Proud to announce... - Page 2

[<M/>]

@iamthwee, i personally would prefer if the form and button was in the middle, but that background though...

[iamthwee]

Just finished the basic functionality on the page builder

To do
-Tidy page builder, hide unnecessary crap
-Have just one save
-Consider adding 'last' class to drag and drop
-If no assets are in the library show button to add them
-Add full width image to page
-Add breadcrumb to page
-Forum integration (least importance)
-User roles.

As always, please delete existing files and database and install a fresh one for testing.

Ta

[iamthwee]

Alright guys, I've completed the bare bones for the page builder alpha stage.

Can someone test and give me some feedback, if you click on view/detail on page you will get to the page builder!

Muchos Gracias

I might as well push my forum integration as refining the page builder is going to take some time.

[iamthwee]

Anyone get a chance to take a look?

[mattster]

I've just tried it :)

Like the new features on the install. Still no db prefix, but the setup was very nice. Might be worth mentioning you are going to create a new db, as some might already have one set up, using a few apps on one db etc. (something to think about).

Locale is very good, only the dropdown isn't in alphabetical order, so "Europe/London" was tricky to find.

Page Builder
Looks very nice and is really really cool to work with. Might need to make the 'done' alert more attractive, but no biggie. The +/- icons change block width, as if changing relative how the page will be: ie. I have two blocks, one a little one and one big one. They both show in the preview as col-sm-4, irrespective of the width in the builder.

After you upload an image, it doesn't move back to the builder, and I need to refresh the builder to get the image to show in 'Asset Management'. May be this needs some AJAX?

A few little things on the other pages (some mentioned already in this thread), so it might be worth later on going back and improving them. Also worth pointing out the db is still in a latin collation, and do you really need menu and menu2? Surely store the data in the same table or rename menu2 to something a little more relevant to the data contained in the table.

As always @iamthwee, looking very good. (I'm the git that will always find the bad things without praising you properly ;p )

[iamthwee]

No thank YOU for the feedback it is constructive as always.

The reason why both blocks show column-4 is that you need to press the blue save button on each block after resizing. I want to get it automatic so it updates as soon as you click the plus or minus button... eventually.

I want to avoid using ajax as I was having an issue with ajax uploads working consistently on all browsers internet explorer being the main bugbear, but that's no surprise.

I think if I do an automatic page refresh as soon as an image is uploaded it should resolve this.

When you hit back yes it is true the image is gone and just the path to the image remains. This requires a small change in my shortcode builder. Shouldn't be too difficult to implement, I just want to make sure it is fully extendable as there are going to be other assets in the builder like a slider and pull quotes and possibly blog posts. Almost like the 'widgets' in wordpress. So I have put refinements on this on hold as at the moment it 'JUST WORKS.'

Good points on menu2 and menu, it was really just for debugging so I'll merge them into one table.

Overall, I'm happy with the aesthetics, I don't want this to be a wordpress clone. I think wordpress it too bulky, I want a simple minimal UX so less is more.

Third, I'm wondering which direction I want to branch. Do I make this a web page builder for anyone and everyone, or do I consider templating, like using 'twig.' The templating will appeal to the professionals who know how to code.

This is really the main issue I'm having in deciding this.

[mattster]

No problem, but any recognition goes a long way :)

Ahh right, fair enough - I thought it was just when updating text.

Thats interesting, which versions of IE have you tested (and targeting)?

Well it depends: other major CMS platforms are soo big, purely because there are several commercial aspects of it, such as developing themes and plugins. If you cut out the ability for people to do their own thing, you limit the interest. Besides, without templates everyone would end up with similar-looking websites - too generic.
Maybe keep the main idea for the page builder, but make sure it's easy to extend and develop into themes.

[matrixdevuk]

@Dani CodeIgniter booo!!!!!

[matrixdevuk]

Your code is a little messy!
Some of it looks generated, lol.
Good luck with this. ^_^

[iamthwee]

Your code is a little messy!
Some of it looks generated, lol.
Good luck with this. ^_^

Thank you for your opinions, all are welcome. As to the code being messy, yes, I'll give you that one, especially in my view files.

The controllers bar a few should be tight. I'm still looking for a plugin to 'tidy' the html, as of yet have found none, at least none that work concurrently with embedded PHP.

Vanilla html sure, html tidy works.

Also remember this is far into its infancy, beta testing, no morelike zeta testing.

In my opinion the install process is a lot cleaner and automated than some of the best CMS out there. Well this is my opinion.

Updates and improvements are coming but hell its alot for practically a one man band.

[pritaeas]

I'm still looking for a plugin to 'tidy' the html

Try Polystyle.

[iamthwee]

@prit looks interesting but isn't free. Nice to know though.

[iamthwee]

Hi Guys,

Did some minor updates, including adding email options, still yet to tidy up the other issues mattster pointed out.

Would be interested in some more feedback if anyone gets a chance to test.

I want to try and nail some basic user permissions next.

[iamthwee]

I really want to write up some good documentation next. IgnitedCMS is powerful in that you can write your own customer controllers and templates in codeigniter and attach it to a given page.

A lot of tidying up needs to be done on the pagebuilder shortcode options.

[pritaeas]

I might take a peek next week. I am due to make a small CMS anyway, perhaps try yours.

[iamthwee]

Thanks Prit, I've just made some more changes and there is going to be a nice redesign for the UX on the pages and assets etc.

There's also some plans to make this a great tool for developers so it's not just a simple CMS. Allowing devs to easily customize their back end to fit their client's needs.

Roadmap
-Improve upload images redirect to page
-Add a custom controller for page builder for developers to utilise their own codeigniter code
-Improve basic UX for pages and assets
-Add a user friendly help dictionary with the CMS
-Separate settings from email
-Start a simple user permission and roles.

Comments and feedback much obliged if anyone else gets a chance to take a look at it.

[iamthwee]

Hi guys,

I've tidied the UX again somewhat -separated out the email settings into its own controller. I've added the throws of a documentation page, which will be constructed using ignitedCMS's pagebuilder ;)

Now I'm just investigating user roles and permissions. I like the look of this.

https://github.com/bcit-ci/CodeIgniter/wiki/Permission-Class

Maybe I'll simplify it even further.

Top priority is to create a better UX for page and asset management, improve menu functionality so you don't have to remove all and re-add.

I'll consider the CMS's code development options last, I'm still unsure if I want to go down the lines of a custom templating engine. I really hate learning new templating syntax specific to one CMS. What does everyone else think?

Allow developers to use vanilla codeigniter functions to create their controllers or introduce my own ignitedCMS templating engine?

Thoughts greatly appreciated.

[diafol]

GP classes are pretty simple. Groups (or Roles) have many Permissions. Permissions belong to many Groups. Classic many-to-many link table. I'd just be a bit careful about plugging-in all these third party scripts. This set of classes will be a security nightmare if there are any holes in them, so you will need to check each line personally. Sorry to sound like a nagging ninny - been burnt with 3rd parties so many times. I'm assumming that you'll be including this repo as a dependency using composer or something similar?

[iamthwee]

GP classes are pretty simple. Groups (or Roles) have many Permissions. Permissions belong to many Groups. Classic many-to-many link table. I'd just be a bit careful about plugging-in all these third party scripts. This set of classes will be a security nightmare if there are any holes in them, so you will need to check each line personally. Sorry to sound like a nagging ninny - been burnt with 3rd parties so many times. I'm assumming that you'll be including this repo as a dependency using composer or something similar?

Hi Diafol,

No there won't be any dependencies or need to use composer. I'm basically going to replicate the db structure then write my own controllers. I just think the libraries out there are a bit overkill for my CMS, so I'm writing my own auth class, forum class, and permissions class. Did you get a chance to test again? Would appreciate the feedback.

[iamthwee]

Completed
-Improve upload images redirect to page
-Improve basic UX for pages, blog and assets
-Added the start of a user friendly help dictionary with the CMS
-Separate settings from email

To do
Immediate
-Add controllers to sort and delete blog/page items
-Change menu builder so it doesn't remove all items and re-add, add custom links, automatic row class
-Tidy up asset view
-Finish off profile settings (controller)
-Tidy up page builder, add more options like drop quote and links, build slider.
-Start the basic UX and controller logic for permissions
-Allow table prefix on installer.

Any testers. I'm eager for feedback now. :)

https://github.com/ignitedcms/ignitedcms

[iamthwee]

Completed
-Added the db structure to handle permissions
-Finished off the controller to update profile

Next on the to do List
-Write the controller to delete and sort pages/blog
-Design the views and write the controllers for backend permissions
-Tidy up the menu builder

[iamthwee]

Just updated the UX for pages/blogs and soon to be user permissions.

[Aeonix]

Seems like a great ambitional project. And you seem you got everything in hand from server-side to client-side and even the design I get to see on screenshots looks tidy.

Good luck on the project.

[diafol]

Wondering if this thread needs to go into the Show Off Your Projects subforum? Whatcha reckon iamthwee?

[iamthwee]

Wondering if this thread needs to go into the Show Off Your Projects subforum?

I wouldn't mind both as I'm looking for PHP related feedback Diafol as well. Perhaps when its ready for 2.0 alpha stages I'll put it into the project forum. But for now I'd like to keep it all here. Thanks

Seems like a great ambitional project. And you seem you got everything in hand from server-side to client-side and even the design I get to see on screenshots looks tidy.

Thanks its a WIP one year in now, although my git commits have been infrequent due to other things arising :)

[diafol]

Ok. Just if you're looking for help with the code, then by all means keep posting and perhaps show the bits you're concerned about or want people to test. Posting updates about project status is probably beyond the scope of a "code" forum. Just a thought.

[edbr]

thought id throw my observations in. I have virtually no experience with CI or CMS in general so i though i might represent an unskilled and unbiased view. Or not so feel feree to ignore me :)
Installed without an issue. but made note a couple of v small things
password confirm needs a <br> to put it under, the password field as it is strange looking allignment.

in the site seetings for fonts i would like to see a data-list of suggested fonts.

If there is not a template or theme to be added it would be good to be able to size the heights of the footer header or i think the results will be a bit uniform.
just my initial impressions, but over all it seems a good project under way