piztop.com - Perfect Multilanguage+SEO+3rd Level Mod using GET SIMPLE

[oneff]

Hi,

i want to show all of you one of my latest developments. http://piztop.com
Actually I don't like php much, i'm more the vstudio .net linq ormapping framework guy doing a lot large scalable ASP.NET MVC webs app for big companys.

But sometimes you need to have just a little simple solution. so i searched the web and tried about 15 opensource cms systems. All to big - with fat db, or just to less features and so on. Big issue is always the multilang. Most of them use modules and plugins to have multilang but then isnt working with SEO right.

So then i found GET SIMPLE. Almost what i needed. But also the lack of lanugage and only two level, which is enought for my needs here but not if you want also a language level.

I check over the code and saw very nice coding of plugin usage, etc. Also to have endless parent/child chain with recrusion not a biggi. It took me now about 10 hours from scratch to current state to make the page :-)

Thanks for the superb GET SIMPLE CMS. After my modifications its perfect for my needs.

Now to some tech: I added minify to compress css, javascripts on the fly. Webserver is IIS 7.5 with newst PHP and IIS URL Rewrite 2.0 here some Screenshots of page performance.

On the first picture you can see how the 3 levels are perfectly rendered by url with correct link highlighted/active class.
like: /LANGUAGE/MAINPAGE/DETAILPAGE.html (sure page id must unique be over all levels - but with language links - no problem)


here how i slightly modified the admin for the new page sub level


here some speed/seo messures, rewriting rules, network stuff.


When some more customers of mine want a CMS in this size,
I may put all mods into one plugin. Except the admin changes (update/merge problem), it should be easy.
Hope this is inspiring for some of you.

Have a great weekend. Otto.

[yojoe]

I have 2 questions: did you use child plugin (along with Zegnåt's multilevel plugin) or made your own ?
How did you solve multilanguage problem ? Every language version has its own GS instance, or did you create a plugin or use a solution posted somewhere on this forum ?

[oneff]

Hello,
here some questions and answers about the modifications and site setup:

@Carlos:

Q: I'd like to know what you have done to set it up under IIS, especially what equivalent to .htaccess Allow/Deny on folders: backups, plugins, data, thumbs, upload

A: Your first thinking was right. I did the .htaccess Allow/Deny in IIS directly. Denied anonymous access to data and sub folders (you may google for web.config and folder access). Upload folder was changed to static.piztop.com. So Uploads don't get affected by deny.

@Yojoe:

A: In first place I had a look at Zegnåt plugin but it only covers two levels. And its only for the page itself as kind of extended navigation. My multi level is achieved using recursion on parent attribute which must/is unique for all pages. So yes, i was inspired by Zegnåt but wrote own code to have actually unlimited levels and url tells the navigation whats active in the recursion. Finally changes to the admin to keep cms functions right.

A: It's only one instance of GS. Each Language is just a page in the top/1st level.

A: Yes its more or less a plugin, but I also had to modify core php code of GS. I'm not sure if its possible to put all changes within a plugin (especially for admin). So when new version/update of GS is comming you won't be able to update without merging. I really think, better than publish my custom code, is to make feature requests to the GS DevTeam for more level of pages, etc.

Hope this helps :-)

[yojoe]

If your menu plugin can hide certain elements by ID to create multiple menus, then you are a genius. Such simple method offers multilanguage function.

Hmm... you could look at simplegallery plugin created by juliancc, as he hooked its functionality to admin panel. Maybe this could shred some light how to create a working plugin without changes in core. If you could develop such advanced menu plugin which wouldn't need manual changes in GS core, then I've seen some peeps who would kiss you expressing their attitude

You know, changing 2-3 things is easy. But if you have to change those things with every plugin you installed, then it creates more problems than it solves :/
2-3 months and I don't forget what did I change, if I forget to make even a small changelog.


btw. forgot to say, that you did a good job with your website

[oneff]

hi,
very kind of you. i just did a file compare to the latest 2.01 release zip.

here a list of different php files:


sure theme files and config are always different. other diff files are css, images, css... nothing to do with the GS itself.

the navigation within pages is already in a plugin and the template.php (most done with $URL -> page id)

like i mentioned changes to core where applied on files in the admin folder. unfortunately there is currently no free time
for unpayed work in my schedule to analyse and implement a open source plugin of my modification.

Maybe, when 2-3 more people want to have a easy multi-lang page like piztop with GS as CMS, its worth to do a proper independent plugin.

but atm, still the best way would be requesting the possiblity of having 3rd or n-level of GS itself.

Kind regards.