Support Forum

Hi,
Just installed and am trying to figure out my way around. I'm so overwhelmed I don't even know what to search for, and the online stuff seems to be for people with a clue. Does anyone have a link or two to point me to a beginner's tutorial? Stuff like... how to add/remove menu links; basic concepts of using CMS; creating my own section names; step-by-step for configuring the look and feel of the page? I have some experience with Joomla, but don't seem to be able to transfer what I learned there

Thanks a lot!
Lance

I am not at home at the moment and so do not have access to my pile of links. I will try to get back to this later. Meanwhile others will chime in.

Look at the documentation on the left (User documentation, Knowledgebase, Wiki.

There is a good book about PostNuke by Kevin Hatch. It is written with a previous version (0.75) in mind but the basics and approach are close enough and it is well done.

I find learning by doing is best, though.

My suggestion is that you build yourself what I call a sandbox site. Create a database and do an install and then simply play with things, change things, fiddle with settings and see what happens. If it breaks and you can't fix it, trash the whole thing and build a new sandbox site.

HTH

Peter

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Peace
______________________________________
The commonest cause of problems is solutions.

Like peter says.. build a play site.. most of the stuff is configurable via the administration.

Do not try to apply what you know from another CMS to PN... that will cause more trouble than good.

To start off.. the menu box is a BLOCK. The downloads section is MODULE. Blocks and modules are configured through the ...yoursite.tld/admin.php.

To enable and disable modules do it through the Module module in the admin section.

Thats the start.. play, learn, then production.

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-- David Pahl -- (PostNuke Support Team)

<div id="me" class="none" style="none" />

Oh... and you aren't the first person to ask that question... chuckle.

Once they go live with 0.8 ( live as in Released, not alpha / beta ) I will be starting work on a manual. Until then, I would just highly suggest screwing around with a sample install ( like pheski said ). A couple simple things to start to get used to?

BLOCKS: Think of these as just visual representations on the screen. Everything you see on the final webpage that is created by PHP is a webpage full of PostNuke Blocks. You can turn blocks on / off. You can custom build blocks. If you don't know PHP? I would highly recommend getting in touch with php.net. Otherwise, just think of a block as an HTML area ( div / span / etc ) that contains the contents of a PHP Function.

MODULES: Think of Modules as Web Applications. They EACH do specific things. There is a User Module. This module manages the Users for your entire site. There is a News Module. This manages the News articles for your entire site. If you think your website needs it? You can build a Module for it. For instance, I am the announcer / coach for a local roller derby team ( shameless plug, http://www.greencountryrollergirls.com ) and I am working on a Module called TeamRoster that will allows these Girls ( and myself and the other coaches ) to manage the team roster ( Who is active, hurt, recruit, actual member, as well as some game stats such as MVP and such. ) This is a single web application. But when combined with a PostNuke site, it allows me to link into other modules. So I could have a way for when a coach adds the rank of MVP to a player with my module? It goes in and creates a News Article about that new status. Everything is linkable or you can create a standalone module that doesn't interact with any other part of the site. It's all about what you want.

I would recommend the following... only because it's how I learned.

• Get yourself Edit Plus. It is a text editor. It allows you to open files ON THE SERVER. So you don't have to download, edit, upload, test. You can open the files while they are ON the server, edit, hit save ( it uploads the newest save to the server ) then you just Alt + Tab over to your browser window and test.
  
• But do that, copy a theme ( _ROOT_\themes\[theme name] ) and rename it on the server.
  
• Go into PostNuke -> Administration -> Layout -> Theme Manager -> Regenerate Themes List
  This will allow you to now see your newly copied theme. Activate it. Click on the name of it or point your browser to: http://www.yoursite.com/index.php?theme=[theme name]
  
• Then load that theme into Edit Plus ( or I suppose your editor of choice ). This way you can edit individual files, save, view the change in the browser. You can really play around with the basics of a PostNuke site.
  

This is my $0.02 worth. I remember being a PostNuke Newb. Sadly, the PostNuke project is HIGHLY understaffed, but it does keep getting better despite that. It will reach an official release soon enough and then the web will be a better place ( chuckle ).

I love this CMS!



edited by: randomblink, Jun 18, 2007 - 08:34 AM

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That was a hell of a thing...
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Galaxy Quest

I think the "Basics" links in the User documentation are pretty much what you can call a "PN for Dummies".

See http://community.postnuke.com/Wiki-UserDocs.htm

lance9

Hi,
Just installed and am trying to figure out my way around. I'm so overwhelmed I don't even know what to search for, and the online stuff seems to be for people with a clue. Does anyone have a link or two to point me to a beginner's tutorial? Stuff like... how to add/remove menu links; basic concepts of using CMS; creating my own section names; step-by-step for configuring the look and feel of the page? I have some experience with Joomla, but don't seem to be able to transfer what I learned there

Thanks a lot!
Lance

My only question is why on Earth are using PostNuke if you are comfortable with Joomla? CMS systems are subjective but being realistic here Joomla (especially when 1.5 goes gold) will be the best CMS period especially for newbie users. It's a heck of a lot easier to admin than PN will ever be and has a well laid out backend and UI. You just can't go wrong with it and it produces some of the best looking sites on the net today.

Just curious though :p.

EDIT: I do like PostNuke the best though when comparing phpnuke type of forks etc. I use PostNuke now on a test site. Every CMS has a pro and con just Joomla has more pro than cons compared to the nuke kids .



edited by: JoomlaCowboy, Sep 06, 2007 - 12:47 PM

JoomlaCowboy

My only question is why on Earth are using PostNuke if you are comfortable with Joomla? CMS systems are subjective but being realistic here Joomla (especially when 1.5 goes gold) will be the best CMS period especially for newbie users. It's a heck of a lot easier to admin than PN will ever be and has a well laid out backend and UI. You just can't go wrong with it and it produces some of the best looking sites on the net today.

Just curious though :p.

EDIT: I do like PostNuke the best though when comparing phpnuke type of forks etc. I use PostNuke now on a test site. Every CMS has a pro and con just Joomla has more pro than cons compared to the nuke kids .edited by: JoomlaCowboy, Sep 06, 2007 - 12:47 PM

You're definitely wrong here - if you feel promoting other CMS systems please go there. Here we are running the support forums for PostNuke. If you cannot provide help to people who ask - simply shut up. Sending them to other CMS systems is definitely not the kind of help expected here.
Have a good day!
Greetings,
Chris



edited by: slam, Sep 07, 2007 - 11:05 AM

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development is life. w3you.com
an operating system must operate. sidux.com

JoomlaCowboy

My only question is why on Earth are using PostNuke if you are comfortable with Joomla?

If he is here, he know that PostNuke let him to do whatever he wants, not like Joomla.

Wait a little to the PostNuke 0.8 stable release, and Joomla will shake... many of the JoomlaCowBoys will migrate to PN! jejejeje

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- Mateo T. -
Mis principios... son mis fines

I've built sites in Joomla and PostNuke...and once a client gets a site, they immediately want customization. PostNuke wins in that department, hands down. Granted, I've been using the Openstar modifications for 2 years now (which is now in the .8 core).

While Joomla now has templating and a few nice user-friendly ways to build pages with content from several aspects, for the professional webmaster, PostNuke is definitely the more flexible system.

Joomla is like snowboarding - easy to pick up, you can be good at it quickly.
PostNuke has moved from classic downhill (.723) to freestyle skis (.764/.8) - there is a reason a lot of former snowboarders are moving to freestyles skis, they can do more with them then they could with a snowboard

Can you see Im' ready for the ski season?

NCM
UHEweb

Well, im a newb and I found PostNuke by looking at other sites that were well laid out, had good content and easy to manage.
I use a lot of forums, Wiki's, etc & spend a great deal of my time on the web (sorry, thats my job too).

Have to say - id never heard of Joomla till now!!!


Oh, and im a complete newb too - no experience of linux, server admin, BB's etc. I think thats hlf the fun of the learning experience.

Keep up the good work guys, theres loads of info - just need time to absorb it in my tiny head.