Having fun with dear PW

[Joss]

I thought I would just pop by to say how much fun I am having.

I don't really get the chance to put websites together at the moment for some complicated reasons, but I have put some days aside to nail together a new blog about something.

And I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Especially all the little tweaks I have been making.

For instance, I want the layout on the front page to be very neat, but that means the titles of articles have to be a certain length, as do the summaries and the images, where they are available. That particular constriction doesn't necessarily work in other areas of the site. 

With PW, the answer is dead simple. TWO title fields, both with the counter switched on and a little note reminding me of the ideal length. I also have two summary fields for the same reason.

I have a similar thing with images.

I have made up a Photoshop template with Artboards for all my various image sizes - featured image, summary image for the front page, story images for the article, sidebar images and the SEO image. 

Of course, the fact that I can have an assortment of images in my PW template means I can take advantage of this PS template.

And, because some articles just don't have an image, I have a little note telling me to write a longer summary if there is no image. 

Oh, and a bit of PHP that looks for the short title and uses the long one if I forgot to write a short one ... and so on.

I know this is all mundane stuff compared to some of the cleverer functionality Ryan and the various mod devs are coming up with, but for me, it is this simpler versatility that makes Processwire so powerful.

That I can just shove in another field to get around a certain problem and bring it up as an alternative with one line of PHP makes sites a joy to develop.

Enough so that I actually spent a happy hour today neatening up my code, indenting it nicely and putting helpful little comments everywhere. I didn't need to do it, but I have worked so much faster than I could have with any other system, I had the time - so I had my little bit of fun.

[Robin S]

1 hour ago, Joss said:

Oh, and a bit of PHP that looks for the short title and uses the long one if I forgot to write a short one ... and so on.

It's those little things where you find some elegant, succinct way to do exactly what you want that make development so satisfying.

The only frustrating thing is that unless you work in an office of fellow code nerds you don't get to share those "nailed it" moments. Like, in your home office you call your loved one over and gesticulate enthusiastically at the screen but they're all...

[SamC]

When I worked with Drupal, then discovered PW...