Intro to Textpattern

Textpattern Manual

Note: This article has also been translated into Swedish.

Part 1: Introduction to Textpattern

Welcome to the Textpattern Manual, a multi-part introduction to Textpattern. Textpattern is not the simplest CMS; however, once mastered, it is beautiful in its practical functionality. First, I must acknowledge some other tutorials that are still great resources. This series is meant to be a comprehensive manual for Textpattern, used as a thorough guide for beginners and a quick reference for experts.

The most important thing to remember about Textpattern is that it is much more than a blog script and must be approached as such – a robust, business-level Content Management System. This tutorial will aim to give you an understanding of the general architecture of Textpattern so that the smaller program details become less daunting.

Textpattern Structure

This is how I see Textpattern. First, is the engine itself which I have, luckily, only had to delve into on a few occasions. This area is housed within the “textpattern” directory and contains the heart of the CMS. Only intense pickiness will require you to modify anything in this area as most features can be added with plugins. The only areas I have had to modify are the “comment.php” and “taghandlers.php” which were fairly simple processes because the code is thoroughly commented.

Next are the sections. Textpattern sections are very powerful content and presentation dividers. Each section can take its own page template and style sheet, and the section’s content can be called directly. Sections can be used to create entirely different blogs, but in most cases, sections are used to manage “static” content such as “About” and “Contact” pages.

The next level falls into the presentation area of Textpattern. Page Templates and CSS control the look of the site and can be section-specific. The page template is the simple HTML/XHTML structure of your website. We can use various tags to call the articles from the content side of the CMS into the pages.

After the website layout comes the website content. This is perhaps the simplest part of Textpattern because it takes the structure of most other systems. This area includes images, files, links, and any other types of actual content whether contributed by the author or visitors.

The next level returns to the presentation of the website but at a smaller level. Textpattern forms are more detailed layout elements that directly affect individual content entires. While page templates dictated the presentation and structure of content listings, forms act more specifically on the actual entries. For example, the “default” article form modifies the structure and style of the article title, body and associated links.

Finally, the last structural element of Textpattern are categories. These pertain to individual articles and are only labeled as a “structural element” because of the various tags that make use of them.

Obviously, this is only a simple introduction to the much wider complexities of Textpattern, so stay tuned for the remaining classes where I (and maybe some guest authors) will explore each aspect in depth.

  1. Nice Intro I enjoyd reading it :)

    Marko

    Nov 30, 11:18 PM #

  2. I’ve been using TXP for over two months now, and know a bit, but this series should be really helpful to learn the other stuff. can’t wait!

    Zeerus

    Dec 1, 04:43 AM #

  3. Look forward to the readings. : – )

    cody lindley

    Dec 1, 06:58 AM #

  4. I have been toying with the idea of switching to TXP from WordPress so this will be a great resource to possibly help me along the way. I’ll be looking forward to future installments for sure.

    Shawn Grimes

    Dec 1, 10:01 AM #

  5. Shawn: To try to entice you to switch, I’ll be writing an article on creating a Textpattern site from start to finish, including an example template that people can download and re-use as needed.

    Nathan Smith

    Dec 1, 12:55 PM #

  6. Wow Nathan, that sounds like a really good article you’re kicking up. Can’t wait to read it!

    Thame

    Dec 1, 06:27 PM #

  7. @Nathan: I will be looking forward to that also.

    @Thame: You might want to change Nathan’s name to Nathan Smith instead of Nathan Spring :p

    Shawn Grimes

    Dec 2, 07:36 AM #

  8. Haha thanks Shawn, can you tell I’m severely dyslexic :D

    Thame

    Dec 2, 04:09 PM #

  9. hey, nice articles. been looking for something like this for some time now, cant wait to read the next installment.

    thanks

    kumar

    Dec 3, 02:30 AM #

  10. kumar: The second part of the series is out

    Thame

    Dec 3, 07:14 AM #

  11. Thank you. I’ve been looking for something just like this.

    Adam Messinger

    Dec 18, 12:58 PM #

  12. Glad I could help. Stay tuned for the rest of the series and the guest articles.

    Thame

    Dec 18, 09:33 PM #

  13. Thanks
    Rather clearly.

    Serg
    Affordable web hosting

    Serg

    Oct 5, 12:19 PM #

  14. wow, you carried good work out. well nice!

    3dsl Eugen

    Nov 28, 10:29 AM #

  15. Just getting to know textpattern. You look like you have a nice resource going here. Taking a deeper look..

    Ben

    Jun 10, 04:03 PM #

Add a Comment

Phrase modifiers:

_emphasis_
*strong*
__italic__
**bold**
??citation??
-deleted text-
@code@

Block modifiers:

bq. Blockquote
p. Paragraph

Links:

"linktext":http://example.com


Show Articles By:

You can show articles by time or category.

  • 260.

    The Ethics of Practicing Procedures on the Nearly Dead

    The report from the field was not promising by any stretch, extensive trauma, and perhaps most importantly unknown “downtime” (referencing the period where the patient received no basic care like...

    Read More

  • 260.

    The Ethics of Teaching Hospitals

    I can’t imagine what the patient was thinking. Seeing my trembling hands approaching the lacerations on his face with a sharp needle. I tried to reassure him that I knew what I was doing, but the...

    Read More

  • 260.

    Conscious Conversation: Behavioral Science

    Dr. Eran Zaidel is a professor of Behavioral Neuroscience and faculty member at the Brain Research Institute at UCLA. His work focuses on hemispheric specialization and interhemispheric interaction...

    Read More

  • 260.

    Progress Report

    Two years down, I’m still going. The next two years are my clinical rotations, the actual hands-on training. It’s a scary prospect, responsibilities and such; but it’s equally exciting, after...

    Read More

  • 260.

    Why Medical School Should Be Free

    There’s a lot of really great doctors out there, but unfortunately, there’s also some bad ones. That’s a problem we don’t need to have, and I think it’s caused by some problems with the...

    Read More

  • 260.

    The Cerebellum: a model for learning in the brain

    I know, it’s been a while. Busy is no excuse though, as it is becoming clear that writing for erraticwisdom was an important part of exercising certain parts of my brain that I have neglected...

    Read More

  • 260.

    Conscious Conversation: Philosophy

    Daniel Black, author of Erectlocution, was kind enough to chat with me one day and we had a great discussion – have a listen.

    Read More

  • 260.

    The Stuff in Between

    I’m actually almost normal when not agonizing over robot production details, and quite a bit has happened since I last wrote an update. First, I’ve finally graduated. I had a bit of a...

    Read More