Padloper status end 2023

[joe_g]

Hi all,

Is there someone here who tried to start a padloper project from scratch lately? I tried about a year ago and the docs were somewhat missing. I'm curious to hear about the experience to start from zero now. I can the see the docs are a bit more in place?

My problem, at the time, was the examples was written with a lot of HTMX. HTMX is amazing but it's hard to read, and there was no plain non-HTMX example from what I remember. From what I remember padloper itself was returning a lot of markup, where I'd rather create all the markup myself. Not only for clarity, but to understand how it works from scratch.

I've got another opportunity to start a webshop project and I'd love to avoid doing a shopify integration, but I'm not too keen on spending days going through existing markup like last time. So therefore I'd be curious to hear other peoples experiences.

J

[kongondo]

Hi @joe_g,

Apologies for the very late reply. I have been away.

First, thanks for your continued interest in Padloper despite the difficulties you have previously encountered.

On 11/16/2023 at 9:53 AM, joe_g said:

I tried about a year ago and the docs were somewhat missing.

The docs are still not great, sorry. I am currently working on releasing version 009 of Padloper after which I'll introduce a soft feature freeze and solely focus on working on documentation and bug fixes. I decided to focus on video documentation rather than written ones at the moment.

On 11/16/2023 at 9:53 AM, joe_g said:

My problem, at the time, was the examples was written with a lot of HTMX. HTMX is amazing but it's hard to read, and there was no plain non-HTMX example from what I remember.

You are right. I focused on using htmx since that was the easiest way I could illustrate how to build a shop using ajax. It was my intention to quickly follow this up with other examples using jQuery and non-ajax examples. Apologies that I never got round to this but my plan for the video documentation is to start from scratch with very simple examples, first without ajax, then with ajax and subsequently cover more advanced techniques.

On 11/16/2023 at 9:53 AM, joe_g said:

From what I remember padloper itself was returning a lot of markup, where I'd rather create all the markup myself.

I take full responsibility for this misconception.  Padloper does not produce any markup except for a checkout form which you don't have to use. Perhaps my (complicated) htmx examples created the impression that the markup was coming from Padloper. Padloper closely aligns with the ProcessWire approach; it gets out of your way but is always on hand to assist you with its powerful API. 

On 11/16/2023 at 9:53 AM, joe_g said:

I've got another opportunity to start a webshop project and I'd love to avoid doing a shopify integration, but I'm not too keen on spending days going through existing markup like last time. So therefore I'd be curious to hear other peoples experiences.

I don't know what your timescales are but I think this would be a great opportunity to learn how to use Padloper's API. I know the video docs are not ready but perhaps your project could help shape my video documentation? Please let me know.

Thanks.

[joe_g]

Thanks for getting back. I don't mean this as criticism, this is only to check if it would make sens to try padloper with this particlar project I have in front of me. I'm not in a rush, if not this project there will be another one later.

If I think about it, this is what would make me try it out (if not now then maybe some time)

— written docs with documentation of api
— written MVP that is easy to copy paste that contains no extra markup or code - so just the absolute minimum of HTML, like most of Ryans examples. This is especially important with the cart, since the cart is the selling point of Padloper (for me, at least, otherwise I might as well use formbuilder and it's checkout).

I personally much prefer text documentation, since I can copy paste examples and scan the page quicker. For example FieldtypeTable has mostly video documentation and to try and find out how the selectors should look like to search a FieldtypeTable is an exercise in scrubbing back and forth in that one particular video.

I have to think about whether I can get involved in the process, but thanks for the invitation!

[kongondo]

10 hours ago, joe_g said:

Thanks for getting back.

No worries 🙂.

10 hours ago, joe_g said:

I don't mean this as criticism

I didn't for once consider it that way 😄. Everything you said was spot on and constructive. I am just frustrated at myself that I have not been able to bring the docs to a reasonable standard (yet).

10 hours ago, joe_g said:

I personally much prefer text documentation, since I can copy paste examples and scan the page quicker. For example FieldtypeTable has mostly video documentation and to try and find out how the selectors should look like to search a FieldtypeTable is an exercise in scrubbing back and forth in that one particular video

I take your point and will consider this. My plan has been to make short (5 minutes maximum) video.

Thanks.

 

[bernhard]

14 hours ago, kongondo said:

My plan has been to make short (5 minutes maximum) video.

Good luck. I always fail at that 😄 

And also good luck with the docs. I know how much work that is, so don't let that feel you bad. It's not easy.