To Embbed or not to Embbed...

[anannsul]

I have been contimplating bothering to learn smarty for the past few days now. The reason is, I don't usually bother to update my website is because I hand code everything. If I wanted a page full text i usually have to deal with p tags and br tags and just thinking about it makes me all....

Bleh

However, I love the easy useability of S9Y! I don't have to worry about all that stuff.. I can just create an entry and wallah! New page!

However, The only problem with this is... my layout. I heard bulletproof was the best choice in converting s9y to a website.. however taking a look at all the smarty mock php coding makes me all.. @_@ omg wtf!

So... with a layout like this
http://www.anannsul.com/

should I just embed s9y or maybe find someone who'd be willing to theme it for me for free (cuz i'm broke)? (and I know getting someone to theme it for free is probably as likely as seeing hell freeze over.)

Thank you for taking the time to read this,
-Ana

[Don Chambers]

I think embedding is to be avoided when possible. It is really not that difficult to take an existing HTML site, and code a smarty template to match it.

You also mentioned Bulletproof. It is not a bad starting point for you, but may be overwhelming due to all the template options that you really will not need.

Are you already using s9y? I didn't see it in the URL you provided. How do you see yourself using it? As an additional component to your site, or as a replacement to power the entire site?

[anannsul]

Thank you for your reply.

Well the site uses both php and html... however the php page I wouldn't mind just linking to the navigation as their own pages (not static) considering I use mysql to update those pages.

I am currently using s9y but it's completely separate from my website... that can be found here: http://www.anannsul.com/Blog

I would see myself using it as mostly a replacement. If I need to use mysql and php to call tables I can just make a separate page and just link it in the menu.

I have seen many threads stating smarty is easy, it's just I have yet to find an actual smarty for dummies tutorial online like they have for learning html and css. =\

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

To learn smarty coding, bulletproof might not be the best starting point. It has a LOT of advanced usage techniques to provide the unique featureset of Bulletproof.

If you really want to learn "basic" Smarty, the best way would be to learn from the .tpl template files of the "default" template. Those have the least overhead, while still providing the full HTML layout that is required for all serendipity plugins to play nice...

Also I would suggest to download some other themes like from spartacus.s9y.org in the themes-section, and just have a look at how other template authors structure their index.tpl and style.css files...

Best regards,
Garvin

[anannsul]

Thank you for your reply.

I have taken your advice and started with the "default" template.