This post is a bit of an experiment. I want an iPhone bookmarklet that will allow me to subscribe to RSS feeds! I use Google Reader currently, and found a couple of bookmarklets on their blog which do the trick.
I also came across a handy ‘find in page’ link which is something I often miss with mobile Safari!
Two years after the first Jaguar Configurator I was involved with went live, I am happy to say I was involved in the new configurator for the All New XJ.
For a website we are currently working on, we needed a Forum. The new Forum4Umbraco is still in early development so we turned to Yet Another Forum. This post describes how to integrate YAF into Umbraco 4 as a User Control.
This means you can create a template in Umbraco, and then insert the following line(s) of code to get an instant forum:
<form runat="server">
<yaf:Forum runat="server" ID="forum" />
</form>
This was also possible because we do not need to share Membership information between Umbraco and YAF. It may well be possible to share membership, and it’s something I’d like to look into if I ever get the time!
This is a post in response to the ongoing discussion about DocType Inheritance in Umbraco.
I am working on a large site with a lot of different doc types. They do all share some common properties – Breadcrumb name, and menu name for example. I also need to add Metadata fields to each of these document types at some point.
Niels is probably correct – “inheritance” would save me half an hour here, half an hour there. But I do still think it would make my life easier and take some of the tedium out of website development!
I have been giving this some thought over the last few days and wondered if some of my thoughts would be of use to anybody.
Read the rest of this entry »
I am currently working on a website which has a media gallery in it (functionally similar to JD Smooth Gallery but written in YUI)
Basically I have a gallery of images and some meta data (descriptions, titles) etc defined in the Umbraco Media section.
In my Document Type I have a Media Picker which allows you to select the Media. The alias for my field is ‘gallery’.
I have modified XSLTSearch so that it can be configured to treat certain fields as Media and will search the Media section.
You will need to add a new field to the XSLTSearch Macro with an alias of “mediaFields” in which a comma separated list of fields containing media can be placed.
Here is a sample macro statement from Umbraco v4:
<umbraco:Macro runat=”server” Alias=”XSLTsearch” macroAlias=”XSLTsearch” source=”-1″ searchFields=”@nodeName,metaKeywords,metaDescription,bodyText,gallery” previewFields=”bodyText,gallery,metaDescription,metaKeywords” mediaFields=”gallery” previewType=”beginning” searchBoxLocation=”bottom” resultsPerPage=”5″ previewChars=”255″ showPageRange=”1″ showOrdinals=”0″ showScores=”0″ showStats=”0″> </umbraco:Macro>You will also need to replace the XSLTsearch macro with the one I have modified (based on the latest v2.7 of the macro). Download the modified XSLTsearch here.
Incidentally there appears to be a possible bug/feature in Umbraco if you want to be able to select a Media Folder in the Media Picker. The Umbraco function “umbraco.library:GetMedia” will not work unless you add an Upload field to the Media “Folder” data type, with an alias of “umbracoFile”.
Having only used Umbraco for a couple of weeks, it was great to have the opportunity to attend the Codegarden event. This was an opportunity to meet other developers and to learn about Umbraco.
It was also an opportunity to pick up some helpful hints and tips, which I’ve documented in this post.
http://www.neehouse.com/umbraco_cms/resources/xslt_library_functions.aspx
http://umbraco.org/blog/2007/12/2/dec-2-resources-and-where-to-find-help
http://umbraco.org/blog/2007/12/3/dec-3-umbraco-basics-document-types
http://umbraco.org/blog/2007/12/6/dec-6-document-types-part-ii
http://umbraco.org/blog/2007/12/7/dec-7-templates-part-i—the-introduction
http://umbraco.org/blog/2007/12/12/dec-8-adding-page-information-to-templates
http://umbraco.org/blog/2007/12/13/dec-9-using-master-templates
This post explains a technique for building websites using Struts and Tiles templates, in such a way that AJAX can be integrated into the application. When the user does not support AJAX or JavaScript, the website will still function because it will fall back on the standard HTTP protocols and the standard Struts framework.
I really really don’t “get” umbraco yet; it just seems so incredibly difficult to use compared to the other CMS’s (Joomla!) I’ve used.
Right now all I want to do is render a Blog Description in a “Home Page” template but I cannot figure out how to do it. Umbraco uses a lot of XSLT which I am not too hot with – something else I need to address.
The initial learning curve for developing in Umbraco seems to be much steeper than Joomla!
Well, following some of the tutorials on the Umbraco website seems to have helped: the information is there if you need it!
Well I’ve decided to leave Ford to join Connect-Digital, a new media agency. I already know most of the team as I have worked with them in the past. I think this is gonna be a lot of fun, but a lot of hard work!
The CMS of choice is Umbraco – a .NET based open source system. As I am a J2EE developer, I’m going to need to cross-train toot suite!