I have been to the zotonic docs, but well, they have not really been helpful because everything is in bits and pieces over there. I am an averagely good erlang programmer and i guess what i need is a full example of a web site or web app, however simple, but from ground up. Usually, an example built ground up would be used to illustrate all the basic concepts of a library. Forexample, how is a site arranged ? how and where do i put these files ? what does this config mean ? which options are there for this task ? e.t.c.
Zotonic looks great on the outside and i would love to dive into it. It looks like the only Erlang easy-way of building a web site and managing a web site using erlang.Question: Has anyone come across a full-fledged Zotonic-built web site or web app, whose source he can share or a tutorial coming from ground up, especially for Erlang programmers, that can get one really started ? Something similar to this Django introduction Also, are there any builds for Zotonic that can install on a windows Server ?
I'm developing (in my spare time, which hasn't been much lately) a project/issue tracker in zotonic. Code is available here: https://github.com/kaos/trackz and a demo site running the code here: http://trackz.astekk.se/
It's in it's early stages, so it won't be too hard to follow the progress from scratch by looking at the commits made, to that end, it's not much to look at either, yet.
It is developed against 0.8.x, so it probably won't be without issues to run it on 0.9-dev.
I also have some articles about zotonic internals (how to write modules for zotonic) and other related topics here: http://blog.astekk.se/en/by_keyword/318/zotonic
Hope this fills in at least some of your questions :)
Hint:
Study the data model and directory structure. Once you grok that, the rest will come easy.
Related
I've got a small experimental project on the go that uses an embedded system to show web pages.
The major draw back is that the embedded system doesn't have any form of server on it (No lovely web server languages allowed).
My current setup for testing any potential winning solution is locally (Just in a document C:/users/me/test/index.html) and then also testing it in wamp.
I've looked into using JS or JQuery but evey resource i've found only ever works when I test it within wamp, which isn't a viable solution for me.
I have a couple of questions:
Is it even possible to read an XML document without any form of
server technology?
If so, could someone post some resources please? I've found a lot of similar topics to mine, but none really cover my predicament.
If this isn't possible, are there any other technologies I could use to give the same output?
Thanks
Just got started and running with jqMobi, which is now called 'intel's application framework' (cheesy name eh)
Along with intel's porting to their new site, they forgot to put the full docs online (at least I can't find it). Now there's only minimal documentation, like the getting started. I'd like to get on with it.
Anyone knows where the (full) docs are hosted? I really hate to go look for another framework again.
The documentation is all there. The only thing they did not add was the "testdrive", which is just the kitchen sink sample found in github
In my opinion the docs are somewhat scattered, but there's some helpful stuff if you can find it. I keep bookmarks for these links. There are some links from those that get you to more stuff.
http://html5dev-software.intel.com/documentation/jqmobiapis/index.html
http://app-framework-software.intel.com/documentation.php?r=9057
http://developer.html5dev-software.intel.com/
http://www.html5dev-software.intel.com/documentation/
Actually they split off where appMobi is a cloud services company to support apps, and Intel took the part to build the apps. So you may still need/want appMobi. Their docs are on their site of course. There is still some duplication on the appMobi site.
Technically I don't think jqMobi is the same thing as the Intel App Framework, but at the same time I have a hard time understanding what's called what anymore. I'm sure they'll clear this up over time. I hope they find names that can be useful tags on stackoverflow.com!
OK, the title is a bit misleading I suppose, but only because I'm not really sure how to condense down what I'm looking for.
Currently, I have my own personal site that I've built which rests on a CMS that I also built. I wasn't really interested in blogging when I started the site (it was mainly to showcase my Android apps), so I only added basic 'blogging' features like posting news items and such.
As of late, however, I have taken a keen interest in blogging, and would like to pursue it on my website. The issue I'm having is that I don't particularly want to invest the time it would take to expand upon my CMS to include things like archives, comments, search, and all of the other various blogging-related features that are standard.
So what I'm looking for is a blogging engine that I can plug into my existing site framework. I have found tons of services that are platforms that you build on top of (i.e Wordpress, Chyrp, and TextPattern just to name a few) but that's not what I want. I'm looking for something that I integrate into my site, not something I integrate my site into (if that makes sense).
So you want a third-party application that can plug in to a proprietary custom-built blogging/CMS framework? Unless you patterned your framework after some other publicly available and widely used framework then I think it is very unlikely that such a thing exists.
I'd suggest maybe seeing if there's a way to come up with a database migration script that will take the data that your custom framework is using and translate it into something that an existing blogging platform can understand. Then just completely replace your custom platform with the prebuilt one.
I mean this quite literally. A close relative wants to create her own website for her business and asked me for help. I've offered her to set up the website, take care of domain registration and all, but I don't have the time to design the website for her. So, I want to give her a software in which she can edit the page and publish it on her own.
My feature-wish-list. The software should
of course, be easy-to-use, as she's not a pro at the computer
be able to publish the website, once the ftp-connection has been entered
have some predefined themes, but also the possibilites to define a custom theme
offer a german UI, since she doesn't understand english
I so far looked at Nvu (too complicated), zeta Producer (crashed even before I could start editing the first page), CityDesk (very promising, but still too complicated and not in german). I'm quite happy with Namu6, but unfortunately, it is english only.
I'd be happy for any suggestion.
[edit]
Some were asking for a platform: She is only using windows, so Mac or Linux is not an option.
My mom uses vi for this
Consider setting up a CMS for her and let her edit the pages in the browser.
I was happy with citydesk for imachines.com, but lately I've moved towards just suggesting a blogging tool and doing it that way (e.g. wordpress, blogger, etc...). Websites are complicated because they are a 'web'. I'm not sure my mom could ever do it.
Google has a webpage service, besides Blogger, I think it' called Pages. Or if she has a Mac iLife has a decent tool set for the average non technical user
You don't mention which platform. If Mac is a possibility, take a look at iWeb, part of the iLife suite.
Depends on what she needs the site for and what you are capable of setting up for her. Google sites are free and easy to set up/use, but they're damn ugly.
Set up a free Blogger or WordPress account or run a hosted WordPress installation.
Engines like Joomla tend to be a bit technical on the admin back-end, but are also easy to edit from a front end editor's point of view - their WYSIWYG editor allows you to edit content from the front end, which I've found useful for non-technical types.
Wordpress is actually a nice and capable basic CMS system that just happens to have a blogging engine built into it.
Chances are, non-technical people will struggle with any editor. I mean, how do you expect her to do layout?? How do you expect her to edit the templates? How do you expect her to publish the site from her local machine to the server that's hosting the website?
Come on man, I know these things seem common sense to us, but really, every non-techy person around me that I can think of wouldn't have the least clue about where to begin with any of this, even my sister who knows how to use photoshop wouldn't have a clue about running a website. (I'd have to spend a lot of time tutoring her, and even then I'm not sure she'd get it).
Just give her a CMS or a blogging application like wordpress or the like (I assume you'll have to set it up for her).
EDIT
Even if you do find a good-easy-friendly editor, what about deploying her changes to the server? The problem is not only editing HTML, but running a website, managing content on it.
If your mother's business is a legitimate business that she gets her living from, wouldn't she want a professional to do it? A non-professional website, like hers is BOUND to look, is only going to make her business seem unprofessional.
If it is not a "real" business, but more like a hobby business, perhaps she would get what she needs from www.blogspot.com [or Wordpress], which is very simple to use.
I've tried this a few times with non-technical folks. For those that can handle desktop software, I use RapidWeaver (OS X only). (I don't set up non-technical folks with Windows PCs.)
But more often, I've found that something like WordPress works better. They can easily edit the site online and it's limited functionality keeps them from getting confused.
if she isn't a geek, maybe a simple cms is sufficient for her. editing html, and layout stuff can be pretty painful, as well as managing files on a server for the average user. i'd go for wordpress, which has simple admin ui, and since it's php, can be run on almost every hosting service you find. Also, using a widget-based sidebar and page layout makes her able to do almost anything she could do with an html editor (of which, imo dreamweaver is by far the best) - and even more! just think about already done plugins available through a simple plugin manager! i think there is a german translation available, too. (i found a hungarian one, there must be a german as well)
WordPress could be a good option and it has some options to install in German and other languages. See WordPress in Your Language for more information.
What about an online web site creator, something like GoDaddy's Website Tonight? It provides templates and lots of support for a simple web site. There is a monthly fee, but it's quite reasonable, and could be a good solution for someone who doesn't want to delve into the complexities.
I don't know if they offer a German UI, but it might be worth checking out.
Have you tried http://goodbarry.com ?
It’s an easy to use CMS focused to business owners.
As hasen j said: “The problem is not only editing HTML, but running a website, managing content on it.”
However I’m not sure if there is a German translation.
Movable Type is another option for a simple CMS.
My mother is using TextMate. I set her up with Subversion, so to publish her site she just commits and a hook on the Subversion server will update the site. The big benefit here is that when something goes wrong I have a record of every change she made which makes it much easier to sort out. There's some simple PHP (that was what was easily supported on her MacBook for testing and on the webhost she uses) to minimize the boilerplate stuff on each page.
CushyCMS is the only thing I would let a totally non-tech person near. It's very easy to setup an manage, and there's very little chance she can actually break stuff.
Dot Net Nuke, just copy, install and a way she goes.....
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Let's say I woke up today and wanted to create a clone of StackOverflow.com, and reap the financial windfall of millions $0.02 ad clicks. Where do I start?
My understanding of web technologies are:
HTML is what is ultimately displayed
CSS is a mechanism for making HTML look pleasing
ASP.NET lets you add functionality using .NET(?)
JavaScript does stuff
AJAX does asyncronous stuff
... and the list goes on!
To write a good website to I just need to buy seven books and read them all? Are Web 2.0 sites really the synergy of all these technologies?
Where does someone go to get started down the path to creating professional-looking web sites, and what steps are there along the way.
While I have built my knowledge largely based on using the internet to search out what I want to know (w3schools.com helped a lot, as did A List Apart), a few good books have helped me along the way, though they have been platform/language-specific, so I'll avoid mentioning them unless someone is curious. For me, at least, having a book open so that I don't have to resize windows or switch between them is very valuable.
The first part of your list is ok, but the last few items need tweaking. ASP.NET adds server-side functionality (for the most part) to your application. This lives outside of the browser and is thus quite powerful and easily shared with a variety of end-users.
The problem (some say) with server-side processing is that your application must make a new HTTP request when you ask for an action to be performed. So if you click on a link to a page that yields a new set of data, you don't get instant results. The page reloads, or loads a separate page.
Javascript solves this to a degree--it allows you to respond to user input instantaneously. Do you want to display the sum of two numbers when the user clicks a button? You can do it with Javascript.
The problem with Javascript is that it can't talk directly to databases, or explore your server's file system, or other stuff like that. It lives in the browser--period.
AJAX bridges the gap between your user's browser and your server. With AJAX, Javascript makes the HTTP request without refreshing your page or loading a new one. Javascript talks to a server-side script (not necessarily ASP, either--works with PHP, Rails, Coldfusion, etc.) and sends and receives information. And because Javascript isn't dependent on page loads, a quick, snappy AJAX script can almost give the feeling of a common desktop application, in which you don't have to wait for HTTP requests when performing simple actions on your application's data.
I think that this series of Opera Articles will give you a good idea of web standards and basic concepts of web development.
2014 update: the Opera docs were relocated in 2012 to this section of webplatform.org:
http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/Main_Page
Ian's answer has a lot of weight. You could buy all those books and read them all and know nothing about web development. What you really need to do is start with something that is not nearly as big as Stack Overflow. Start with your personal site. Read some web dev/css articles on a list apart. Learn about doctypes and why to use them. Add some css and change the colors around. Go over to quirksmode and peruse the site. Add some js. Follow some links on Crockfords site. You will probably stumble across his awesome video lectures, which you should watch. Then after that go back to all the js that you wrote and rewrite it. Then pick a server side language that you want to learn. Python is pretty easy, but it really doesn't matter what you pick. Then come back and integrate all those together in your site. At this point you will at least be getting started with web development and will have worked with several different technologies.
EDIT: I forgot to mention. READ BOOKS.
Many developers that I have worked with in the past have gotten through their career without really advancing after a certain point. I could be totally wrong, but I attribute it to not reading enough books and relying on using their same bad code over and over.
You could go out and buy a bunch of books and start reading them and quickly get overwhelmed in the seemingly massive learning curve it takes to go from nowhere, which is where it appears you are, to a rich internet entrepreneur, which is where you want to be.
Alternatively, and what I would suggest is, you could define a problem you want to solve, and then go about finding the solution to that problem. Start with something small. "I have a problem: I don't have a web site about myself.". Define what you need to do to solve that problem, learn the basics, and do it. Then, define a new problem, which probably relies on the solution to the first problem, find what you need to do, and do it.
This is how all technology professionals evolve. My first website was a personal site with nothing but text. Then I added some jokes and some movie quotes. Then I got tired of man-handling all the updates to I learned how to put them into a database and retrieve them from the database for display. It goes on and on.
Call me when you've got more money from your financial windfall than you know what to do with.
If you really just want to jump in with both feet, I would suggest looking at ColdFusion from Adobe. The developer edition is free and runs on windows, os x and linux. The documentation is authoritative and extensive, there is a very active developer community and only a few books you might want to dig into. The definitive guide is a series of books that can be found on Amazon
The nice thing about ColdFusion is that you can use it as a stepping stone to other languages and remain productive along the way. You can even mix it together with Java since it is itself written in java. There are also lots of goodies built in that you would have to scour the web for or pay more for in other languages. Things like full text indexing, graphing, server monitoring, ajax based controls, flash/flex integration, asynch os calls, etc.
You even have the choice of building object oriented code or procedural code, although some people would not count that as a benefit. Those people rarely agree on which style should win, though.
Cheers!
I think sitepoint is the best resource for learning best practices in web development. They have great articles, good references, and probably one of the best forums. However the people there can be a bit grumpy. ;)
If you are a real nerd, reading the specs for HTML 5 and CSS is also a good way to learn.
I'm with Ian on this one. Reading books is all well and good, but nothing beats getting stuck in. I actually started with a Dummies Guide to ASP (that'd be "classic" ASP), back in 1999.
If I was going to start from scratch today I'd be looking at something that covered a full stack solution, whether Apache/PHP/MySQL, RoR or whatever.
ATM I have no experience of Rails, but it might be a pretty good place to start as it includes a lot of stuff that you'd have to figure out early on otherwise (integration with a Scriptaculous, a JS framework) - you can always learn what going on under the hood at a later date.
.NET is always an option, and if you're comfortable with Visual Studio it may be the way to go, but it's not the easiest thing to pick up otherwise.
If you know a bit of HTML but are basically new to server-side programming you might look at ColdFusion. It's actually extremely powerful and like Rails includes lots of "out of the box" benefits. There's a Swiss company called Railo who are currently in the process of releasing an Open Source ColdFusion engine that is affiliated with JBoss.
Last and not least - don't forget databases! Sooner or later you'll need to get to grips with some pretty serious SQL...
CFML (aka "ColdFusion" even though that's really an Adobe product, not the language) is definitely easy to learn, and if you want FOSS for CFML, in addition to Railo you can use Open BlueDragon which is a GPL CFML engine.
Designing with Web Standards is a great first read!
http://www.zeldman.com/dwws/
I would recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/MCTS-Self-Paced-Training-Exam-70-528/dp/0735623341/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218830714&sr=8-1
I have just read it to take the exam, and although I knew the web theory part, I found it to be of great value.
This of course is a ASP.NET specific book, but that is what I would recommend learning anyways.
After you learn all the ASP.NET stuff, I would suggest reading up on JQuery.
Happy coding :)