Textpattern 4.0: Now for Client Sites!
I have come to really love Textpattern. I know there are a lot of choices with blogging/CMS software these days; alongside the venerable Movable Type lies Wordpress, Serendipity and Drupal, not to mention countless custom apps.
Some people try Textpattern and have a hard time wrapping their head around the system. For me, it has been far more intuitive than MT, which ran this site for over a year. TXP’s administration design takes the content and structure separation ideal very seriously, and not only provides structural sections, but content categories. It is this nuanced level of detail that has made me a fan since I first installed it for graphicPUSH in December 2004.
The software also boasts a teeming developer network and a very active forum for problem-solving, announcements and plug-in development. In fact, Dean and company recently released version 4.0 of the software — an ultra stable, feature-laden milestone that in my mind sets the bar for ease-of-use and flexibility.
I like Textpattern so much, in fact, that I have begun using it for client websites. First out the door is a new site for Rapid Power Management, a consultant for the deregulated power market in Texas. While the layout and design are not ground-breaking, there are some interesting techniques and technical things I explored with this site.
- The navigation on the left is dynamically built with sections, and each article builds a subnav item underneath the main header.
- Each section’s look is controlled by a single call in the body tag, so the section Energy Procurement has
<body id="energyprocurement">. The CSS for each ID styles the button’s color, the color and background of the<h2>and the line in the right pullquote. Each section has its own template page in TXP. - Every article has custom meta description and keywords using the techniques I detailed in my tutorial.
- Although Textpattern really requires a Unix server with .htaccess to work to its full potential, this site lives on a Microsoft IIS server running PHP and MySQL. The only restriction is not being able to enable clean URL paths, thus the nasty numbered PHP calls in the address bar. (I really fought the client on this since URL paths are critical for good SEO, but they were not willing to switch hosts.)
- Only four plug-ins are used: Johan Nilsson’s glx_admin_db_tables, Rob Sable’s rss_admin_show_adv_opts (since the client uses the custom fields and this saves an extra click) and rss_suparchive and finally zem_contact from Threshold State.
This site started on Textpattern 1.0r3, a somewhat stable but feature-thin version that required a patchwork of plug-ins to accomplish desired functionality. I actively follow the SVN development, and after watching the hundreds of updates, bug fixes and feature additions fly by my RSS reader, I upgraded RPM’s site to 4.0 before going live. The process, like most things TXP, was simple:
- Rename old Textpattern directory “Textpattern-old.”
- Upload entire new “Textpattern” directory to server.
- Copy old “config.php” into new directory.
- Delete “setup” folder (there for new installations; provides a serious security hole if left live).
- Login. Everything updates automagically.
The whole process took less than two minutes and went flawlessly. The new administrative interface is wonderful — things that were once buried in configuration and preference files are now available in the site admin. The only thing I had to do was re-add my four custom fields inside the “Advanced Preferences” panel (making sure they were in the same order and nomenclature as before since the actual DB data did not change), and the database hooked into the calls right away.
I am so impressed with Textpattern, in fact, that I just accepted another web design project that requires a CMS. I am also currently redesigning kevinpottsdesign.com, so expect a totally fresh design that is generated 100% from Textpattern. At this point, I could not imagine using anything else.
Comments.
Jeff Adams
- wrote the following on Tuesday August 30, 2005
Mark
- wrote the following on Wednesday September 14, 2005
Kevin
- wrote the following on Thursday September 15, 2005
Shannon
- wrote the following on Thursday July 19, 2007
