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#11

(12-21-2016, 01:13 PM)enlivenapp Wrote: ...there is no depth to my loathing of Wordpress...

Lol - I could not agree more! Just finished converting a customers website to wordpress (from an original CI build by me and against my advice - but hey, they were paying) and it was horrible. Three languages (one Arabic), bootstrap widgets all over the place and tons of page format customization (easy in CI, nightmare in WP). In the end I had to give them visual builder too which is cool but so page heavy that everything was like working in treacle. Plus the LTR arabic was a nightmare to get working alongside RTL, had to do some dubious work arounds. I hate WP.

(12-21-2016, 01:13 PM)enlivenapp Wrote: The goals are:
Easy installation for just about anyone
Ability to update from the admin panel (similar to wordpress)
Easy to use/edit/publish/etc...

These are a great starting point but the devil is in the detail. The last one you listed contains all the problems.

My advice, for what it is worth, would be that simplicity is key. Especially for novice users.

Off the top of my head, to make it different, I personally would try to achieve something like this:

1. No admin panel whatsoever.
2. Log in just allows front end editing if minor edits are needed (like typos).
3. Articles are written in word, or open office, or notepad, or on whatever the person wants, no formatting, and imported from the front end into the blog.
4. Click somewhere in the page to add an image or link etc.
5. The imported file is turned into paragraphs. Each paragraph can then be changed to a title, subtitle, or text from the front.
6. New pages/posts are private until formatted and published.
7. Comments are hidden until user clicks to make them visible or deleted.

How simple would that be for the user and very different from word press? (I have given no thought to how this would be coded BTW). But on logging in, tiny little edit buttons and delete buttons could appear. (Or even an admin bar).

Starting out with anything like an admin screen, and designing a page, and backend editing, image manipulation etc is just too much like WP IMHO and should be avoided. I built a shop for a customer recently with front end editing and they love it. Could work really well for a blog.

Anyway, I know this is not the lounge so probably not the place for my idle chat, but I really wish you luck with this (great name for it too) and really look forward to seeing the first release candidate. Will definitely test it out for you.

Best wishes,

Paul.
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#12

(This post was last modified: 12-21-2016, 07:42 PM by enlivenapp.)

Some really good ideas IMO. I'll definitely give them some thought.

1: I waffle back and forth about the admin panel, it's a shame to go through all the steps to edit in the admin panel rather than click on an 'edit' button and edit the post in a modal...

2: lol,  we're definitely thinking along the same lines...See attachement.  User ease of use is the most important to me, even if it means more coding.

3/5: I have settled on markdown, so parsing whatever is input shouldn't be too difficult as long as it's caught on the input/upload of the file.

4: That'll be tricky (images anyway)... I've not done anything like that before...

7: I like that idea, I even kicked around adding Facebook comments, or some other type of offsite capabilities for comments... I haven't really settled on anything yet.

I like how visually different your ideas staying away from WP-like functionality is, but I wonder how feasible it is to have no admin panel at all... will certainly take some thinking outside of the box.

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#13

@enlivenapp

I would propose you to separate technical refactoring (upgrade/migration) and innovation stages. First upgrade the system as it is, make it to work with CodeIgniter 3, check/update the third-party stuff, test and make the first new release. Then think about new ideas or features. If you mix these two stages, probability of failure gets higher.
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#14

I agree with ivantcholakov. Seperation of the two makes sense and the innovation will probably be better after refactoring the existing code and learning some of the complexities in the details involved.
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#15

Probably a good idea. All the underlying services have changed though. user management went to Ion Auth, The template system went to Phil Stugeon's Template library, Assets are different... etc etc...

Maybe it'd be a good idea to keep OB3 non BC breaking (although, how may people are really still using it?) and go hog wild on OB4 with CI4...

So many options! lol.
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#16

(This post was last modified: 12-26-2016, 08:20 PM by enlivenapp.)

Lot's of work still to do, but I'm working on the pages admin section....


I'm pretty happy with how the markdown editor is coming along...

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#17

(This post was last modified: 12-27-2016, 12:26 PM by PaulD.)

Why did you choose markdown and not a wysiwyg editor? Markdown is like marmite. People either love it and use it with enthusiasm or (like me) hate it and will not use it. To me it always seems a bit backward to show code tags (of any sort) to a user. But I appreciate that most wysiwyg editors produce such garbage and verbose html. I have always fancied having a go at coding my own wysiwyg but cannot help but think they produce such messy html because it is inevitable, and that whatever I coded would only end up inevitably doing the same.
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#18

(12-27-2016, 12:25 PM)PaulD Wrote: Why did you choose markdown and not a wysiwyg editor? Markdown is like marmite. People either love it and use it with enthusiasm or (like me) hate it and will not use it. To me it always seems a bit backward to show code tags (of any sort) to a user. But I appreciate that most wysiwyg editors produce such garbage and verbose html. I have always fancied having a go at coding my own wysiwyg but cannot help but think they produce such messy html because it is inevitable, and that whatever I coded would only end up inevitably doing the same.

Yeah, I get the love/hate of Markdown. I'm actually in the middle, I guess.  

My loathing of WYSIWYG editors is only rivaled by Wordpress.  Those things create so much bloat (especially in the database) and extra junk it's pretty easy to get in a loop of style="6000 characters for each tag" in the html tags overriding almost all of your default CSS... and then one has angry customers.  

Any experience I've ever had with WYSIWYG developers ended up with "You're not using it correctly"...  one of which was back in the PyroCMS days trying to write LEX parser tags and the editor "correcting" it for me...  and then one has angry customers because their site is broken.

I *may* end up offering a 'switch' for admins to use a WYSIWYG editor and allow them to post html for posts/pages but for now, I'm just leaving it at Markdown.

Pro tip...  I'm not currently stripping tags in the markdown lib... but even if I did, It'd be fairly trivial to swap in a WYSIWYG editor in the Admin.  Of course, that'd be for experienced developers.  There'll be docs about it I'm sure.
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#19

Use CKEditor very easy to install and use with CI.
What did you Try? What did you Get? What did you Expect?

Joined CodeIgniter Community 2009.  ( Skype: insitfx )
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#20

@enlivenapp

1. As a backend Theme you can use AdminLTE.
2. Use deleted-flag in the tables.
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