Converting a Site

[Fisherman]

Hello,

I'm converting a static site to WB. The file names are index.html, home, etc... In the admin there's an entry for title but not file name. How can I create pages to replace the original files and with the same content so my client will have the same website but editable? Can't I choose the file names and page titles separately?

Thanks

[fischstäbchenbrenner]

You should NOT do this. Make a useful site structure, but do not try to copy the old structure.
When your new site is finished, make redirection with the .htaccess, like this:

Code: [Select]

redirect 301 /business/6030.html http://www.mysite.at/cms/serie-30/6x3.html
A few lines, and the job is done - without permanent troubles.

[Fisherman]

Sounds like more trouble than it's worth for this job. I just wanted to let the client edit his existing pages without messing up the design. He knows nothing about html so this WB sounded good. I guess not. Any suggestions?

[PurpleEdge]

Create a WB wysiwyg page for each of the corresponding pages in the current website.

Copy the content from the current site into the wysiwyg editor of the new site - do this by going to the pages in the current site, select the parts you want to copy while viewing the pages in IE, then paste that content into the wysiwyg editor.

I don't know of a simpler solution if that is too much trouble?

Maybe buy them a copy of Serif WebPlus, or Xara WebDesigner?

[Argos]

An alternatie would be a simple page type editor without a cms/database. There are quite some nice ones around. I believe Snippetmaster is one of them, but have look in Google and hotscripts.com.

[Nicky]

Argos

Thanks for your tip!

I always wondered how I was going to allow the customer to edit a region without wrecking everything else!

Website Baker is the best CMS! Why? Simply because it takes only a couple of hours to teach a customer how to use it!

Regards
Nicky

ps I wish there was a way to name the WYSIWYG sections? For example, if a customer has say 6 sections on a page, how can he easily identify which is which. I know top-bottom latest-last etc, but the customer often forgets! Being able to name each section would be great? At the moment it just shows what the section is, calendar, wysiwyg, etc.

 

[Argos]

I wish there was a way to name the WYSIWYG sections? For example, if a customer has say 6 sections on a page, how can he easily identify which is which. I know top-bottom latest-last etc, but the customer often forgets! Being able to name each section would be great? At the moment it just shows what the section is, calendar, wysiwyg, etc.

That's a good suggestion! Maybe the dev's will pick it up.

[Luisehahne]

in the moment, you only can identify the section by the section_id you can find in sections and above the editor or module. We are planning a title for one of the 2.9.x versions.

Dietmar

[Nicky]

Thanks Argos and Luisehahne,  And, if I might suggest a further enhancement, to be able to add a sub-title, description and keywords to any section rather than just rely on the T,D,K of the whole page itself.

Most recent work is with a town council who have meeting results (called “minutes” in en-gb) for every meeting that has occurred. I could, and have created, a new page for their monthly bulletins, but a new page for every single meeting in one year is beyond reasonable...

If I could have a new title, description (and keywords perhaps) for every new section on a single-page, that would be sublime.

For example, during 2010, the town has had many different meetings and a huge, “result-text” every time.

At the moment, I just ask the secretary that the new info is placed on top of the last entry on that given year page; for example; The “2010 Meetings Result Page”.

BUT, that whole 2010 page has the same description and keywords! I cannot change that for every new section. Sure, I could add a new page for every council meeting but that would not be coherent and fluid for the reader because they would have to jump through another and yet another link to read the whole 2010 meetings info.

With a title, description (and keywords) on each section, I could emphasise keys points and issues by using that, “TDK”  formula (and perhaps Google would pick that up too)

Why? So that WB sections would stand-out as being an important and a very relevant sub-section stand-alone piece within a page itself. A sub (or, “blog”) section/post - for want of any better description!

I am too old to invoke the intricacies of php to do this myself, otherwise I would truly help.

The long and short! Developers! (God bless you) Please consider the ability to add a title and a short description, to any section, on any page.

It would rock the SEO!

Regards
Nicky

[Argos]

Why don't you use the News module for the meeting reports? It seems to be perfect for this purpose. Create a News page for each year, and posts for each meeting. They all have their own titles. Forget keywords, they're not used anymore by search engines.

[Nicky]

Hi Argos
Yes, I have already done this for their diary and forthcoming meetings for sure, and that works well. I shall have to think about a "results" report.

Thanks for the idea.   

[Luisehahne]

The long and short! Developers! (God bless you) Please consider the ability to add a title and a short description, to any section, on any page.

I can't promise, because in page settings for each page you already can set his own description and keywords. But i promise you to discuss it with the chief developer. But for my point of view it can't be for seo, because we already have a global description and keywords and extra for each page. So a title and short description is only shown in the backend to see the content in the wysiwyg in advance.

Dietmar

[Nicky]

Why don't you use the News module for the meeting reports? It seems to be perfect for this purpose. Create a News page for each year, and posts for each meeting. They all have their own titles. Forget keywords, they're not used anymore by search engines.

Hi Argos,

I have finally gotten around to doing this and exactly as you suggested and it works fine. I am working through exporting and importing the data. I have noticed (perhaps a bug) that if I import (Ctrl-V) 5 or 6 pages of A4 page text in a post, all is well. But, if I try and import 10 or 11 pages, or more, of text, that post page saves ok without an error message but the browser can only see the first 5 or 6 pages. So, is this a buffer setting, an add-on setting or perhaps a MySql issue? Does each post have data capacity limitations?

Any ideas? Nicky


Site uses WB 2.7

News Module:

Name:    News
Type:    Page
Author:    Ryan Djurovich, Rob Smith
Version:    2.7
Designed For:    Website Baker 2.6.x

[Argos]

I'm not aware of content length limitations in WB or the module, but maybe there are... But I suspect that it may be a template issue. Does the template stretch unlimited? Can I see a page with a "cut off" article?

[Nicky]

Using exactly the same template on an "ordinary" WYSIWYG page, the import is fine. In fact, that is where I have been transferring them from. And, each of those old WYSIWYG pages contain tons-and-tons of text (40/50 pages each). So, the template I am using CAN stretch unlimited.

It is not a template issue, nor is at bookmark/hyperlink issue contained in the document being imported which can stop an import (Ctrl-V) at that point in the import where the anomaly exists.

I could show you a post(s) where a post paste import has stopped after page 5 or 6 but I rather feel it is a news module issue. Although, I am going to try different templates meanwhile, and report.

(My current workaround is to split the posts and paste onto different pages ie. Seance du 10 Avril 2010 page 1, Seance du 10 Avril 2010 page 2 etc.)
 

( Report: I have just tried using the WB "Simple" template and the import completed without errors reported. BUT, after saving, just over half of the file being imported was saved and published. This goes to support it's not a template issue.

Can someone try and re-create my problem by creating a test post in the news module and then loading it with 15 pages worth of data, saving it and then viewing that published page in a browser?

Regards, Nicky

To recap: The News module is fine (for me) posting pages with 5 or 6 pages of data, but if I try any more, the post simply ends, about halfway through (again, about after 5 or 6 pages worth of data) with no previous error messages in saving, reading, or writing.        

[pcwacht]

To recap: The News module is fine (for me) posting pages with 5 or 6 pages of data, but if I try any more, the post simply ends, about halfway through (again, about after 5 or 6 pages worth of data) with no previous error messages in saving, reading, or writing.       

The default databasefield for the long content is text, wich ofcourse has a limit.

This is a known problem wich arises every 'n'th user. In 99 percent of the cases the text limit is more then enough. The type Text can hold 65535 characters or 32768 doublebyte characters wich are normally more then enough.
look allso at , https://forum.WebsiteBaker.org/index.php/topic,2387.0.html

If you need more, you need to change a table in wb.
In the table -. news_posts change the field type of content_long from text to textmedium of textlong.
If you need help I can help you.

But, I allso must mention that creating such long pages is not visitor friendly, It is much better to keep scrolling to a limit by building a better menustructure.
Or break a very long page up into seperate shorter pages.

Have fun,
John

[Nicky]

Hi John

Thanks. Notably, the text is usually imported from Word (including tables created by Word) which, as you know, have huge amounts of ancillary formatting data.

If you need more, you need to change a table in wb.
In the table -. news_posts change the field type of content_long from text to textmedium of textlong.

Q. Is this via MySql, or by changing the actual news_posts part of the news module, or both?

Hi John, cancel that Q above. It's the database table I need to change. I'll attempt that tomo. and report.Thanks

[pcwacht]

Only through mysql

Go to the table {table_prefix}mod_news_posts -> structure -> edit contentlong filed, change text to mediumtext or longtext

Then when everything is working, get rid of msword
and start cleaning things up to server pages faster to your visitors.

Have fun,
John

[Nicky]

Thanks John

Totally sorted. I changed text to textlong as you suggested. 

I utterly agree with ditching MSWord but it's local French government issue (literally) so I have to live with it. I'm open to suggestions about a work-around though! Personally, I use OpenOffice.

Proost!

Nicky

[Argos]

I utterly agree with ditching MSWord but it's local French government issue (literally) so I have to live with it. I'm open to suggestions about a work-around though! Personally, I use OpenOffice.

I guess he meant "don't paste Word-content into the editor", instead of "don't use Word at all" 

[pcwacht]

More a 'Don't do Microsoft when it comes to web' kinda statement.

In the wysiwyg editor you find a paste from word button, that might help, I mean, you still need to copy the word content and paste it.

Another option is to open all with Openoffice and save as html, will clean most stuff as well, then copy that. Maybe it could be batched processed.

There are allso a lot of msword-html cleaner thingys out there in the web.



My way is
1 open word document
2 ctrl-a, ctrl-c
3 open Crimsoneditor (or any other descent text editor) and ctrl-v
4 then ctrl-a and ctrl-c and paste in web

Then going over it to make it looks a bit better, linebreaks, headings, lists that sort ofg things
Cumbersome but gives cleanest code after all


Have fun,
John

[Argos]

Fastest way with new pages: open source mode of the editor, paste, go back to normal mode. Voila, clean text.

Or even faster: use Innovastudio editor (commercial, but cheap and powerful editor) and set settings to "Paste always as text". Then you can just paste whatever you want right in the editor, and it only pastes ascii.

[Nicky]

Thanks Argos and John,

I will investigate! For me, your text tips are a non-problematic contributions, and thanks. But, for the customer ... well, that might, "tip her over the edge", so to speak. She learns fast, but up-keeping the town's website-content is a small part of her job description.

I'm doing all of the website development work for free as a community member and hosting is at cost-price. But their WB site really does, "rock" in every respect, however, I still need the help of you WB guys from time-to-time. So thanks for being here.

Nicky

ps. I am trying to sell that particular town-council website design locally, but without any success. ... and I would never say that some potential customers have very short arms and very long pockets !!!