Questions about ProcessWire for building a Magazine

[elmago79]

Hi, there, ProcessWire community. I'm seriously considering ProcessWire to make a Magazine-like site.

But first, allow me to indulge in some history. Two years ago I was searching for a CMS to make a site for a magazine. I remember Processwire seemed very attractive but in the end I chose Wordpress. Boy did I ended up regretting that decision! Not that the site doesn't work, it works just fine, it just that maintaining it has been such a pain in the ass (and ended up stealing editing time, as I was also the editor). This year, as I transition to a new position, we hired a developer to simplify the admin burden that's currently placed on the very small staff of the magazine. With more than 2,500 posts, all of whom depended on custom plug-ins, we decided that moving out of Wordpress was out of the questions, even if it took so much time, we were to invested in it.

In conclusion, I don't wan't to fall into the same mistakes and now I'm thinking about building a new site for a new in ProcessWire. It seems like it can already do a lot of the things my previous site did without the need of plugins: tags, categories, multiple authors, multiple post formats. But some plugins I think I will need, such as the one for adding fields to images (for properly crediting the images). I would also love a Markdown editor, which it seems currently doesn't exist.

So I have a few question for you:

* How stable are plug ins? Am I going to run into the same problem as Wordpress, when plugins stop working from one update to the next?

* How easy is ProcessWire to update? I'm chosing it in part for the roadmap, and I want to take advantage of new functionality when it approaches?

* Will 2k visitors, 6K pages daily be any problem with ProcessWire?

* Can I have a template for a single page?

* How come there's no markdown editor?

I am mainly an editor with some self taught front-end skills. All the php I know is from this last two years battling against Wordpress. I already feel I'm a little over my head but I hope I'm making the right choice

[LostKobrakai]

I'll just answer these one by one.

• It depends. You should always test updates locally before deploying it to the server, so you see if something isn't working on a newer version. It's still the work of the modules creator or the community to fix issues if present, so it's kinda the same principle as with wordpress. But you'll most likely not need as much plugins as for wordpress and more than that, you'll most likely won't need it for remodeling core cms functionalities but rather for smaller enhancements. There's also a compatibility list for each module in the modules directory and most likely a dedicated forum thread to each module, where you can always seek support. 
• ProcessWire is quite easy to update. There's now even a module from Ryan, that does backup the database and the old wire/ directory for you. As your site and the cms are in seperate directories an update also can't change stuff from your site, so with the database backup and the wire/ directory you can always roll back if something broke.
• ProcessWire can easily handle lots of users. It has lot's of great caching methods build in and you could even buy procache which works on the .htaccess level to even bypass php (only useful for static sites)
• You can have as many templates as you need. It really depends on your usecases and on your way of handling templatefiles.
• You can use markdown with any textarea inputfield of processwire. Markdown is parsed by a textformatter and therefore isn't dependent on the editor. If you don't like CKEditor maybe have a look at this fresh addition to community modules: https://processwire.com/talk/topic/9164-release-inputfield-ace-extended/

[pwired]

Welcome to processwire.

Let's face it, without offense, but wordpress has been quite a few times in the news, and recently is,

about it's plugins being exploited and has millions of hacked wordpress sites. That must give you something

to think about. Secondly with processwire you don't have to learn your way around a new system that:

"let you" make websites. With processwire you are going to make websites directly from the core.

That means that all the experience you already have learned in the past with html, css, php, etc.

you can start using directly with processwire and make a website in any way you would like to see it.

2k visitors, 6K pages daily won't be any problem because Processwire has been made scalable

from the ground up. About templates that is where Processwire really shines because you can literally

make your own templates both in the backend (admin) and in the frontend.

About markdown editor, here are some good reads:

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/4213-markdown/

http://modules.processwire.com/categories/textformatter/

http://wiki.processwire.com/index.php/Text_Formatters

I am mainly an editor

Open this page:

https://processwire.com/api/multi-language-support/multi-language-urls/

and read the part where it says: Changing the rich text editor

About upgrading processwire in the future:

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/52-how-do-i-upgrade-processwire-to-the-latest-version/

About making your right choice, no fanboy talk here but from my own (and others) experience

if you compare processwire with the "popular" big 3 out there, processwire is going to save you

a lot of time and headache. Isn't that what we all seek over "popularity" ?

In processwire a lot of practical functionality is already included, no need for those

to plugin afterwards e.g. you will have multi-language out of the box.

Don't forget browsing the processwire api and the modules:

https://processwire.com/api/

https://processwire.com/api/fieldtypes/images/

https://processwire.com/api/variables/templates/

https://processwire.com/api/variables/fields/

http://modules.processwire.com/

[icietla]

To sum up, with Processwire : "More you use it, more you love it" ! 

[elmago79]

Thanks a lot for your answers. I have a follow up question: is it possible to have art directed pages (pages with custom css, js or html) in processwire? I've yet to find any documentation about this an it is an important feature.

[LostKobrakai]

By art-directed to you mean per-page or overall custom css/js/html? To begin with the whole frontend is custom in processwire. The cms doesn't enforce any markup, while a few module happily do generate markup if you wish, so you've the full control. If you need to be able to change presentation from the backend, build it that way. It really depends on what exactly you need.

[tpr]

I've yet to find any documentation about this

I've come to the conclusion that if I don't find any documentation on a question then possibly my question is wrong

With PW you can build your site the way you want, as LostKobrakai said.

[elmago79]

By art-directed to you mean per-page or overall custom css/js/html? To begin with the whole frontend is custom in processwire. The cms doesn't enforce any markup, while a few module happily do generate markup if you wish, so you've the full control. If you need to be able to change presentation from the backend, build it that way. It really depends on what exactly you need.

[elmago79]

I mean per-page css/js/html. I will try to explain myself with an example:

Supose I have a blog in my site, in which every page has different fonts, perhaps different column, etc, just like in a printed magazine. The blog posts all use the same fields: a title, subtitle, excerpt, body, authors, etc... so it would make sense for all to use the same template. But also, they need custom css/js for each page.

As you say, I would like to be able to set this changes from the backend. Bur how would I go about it?

[pwired]

I would like to be able to set this changes from the backend.

Here you go:

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/2782-template-design-better-route/

[LostKobrakai]

If these layouts are predefined, then you could go and use FieldtypeOption to simply build a selectbox for the backend where the editor can choose. In the template file it would be matter of a simple if / else structure. You could even use includes or wireIncludeFile or wireRenderFile, to import the different layouts, so they're available to other templates as well (if you need that or simply for more structured code).

If the html stays the same you could easily use file fields to let the editor upload css / js files. These would be dynamically added to the site. It's better to use files instead of textfield (which would also work from a backend point of view) because it's better to include files instead of inline codes. 

If you need the html to also change you've two options. Either use again the file field for a php file and include that file, or use a textfield with the new Inputfield ACE Extended, but for the second option I'd suggest using a templating language, as it's easier and more secure than handling real php code.

[elmago79]

Thanks for the answers. It actually is very simple! The file field seems like the thing I was looking for.

As an extra, It used to drive me crazy that in Wordpress I had to load all this js to every page that I was just going to need for certain kind of pages. The linked conversation has the added bonus of explaining how to avoid this.

[arjen]

Thanks for the answers. It actually is very simple! The file field seems like the thing I was looking for.

As an extra, It used to drive me crazy that in Wordpress I had to load all this js to every page that I was just going to need for certain kind of pages. The linked conversation has the added bonus of explaining how to avoid this.

You will absolutely love ProcessWire and this feeling you got? You will get that a lot . Just unlearn the illogical of other systems and take the most simple route. The thing with ProcessWire is: don't make it harder than is has to be. Good luck with your project.

[qtguru]

At OP, take my experience i came to PW with the experience of Wordpress, Zend , Yii Framework , ASP.NET MVC and the biggest advice you will get from me is almost the same as above "Just unlearn the illogical (Only Wordpress is illogical) pattern of other systems and take the most simple route."  and also Template,Hooks and Module and wireData are the only thing you should really focus on to understand PW. 

[arjen]

Agreed, when you are used to working with frameworks you can largely build your own logic   I was therefore more referring to CMS's like WordPress, Joomla, et cetera.

[qtguru]

Oh my God, our former application in Wordpress still gives me nightmares pending we move to PW, with PW i am quite comfortable things will be alright as the API is just so easy its why am eager to contribute to 3.0 to make it superb.