The Big WP Challenge - Template Helper

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1

Hi guys,

this list is more intended to take some inventory if it comes to one of the most supported CMS systems on the planet. After trying to think of all (the most) recommended ones within the last years, I’ve been chosen now WP as my personal favorite. I needed this decision cause I recognized that I’m way too dumb for “multi-tasking” CMS systems in all its fancy colors.

So letse go:

Statement 1 (to falsify):

Freeway allows me the key-visual control of design and MarkUp. But if it comes to WP it is currently not really the No. 1 choice. The reason for this is:

Chunks of code, collected and compounded elsewhere. Freeway is generating “the code” as one bunch.

But help is near:

So I started to have a look at Walter’s TemplateHelper. I’d like to first thank the author for creating such a cool thing - actions like these are making it worth to keep Freeway as the primary coding-tool (probably).

It works great with two exceptions (so far).

WordPress requires a “Header” that starts with doctype and ends with the closing head-Tag (or even with the opening body TAG, preferably including the opening ID of PageDIV (not sure so far).

Is something like this thinkable to “automize” or is there even an action to accomplish.

The other point is “nested” chunks.

The “content” which is the themes index.php in WP terms consists of two nested parts: content and aside. It would be outermost cool to have an “exclude” from partial opportunity in order to keep the key visual design and separate the “content” from “aside” that are both sitting in the “content-wrapper” (doh - sounds strange).

I’m still cautiously optimistic, but am only able to serve the skeleton so I really turn to you guys for help - even if the result is:

“Hmm - no not possible”. But then we leastwise clarified it.

As soon as I got a little design I’ll shoot it on a server so it’s probably easier to talk about.

Thanks for watching :slight_smile:

Cheers

Thomas

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2

On Feb 5, 2014, at 3:52 AM, Thomas Kimmich wrote:

So I started to have a look at Walter’s TemplateHelper. I’d like to first thank the author for creating such a cool thing - actions like these are making it worth to keep Freeway as the primary coding-tool (probably).

It works great with two exceptions (so far).

WordPress requires a “Header” that starts with doctype and ends with the closing head-Tag (or even with the opening body TAG, preferably including the opening ID of PageDIV (not sure so far).

Is something like this thinkable to “automize” or is there even an action to accomplish.

I think that a WP Decapitator Action would be possible; cutting off the “head” and saving it as a separate file is not difficult.

The other point is “nested” chunks.

The “content” which is the themes index.php in WP terms consists of two nested parts: content and aside. It would be outermost cool to have an “exclude” from partial opportunity in order to keep the key visual design and separate the “content” from “aside” that are both sitting in the “content-wrapper” (doh - sounds strange).

Have you tried applying the TH Action in this manner? I would be curious what would happen if you did.

Walter

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3

I’m very interested in your progress with this, Thomas… and any insight you
can offer. I like WP myself very much from a user point of view - from a
designer or developer point of view, not so much.

Maybe this can be developed into one of your screen casts??

–
Ernie Simpson

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4

I just tried this, and the issue seems to be that the outermost element is removed from the layout, canceling the effect of the Action on the inner elements. This should be solvable.

Walter

On Feb 5, 2014, at 10:07 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:

Have you tried applying the TH Action in this manner? I would be curious what would happen if you did.

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5

Hi Walter,
hi Ernie,

first I’m so grateful that you have a look at it.

As I started this morning, I was convinced of being clever and smart enough to understand all this. Later this day the only action I applied were a couple of beers to get rid of the mess in my head.

WordPress is a beast. My basic thoughts are to create a “template” file simulating something like the starkers theme or the underscore (those naked ones you know).

All those files I’ll have to re-create on the main level (not sure how so far) while I then thought to create a subfolder (partials) with the “designed” pages in. There I need the TH action to create the partials that could be called in the main level pages by something like:

<?php include("partials/_header-partial.php"); ?>

That’s the theory and all the rest is an absolute mess so far. And I don’t want to think about paths (WP manner).

A screencast - ohhh yeah that would be cool, even to share my problems with it.

So literally

Cheers

Thomas

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6

Hi Walter,

a bit of feedback after minding this a bit further:

TemplateHelper Nesting:

Probably even not necessary (but helpful for sure). I got it meanwhile working without.

I ran in another small issue with TH:

Applying it once it works like a charm, but sometimes it is necessary to switch it off and later on (after some style settings for example). I was under the impression that the “make partial” tick removed should do the job, but honestly it doesn’t. Is it me or do I miss something?

Partials “Native”.

To build a WordPress theme, it requires pages on the main level usually with a structure like this:

They have to be seen as the getter of the partials.

TH could do this job PERFECTLY (and then move them manually to the required place, however I’m thinking of creating this as a “real-page” placed on the main Freeway-level instead of a partial (see figure):

Sounds strange?

@Ernie:

Unfortunately nothing to show live so far so I share a screener:

Stay tuned :slight_smile:

Cheers

Thomas

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7

Hi guys,

please find those two screencasts:

I know the most important parts are still missing, but probably some interesting things to find out?

Cheers

Thomas

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8

Interesting screen casts Thomas - looking forward to seeing more.

David

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… I’ll try my best, however the next episode has the title “Let’s understand a WordPress Theme”. Pretty tricky for someone that doesn’t have a clue :slight_smile:

Cheers

Thomas

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10

Hi guys,

added another three episodes which completes all my current knowledge (nearby):

It would be so cool if you let me know what you think.

What would be the way if someone wants to learn on how to write actions? What’s the best way to start and where can one find some stuff?

Cheers

Thomas

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11

Thomas, I really love these… I think I will give this a crack as soon as I
have a little spare time.

Great work unravelling the beast, and thanks for making and posting these
videos. Very inspiring!

–
Ernie Simpson

screencasts:

https://vimeo.com/86235668

https://vimeo.com/86241054

https://vimeo.com/86789262

https://vimeo.com/86795074

https://vimeo.com/86796848

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12

I meant to ask about your naming structure - is that for your own
organization, or does the id structure make a difference to WP?

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13

… naming structure of what - ahhhhh you mean the IDs.

The naming structure of the ID stuff is exactly what I already run on my Inline-Screencasts (I eat my own stuff :slight_smile: where I set a “model” and try to give each item a “(non-semantic) function”:

Section (the outer shell), Area (The centering DIVs), Module (Each single Part of the page) Grid (ahmm - 2cols 3cols in the module) and finally the Object as the content.

Found out that it made sense, especially in user-requests but those are just “names” and not important for anything. But by accident I found out, that exactly this helped me a lot in making the “single snippets” via template helper and understand it way better.

Thanks by the way - made some good progress meanwhile and should probably mention, that I changed to external stylesheets (instead of head-styles). Adding the lines in the default WP head and add the universal code there doesn’t require a “adjusting of the url/src” for each single image within Freeway.

This all means that a “Head-Maker Action” is not really necessary for the moment and a “Make-WP-image” as well not.

I am guardedly optimistic that with a lil bit of coding fun it is possible to re-use a Freeway file and turn it into a WP theme.

Cheers

Thomas

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14

Time for a lil update.

I pushed the already created stuff online (however I’m aware of this biggest mistake one can do).

So just to avoid any misunderstandings:

  1. I am aware that some links or resources might be broken.

  2. The page is NOT responsive. Believe me - that’s my smallest problem currently :slight_smile:

  3. The page is missing lots of announced features.

This is the page:

http://www.kimmich-digitalmedia.com (however I wonder why Safari doesn’t trust the certificate stuff blabla - have to consult David for this).

A screencast will follow about some stuff I did as far as possible.

Cheers

Thomas

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15

While this list seems to be hammer popular and much of interest :slight_smile: I stop to bore you for now with announcing a last screencasts of the series (for the moment):

Summary:

Am not un-happy with all the progress I made and can confirm, that once the things are proper setup it IS so cool to control design and mark-up within my beloved Freeway even for a WordPress.

For the moment, I even do not need further actions - however I could think of a couple supporting ones, making the creating process even more Freeway like.

The way bigger time I had to invest into the WordPress Codex and naturally into “php” logics than into the Freeway stuff. But that was one of my center wishes:

“Trying to understand the beast”.

Compared to my once hand-coded theme (which took me lightyears to develop), the Freeway version is a walk-through-the-park.

And who knows what happens? It is just a small beginning.

Cheers

Thomas

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16

Now that my page is running successfully for a couple of weeks, it’s maybe time for some notes:

  1. Starting with a skeleton theme was one of the better decisions I made during all the development of my project. But I have to admit, that the _undescore theme, as good as it is seems to be a bit too complex (perhaps). This has mainly to do with the functions php file which I had to adjust excessively.

  2. The basic wish to recreate the default files within Freeway (the first level files) is simply not possible (suitable) using the php action-suite. The problem is, that this first level requires the _partial-file resources at a time they are not yet created. It seems to be simple question of “synchronization” during publishing. This is a pity cause this disables us to write an entire “template” within Freeway.

  3. But in one thing I leave no doubt: Keeping the artwork and the specific WP requirements (the_loop) all together in Freeway is terrific. I once wrote a theme entirely in Sublime Text and exactly this “slightly loosing the overview” was my biggest nightmare - simply lost in the jungle of numbers and letters.

I am already looking forward to the first fellow campaigner. Please let me know (Ernie) how the things work for you. Furthermore (if I can dig out some gold) I’ll give some supporting actions another go. I think the way to display posts (the_loop) can be actionized in a certain manner - however this is indeed very complex.

Cheers

Thomas

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17

Thanks a lot for your answers, David and Thomas.
I guess I will switch to FW7 !

Thomas, I will follow your advices, I’ve already found your website and Backdraft, etc… I will go on exploring and learning, I hope it will be ok…
I’m not afraid of the learning curve but it is sometimes so difficult to understand…

Well, thanks anyway !!

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