Themeing Textpattern - intro · 267 days ago
It has been over a year that I haven’t played with Textpattern, my favourite CMS. So I decided to see how the community was getting on. Seems to be activity, maybe a revival is in the works. Looking around the internet for Textpattern related information, I came across an interesting article at Capsize Designs.
Fair enough, a good unbiased take on some of the other CMS’s & blogging software/programs out there. Looking around the site I came across another article, ‘The Perfect CMS (or Lack Thereof)‘. The article lists 6 criteria for the perfect CMS. … “Free, open source, easy templating, easy theme distribution, official and numerous modules, and an easy to use admin interface.” … The one I am interested in, for this article is; ‘Easily Distributable and Interchangeable Themes’.
To quote Mike, the owner (do we have a better word for someone who runs a web log), has this to say;
… “Pretty much all of the front runners are going to have at least a few themes you can use, but many of them don’t have an easy way to install them or change them. For example, changing themes in Textpattern means a long process of copying and pasting into the web interface template editor.”
Getting to my point, or bases of this article, down in the comments, I found this … Robert ‘wet’ Wetzlmayr Says:
“Mike, as far as it goes for your complaints regarding Textpattern, I hope I can drop a few hints to remedy your disappointments.
File based templating is feasible with Christian Nowak’s cnk_versioning, and template distribution among various intallations is a breeze with Mike West’s mcw_templates. Both plugins are open source, and as you properly noticed, they are easily adaptable to fit your needs if some arise. If you’d rather have a new feature in the Textpattern core code, your contributions are very welcome as a message to our developer mailing list (txp-dev [at] textpattern.com) or a donation to any individual who codes for a living.”
The reply … Mike Says:
… “Nowak’s plugin does make file based templating “feasible” but a pain in the butt to export, edit, and import. Kind of ruins the point.
Mike West’s plugin is a great idea but it’s only as useful as the people who use it. For example, if you’re trying to install a theme from textplates, there’s a pretty tiny chance that the theme creator used mcw_templates to export, which means you’re having to copy/paste again.”
Now the idea, can we make Textpattern easier to theme?
I am going to look at these 2 plugins, see how it work and maybe put the process here as a guide for anyone to use.
— Randy Gregory
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Welcome · 268 days ago
This is my site that I hope to use for info about my learning curve on Rhino3D & Textpattern … I hope you all enjoy!
— Randy Gregory