Video Finally Up
I’ve been promising this for a while… but I have a good excuse.
My dog ate my homework
No… that’s a flashback to a nightmare I had last night about college.
Posting Video Online Is A Pain
I could write a short course on what works and what doesn’t… and the growing pains of the video-sharing websites.
I spent way too much time researching different services that would allow me to post video online without burning a bunch of bandwidth. Some specifically prohibit commercial exploits. Others do not allow me to choose to keep my videos private.
One service I’ve been toying around with is VideoEgg. Problem with them is a very small display area for the video and spotty video quality.
Then there’s this strange little quirk with YouTube.
YouTube wouldn’t allow me to create an account for weeks. Then suddenly it dawned on me… “Could it be the fact that I’m born on leap year?” No. That would be… idiotic.
Sure enough… As soon as I put in a fake birthday, no problem.
So now I’m waiting for my account confirmation email to arrive and I’m thinking “Screw it… I need to get this video online.”
So Here It Is… Video Of the Easy Templating
With some of the background drama out of the way, I threw an AVI up on a server. The size of the screen isn’t huge, and in some areas I wish I had zoomed in, but this isn’t a George Lucas production… I’m trying to show you some of the behind the scenes workings of the admin.
Update — 10:58 AM June 8, I’ve reformatted the video into Flash, made it larger, and corrected the link.
Please feel free to post your comments about what you see, or questions you have.
John says:
June 8th, 2006 at 4:59 am
Is it just me or can anyone else not get anything but audio from this avi?
Bill says:
June 8th, 2006 at 8:01 am
It’s not just you, John. I get a Codec error with MediaPlayer 9. No video - just audio.
sunsean says:
June 8th, 2006 at 11:20 am
Video looks great. Templating seems easy enough. I look forward to more videos and perhaps a demo version later.
Curious though, often I will design a box of sorts for a client to use in anyway they desire. I want them to reuse the box and be able to edit the content/title, but I don’t want them pasting all sorts of html all the time to do so. Does CMSLaunch provide an easy solution for this?
jackborn says:
June 8th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
I’m not sure what you mean by a box of sorts. In the video you see me use the WYSIWYG editor. No need for the client to paste html.
Is that what you mean?
sunsean says:
June 8th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
Well lets say I have a box using the following code:
Title
Content
Would there be anyway to change that into a mini-template so the client wouldn’t have cut and paste the HTML. If that still isn’t clear, don’t bother, my question will most likely be answered as you reveal more of the project.
sunsean says:
June 8th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Sorry, it would seem my html was stipped from the post. The above was supposed to look like the following with all [] replaced with <>
[div id="infobox"][div][div]
[h1]Title[/h1]
Content
[/div][/div][/div]
jackborn says:
June 8th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
It’s not easy adding html to a post… I’m sorry. WordPress.
Anyhow, it seems that you’re asking a question that I thought was answered in the video… but let me go over it just to be clear.
As it currently stands, your client could copy and paste from Word, or just start typing into the WYSIWYG editor. The WYSIWYG editor creates some html in the background that the client doesn’t see. So if they can be taught to add a heading to their content, using the dropdown as shown in the video, then the h1 tags are added.
This html is stored in the database and then gets added into the layout when a certain page is viewed.
All of those divs you put in your markup could be created in the html of your template. Inside of those three divs you would put {{content-goes-here}} and that’s where the h1 and rest of the content html and text shows up.
Does that answer your question? If not, keep trying… I’ll answer it eventually.
sunsean says:
June 9th, 2006 at 2:16 am
I understand how the template works, that’s neato. Now lets say that my client wants 2 of those “boxes” I made earlier. And they want them displayed on the main page. Would there be a way of saying something similar to:
{box}
<h1>Title 1</h1>
Content
{/box}
{box}
<h1>Title 2</h1>
content
{/box}
Hope that’s a bit clearer. If not, no worries, my question will be answered as I see more of the software.
Fransjo says:
June 9th, 2006 at 4:10 am
Just saw the video … it’s funny (good way) cuz it’s alost the same a my CMS. Only my CMS has multiple templates. But the basic id is the same. Well .. good luck developing it …. greets
Yolio says:
June 9th, 2006 at 8:12 am
Sorry I couldnt find your email anywhere on the website, may I ask you to contact me
Thanks
jackborn says:
June 9th, 2006 at 10:47 am
@Sunsean,
You’re explanation leads me to think that what you’re trying to do is post two separate content blocks on a page. Yes, it can be done. No, it’s not as simple as what I showed in the video.
The video was meant to give an idea of how I would expect the CMS to be used in most situations.
However, the templating engine I am using makes it easy to add any PHP code you want to your actual template.
I’m expecting that when I release the trial version of the software or even after the full launch that there will be plenty of “How do I do X” questions.
When I released Ultimate Form Mail I never could have predicted the multitude of uses for the code and so as the requests for help started coming in I answered each question and helped my clients figure out how to use the flexibility built into the code to do what they wanted. And on those occasions where a new bell or whistle needed to be added… I added it.
jackborn says:
June 9th, 2006 at 10:51 am
@Fransjo,
Sounds like you had the same reaction to the existing CMS choices — roll your own.
This CMS too has multiple templates that can be used across multiple pages. But unlike many CMS’s (and blog systems) the templating engine I use can create everything you need for the layout in one simple html (or php) file — as you see from the video. Most systems have two, three, or possibly even dozens of little layout pieces that are pulled together each time a visitor hits a webpage. IMO one file per template is better than a dozen. Easier to change down the road.
Now, if you want to have several files pulled into your layout as various independent blocks, you can easily add PHP to your template file and pull in these other files using the native PHP include() function.
jackborn says:
June 9th, 2006 at 10:52 am
@Yolio,
I sent you two emails… one had some mistakes. Hope you got ‘em.
Gareth says:
June 16th, 2006 at 6:47 am
Hi,
looks good… how did you get the compression so good on the video??
cheers,
G
TÃ¥kesinn says:
August 16th, 2006 at 12:24 am
So simple it’s beautifull. This is an original CMS. It actually lets you manage content and not just plugins and blocks. HTML template based CMS’s are usually the best CMS’s to use.
A couple feature requests!
1: A new “Resources” pane
This lets you manage script files, stylesheets, and other standard web-site resources
Would probably work like putting this in your head:
{{resources-go-here}}
2: A new “Media” pane
Managing media like audio, video, and flash.
Just some thoughts…
James says:
January 30th, 2007 at 11:29 am
Sunsean,
I just created a cms for a client of mine who wanted the exact functionality you have requested. I didn’t use the FckEditor as in Jack’s cms but used TinyMCE instead. I created text links just above the editor that would load html at the cursor insertion point. I had a link for adding lists; one for a styled contact box, one for an entirely new page template, etc. So the client puts his cursor in the wysiwyg and clicks on one of the links and voila! - code inserted. I believe that this is possible with the FckEditor as well.
Jack,
Doesn’t Fck Editor have a plugin for that? Or, alternatively might not some javascript (oops - jquery) be added to provide that functionality?
James says:
January 30th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Sunsean/Jack,
Followup with link:
As an example, here is where I ripped the code for the html code block insertion:
http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/example_advanced.php?example=true
Scroll down the page to the bottom and notice where it says [Insert some HTML].
werutzb says:
October 7th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Hi!
I would like improve my SQL capabilities.
I red really many SQL resources and would like to
read more about SQL for my work as mysql database manager.
What would you recommend?
Thanks,
Werutz