MatthewSchenker
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Everything posted by MatthewSchenker
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Greetings, Implementing a slideshow in ProcessWire is very intuitive. As long as you know the "standard" ways of including JQuery and CSS in your pages, and calling JQuery on a particular page, you are all set. There is just a bit of ProcessWire-specific syntax. I use BxSlider, Galleria, and FlexSlider in my sites. I find them very flexible and easy to use when implementing dynamic images. Below I outline the steps I use to get Galleria working. Step 1: Include the Associated JQuery and CSS Files The first step involves downloading the necessary files from the Galleria Web site and including them in your ProcessWire installation. In my example, I am using the basic Galleria CSS and JQuery, and I am using a Galleria theme, so I have three files altogether. 1. Place the CSS files here: /site/templates/styles 2. Place the Javascript files here: /site/templates/scripts 3. In your template, include the following in the <head> area (I include this in my head.inc file): <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?php echo $config->urls->templates?>styles/galleria.classic.css" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="<?php echo $config->urls->templates?>scripts/galleria-1.2.8.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="<?php echo $config->urls->templates?>scripts/galleria.classic.min.js"></script> Step 2: Loop Through the Images in Your Template These instructions assume you have created an image upload field called "images." It also sets a size on the fly for the "large" gallery images and the "thumbnails." I run a test to assure that there are images. And I have linked the images to the content. You might do some of this differently. Just adapt your code. Add the following code (or something similar) where you want the slider to appear in your template: <?php /* Test to see if there are gallery images uploaded (number of images is > 0). If so, present a gallery. If not, leave this area blank. */ $image_num = count($page->images); if($image_num > 0) { ?> <div id="galleria_holder"> <div id="galleria"> <?php foreach ($page->images as $gall_image) { $large = $gall_image->size(640, 480); $thumb = $gall_image->size(200, 150); ?> <a href="<?php echo $large->url; ?>"><img src="<?php echo $thumb->url; ?>"</a> <?php } ?> </div> </div> Step 3: Fire the Galleria Script Directly below the code shown above, call the Galleria script and its options. Check the Galleria Web site for full instructions, but it is straight JQuery work at this point. The code below calls a Galleria theme, sets a "fadeslide" transition, and turns off the "counter" option (then closes the conditional statement opened in the snippet from Step 2): <script> Galleria.loadTheme('<?php echo $config->urls->templates?>scripts/galleria.classic.min.js'); Galleria.run('#galleria', { transition: 'fadeslide', showCounter: false }); </script> <?php } ?> There are some particular details for Galleria. But the three steps shown above are the same for just about any JQuery script I can think of. Thanks, Matthew
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Greetings, I agree, Facebook is a huge time waster. To me, it's even worse than that. There is no evidence that "liking" anything on Facebook leads to anything beyond Facebook itself, and yet organizations (and individuals) are putting increasing resources into their "Facebook presence" that could be better spent in other creative Web development. Regarding functionality: I find Facebook to be one of the most un-intuitive sites. I was chatting with some developers a year ago about this, and one of them said something I always think about: Facebook obscures its functions intentionally, which forces you to wander through the site (i.e., spend more time there). Maybe this is an obvious observation, I don't know. Thanks, Matthew
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Greetings benbyf, Thanks for sharing! Excellent work on both sites. I like the user-controlled background image changer on The Art of Dining. Did you do that with a ProcessWire search of some kind? Thanks, Matthew
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Greetings raydale, Your name sounds very familiar... I am one of the new people who arrived since your last activity. I am in a similar position as you. After building several sites in Joomla (with a CCK), I have fully moved to ProcessWire. And now I am in the position of having to "move" sites from Joomla to ProcessWire. In some cases, it's actually less work to just start over. Thanks, Matthew
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Hey Joss, So all that proves is that we are both weird. Then again, I knew that a while back when we jointly haunted the ATAAW community. Thanks, Matthew
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Greetings, Thanks again, Ryan, for your sharp responses. Yes, certainly, I am always thinking of security. I try as often as possible to use pre-filled search fields (dropdowns, buttons, etc) to reduce this. By the way, one of the reasons I cited the CodeIgniter form helper earlier is because it automatically sanitizes entries, which is nice. In business sites, with just a handful of admins, there are fewer issues with form submissions. But in community-style sites, which represent several of my upcoming projects, there will always be a need to allow a variety of users to submit materials that eventually are published on the site. I keep reading about how developers hate making forms. Maybe I'm weird, but I actually like the process of designing forms, figuring out how submissions are handled, and where the submissions go. Thanks, Matthew
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ExpressionEngine new pricing structure and how ProcessWire could benefit
MatthewSchenker replied to panictree's topic in Pub
Greetings Everyone, I like checking those stats on BuiltWith... It's interesting to attempt an interpretation of what these numbers might mean. In general, I assume that, as we move from "top million" to "top 10,000" sites, we move up the ladder to more professional projects requiring greater scaling, security, and management capabilities. Building on that interpretation... - Drupal shows the greatest growth (from ~ 10% to 19% of the market) - WordPress drops in popularity at first, but then settles at a huge chunk (> 50% of the market) - ExpressionEngine does not change much along the way (goes from ~ 2% to 3% of the market) - Most surprisingly, Joomla drops out entirely as you move up (from ~ 9% to 0% of the market) There is about 2.4% unaccounted for -- maybe Joomla's share? Some of the numbers on that site seem a bit flaky. For example, the "Top CMS Technology" sidebar lists vBulletin and Yii as CMSs. It also lists Microsoft Word as a CMS! And yet it does not show CodeIgniter and Symfony at all in the list? I also doubt the accuracy of the "Content Management System Migration" chart. Thanks, Matthew -
Hey Everyone, Joss: I don't expect anyone to pose a true challenge to Facebook right now... Except Facebook itself, which I think in some ways is beginning to happen. I think Facebook has its importance, for sure. But Facebook has always felt rather antithetical to what I see as beautiful Web development, for a variety of reasons... The way it cheapens true discussion, how a single social-networking paradigm is blocking exploration of the very idea of Web-based connections, and how the ugly appearance of a set of icons litters pages everywhere we look. Finally, we generally have to hold our tongues about all of this lest we seem to go against mighty Facebook. Maybe if I started developing Facebook apps I might feel differently! Thanks, Matthew
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Greetings Everyone, Hosting is on our minds -- an important decision that doesn't seem as easy as it should be. Here's a related discussion I started on this, which might be helpful here: http://processwire.com/talk/topic/2427-lets-talk-hosting/ Thanks, Matthew
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"Continuous integration" of Field and Template changes
MatthewSchenker replied to mindplay.dk's topic in General Support
Greetings Everyone, Just to confirm: if you have a completed site, you can pack it up and redeploy it in its entirety, correct? Isn't that how we have installable "profiles" like SkyScrapers? So we are just talking about incremental changes to a site? Thanks, Matthew -
Greetings, We have similar lines here in the Colonies. I'm North; Ryan is South. When we cross the Atlantic, we're all the same. Thanks, Matthew
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Greetings, I am just glad to see a potential challenger to Facebook's domination. Thanks, Matthew
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Hi Ryan, Thanks for your responses! I was just trying to think of a good response to the idea of this discussion. But our conversation shows that there is relatively little... It sounds like the validation points I mentioned are being covered in 2.3 (I will do more testing of 2.3 soon). That's great! On form creation, I definitely understand that it is a more advanced topic. But with some of the site concepts I'm working on, there is a need to create forms for users at various access levels to create/edit content. I'm weighing the benefits of the two main approaches: 1. Just use the admin interface, hiding anything "regular" users should not see (and perhaps re-work some CSS). 2. Build custom forms using the API to create/edit pages. Thanks, Matthew
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Hi Ryan, Just want to make sure... I don't see these as problems, just places where -- perhaps -- incremental improvements might be possible. In other words, I'm kind of stretching to think of where something could be improved. Day to day, I see no weaknesses with ProcessWire. Quite the opposite! Let me clarify: Validation: In the admin forms, even if data is entered in the incorrect format, or not added at all, a page is still created. For example, if an e-mail field is entered in the wrong format, or if a text field is required but left empty, upon submit the page is still created. Again, it is straightforward to build custom forms with the API and add any validation rules. I understand that, with the admin forms, the emphasis is on getting pages done. I'm just wondering if more validations could be implemented in the admin forms. Form Creation: I think it's easy to create forms with the API that can save or edit pages, and these forms can also handle the validations described above. I was (again) only stretching my mind to think of an area where something might be improved. For newcomers, making forms to create and edit content is one of the first areas of concern. It's possible that just documenting how to do this in ProcessWire would do the trick. I know there are some good discussions about it here in the forum. I hope this makes clear that ProcessWire is an amazing system that handles everything I can think of. My comments are more in the vein of wondering, "Is there anything more that can or should be done?" Thanks, Matthew
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Greetings Everyone, I was involved in Joomla for about four years before coming to ProcessWire. I also did a fair amount of work with ModX, ExpressionEngine, Drupal, WordPress, and Concrete5. For frameworks, I got involved with CodeIgniter, then with Laravel. I can honestly say that -- in my experience -- ProcessWire allows the smoothest, cleanest path to the development of my concepts. I feel that with ProcessWire there is a shorter distance between what I am imagining for a site and how to get there. As diogo explains, that does not mean that ProcessWire has nothing to learn from other systems. And a positive discussion like this could be amazing if ProcessWire can gain from it. I've taken some time to look at my work with the CMSs, and I actually don't see anything ProcessWire can learn from them. Looking at Laravel and CodeIgniter, I see some potential for comparison (but nothing too major here): 1. Validation. Using the API to build forms in ProcessWire is an effective way to add validation. But it would be great to have more validation in the admin forms. 2. Form Creation. Again, we can create forms using the ProcessWire API. But when you want to build forms that lead to creating or editing new pages, I wonder if a more obvious "form helper" might be good (for example, something like CodeIgniter's: http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/helpers/form_helper.html). These are the only two I can come up with at the moment. And again, in both cases, there are ways to achieve it in ProcessWire. It's more a question of whether there might be an even easier way. Thanks, Matthew
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I try to always be a positive and upbeat person. But the recent news just has me feeling sad and quite angry. RIP AS
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ExpressionEngine new pricing structure and how ProcessWire could benefit
MatthewSchenker replied to panictree's topic in Pub
Greetings, I have had several conversations with people about this. All the time, I hear, "But Joomla has all those templates." It can be difficult to explain that the reason there are no "templates" (themes) in ProcessWire is not because something is missing. It's actually the opposite... With ProcessWire, the entire world of design possibilities is your "theme." You can go to any theme site (Themeforest, for example) or just create your own layout, and there -- you have a ProcessWire theme. If you see a WordPress theme you really like, it's simple to bring the design into ProcessWire (if you want). It is just a matter of challenging the assumption that a "theme" must be specific to the CMS. Thanks, Matthew -
Greetings, OK, while we're at it... Another idea is to read Jorge Luis Borges. I'm not just throwing out random authors. These works are linked to the whole idea of categories. Yes, that's right -- ProcessWire seems connected to these literary works. There is a lot to say about this, but I will save it for another discussion so Joss's original concept is not completely covered over. Now I know I am in the right crowd when I can talk about D'Arcy Thompson and Borges. Thanks, Matthew
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Greetings, Yes, this is exactly it. How liberating. For years, I've been quietly thinking along these lines. ProcessWire allows us to really open up the whole idea of pages, fields, categories... Not just fractals, but everything in nature. Has anyone here read "On Growth and Form" by D'Arcy Thompson? Thanks, Matthew
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Hey Joss, I totally get what Ryan is saying. You end up there naturally (I believe) once you break away from the idea that most CMSs force on you regarding categories. I think most of the rigid ideas of categories come from the fact that other CMSs have no choice but to deal with them that way. Think of how Joomla (for example) handles categories. It just does not have the ability to allow articles to be parsed into numerous different directions at once. Why? Because it is based on the idea that there has to be a top-level set of assumptions that everyone who uses the system adheres to. With ProcessWire, we are completely open to placing pages any way we see fit -- either as rigid categories or soft categories (i.e., virtual, instant, etc). Once that opens up, you then are able to just look at your information and realize that categories should be smooth and almost borderless. Just embrace it! This difference in flexibility is not limited to categories. However, from my experience with other CMSs, I think categories are an excellent way to show the core difference between ProcessWire and other systems. Yes, OK, it's kind of hippy in a way. If so, well, then ProcessWire is part of the revolution man! Just look at it with kaleidoscope eyes in a strawberry field forever and you'll be all right. Peace, Matthew
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Hey Everyone, It's Friday.... I'm glad that no ProcessWire sites show up in the results here: http://www.theuselessweb.com/ Thanks, Matthew
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Hey Joss, OK, so it's an iPad issue! Good to know. I also have Chrome for the iPad so I can see if that is better. Thanks, Matthew
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Hey Pete, Excellent job! Everything works very nicely. One odd thing I noticed is that if I access the forum from my iPad, I cannot use the WYSIWYG features. And if I edit and save a post using the iPad, it injects loads of < br /> elements. Not sure if this is a forum or iPad issue. Thanks, Matthew
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Greetings Joss, That's exactly what I mean! With ProcessWire, the idea of a "category" is suddenly wide open and has lots of subtlety. With other systems, like Joomla and WordPress, a "category" is a very pre-defined nugget. In addition, what can be done with a category is also very pre-defined. Again, this brings me back to the idea of "hard" and "soft" category types. Going further, there is even greater potential for creative sub-division within the category types. For example, in Joomla you can run a "blog" listing of everything in a category, but you cannot pull out one field from each item in the category to create a unique listing, and never mind creating two, three, or four different listings of the material based on what was entered within particular fields. In ProcessWire, regardless of which "hard" or "soft" category a page belongs to, you can grab certain fields and create what I guess you could call "virtual" or "instant" categories. One of the reasons I am latching onto this discussion is because I believe flexibility with "categories" may be one of the most attractive ProcessWire elements to people accustomed to other systems. I know from numerous Joomla discussions that being able to do more with categories is a major area of need. To illustrate my point, there are 844 extensions on the Joomla Extension Directory that specifically extend categories. Thanks, Matthew
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Greetings again. As always, an intersting discussion here on the ProcessWire forums! Just taking the definition of the word "category," it means a general or comprehensive division of something. I've been thinking lately how one of the amazing things about ProcessWire is that it provides a more fluid sense of categories than we usually associate with a CMS, and that with ProcessWire we can give users a more flexible way to move pages among those categories Sometimes, is category is a "hard" classification, and other times it is a "soft" one. For example, a store site may want snowblowers inside the "big machinery" category (hard classification), but also move them quickly in and out of the "featured" category depending on the weather (and have them appear then disapear from a slideshow accordingly). Both classifications are "categories," in their own way. One moves a lot, the other doesn't. Sorry Joss, I seem to be veering into general territory. I know you usually don't mind that though! Thanks, Matthew
