I'm an absolute - and I mean absolute - beginner with code. I understand a lot about graphic design and how digital design works, but this doesn't help much!
I want to use Mailchimp to send out a newsletter for a client, who has a specific brand design identity. Unlike other drag-and-drop email services (such as the Squarespace newsletter add on) there is little I can do to customise the email design.
One way I've been told to do this is to use Photoshop to design the email content (layout, text etc) and import as images into the Mailchimp template. I have reservations about building an email from images though, as the images won't be responsive and work well on mobiles. It also means I can't use hyperlinks from specific text.
So I've considered coding my own using HTML... but baffled where to start? And whether it's a good idea at all? While there's a lot Mailchimp can do to keep a newsletter looking on-brand, the main thing I'd want to incorporate is a specific font.
Two questions:
Is it a good idea for a newbie to attempt to HTML code an email?
If not, how else could I work with Mailchimp to customise as much as possible?
If it is 'doable', where can I go about learning the process? Resources, tutorials?
Responsive e-mail design is one of the most complicated HTML tasks in my opinion, if I were you I would start from some nice existing templates:
https://litmus.com/community/templates
And read up about some responsive email tips.
Good luck!
Related
I am looking for a CMS which allows me to code normal html but also define "fields" like {{header}} for example, which can later be managed inside an admin panel for easy customisation for the customer.
The basic idea is to be as free as possible as frontenddeveloper but also having a nice backend where the customer can edit the content (images, text) easely without touching the code.
Wordpress may offer this possibilities but is clearly an overkill. Grav couldn't fullfill my needs either.
Any recommendations?
Personally I love CraftCMS - basically it has no frontend logic, but allows you to create very convinient forms for the admin / content creators.
I always dislike having to write your own modules / plugins for most cms systems to add your own 'Slideshow' etc. - it takes way too long. Besides the CMS Backends tend to confuse the customers.
In craft you basically create the forms for the content types in the backend and create a really simple and intuitive backend for your customer that way. It comes with very handy features.
Everything the customer doesn't need to change - you can simply write in html. The amount of extra code between a craft cms page and pure html page is minimal making your life as frontend developer much easier.
Have a look at the Gantry framework. You can use the framework inside WordPress, Joomla or Grav and it basically adds a templating system where the developer builds the modular components (e.g. slider, header, video); You code those into a template, and then parameterise the fields you want to open to the user; the user drags that component where they want it in the layout builder; they can enter data to populate those fields.
I think Gantry is one of the best examples I've seen of empowering the content admin while not hindering the developer, and it sounds like what you are looking for. I would recommend downloading the helium skeleton
theme since its pre-populated with examples for you to understand.
And in terms of being 'light weight' I would recommend you combine that with Grav since it is more light weight and simpler to work with than the others.
Whats the best way to start to train an end user in a CMS like DOTNETNUKE?
The end user will want to add edit and delete there own content. They will need to install modules and understand how everything works?
Should i create a manual? is there a way to plan some training?
any ideas?
edit: the end users are VERY I.T illiterate, they struggled to even understand the rich text editor. I need to train them on how to use the form and list module and the HTML module for editting content. They want a document of some sort, this is really old school.
PD24, for what most customers do it usually only takes 5-10 minutes of training. I usually create a couple Jing Videos which is a free screen and audio recording tool. I go through and do voice over as I create a page, edit text, add photos, add modules and record it. Then I send them the links they can reference if they ever need a reminder.
Works great! (boooo to manuals, no one reads those and they take a lot of time to make!)
& DNNcreative is probably too detailed for your client, that's a good resource for DNN implementers.
We have a variety of videos in the video library on DotNetNuke.com you could point users to those for specific topics.
We (DotNetNuke Corp) also provide custom training solutions, we could develop a custom training program for your client that fits the scope of your project and delivery requirements. If you want more info feel free to email me at training#dnncorp.com.
Have a look into www.dnncreative.com, they have some awesome tutorials for developers and users.
I'm creating a site for a video store and it needs to be CMS. I'm doing this for free so I need to use a free CMS like Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla.
Do I need a new CMS, a plugin or some PHP of my own?
What I need:
User accounts
Categories
Custom post
Here's the site as it stands with WP: http://sundancevideo.ca. Right now an experimental site to try to work this out.
What I've done now, is created a "Draft" that includes a template table with images and text and so on. The user would then have to copy everything, past into a new post and replace necessary. This really isn't working well. As you may notice by the condition of the posts.
What I would prefer is if it was integrated into the WP UI. Like a field for "Description" and field for "Image" where they can upload the images as necessary. This would then generate post, with a table including all the information and images, for as many movies that were added in the UI.
I would suggest taking a look at PodsCMS as a great way to implement real CMS functionality in to WordPress. It allows you to create various content types, relate these content types, and more importantly live outside of the "WordPress bubble".
You'll find a fairly good codex and user guides (the ones authored by Johnathan Christopher are a great start). There is a solid API for this in the event that you need to integrate Pods in to an existing plugin or one you are creating. There are also developer and user contributed packages for Pods and there is even a YouTube video package you may want to check out.
PodsUI (soon to be merged with PodsCMS) allows you to create administration menus in WordPress very easily and allows you to pretty much make it look and feel how ever you want.
Flutter is a dead project and while it may be a little more user friendly than PodsCMS it lacks in in development, support, and over all usability.
Feel free to drop in the Pods Chat or # them on Twitter.
As for the user accounts you should read up on WordPress user roles/capabilties and also check through the WordPress PHPxref. A lot can be done in the way of using WordPress' current user system and you can even add other meta information for users if needed.
If you want a full CMS backend then you can't use Wordpress without extensive customising. You might want to check out pods cms for Wordpress which is an extension to attempt to turn Wordpress into a CMS. However, I have tried using it before and you will still be left with a confusing UI for your users. It will allow you to do the custom fields you want, however.
If you want full control over the UI, you will have to use either your own PHP or Drupal. Which one depends on how complex the project is and how much experience with Drupal you have had. If it is simple and your Drupal experience is limited, definitely go with your own PHP because Drupal is hard to learn. I think it would take you more time to learn Drupal than it will be to get a simple interface going with PHP.
I think this post will be helpful, depending on your experience, if you go with your own code.
i don't have particular suggestion for you custom need. Except beware for how much you give permission for your member. Please make sure they were a contributor and not author. In wp, the contributor role has no ability to publish. They have ability to post something just as a review. Thus, Administrator can review them and then published if it appropriated.
The problem with this situation is when you need them to upload things. The member with contributor role has no ability to upload video, image, or song. You have to custom this.
But if you only need their snippet or HTML link to the video (probably in youtube), then you don't have to change default wordpress role.
sorry if i mislead by your question. just trying to help as much as i can
I guess it depends on your shop's needs. I understand wanting to use wordpress, and you can do it, but at this point it almost makes people think... 'why?' If youre just going to use paypal and have a few products it might be a good idea but I think carts like zencart and oscommerce that are much better suited to store's needs. Though they are a little older. Magento and opencart are more modern, and all free. Though I've only ever used zen cart. None of these are terribly hard to set up. I guess You could always have you wordpress from page and use a link to your carts store menus.
MODx is brilliant for customisability - it was designed from the ground up to be extensive. It runs on PHP and MySQL.
You can create your own templates, add fields to those templates that appear in the UI when someone wants to create or edit a page based on that template. It has widgets for different data types, like images, dates etc that your users can use to add data to a page.
You also have full control over the HTML because you write the templates yourself. If the core code doesn't do what you need, you can write snippets in plain PHP to change the behaviour.
I've used it on a few projects over the past 3 years and I love it. I'd recommend MODx Evolution (v1.0.3) as that's stable. There's a brand-new rewritten version (Revolution 2.0.0) which is a release candidate at the moment, so you might want to have a play with that instead.
I reckon once you know MODx enough to create the site design, it'd be fairly easy to implement an off-the-shelf shopping cart into it (there may even be a MODx plugin that already does this.)
I'm wondering if there's an off the shelf CMS available that is similar to something like Mobile Roadie - ie: it will allow you to create multiple versions of one application? I'm looking to develop some mobile travel guides for iPhone/Android/Blackberry etc, and rather than get a CMS built, I'd like to see if there's something out there is similar to Wordpress in that it will allow us to input text, images, Google Maps details, phone numbers, email addresses and potentially some audio/video content.
If anyone knows of anything, I'd love to hear about it. Also, if you have any ideas regarding pricing, that would be extremely helpful! Thanks in advance for your assistance.
The chances of you finding something "Off the shelf" diminish as your requirements get more specific. You want something for a limited and specific target audience (iPhone, Andriod, Blackberry) that can deliver many different types of very specific content (addresses, maps, text, images, video).
From my experience of building a CMS for one of the world's most famous travel guides, I can say your chances are slim indeed. The technical requirements of managing this type of information are huuuuuge!
But hell, I could be wrong! I hope you find something that solves your problem and you make the world a better place!
PS: Maybe you should simplify your requirements and build from there? Good luck. :)
I just dropped a reply on this question:
How to setup a CMS as a backend for iPhone app
You could look at this blog for a drupal showcase:
http://drupal.org/node/900630
and at this wordpress plugin:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/json-api/
Personally I am trying with tikiwiki.org but I am not sure yet if it is right.
Cheers
We created a very flexible CMS called StorageRoom which we built specifically for mobile apps.
You could easily let users manage locations with maps and additional fields.
I'm nearing the completion of migrating our existing website to a CMS and I've just finished creating all the various contact forms. The CMS I'm using has CAPTCHA built into it's form builder, which is great, but the only method available is the "decipher-the-noisy-image" method.
This approach works well, but it limits access for people who might have reading or sight disabilities. I've worked around this by having a "help" page which allows those with disabilities to contact us by telephone and I'm considering having a single-field form which says "Send us your email address and we'll contact you". Accessibility is of particular importance to me as a web developer, but from an organisational perspective; so is reducing the amount of form spam we receive.
So what I'd like to know is, has anyone in the community had any experience with other CAPTCHA methods and how have you managed to make them accessible to people with disabilities?
As a blind person I find that recaptcha is one of the better CAPTCHA services out there as far as an audio option. The issue with using sms as the only alternative is the fact that many visually impaired users don't have cell phones that allow them to read text messages.
A good captcha, like reCAPTCHA, usually includes an audio CAPTCHA. Also I have seen a site that will
send a SMS message and you enter the code in the sms (Google-gmail will do this).
I am very interested in this because I am implementing a CAPTCHA in jQuery right now.
Many sites, including this one I believe, have an option to play noisy audio with embedded spoken numbers, as an audio equivalent to the traditional CAPTCHA image.
I find the result pretty spooky, actually. Reminds me of numbers stations.
As Michael said, audio with each character of the CAPTCHA text spoken for better or worse is a common option provided. If your CMS is PHP-based or if PHP is available on the hosting infrastructure you are using anyway, here's an open source CAPTCHA application with an audio download option:
http://www.phpcaptcha.org/
I've implemented a production site with phpcaptcha, and it works as advertised.