MatthewSchenker

Greetings, I've spent a lot of time (really, a lot) on the whole subject of front-end editing. It's something that users really want, but I agree with Ryan that we need to make sure it works in the whole scheme of site development. I think it's good to make a distinction between two separate but somewhat similar practices: Front-end editing In-place editing The difference, I like to say, is the idea of "literal" content control. The one that causes trouble is "in-place editing," where clients want to have a window right there on the page in the exact spot where the material appears. They want to create and edit content in that "literal" space. This has many problems. "Front-end editing" is more feasible -- with good development practices. The user can link to an editing function for the page. But they are taken to a proper interface for editing or creating content that takes into account that content cannot always be placed so directly. The interface to edit and create content is not literal. Seen this way, it's up to us as developers to explain to clients what each of these methods is, and why even though one seems prettier it's actually not as good for their sites. It's a few extra steps, but if we design an interface that is easy to understand, users have no problem with the extra steps. Thanks, Matthew

Hello, Yes, that's why I kind of describe my method as "instant categories" rather than what you might call "true categories." The method I describe is a good way to give users power to create actions based on a variety of easy choices, then to use those choices for a number of responses. For example, this could be used to create slideshows or latest news listings based on which pages the user checked as "featured." It's good to make a distinction between this and "true categories"! Thanks, Matthew

Hey Joss, Glad that helped. I think this is a good topic. I'd be curious to know about other methods. The good thing about this is that once your pages are "tagged" with the checkboxes, you can do all sorts of searches and listings based on their status, and at any time you can instantly update them to exist elsewhere, appear in "related" pages, or do any number of other actions on them. Thanks, Matthew PS: I posted my original material on an iPad, and as you saw the results were very messy! I ran to my desktop and cleaned it up. Can someone please check and see if something is going on with the forum software?

Hey Joss, If I understand you correctly, this is something I do extensively in the sites I'm building now. In addition to placing items in the page tree in the admin area, I create a series of checkboxes, each representing a "category." The user can check off any number of them, thereby creating what I call "instant categories." You can then search anywhere you want based on those checkboxes. For example, you could create lists filtered by any combination of checked boxes. This could apply to menus or any other pages. You essentially search based on if a box is checked (state = 1). For example, in your case you could have checkboxes for "tech" and "pw." When you create a page, check one or both of these. In your template, let's say you wanted to just post the "intro_text" only for the "tech" adticles (whose "tech" checkbox have been checked). You would do this: <?php $sangchecks = $pages->find("template=article, tech=1, sort=-date, limit=50"); foreach($sangchecks as $sangcheck) { ?> <div id="listings_box"> <img src="<?php echo $sangcheck->intro_text ?>" /> </div> <?php } ?> You can just switch the line calling the tech choice to include both checkboxes if you want: $sangchecks = $pages->find("template=article, tech=1, pw=1, sort=-date, limit=50"); That takes care of the categories. To get those checkboxes into your URLs, I will refer you to a post Ryan made on a similar subject a couple of weeks ago: http://www.processwire.com/talk/topic/1799-routes-and-rewriting-urls/page-2'>http://processwire.com/talk/topic/1799-routes-and-rewriting-urls/page-2 Putting all of this together should get you what you want. Thanks, Matthew

Hello, Maybe those of you in the UK could all agree to take on one American boarder for the conference? Thanks, Matthew

Hey Joss, This is one of those books I come back to again and again through the years (actually, it's a 20-something-volume set in its entirety). A lot of the cultural elements have been disputed, but the symbolic references are quite amazing for any field. What is relevant here is its references to human reaction to symbols. Specifically, there is a section in The Golden Bough describing how ancient warriors in some cultures ate their adversaries when they won a war. Not as a sign of disrespect, but as an admission that even if you win a war, your adversaries possess desirable powers. Consuming your adversaries was seen as a way to literally take their powers into yourself. Just symbolically, of course. Thanks, Matthew

Greetings, OK, now for an obscure reference... Has anyone else here read "The Golden Bough"? I can explain later what I am talking about. Thanks, Matthew

Hi Joss, I also saw the Star Trek movies the first time around... You're talking about the ones that played on the little screen in living room, right? Thanks, Matthew

Greetings Everyone, I sensed a buzzing in my ears... Oh, hello Joss! Quick bit of relevant history: Joss and I have tag-teamed on numerous, lengthy discussions on core CMS issues, stretching back into some obscure Joomla technical groups where he and I voiced loudly the need for that CMS to adopt better custom-field options, as well as other issues. Those were heated discussions, zeroing in on gaps in Joomla's central functioning. But even in those inherently critical discussions, Joss and I both stayed positive and constructive and tried to do our part to move Joomla forward to improve. In those discussions (which I could dig up for anyone who is interested) I often made comparisons between Joomla and other systems as a way of exemplifying what I thought Joomla could become -- again trying to do so in a constructive way. Joss and I remained a virtual tag-team throughout those discussions, online and offline. Which brings us back to the current discussion... I spent a good portion of 2011, and most of 2012, on a quest to test several CMSs and make an honest assessment of them. By the end of 2012, I had deeply tested the following systems: ProcessWire PyroCMS ModX ExpressionEngine Joomla Drupal Concrete5 It's pretty clear which system I have chosen! But that's not the point. The point is, I gave all these systems an unbiased try, and I learned a lot by looking at them honestly. (With Joomla, I did more than "try," as it was my core system for about four years.) Some of these systems have such large gaps in their capabilities I could not continue using then for the kind of sites I want to develop. But others on this list have strong benefits. Still, in the end, the flexibility and complete openness of ProcessWire's API made it a winner across the board for me. The systems that come closest in my mind to ProcessWire's capabilities are EE, ModX, and PyroCMS. Again, each of those systems has its benefits that ProcessWire could learn from (perhaps we could get into specifics in another discussion). But again and again ProcessWire proved itself to be a more natural and flexible system. We should acknowledge that there is a development philosophy behind each system that appeals to certain kinds of users. For example, users who do not want to look at code, and users who want templates that lay out specifically what goes where in their sites, will be happier with systems like Joomla or Drupal. If someone is just counting the number of available extensions, ProcessWire can't compete with Joomla or Drupal (which have tens of thousands). I don't think the raw number of extensions is meaningful at all, but that is also for another discussion. To many users, there is comfort in high numbers. For people who want a fairly open system, with control of their URLs, but which still make some templating assumptions, Concrete5 and PyroCMS are good. When you get into "completely open" systems you can seriously compare EE, ModX, and ProcessWire, at which point there are more refined choices like the use of tags, how files are handled, the speed of the interface, and more. The specific comparisons go on and on... I much prefer positive discussions. That does not mean we cannot be critical. It's more a comment on the goals of a discussion. It's depressing when all you have achieved is a slamming of something (or someone) else. It's much more exciting if in the end you improve your system (or yourself) by taking an honest look around you. Also, to be blunt, it is smarter to be constructive. Of course, it's also more work: it's just so easy to slam someone or something, especially in a forum where you know everyone already agrees with you! The fact is, EE, PyroCMS, ModX (and other systems) were built by very capable and creative people. We should strive to learn whatever we can from their strengths and weaknesses, while simultaneously stating clearly where ProcessWire does something better. In these forums, we are always communicating to at least two vast audiences: 1. People already dedicated to ProcessWire 2. People testing the waters or shopping around For both audiences, we are better off being positive and constructive. Although there is lots of anger and criticism on public forums, I believe that most people are attracted to a positive environment. For audience #1, we are better off pinpointing where ProcessWire can improve (while being constructive). For audience #2, it is important to point out where ProcessWire is better than other systems (while being constructive). Bottom line: I have found that ProcessWire is better across the board in significant ways. There is definite value to pointing out where ProcessWire is better. We just need to do so while being aware of the intelligence of other systems. Thanks, Matthew

Hey Soma, It's funny, because I knew of D3, but hadn't really looked at it. Then -- after using ProcessWire -- I took a real look and saw an immediate connection. For people who come from a Joomla/Drupal background, these sorts of capabilities were not so much on the table. With ProcessWire, suddenly the whole world of flexible uses of data are presented to you. Thanks, Matthew

Hello Everyone, I've always been fascinated by data visualization. Over the past few weeks, I've been experimenting. More recently, I read a reference to D3 and decided to check it out. In moments, it all made terrific sense to me. Soon I realized why it makes so much sense: there is something very familiar about the philosophy of D3! Can you guess what it is? Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this familiarity, and if so, have you used D3 in conjunction with ProcessWire? To see what I'm talking about, go here -> http://d3js.org/ Thanks, Matthew

Hey Ryan, This is interesting. Seems like you are getting attention in the EE world! Maybe you should keep posting and see how it gets reported over there. Thanks, Matthew

Greetings, Glad to find this! I was searching for an answer to a similar question. Would this same technique be effective in a ProcessWire-based e-commerce application? I'm looking to use ProcessWire to build product pages, and allow customers to place orders as pages, then send the details of that order to FoxyCart. I'm looking at other techniques as well. Thanks, Matthew

Hey Everyone, Having just migrated from another CMS, the "before and after" is fresh on my mind each day I work with ProcessWire. My comparison focuses on the experience of building sites before and after ProcessWire, This requires a couple of videos, as opposed to still shots. Here you go: Before ProcessWire Thanks, Matthew EDIT: Something is wrong with the forum embed function...

Greetings, Terrific work! Wow, really excellent attention to color and design. The entire site is filled with action and yet it maintains an easy and elegant appearance throughout. I know very well how difficult it is to achieve that "full but uncluttered" presentation. A terrific example to include in the showcase. Thank you for sharing. Matthew

Greetings Ryan, Since it's not possible to "multi-like" a post, I'll just unofficially add them here... Like Like Like Like Like Like Like Like Like Like Like Like I've been waiting for the Skyscraper profile to be available for the newest version ProcessWire. There is a lot in that profile that is extremely valuable. Thank you again for all your amazing work. Matthew

Greetings tinacious, Excellent work on the site and the video. I think it would be terrific to have a library of videos like this here on ProcessWire site. Also, the idea of training videos for clients is excellent. This inspires some general ideas... Every project looks a little different, but there are some basic understandings we all need to get across to clients. And the more each of us is able to convey these ProcessWire understandings to our clients, the more all of us benefit. I wonder if somewhere down the line we could all collaborate on some kind of general structure for instructional videos? Kind of a set of "best practices" and maybe some skeleton scripts? Just thinking out loud. Thank you tinacious for posting this! Matthew

Hey Diogo, This is very interesting, and not something you see every day. Thanks to you, the author has a site that is simple but unique. My only issue is that the smaller books get lost, and so do the ones at the bottom of the "stack." Even though you can drag the titles around, after a short while you have titles on top of each other again. I tested this on the iPad, and everything works great, but the screen real estate gets filled even more quickly. As an expansion, it would be interesting to have each book link to a page for that title. Letting visitors shuffle the books around like this is an amazing central concept. I can imagine using this for a lot of other projects -- not just books. For example, this same idea could apply to photos. I wonder if it would help to start off with two or three different stacks (for example), maybe arranged by theme? Thanks, Matthew

Greetings lenoir, If you run it that way, you replace the image. That's fine, but you could also use a CSS filter to change it to sepia when the image is rendered. There are still some cross-browser issues, but check here for info -> http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/css-filter-effects There is also a nice JQuery method for doing this -> http://css.dzone.com/articles/html5-image-effects-sepia With either of these methods, you could easily run it right inside your template. Thanks, Matthew

Greetings diogo, Excellent idea. This got me thinking... It seems the concept could be expanded systamatically. I'm still working it out, but I'm imagining a system that detects development/testing elements. Maybe a way to tag certain CSS classes/IDs and place development JQuery plugins inside a specified folder? Then you could have a ProcessWire conditional that checks to see if certain CSS is present, or if there are any JQuery plugins inside that specified folder. If yes, the developer elements would happen; if no, then the "regular" site elements happen. I like this! Thanks, Matthew

Hey Diogo, I like ArtRage a lot, and it's great along with the Intuos Tablet. ArtRage excels at "realistic" artwork. I also use Illustrator, but in my opinion it does not come close to the kind of painterly effects you can get with ArtRage. I'll take a look at MyPaint... Thanks, Matthew

Greetings, Seems that one of the links had to do with more than just a "side"! Thanks, Matthew

Hey Everyone, Joss, can you fix the link in your last post? It's kind of truncated... Thanks, Matthew

Greetings Ryan, Yes, I was looking into this as you wrote! I don't run too many extensions, but I found one called "PageFont," which I didn't recognize, and which doesn't seem to have any information. I removed it and the links went away. Thanks, Matthew