Textpattern | Articles | the bombsite

. . . . . . . . . . .

About the Post

Author Information

Posted by: Stuart

I enjoy working with HTML, XHTML, CSS and designers as a web developer. At home I enjoy listening to music, playing music, reading and food.

Post Information

Posted on: 25 August 2004

Posted in:

Comments: 11

Textpattern

So another day another piece of software. I’ve been getting a little disallusioned with Wordpress of late and have been trying out Textpattern in a subfolder for a few days. I’ve got the look of the page about right though a few tweaks are still in order. I imported all my WP stuff last night so the quicker I swapped over the better just incase anyone wanted to add any comments. I have lost one of Root’s comments though I know what it is about and am not sure if it was meant for me. I’ll check it out later just to be sure.

Here we are then. Textpattern is a different kettle of fish to WP and is really not for the squeemish or those lacking in CSS or HTML. I’m not lacking in either but if anyone sees any layout problems do let me know in the usual manner.

The basic layout that comes with it is a bit like looking at a blank page so a lot of work is necessary to get your page looking right though it does start off as a 3 column, fixed width layout with footer. A proper “at the bottom of the page” footer that is. I must say that once you get used to it Textpattern has a lot of things going for it though “templates” isn’t one of them.

I hope that those who have visited my Blog in the past will continue to do so and if I can still be of help to WP users I shall be happy with that.

Comments ( 11 )

Podz
How does it compare in the tenous ‘look and feel’ in the backend ?
25 August 2004, 20:12
Thomasso
Well, I had to look twice? Give us a run down of all the “stuff” TP does? Do a WP vrs. TP list… :)

You got to get the smilies back! :( :?
25 August 2004, 20:36
Stuart
Oh dear. Big Questions and I’m still getting used to it. I think I shall have to take up Tom’s suggestion and do a Comparison Post cuz there is such a lot to write about the 2 beasts. One thing I can repeat is that it really isn’t for “noobies”. There are some sites out there with ready-made layouts but even so…. The biggest advantage I can say at this point is the tag system that TXP uses (you don’t have to go looking for them, they’re on the page in front of you) combined with the fact that pages are a combination of templates and each template is configurable. I use the term template in it’s proper sense. Nothing to do with CSS. I also think TXP requires less of a grasp of PHP because of it’s tag system. Maybe it is for “noobies” then but they will definitely require CSS and HTML knowledge to get their pages looking cool. It may also be more useful for “static” pages. I’m going to try and put my home page into it and see what I get. I’m still looking for smilies Tom.
25 August 2004, 21:52
Crimson
When you say templates, do you mean something along the lines of Smarty (if you’re familiar with it) or phpbb’s forum templates (again, if you’re familiar with it)? I only ask because I was looking into Textpattern just the other day when the whole mess started in “that thread.”

To be honest, the actual website didn’t sell me on it. It’s a good thing Root made mention of it because now I can get some good feedback from those making the switch. Thanks for any info :)

~C
26 August 2004, 03:53
Stuart
Hi C. I know of Smarty from elsewhere and may be getting a little involved with it in the near future but as yet I’ve not had practical experience with it. TXP splits up parts of the page into smaller templates, for example this comment page has a separate template for the comments themselves and another for the comment text area below. All made up with TXP tags that are also very configurable. Try it out on a test-site for a week or so and you’ll see what I mean. That’s what I did and I was convinced within 3 days.
26 August 2004, 09:28
shadow
Hi Stuart,

I love to play. Two questions before I start.
1. Can TXP go in the same ONE database as WP? This is important to me as I only have one database.
2. Is the process of importing the WP database over to TXP a big task?

I always like to have a Plan B – but for some reason I am on Plan F right now :)
26 August 2004, 10:12
Matthew Pennell
I use Textpattern on my site too – I’ve found it pretty easy to get to grips with, although I haven’t started to delve into the actual PHP yet (which I’ll imagine I’ll need to do for my upcoming redesign project).

Probably the best thing is the wide range of plugins, which are the easiest thing in the world to install and get running.
26 August 2004, 10:33
Matthew Pennell
By the way, there are loads of blog-style templates over at Eris Free.
26 August 2004, 10:41
Stuart
@Shadow – Like to play eh? That’s really how I got here. It was purely coincidental that I was playing when the Kubrick arguement started. That wouldn’t have driven me from WP on it’s own. Yes you can install it into the same database as WP. All the tables have a default pre-fix of TXP though you can change that in the config file if you want which allows you to have several installs at once in the same way you can with WP. As for importing there isn’t a specific WP to TXP script sorted yet so I used one which had been modified from a b2 script. I had a couple of minor problems. First all the posts were assigned to author admin instead of Stuart which I’m not bothered about. The second was that it didn’t bring the categories for each post over so I’ve had to go through and edit them to add them into my new categories. Not a big problem for me but it depends on how many posts you have. If you need advice you know where to come though the forum is pretty good and I can direct you to some detailed tutorials. Email might be the better option.

@Matthew – Yes I did wonder what you were using. For some reason I thought it might be MT. Anyway I’m looking forward to watching your re-design.
26 August 2004, 11:59
wchulseiee
too bad you’ve left WP, you did some very good work for the WP community. I don’t know your reasons why, but at least i know one person to turn to if i decide to move to TXP and run into unsolveable problems :-)
26 August 2004, 19:18
Stuart
@wchulseiee – Thankyou very much. I should say I shall continue to do whatever I can for whoever asks. At the end of the day we are all Bloggers, doesn’t matter which software we use. Knowing how you like to mess about so much you ought to try TXP out on a test site and see what you come up with. (That reminds me – smilies.)
26 August 2004, 19:33

Commenting is closed for this article.