Textpattern Template | Clean Sky

Textpattern has been my CMS of choice in the last 4 years and KingsDesign has been running Textpattern from the day we started. So it is only fair that I have now designed a template to give something back to the textpattern community. Clean SKy template is the name I came up with.

The template was inspired by an image I have recently taken on a trip around Asutralia. I have developed the template without installing any plugins to make sure this template is an easy start for the beginning textpattern user but it is also very easy to customize for the experienced user. The template has been developed on Textpattern 4.0.8 but it will work on previous versions as well as it is nog using any of the most recent txp tags to keep things easy.

Take a look at Textpattern Template | Clean Sky.

and if you like it you can download it (96 Kb ZIP file).
Installation instructions are included with the template.

There is also a Textpattern forum thread.

The template has been tested in the following browsers:
Internet explorer 6, Internet explorer 7, Firefox 3(mac), Opera(mac).

In the next release I might add some functionality like a contact form and more extensive blogging tools.

Enjoy this clean and fresh template!

One page website can work very well

I have been getting a couple of requests lately of people that are after a one page website with a very specific purpose.

A little story:
We had listed our house with a real estate agent for over 3 months now and we haven't sold the house because of the tight market at the moment. So we came up with the idea of making a website, listing the property with all the details and placing advertisements in the paper. The URL at the bottom of the ad to get interested visitors to the website. I haven't done anything like this before but I'm happy with the site I made so let's hope for that one buyer we need. 4breeza.com

Update: The house was rented out for the asking price on the same day the ad went into the paper. A great succes and a lot of positve reactions. I have another 1 page website which I'm designing now and it will be an exclusive car listing. 

My reasons for using Drupal 6

I have been using Drupal 6 a fair bit in the last 6 month and I really got to love it. I won't compare Drupal with other CMS's but I will point out the strong points of Drupal. Oo one cool new feature is the automatic checking for updates on the drupal install but also on the modules you are using. This way your modules are up to date too!

Drupal 6 Out of the box.

When you have installed your copy of drupal 6 you will find that it has some pretty basic functionality. It might seem that this is a problem but it is a strong point of drupal. You can configure drupal just the way you want it.

Content Types

Drupal comes with a couple of content types like a page, articles and blog posts but this might not be enough for the project you are working on. Well you can create your own content type whichever way you want. You can create something like a media release with an image in there and an attachent for the release or you can specify whichever field that you like.

Views

The Views module is not part of the core drupal install but it is essential if you want to get the most out of drupal. Views lets you create a page or a block where you can display your fields in the format you want and sort them too. The more I use Views the more I like it because it's flexibility and the ease of editing them. Since the drupal 6 release there is a lot of new functionality in the admin section that makes editing your drupal system easy.

CCK (Content Construction Kit)

Another module that is great. CCK lets you add and create custom fields that could be used anywhere on your site. 

Meta Tags (Node Words)

Of course you want some SEO on your website as well so the meta tage module let's you add meta keywords and descriptions to all of your drupal nodes. You can also set default meta tags for standard nodes.

Pathauto

This module let's you set up clean url aliases for all the content types you have. This way you get clean url's for every content type (e.g. /flowers/tulips) and it is good SEO too.

These are some of the strong point why I like using drupal. Spend some time installing and customizing a Drupal installation and you'll like it too.

TinyMce wysiwyg editor for Textpattern CMS

After using textpattern CMS for over 3 years now I never needed a wysisyg editor because I was quite happy with textile as the markup language. This week at work we needed a cms with a lot of the functionalities that Textpattern provides but it also needed to have a wysisyg editor.
A quick google search and I found this plugin which does all that I wanted. A TinyMce editor which we use as a standard editor in nearly every CMS.
Download the plugin with TinyMce included

Just follow the instructions in the text file and you are ready to go.
This is my first post without textile and I kind of miss it too.

Ubuntu Workstation - Dell inspiron 530

After a bit of consideration I have decided to change my computer setup a bit and go for a desktop and a laptop for mobility.
At the moment there is a macbook pro together with a 24” dell monitor.
The dell 24” will stay but I will get an inspiron 530 with a 22” screen.
A dual screen setup with a 22” and 24” screen, The workstation will be running Ubuntu linux(Hardy Heron version). The dell inspiron is sold in America with Ubuntu Pre-installed on it so this seemed the closest I could get to an out of the box ubuntu system. Hopefully there are not too many problems with installing Ubuntu.
Posting from an ubuntu machine soon! (I hope)

Some new Project in the portfolio section

It has been while since I posted on the blog but I have been very busy working on some great websites.
Most of them have been at work but I did some nice websites freelance too.
I updated the Portfolio a little as well with some JQuery to display the most recent project in a small area. Jquery is a easy way of doing great things with javascript. Have a look at my portfolio!

Google adwords voucher

Today I got my latest copy of .net magazine in and there was a 30 pound adwords voucher in there. The person that posts the best link on SEO in the comments will receive the 30 pound voucher.
Everyone is invited to post a good website but the voucher is only valid for new UK adwords accounts.
Hopefully we see some nice resources in the comments.

IE 6 Double margin bug fix

Just a quick little notice that there is a very easy fix for this problem.
When you’re having Internet Explorer 6 displaying double margin add this to the css of your floating element: display:inline;.
Little time saver when testing in IE 6. Don’t we all love IE 6 :d.
Hope it helps you.

Handy links for web developers and designers

We all have a lot of sites we visit regularly so why not share the good ones with everyone else.
Here are the sites I visit most for my web development and design.

.Net Magazine
Applclinic Podcast
ColourLovers
Dafont free fonts
Mini Ajax
property for rent/sale
Tasmanian Cricket Centre
Textpattern
W3schools

I have included these links in the footer of the website so you can find them there. Which websites do you recommend??