo = getimagesize($pathname); if($imageInfo) list($width, $height) = $imageInfo; if(!$imageInfo) { $error = "Image is not valid"; } else if($width < 105 || $height < 105) { $error = "Image is too small"; } else if($width > 1600 || $height > 1200) { $error = "Image is too big"; } else { // create your own, slightly smaller copy $sizer = new ImageSizer($pathname); if(!$sizer->resize($width-10, $height-10)) $error = "Unable to resize image"; } if($error) { unlink($pathname); echo "<p>Error: $error</p>"; } else { // add image to page }

This case study relates to the topic here: http://processwire.c...ndpost__p__8988 about creating an archive of 'stories' about how PW has helped in relevant real life scenarios. Website: http://www.ray-dale.com RayDale Multimedia Ray Dale is a multimedia designer. His portfolio website was 2 years old as of March 2012 and in need of a refresh. He found that the content management for his website was more time consuming than he wanted and the website was generally slow in performance and complex to update. Ray needed: A website that could showcase his latest work with separate portfolio content types The ability to show lots of images and videos in each section Complex interlinking between each portfolio item - where each item would belong to a number of simultaneous categories To be able to publish a number of pages under various sections on the website To have a condensed navigation structure - not over-facing the user with navigation A blogging space that was easy to update To gain complete control over the HTML, CSS & JS markup and therefore the design of the website The ability to take more control over the admin experience - without using a host of plugins - so that the CMS could be used for clients to make their lives easier Speedy performance - even if a shared hosting platform were used Good site security The previous solutions Ray was previously using Drupal as a content management system. Drupal is a great system, it’s incredibly flexible, it can be made faster and using template overrides, almost complete control can be taken of the HTML and CSS output. However, the process to achieve any of this is time consuming and clunky from a web designer / front end developer perspective. Drupal was also going to require a number of plugins to be installed to achieve a lot of the required functionality. Ray tested migrating his website over to WordPress. WordPress is another fantastic blogging system with light CMS functionalities. WordPress is generally easier to use than Drupal and a lot of control over the HTML & CSS markup can be delivered - in a much easier manner than Drupal. However, WordPress is still light on CMS features in the admin system. This means that it is difficult without either using a lot of plugins or custom php development (using the WordPress API) to have custom content types and fields. The decision to use ProcessWire Having searched around for an alternative to Drupal and WordPress - revisiting other CMSs that Ray had also previously used - Ray eventually landed on ProcessWire having read about it on a forum. Right from watching the initial video produced by Ryan Cramer (the creator of ProcessWire) Ray was intrigued by the possibilities that ProcessWire seemed to offer - effectively solving all of the issues currently faced. To summarise ProcessWire offered: Custom content types in the admin Custom field types in the admin Good control over media uploads A simple to use admin system A neat and simple API for custom frontend / backend development A customisable admin experience The ability to have a custom admin url Complete control over HTML markup Good security with flood control A powerful and flexible templating system (that was also simple) Ray was extremely impressed by the features that ProcessWire offered, however, many CMSs look great until you actually start using them - where the unnecessary complexities, weak architecture and terrible, bloated functionality often start to appear. The functionality seemed so promising that a gamble was taken to build the Ray Dale Multimedia website - with very little time now available - to ProcessWire and test how it performed. Building the website Having built the original Ray Dale Multimedia website in Drupal, then converted to WordPress before deciding to gamble on ProcessWire - Ray now had very little time left to build his portfolio website. As a testament to the ease and speed of using ProcessWire - he was able (with a little help from articles in the forum) to rebuild the Ray Dale Multimedia website in two days of effective full time development. This included all of the content creation and learning the new system - with the inevitable (but surprisingly smooth) learning curve. Enabling complete control over output ProcessWire allowed Ray to write HTML and CSS without any of the interference you get from other CMS systems. So, Ray was able to use the following frameworks of his choosing: HTML5 boilerplate jQuery Modernizr Masonry A customised version of the 960 fluid grid system PrettyPhoto for lightbox images Less - to create minified CSS Though it must be said that literally anything can be used as ProcessWire makes no assumptions on the frontend - even on the Javascript framework. Quick and easy API One really pleasant surprise was the jQuery influenced API that ProcessWire offered. For example you can use php queries such as: $pages->find("selector"); $pages->get("selector, path or ID"); to find content in the system - you can even filter your queries by template type, fields attached to that item, etc. You can even use a range of selector operators. The API effectively works as a super powered and infinitely more flexible alternative to the WordPress loop. Cross referencing pages easily Complex cross-linking between portfolio items was needed so that capabilities, technologies and services could be linked to each item. It was easy to create a taxonomy system that worked the exact way required once the fundamental concept of how pages work in ProcessWire was understood. Building navigation that works Unlike a lot of CMSs that work effectively as ‘bucket systems’ - meaning that content is separate from any kind of structure or hierarchy by default in the system - whereas everything in ProcessWire is a page and arranged hierarchically. Whilst this may seem strange and restrictive to some used to the aforementioned ‘bucket systems’ - it works incredibly well and enables you to build navigational structures that are easy to plot a current location in. It is also something easy enough to break away from if you want a more ‘bucket’ type system. For example, in Drupal and WordPress it can be very difficult to highlight the navigation on a website if you are using custom content types. Try using custom post types in WordPress and keeping your navigation tracking which page the user has landed on - it’s extremely difficult without a fair bit of custom development (this is true as of the time of writing - WordPress 3.3.1). Because ProcessWire uses a structure and hierarchy by default - this structure makes building navigation that can track the current page very simple. Easy / flexible admin system The admin system in ProcessWire was easy and fluid to use, logical and stable. The admin system can also be overridden with templates (there are already some great community contributed templates). Modules used Whilst ProcessWire has a number of contributed modules from a thriving and helpful community - absolutely no additional modules were needed. All functionality on the website was achieved from a vanilla version of ProcessWire. Performance Another area of importance was the performance of ProcessWire. Again, Ray found this aspect to be well covered with built in caching capabilities that were thoughtfully included ‘out of the box’. The caching was simple to enable on templates and fields. The memory footprint of the Ray Dale Multimedia website was a third of that of Drupal on the same website without using addon caching plugins. Challenges The only real challenge faced was understanding that ‘pages are everything’ in ProcessWire. You build categories, taxonomy, articles, blog systems with the ‘page’ (and any fields it contains) being the basic building block for all of this. ‘Pages’ in ProcessWire can be attached to templates and injected with fields to enable the creation of literally anything conceivable. However, understanding this concept takes a little work for people used to other CMSs such as Drupal, WordPress and Joomla. However, in context - and compared to other systems - this learning curve is still fairly easy. There are so many other time savers that this learning curve becomes negligible. The other area that Ray had to understand about ProcessWire was that there aren’t any template system paradigms that exist in Drupal and WordPress. Other systems have parent and child templating systems with default parent templates that can be leveraged, however, because ProcessWire makes no assumptions on how you are going to build a project (being a true framework) you currently need to create your own template files. This is made easy by good documentation on the ProcessWire website and a decent set of ‘starter’ template files that come as part of the default install. Conclusion ProcessWire was an absolute dream to work with. Ray found it to be very stable, well thought out and hugely flexible. So much so in fact, that Ray has decided to standardise on using ProcessWire for upcoming web design projects. The flexibility and simplicity of the admin system, combined with power in frontend development that ProcessWire provides is something that Ray found to be liberating and more importantly ‘best in its class’.

Notepad++ anyone? I don't know if it counts as an IDE but it works fine for me with its plethora of plugins although I may need something more IDE-ish in the future...

Greetings, I agree with renobird. This is a pretty complex area, so it's great to have people with the expertise and patience to work through it all. I'm hoping that this discussion can be a source for documenting these methods for people at all levels of development expertise. My goal is to be able to present a clear set of directions and explanations for the whole front-end form effort. With this discussion, I have some great material that I can put together and present down the line. Thanks, Matthew

Ryan and Soma, I would like to extend a huge thanks to both of you. You guys (along with many others) consistently take the time to not only decipher and debug code, but go well beyond that by trying to figure out what the person is "actually" trying to do and provide them with a revised/better solution—I applaud you both. Soma, your examples above are amazingly thorough — I really appreciate the time you devoted to create them, and your willingness to share. Cheers.