CMS Integration

[itsbc]

I've spent a good bit of time searching google, as well as the forums, but haven't had much luck finding the answers I'm looking for. I have a template that I've designed and I don't want to stray away from it. I've debated rebuilding a bare-bones theme in wordpress, but wordpress has much more features than I need, and I'd prefer something a little more lightweight. Through extensive searching regarding lightweight cmses, I've come across GetSimple and Perch.

My main question is regarding integration into an existing website. Some of the questions I had were regarding the customization of posts attributes - meta tags, date, author, etc - and the difficulty of integrating it into a pre-existing template.

Has anyone gone this route, or is it easier to just build your site around GetSimple, like it is with Wordpress? And if the solution is to build around GetSimple, do you know of any other CMSes that are extremely easy to paste the shortcodes/scripts into an existing template and it integrates seamlessly? Really the only thing I need is the ability to post articles and have them set up a permalink for themselves. I used Coranto way back in the day, but I'd like something with a better editor. Similar to Wordpress' WYSIWYG editor.

Thanks in advance, Bc.

Edit: Sorry for posting it in the wrong topic. When searching google, I came across this post:

http://get-simple.info/forum/topic/1889/...ting-site/

And I wasn't sure about where to put my question. Thanks for moving it.

[yojoe]

What would you like to achieve with a simple CMS ?
Main purpose of simple systems is to have a simple installation and administration.
If you want to get advanced features, then it's better to find a mid-weight system, and cut it down, rather than use simple system, and stuck trying to implement a custom functionality.

As it goes for SEF like questions, then GS offers all basic functionalities a SEO wannabe would need
The best way for you is to install a test instace of GS and while using default templates go through extend and find out what is possible with GS.
You can have a working website within 15 minutes, even if you have nothing to do with systems administration, development or webmastering

[eatons]

I've spent a good bit of time searching google, as well as the forums, but haven't had much luck finding the answers I'm looking for. I have a template that I've designed and I don't want to stray away from it. I've debated rebuilding a bare-bones theme in wordpress, but wordpress has much more features than I need, and I'd prefer something a little more lightweight. Through extensive searching regarding lightweight cmses, I've come across GetSimple and Perch.

My main question is regarding integration into an existing website. Some of the questions I had were regarding the customization of posts attributes - meta tags, date, author, etc - and the difficulty of integrating it into a pre-existing template.

Has anyone gone this route, or is it easier to just build your site around GetSimple, like it is with Wordpress? And if the solution is to build around GetSimple, do you know of any other CMSes that are extremely easy to paste the shortcodes/scripts into an existing template and it integrates seamlessly? Really the only thing I need is the ability to post articles and have them set up a permalink for themselves. I used Coranto way back in the day, but I'd like something with a better editor. Similar to Wordpress' WYSIWYG editor.

Thanks in advance, Bc.

Edit: Sorry for posting it in the wrong topic. When searching google, I came across this post:

http://get-simple.info/forum/topic/1889/...ting-site/

And I wasn't sure about where to put my question. Thanks for moving it.

Any CMS you choose will have a learning curve, ...that said, I have found through a lot of experience that when it comes to ease of use, GetSimple will take you the least amount of time. You should be able to set up a site over a weekend and become fairly familiar with it. Use it just as it comes out of the box, so to speak. Read over all of the wiki.
Also if you would give us a link to your current website, so we can look over and understand more what your needs are in integrating your template to the GetSimple method, ... we could better help you over the hump.
-------------------------
http://eatons.net/tutorials/innnovationoutline/

[Connie]

well I have "ported" many existing themes which the clients wanted to continue with to Getsimple-Templates.

You just replace the relevant parts of the template with the template tags.

You can easily see how this is done when you check the many templates, which are ported from freecsstemplates.org-templates to GetSimple-templates.

Compare the original structure of the template with template.php and you will find out

there is a bunch of info about themes, templates and template-tags in our wiki!

[itsbc]

What would you like to achieve with a simple CMS ?
Main purpose of simple systems is to have a simple installation and administration.
If you want to get advanced features, then it's better to find a mid-weight system, and cut it down, rather than use simple system, and stuck trying to implement a custom functionality.

As it goes for SEF like questions, then GS offers all basic functionalities a SEO wannabe would need
The best way for you is to install a test instace of GS and while using default templates go through extend and find out what is possible with GS.
You can have a working website within 15 minutes, even if you have nothing to do with systems administration, development or webmastering

Well, I want it to be as simple and lightweight as possible. The main function I would need is just the ability to post articles and tag/categorize them. I'd also like to be able to pull specific posts from categories/tags, but I'm assuming most cmses make that possible. A plus, but not mandatory, would be a nice WYSIWYG editor. Haven't gotten a chance to check out GS' yet.

Any CMS you choose will have a learning curve, ...that said, I have found through a lot of experience that when it comes to ease of use, GetSimple will take you the least amount of time. You should be able to set up a site over a weekend and become fairly familiar with it. Use it just as it comes out of the box, so to speak. Read over all of the wiki.
Also if you would give us a link to your current website, so we can look over and understand more what your needs are in integrating your template to the GetSimple method, ... we could better help you over the hump.

That'd be great. The template I'm currently building is http://www.dotbas.com/test/index.php . I started it a day before posting my initial post and have stopped building it until I decide on a CMS to use. I'm aware of the learning curves and I'm not entirely new to css/html/php. I can implement wordpress, but ideally I'd like a CMS that's more lightweight and a little easier to integrate as far as placing tags/categories in seperate divisions.

I've integrated cmses into themes before, but the way I want the posts setup is a bit different than what I've tried in the past and for clients. Also, does GS have a function that allows post thumbnails/featured image? On the link I posted, if you look to the right of the content at the continue reading div, when it's hovered it'll show an image underneath and I'd really like it to be an image associated with the article. Based on pulling a thumbnail from the featured image associated with it.

** I haven't setup fallbacks for internet explorer/any browsers but Chrome yet, so if you're viewing in another browser, chances are it won't display properly yet. I'm waiting until I can get the cms integrated to start plugging in fallbacks and all the other necessary code.

Thanks for the responses, Brian.

[yojoe]

Generally with GS out of box you won't be able to get a blog-like platform, as I see it's the major functionality you are expecting from a CMS.
The only solutions to achieve most of your goals (maybe even all) are i18n plugins - search, customfields, and special pages.

If you find using them too difficult there's not much you can do, despite looking for truly blog-like CMS, f.e. nucelus or pivotx, as GS is filling its own web niche.

[eatons]

What would you like to achieve with a simple CMS ?
Main purpose of simple systems is to have a simple installation and administration.
If you want to get advanced features, then it's better to find a mid-weight system, and cut it down, rather than use simple system, and stuck trying to implement a custom functionality.

As it goes for SEF like questions, then GS offers all basic functionalities a SEO wannabe would need
The best way for you is to install a test instace of GS and while using default templates go through extend and find out what is possible with GS.
You can have a working website within 15 minutes, even if you have nothing to do with systems administration, development or webmastering

Well, I want it to be as simple and lightweight as possible. The main function I would need is just the ability to post articles and tag/categorize them. I'd also like to be able to pull specific posts from categories/tags, but I'm assuming most cmses make that possible. A plus, but not mandatory, would be a nice WYSIWYG editor. Haven't gotten a chance to check out GS' yet.

Any CMS you choose will have a learning curve, ...that said, I have found through a lot of experience that when it comes to ease of use, GetSimple will take you the least amount of time. You should be able to set up a site over a weekend and become fairly familiar with it. Use it just as it comes out of the box, so to speak. Read over all of the wiki.
Also if you would give us a link to your current website, so we can look over and understand more what your needs are in integrating your template to the GetSimple method, ... we could better help you over the hump.

That'd be great. The template I'm currently building is http://www.dotbas.com/test/index.php . I started it a day before posting my initial post and have stopped building it until I decide on a CMS to use. ...

That link you gave doesn't work[404], so I'll tie you what I know without having seen that page. When you use the term posts, are you talking about a blog? If you are, I'm only familiar with the news plug-in and I'll admit I am new to this CMS also and therefore I have not investigated all of what's available. If you're talking about page posts, then I don't think you'll have to much trouble, ... although you may want to tweak the CKeditor a little bit.[see my tut on the InnovationOutline theme]http://eatons.net/tutorials/innnovationoutline/

When it comes to most things, I prefer to roll my own, and one of the very good features of GetSimple is setting up your own components and placing them inside pages where you want them. I've included a screenshot of the backend components section of my sandbox site http://eatons.net/sandbox/showing one of my setups. I'm sure you'll have no trouble dealing with whatever it is you want to set up. You can set up your thumbnail size inside the config file, and then use the file manager to set up your folders for uploading your images. There'll also other plug-ins to use for this job.

[Connie]

Eatons ,

please do not copy all previous posts in your posts, that makes reading so difficult
there is an option for "quick quote" parts of the message

thanks! Cheers, Connie

[eatons]

Eatons ,

... option for "quick quote" parts ...

Got it ...thanks, Connie