The New 9rules
Just when I thought they had completely outdone themselves with the redesign, the talented 9rulers have again gone overboard with a conceptual redesign of the network. 9rules now includes a fantastic browse section that much more effectively divides all the great content into specific categories.
So, if you’re interested in philosophy, head over to the philosophy community which will (eventually) feature the best content from across the category.
What’s even more amazing is that this is apparently only the beginning. Scrivs and company have been very quiet about the recent changes and the even more amazing improvements to come. I’m ecstatic to be a part of such a dynamic group and am really excited about the future of the network.
Top 10 Redesigns of 2005
2005 was a good year for web design. I got into the field at about this time last year with nothing more than a copy of Microsoft FrontPage and a free table-based layout. I don’t know if the growth I saw was amplified by my own, but I have a feeling that it wasn’t, because I saw some truly tremendous work this year.
Obviously, the best redesigns of the year are much more than ten, so I encourage you to leave your recommendations in the comments so that I can add them to the list.
Textpattern Content
This is perhaps the easiest part of Textpattern to learn and understand because it is very similar to other systems.
The Content area of the administration panel is divided into seven sections: organise, write, articles, images, files, links, and comments. This article will go into these areas to discuss the more important aspects of each.
Textpattern Pages
I will be leaving this entry in the series largely open because it will likely be covered more thoroughly in Nathan’s article.
Textpattern pages are the basic template for your site. They are displayed based on sections and control the layout of your site. Accompanying page templates are your CSS styles which can also be regulated by sections.
I’ve often heard praise of Wordpress’ easy templating system, but I’ve used both and have found Textpattern’s to be much simpler. The tags have an intuitive XML-style structure and can be easily generated from a more descriptive popup. Also, direct form outputs can be used to emulate PHP includes so you don’t have to modify each page template.
Designing a website for Textpattern is very simple. Simply follow your normal process and then it is only a few minutes process to attach your template to the CMS. Obviously, some details will have to be tweaked within the forms but that is the topic of my next article.
Textpattern Sections
Textpattern Sections are by far the most misused aspect of Textpattern and I am often guilty of employing them when they are entirely unnecessary. Textpattern sections are strong content and presentation dividers and are powerful enough to create different blogs or websites from the same installation.
Separate sections should only be used if you are trying to:
- Create “static” pages – Tutorial
- Create different “blogs” with entirely different layouts and styles
- Manage archives
Sections should not be used solely for content division; there are categories for that purpose as well as other external tagging services.