Lots of questions

[monere]

Hi,

I have so many questions that I don't even know where to begin

Anyway, here are some of them:

1) What's the thing with the frontpage? What does it do?
2) There is a GO button in my sidebar that when clicked takes me to the aforementioned frontpage. How do I remove this GO button?
3) How do I add/remove/change header images?
4) How do I make the posts on the home page display in grid (similar to e-commerce/digital downloads selling websites)?
5) How do I display post excerpts, instead of full posts on the home page?
6) How do I create pages? When I click on "New Entry" it seems like I can only add posts, not pages, as well.
7) How do I add Google Analyitcs to the whole website? I am using the 2k11 theme, btw.
8 ) Are there any plugins like in Wordpress? If yes, where do I find them?
9) ... actually, that's enough for now

Please do tell if you know/can/want to help! Also, I'd prefer that I don't have to mess around with HTML/PhP/CSS coding, but if I absolutely must, then please give idiot-proof instructions as I am not really a techie guy.

TIA!

John

[yellowled]

1) What's the thing with the frontpage? What does it do?
2) There is a GO button in my sidebar that when clicked takes me to the aforementioned frontpage. How do I remove this GO button?
3) How do I add/remove/change header images?
4) How do I make the posts on the home page display in grid (similar to e-commerce/digital downloads selling websites)?
5) How do I display post excerpts, instead of full posts on the home page?
6) How do I create pages? When I click on "New Entry" it seems like I can only add posts, not pages, as well.
7) How do I add Google Analyitcs to the whole website? I am using the 2k11 theme, btw.
8 ) Are there any plugins like in Wordpress? If yes, where do I find them?

1) The frontpage is the starting point of the s9y backend.

2) You don't. To do that, you'd need to modify the backend template, which by no means is something beginner's should be messing with, especially if they don't like to edit code.

3) In 2k11's theme options. Appearance/Manage Styles → “Use a banner image in the header?” → Pick an image you've uploaded to your media database.

4) By using a suitable template. You might find one to your liking on Spartacus (also see below). Sounds like you might be a candidate for the commercial Kinetic template.

5) In your entry editor, you have “Entry body” and “Extended entry body”. If the template you chose supports this (most of them do), the entry body will be displayed as an excerpt.

6) You need to install the Static Pages event plugin for that. Appearance/Configure plugins → Click here to install a new event plugin → install Static Pages. You'll get a new menu item in the backend called – yes, you guessed it – “Static Pages”.

7. By installing the Google Analytics event plugin. That's just one of the possibilities, but since you refuse to edit code, this should suffice.

8. Of course. See that link “Plugins/Templates” in the upper right corner of this forum?

Note that in S9y land, we like our plugin repository tidy and browsable, so there's usually exactly one plugin for one task. No, we don't have 73 contact form plugins. Yes, we like it that way.

Also note that there's a way to access the plugin repository from your backend which makes it much easier to install and update plugins and templates. That's the Spartacus plugin which comes with the S9y core. You'll probably want to install that first.

YL

[monere]

1) The frontpage is the starting point of the s9y backend.

2) You don't. To do that, you'd need to modify the backend template, which by no means is something beginner's should be messing with, especially if they don't like to edit code.

3) In 2k11's theme options. Appearance/Manage Styles → “Use a banner image in the header?” → Pick an image you've uploaded to your media database.

4) By using a suitable template. You might find one to your liking on Spartacus (also see below). Sounds like you might be a candidate for the commercial Kinetic template.

5) In your entry editor, you have “Entry body” and “Extended entry body”. If the template you chose supports this (most of them do), the entry body will be displayed as an excerpt.

6) You need to install the Static Pages event plugin for that. Appearance/Configure plugins → Click here to install a new event plugin → install Static Pages. You'll get a new menu item in the backend called – yes, you guessed it – “Static Pages”.

7. By installing the Google Analytics event plugin. That's just one of the possibilities, but since you refuse to edit code, this should suffice.

8. Of course. See that link “Plugins/Templates” in the upper right corner of this forum?

Note that in S9y land, we like our plugin repository tidy and browsable, so there's usually exactly one plugin for one task. No, we don't have 73 contact form plugins. Yes, we like it that way.

Also note that there's a way to access the plugin repository from your backend which makes it much easier to install and update plugins and templates. That's the Spartacus plugin which comes with the S9y core. You'll probably want to install that first.

YL

Wow! First of all thanks for taking the time to reply to my questions so fast, and so clearly on top of it. I appreciate it.

Secondly, as basic as serendipity looks to the unknowning user it seems that it can be customized pretty nicely. I will go to my website right away and work on your suggestions. I will probably need a bit of time to check out and test all of the available themes and plugins and see which one does what. And yes, you guessed it, I really am interested in commercial themes as I will be running a website selling digital downloads. And speaking of digital downloads, I am mostly looking for a theme/plugin that displays the items in a grid, just like WP's easydigitaldownloads and/or dukapress plugins do (if you know these). Anyway, even if that's not possible yet, no biggie. Cause displaying post excerpts on the front page was another option I would've considered.

Also, as a suggestion (and I wish you won't mind me for saying this) but wouldn't it be better if serendipity came with Spartacus plugin already installed (maybe built into the serendipity framework)? I think there are far more people needing pages for their websites, than people who don't need them. Anyway, it's no big issues again. I just found it more logical

Also, could you please explain in more detail what the frontpage is/does exactly? Is it the same thing as the home page or??

And last but not least, can you please tell me how to at least hide the GO button? I really don't like it right there in front of my visitors' eyes

Other than this.... thanks again for the fast reply and keep up the good work!

John

[yellowled]

And speaking of digital downloads, I am mostly looking for a theme/plugin that displays the items in a grid, just like WP's easydigitaldownloads and/or dukapress plugins do (if you know these).

I don't know either one of those, but there are (mostly magazine-like) templates (like Kinetic or Mimbo) for S9y which use a grid layout. Also, we have a (rather basic) download manager plugin.

Also, as a suggestion (and I wish you won't mind me for saying this) but wouldn't it be better if serendipity came with Spartacus plugin already installed (maybe built into the serendipity framework)?

As a rule of thumb, S9y prefers flexibility over, well, anything. There are quite a number of use cases where the Spartacus plugin is not necessary or usable. People might want to install plugins from a git checkout or not be able to use Spartacus due to technical limitations on their web server.

I think there are far more people needing pages for their websites, than people who don't need them.

We're aware of that and are actually considering implementing static pages in the core in future versions.

Also, could you please explain in more detail what the frontpage is/does exactly? Is it the same thing as the home page or??

Yes, it's a different word for home page.

And last but not least, can you please tell me how to at least hide the GO button? I really don't like it right there in front of my visitors' eyes

Huh? The GO button you're referring to (as far as I understand it) is in the sidebar of the backend, i.e. the admin interface which you need to log in to. Your blog's visitor can not log in to your backend. Are you referring to a different GO button?

YL

[monere]

Huh? The GO button you're referring to (as far as I understand it) is in the sidebar of the backend, i.e. the admin interface which you need to log in to. Your blog's visitor can not log in to your backend. Are you referring to a different GO button?

YL

Hi again

Please click on this link (it's the website I am trying to set up):

http://had2know.info

Do you see the big badass GO button in the sidebar? If you don't see it, it means there is something wrong with my computer/browser (which is not even surprising considering the many weird things I get lately :p)

And since I'm on the topic, do you happen to know what the thing is with that "all categories" link in the sidebar (it's right below the GO button)? As you can see I already added some categories that I will be working with and I placed them at the top of the sidebar; so, there is no need for that "All categories" link to still be there. Besides, when I click on it I am being take to the... frontpage instead of anything that's even remotely related to categories and such. Weird

[yellowled]

Do you see the big badass GO button in the sidebar?

Of course. You have set the categories sidebar plugin to allow visitors to select multiple categories, hence the checkboxes in front of each category displayed. (You might not have explicitly set this, I'm not sure if it's the default setting.) This way, users can i.e. select the food and health categories, hit go and see only entries from the selected categories, kind of like a category filter.

Setting Appearance/Configure plugins → Categories → Allow visitors to display multiple categories at once? to “No” should hide both the checkboxes and the go button.

And since I'm on the topic, do you happen to know what the thing is with that "all categories" link in the sidebar (it's right below the GO button)?

Sure. That's (in relation to what I described above) sort of a “reset” for the category filter. Should disappear as well if you disable selecting multiple categories as described above.

YL

[kleinerChemiker]

The GO Button is, to submit when you have selected several categories.

AFAIK, spartacus is delivered with s9y, you just have to activate it.

[yellowled]

Should disappear as well if you disable selecting multiple categories as described above.

Oops. No, it doesn't. In order to hide that link, you'd need to edit code.

YL

[monere]

Of course. You have set the categories sidebar plugin to allow visitors to select multiple categories, hence the checkboxes in front of each category displayed. (You might not have explicitly set this, I'm not sure if it's the default setting.) This way, users can i.e. select the food and health categories, hit go and see only entries from the selected categories, kind of like a category filter.

Setting Appearance/Configure plugins → Categories → Allow visitors to display multiple categories at once? to “No” should hide both the checkboxes and the go button.

YL

Whew, I finally made it

Thanks!

[Timbalu]

Another way would be to set

Code: Select all

.category_submit > input {
    display: none;
    visibility: hidden;
}

which actually makes no sense...

[monere]

Should disappear as well if you disable selecting multiple categories as described above.

Oops. No, it doesn't. In order to hide that link, you'd need to edit code.

YL

Can you please tell me how to do it?
It can't ruin the code, and it's most likely a simple thing like adding // at the beginning and end of a particular line of code, or something like this. After all, PhP rules are the same for everyone :p

[monere]

The GO Button is, to submit when you have selected several categories.

AFAIK, spartacus is delivered with s9y, you just have to activate it.

Yep, I've already been told this by YL. Also, I will activate spartacus, no problem

But, what is AFAIK?

[yellowled]

which actually makes no sense...

Especially since it completely targets the wrong element(s).

YL

[monere]

Another way would be to set

Code: Select all

.category_submit > input {
    display: none;
    visibility: hidden;
}

which actually makes no sense...

Hey Timbalu,
What's this code for? Where do I add it??

Also, it is possible to display the categories hierarchically/as dropdown?

I realize I might find the answers to all these questions in the existent plugins and sorry about not checking them out yet, but you guys have replied to my concerns so fast that I had to return the favor

Anyway, I promise to check out each theme/plugin (or most, if there's many of them) after I am done here.

[Timbalu]

Especially since it completely targets the wrong element(s).

...not really, since it was live tested, given as new element rule through firebug, though it could have been more finetuned...