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This is a nearly finished preview of a site revamp that I'm working on for a client. I'm using DP6 to do all the presentation, graphics, menus etc. and a cms to handle most of the content/shopping cart/forms etc.
http://www.mgswebdesign.ie/sitepreview/rosannacrothers/
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VERY nice. I'm marketing guy not a graphics guy, so perhaps I better appreciate how well you convey the "mood" of your client's business.
One clarification please, you seem to imply that you use Xara for the content, layout or whatever. I've done a few custom WordPresses where I did the page design in Xara and pasted it into the WP theme. I've been afraid to recommend that to my do-it-yourself clients with so little personal experience. If I read you right on this gorgeous site, my concerns are solved.
Thanks, I'm not sure the best way to integrate with wordpress but what's basically happening here is...
- Site is published from Xara to a templates folder in the cms
- The cms automatically makes changes to the code on these pages, adding some dynamic code and updates script/img links from relative to absolute so the template pages can be used from any url on the site
- When creating a page or category in the cms you can then select one of these template pages to display the content for that particular page
If I'm hearing right it sounds like you can import xara html files into wordpress. How would I go about importing it and would the cms system through word press be able to update pages?Quote:
Originally Posted by xtom
Sorry that wasn't for wordpress, it's my own cms that I've been working on. I don't know of a way to simply import Xara html files into Wordpress, making an importer might be doable but you'd need to be familiar with developing/modding for Wordpress.
Fantastic, I really like the clean layout and uncluttered look. Also, the Shopping cart was nicely laid out, intuitive! I'm working on new site now and would like to learn about setting it up like yours. Very nice work. Mark
Hi xtom,
A very nice site I think that the colour choices match the product brilliantly. May I ask which cms you used?
M
Thanks guys, still waiting on client to put it live.
The cms I'm using is one that I've developed myself from scratch. I'm working on making it available so other Xara users might use it too but it's not quite ready for release, hopefully soon though so stay tuned. I'm putting together a Xara+CMS demo site here
Looks great.
I see you are using dynamic page tweak with your CMS. Do you have any wishes or suggestions about this tweak?
Thanks John, no wishes or suggestions for the tweak at the moment.
Wow, I love your website ... the colors match perfectly - really nice work!
Hi xtom,
the CMS-Integration you show looks very interesting!
Could one also add a Blog with all its basic Logic Structure but still have the Advantage to design
Articles in the inhibited manner Xara allows for? Or will one then get the Power - but also has to
deal with the restrictions of a Blog-Template?
My point is - as nice as Blogs are as a concept - I really dislike that they force the User into a very
limiting once set up "Corset".
For Designers who often may not display their actual Customers work but have some daily experiments
to show - which are to small to feature them on a fullblown static Webpage but too interesting
not to share - a Blog Structure with the Freedom Xara allows for as a Layout-Tool was fantastic!
The Creamtopping was that one could also watch the outcome with all features on Ipad and such.
Thanks D14
plyxo, I think what you are describing is having different blog posts using different pages designed in Xara? It's not possible at the moment as page templates can only be used at category level, but it would be possible to extend it so that different page templates can be applied to indivdual item pages such as blog posts/products etc. This means instead of just typing your blog post into the cms you could instead design your blog post fully as a page in Xara and then when you are adding your blog post in the cms just select the page you designed in Xara for the page template. Another way might be to use iframes in your blog post. So I think what you're asking would be possible.
xtom,
thanks for your answer and sorry for my late reply. What you say sounds good!
For starters I think it was cool to make seamless = graphically absolutely integrated Blogs possible.
Examples of current techniques typically look as if non native content had been embedded (as it
is the case).
What you describe means having one Blog Entry per Page. I could live with that but I actually prefer Blogs
which at least by Month or by Category show all entries on just one scrolling page.
I have no Clue of Coding and possible complications - so please bear with me.
What I however considered ideal for a Blog was to boil this format down to its very basic virtues:
Listing stuff by date and Categories and maybe giving People an option to comment.
Instead of using a stare layout and a CMS-typical authoring Tool (some wysiwyg Text-Editor) I'd rather
be able to create a chain of possibly very different pearls, depending on then individual contents requirements.
Each entry would be an encapsulated piece of graphical content.
As a backbone all these posts had in common the already mentioned organisational attributes.
Obviously what I said will have limitations - so one will not be able to change the Background just for Entry No. 3
when it shares the page with several other Posts...
To create Content I'd like to use Xara exclusively and gladly trade the option to Update from anywhere.
But it was of course desirable to simply fit in another Post between two already existing Entries or to change
the length of an existing post without having to manually rearrange stuff.
One last remark: I see that you plan do release your CMS as a commercial product.
Maybe a scale-able solution made sense here? I for instance was currently only interested in a flexible Blog-Solution,
controlled from Xara and not in all the E-Commerce Features you also have in the making. If that should change
one could upgrade to the Full version of the CMS.
Greetings, Holger
It will list multiple blog entries on each page and then when you click on a blog entry title it also has it's own dedicated page which is what I was describing previously. The listings would generally be brief text with a main title link that brings you to the main page for that particular blog post. As explained above you could design pages for the dedicated blog page but blog listings are displayed in a more uniform way. You will be able to categorise blog posts by date and by custom named categories. Comments will also be supported.Quote:
What you describe means having one Blog Entry per Page. I could live with that but I actually prefer Blogs
which at least by Month or by Category show all entries on just one scrolling page.
Yes I'm considering two versions e-commerce version and non e-commerce version. Non e-commerce version will be cheaper for sure.Quote:
One last remark: I see that you plan do release your CMS as a commercial product.
Maybe a scale-able solution made sense here? I for instance was currently only interested in a flexible Blog-Solution,
controlled from Xara and not in all the E-Commerce Features you also have in the making. If that should change
one could upgrade to the Full version of the CMS.
Sounds great. Please keep posting updates!
I've now got a small demo blog up and running which you can check out at http://www.xt-cms.com/xara-demo/blog/ - One of the example blog posts has an iframe illustrating one way to have content/pages designed in Xara displayed within a blog post.