Some Basic Inquiries from a New S9y'er

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rafikicai
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Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:41 pm

Some Basic Inquiries from a New S9y'er

Post by rafikicai »

Blessings and Peace (to ALL):

I'm new to S9Y, and am working my way around my first installation (using default template by Carl G.). I'd like to really master making my S9Y blogs sparkle, and would appreciate some mentoring by the S96 Gurus amongst you.

1) How can I take charge of the header space: to a) add photos or custom imagergy to this space and b) have the header rotate through a collection of images (Is it easy to not show a visitor the same header twice in a row?)

2) S9Y's WYSIWYG is not at all like the editor found in say Dreamweaver. I don't find it possible to use tables for layout management, without a border thickness value. In DW if you set border to zero, you at least get a dotted outline; that allows you to visualize/use the table cells (but your viewer won't see the table).

I can't even 'easily' get the S9Y tables to center.

I'd like to use invisible tables, so that I can use multiple column formats
within my entries.

3) I've installed S9Y files in two different areas on my server. How do I easily turn these into two totally different blogs; so that I try out templates with one, while keeping the other as my public face?

Thanks, in advance, for your insights and helping hands.

In Service of THE ONENESS,
Rafiki "The Digital Doctor" Cai
The ONENESS of The Allness is the Key that we seek. When will we All catch on?
garvinhicking
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Re: Some Basic Inquiries from a New S9y'er

Post by garvinhicking »

Hi!

Great to hear that you found Serendipity and have fun with it. :-)

About your questions:

1. You can do that either via the 'style.css' file of your template, and then use background-image properties to that CSS for displaying graphics on elements. The other way is to just insert your HTML code into the "index.tpl" template file.

To rotate through images, you would need a plugin that does that. The plugin "serendipity_event_kubrickheader" ("Template Header/Logo Image") does this, for example. It uses CSS to style a "#serendipity_banner" HTML element and puts a random image of a configured directory in there.
2) S9Y's WYSIWYG is not at all like the editor found in say Dreamweaver. I don't find it possible to use tables for layout management, without a border thickness value. In DW if you set border to zero, you at least get a dotted outline; that allows you to visualize/use the table cells (but your viewer won't see the table).
Yes, WYSIWYG editing INSIDE the browser is still a problem and not very good. Dreamweaver is external and can offer you much, much more.

There are alternate WYSIWYG editors available to s9y, like xinha, fckeditor or tinyMCE. Look at http://spartacus.s9y.org/ for those.

You might just want to put borders onto your tables and use CSS formatting in your frontend CSS to make all borders "0" again. This way you would see the borders in your WYSIWYG editor, but not when you save the entry.
3) I've installed S9Y files in two different areas on my server. How do I easily turn these into two totally different blogs; so that I try out templates with one, while keeping the other as my public face?
You must simply install s9y into two different databases or use different table prefixes, then each installation is independent. Which DB is used is configured in the "serendipity_config_local.inc.php" file that the installer creates. Thus, if you copy a s9y install to a different place, it will use the same DB than the original install, and thus you must change that. The best way is to extract a fresh serendipity installation to the new place, and not just copy an existing installation.

Best regards,
Garvin
# Garvin Hicking (s9y Developer)
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rafikicai
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:41 pm

Thanks for The Insightful and Thorough Response

Post by rafikicai »

Blessings and Peace:

Garvin, thank you very much; for your prompt and thorough response
to my questions.

I guess you're sending me off to the 'study area', to develop my CSS chops: a task that I've been avoiding forever.

----

One thing that might be so helpful, is to have your words fortified with simple Camtasia illustrations. You were specific in terms of the exact files, but there's a gazillion folders within a S9Y installation. A directory path would be a great help (in the future); and a picture is still worth a thousand words.

-----

Lastly, for now: can you pleasure share some of your S9Y intelligence on Feedburner. Why is there not a body of info on S9Y concerning it. Afterall, it is the foremost tool for facilitating the distribution and syndication of one's blog.

Thanks again, for your time and energy.

In Service of THE ONENESS,
Rafiki "The Digital Doctor" Cai
The ONENESS of The Allness is the Key that we seek. When will we All catch on?
judebert
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Post by judebert »

I don't think you need to know much about directories for installing WYSIWYG editors. Just install the appropriate plugin. Maybe I'm missing something?

Feedburner seems to work fine with Serendipity. I've added it to my list of things to document, though; I'll just search the forums when I'm ready to actually write it down.
Judebert
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Huhu
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Re: Some Basic Inquiries from a New S9y'er

Post by Huhu »

Hej,

I have a custom index.tbl, but with a header div named #serendipity_banner as well as a td with that designation (the template is a bit aged).
the kubrick plug-in doesn`t work, though. Do I have to alter the style.css as well? There is no picture assigned.
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