Integrating TYPOlight with 100% custom frontend?

[suishide]

Hi all.

I have read quite a bit of the documentation here and at the official product website but I can't find a direct answer to my question so if anyone can help me I'd be really grateful.

Basically, I came across TYPOlight while looking for a CMS for a specific purpose, and I really like the back-end administration part - what I am looking for though, is the ability to integrate a CMS (such as TYPOlight) into a standard PHP/CSS front-end.

I had planned on using something called 'Stash' CMS which has an admin back-end where you can REQUIRE a single PHP file containing the CMS' functions within a PHP page and use those predefined functions to put the content into any page; an example might be displayNews(); and the entire news section would be pulled into the page.

Stash CMS has sadly fallen on stony ground because the webhost doesn't allow fopen(); to be used and Stash relies on it.

My question is: can the functions that TYPOlight uses to display content within it's front-end pages (wherever they may be) be easily used in a non-TYPOlight front-end such as a basic PHP page, and if it can how would I do that?

Many thanks for your time.
Dan.

[Vera]

TL can do something alike that what you ask, but let me ask you why you would want to do that in the first place?

TL works by filling a template with data. Compare that to what you want: A php page that gets data from TL and put that into itself. The later sounds overcomplicated so I would like to know why this is a requirement in the first place.

Can you show a simple example or reason that explicitly requires that which you ask?

To me it seems much easier to just use TL only.

[suishide]

The actual website itself is already 90%+ coded, most of this is a combination of static pages and dynamic pages generated from the contents of directories the customer can FTP files into. The remaining 10% is text-based content which will be updated by the customer.

For how little CMS-type data is required it's not worth ditching what has been done so far in favour of re-building a site around a CMS; all that I need is a user-friendly interface for facilitating the input of perhaps 3 categories of editable information into a MySQL database - of those, probably only a 'News' section would be updated relatively frequently by the customer.

Had there not been a problem with the configuration of the web host, the CMS I had used during production/design would have been ideal as an entire page would be populated with a categories worth of information, using a single function call.

You say that TYPOlight can do something like that, can you please tell me how?

Thank you,
Dan.

[Medianomaly]

Suishide,

Obviously I'm not keen to the specifics of the project -- deadline, cost, size and scope, specific requirements and considerations that led you to the solution you are seeking, etc, etc., and I don't mean to criticize or second guess something I have very little info on, But I came across your post and just wanted to state the following:

From what you are describing, I'm not sure it's the best solution. You have some pages that are static content and I assume need to updated with an HTML editor. Then you have some pages that are updated based on what files are FTP'd into what folders, and additionally you plan on adding a CMS to update one or two sections such as news. So in other words, maintaining the site is very decentralized and requires different methods and levels of knowledge.

I realize you don't want to throw away what you've already done, but if it were me, I'd do it anyway. It's worth it! It's very worth it! Since most of the site is already built, you essentially have the template, structure, and CSS styles defined, it's just a matter of plugging that into the CMS. Then your static content can be easily cut and pasted into the editors -- so there will be less waste then you might think. TYPOlight is very friendly to your HTML and CSS -- you do not need to scrap what you have and do things "its way".

I think you will be very surprised at how quickly you can get a full site up and running, especially once you spend some time getting familiar with the system. If you spend 2-3 hours getting a feel for it, reading up on the user guide, watching some of the tutorials, etc., I think you'd be able to hit the ground running. From there, for a typical site, you most likely will be able to completely integrate what you have in no more than 8-10 hours (many times much less if you have a simpler site). From there, unless you have a few hundred static pages or more, plugging in content shouldn't take very long.

I would look at these 10-15 hours as a very worthwhile investment for your company -- if nothing else to learn the system and get an idea for what it can do. You will find a significant return on that investment in future projects as it can cut development time into a fraction of what it would normally be. The company I work for normally does very large, enterprise-level sites that cost six figures and take hundreds of hours to develop. On the side, I use TYPOlight for some more budget-conscious projects and, with very little programming knowledge, can practically match their capabilites and deliver a fully-functional site from concept to launch in 60-80 hours. It's raised quite a few eyebrows with management and developers over here, to say the least.

The additional advantage is that your client will get a much better product in the end with a fully integrated CMS that allows them to control all of their content from one central location (even if much of it isn't frequently updated, they will still appreciate having that ability). You get to over-deliver, and get a great showpiece for future prospective clients.

Just my thoughts -- unfortunately I am not qualified to answer your specific question.

[suishide]

Obviously I'm not keen to the specifics of the project -- deadline, cost, size and scope, specific requirements and considerations that led you to the solution you are seeking, etc, etc.,

Basically the cost is pennies, for the most part a favour to a friend - but I do have a life outside of that so another 10/15 hours is really outside the remit of what I'm prepared to do on top of the time spent so far coding the HTML/PHP/CSS/IMAGES from scratch. The size/scope is fairly tiny (x6 or so static pages, an FTP image gallery, news page, gigs page etc). Specific requirements are that the customer is completely computer illiterate aside from being able to drag files into an FTP folder and following fairly uncomplicated admin control panels.

You have some pages that are static content and I assume need to updated with an HTML editor.

As they are static, they do not need to be updated.

Then you have some pages that are updated based on what files are FTP'd into what folders

This goes towards not overcomplicating matters for the customer, since they can drop image files en-masse into folders with the appropriate pages being updated to include them dynamically. This again is an action they are familiar with; trying to teach them to update a similar page via an editor or control panel is overkill and something they're not particularly inclined to learn.

So in other words, maintaining the site is very decentralized and requires different methods and levels of knowledge.

To my mind, since the sum knowledge of the person who will be using and updating the site is tantamount to little more than dragging files from one folder to another, the combination of truly static pages (at their request, they've no need to change them), dynamic page generation from FTP folders, and some form of basic text handling for the 2 or 3 pages that they want to update fits the bill perfectly. I know this as I know the customer, having created a site for them before.

Probably if I had the time, I'd be more inclined to dig out my MySQL + PHP 5.0 book and code a basic text handling screen than rebuild around a CMS system - if only for the sake of not taking the customer out of their comfort zone and trying to get them to handle a WYSIWYG editor, when really the only additional knowledge they will need is how to input plaintext that'll be picked up automatically by the main site. The customer in fact is a 20 stone shaven headed punk singer with head to toe tattoos so his interest in updating the site amounts to little more than 'bums on seats', or rather 'bodies in the moshpit'.

I have used full CMS before (phpnuke, phpfusion etc) and I'm comfortable enough working with such things both visually and 'behind the scenes'. It's simply the case that even some of the most basic CMSes are vastly overfeatured for the customer and at their own request they only wish to update a news page, a list of gigs and couple of other 'newsy' type pages in the most basic way possible - this is why I've been looking for something that fits the bill of my original post.

I am currently testing other CMSes with a 'not too cumbersome' back-end which allow for function calls in non-CMS pages, there are a few that look promising though I was hoping to do something similar with TYPOlight's back-end.

[Vera]

I'm sure tl can do somthing like this. But the backend for tl is too complicated for your customer. And if he does understand how to change text in tl, then you might as well let tl handle everything. tl handles everything in a consistent way instead of using a ftp agent and whatever other programs he has to use now.

Medianomaly said everything I thought that I had said with less words ops:

[SeanFromSoCal]

I'm in a very similar situation. I have a fully customized website that the clients just want a backend to edit snippets of text throughout the webpages and to handle news section of the site.

Typolight's backend looks well thought out. From the backend perspective it provides more functionality than the client will use for now but we will grow in it. Also it is the ONLY CMS solution I found that can work with PHP and MSSQL. So I'm stuck with either Typolight or building a custom backend.

Is it possible to strip down Typolight frontend to only pull content and navigation? Like a core PHP includes file that will provide me basic functions like:

includes('typolight/core.php');
$Typolight = new Typolight;

$Typolight->GetNavigation('main');
$Typolight->GetNavigation('articles');
$Typolight->GetPageContent('firstpage');

I could do custom queries/function pulling the content out of the database directly and to some handling but this may break during future Typolight upgrades, so if there was a simple way of pulling the page details using official Typolight functions that would be great.

One major reason I cannot do a more thorough integration into Typolight is that I already have a customer login and registration process. It is a service company. There is a 7 page customer registration/service signup process. I have my own session handling, integration with client's payment processor, custom shopping cart, coupon handling. Pulling account settings, history, and payment details from a custom database that also work with the other non-web service applications.

This is not a simple static HTML websites. Too much that could go wrong with an integraton with a CMS front end. I wish it was as easy as Medianomaly is suggesting for me at least.

So to summarze...is there a standarized way (hopefully a couple key functions in an official Typolight class/php includes file) that can dynamically pull the navigation and page content? If not and I pull the content directly from the database how frequently am I going to have to re-examine my code when is time to update Typolight (is the database going to be pretty stable in the future)?

[Vera]

Typolight can have users and usergroups to whom you can disable access to most parts. They will then also not show up in the menu

[SeanFromSoCal]

Not sure if you are getting the point I'm trying to make. What if I had an existing PHP site with its own customer login and other custom code. Can I use Typolight CMS to power just the text on my page?

Typolight looks great and easy in converting static HTML/CSS websites into dynami CMS power sites...but how does it handle integrating into other dynamic website -- like a forum site, a gallery site, a download/filesharing site?

Here's another example...if I had a PhpBB forum and at the top of each page I wanted to show the latest news...could I somehow query Typolight that information and get an array with say the News headline, author, date, time, teaser, addimage? And also have it so when my visitors click on it, it will go to a Typolight powered news page?

On this Typolight powered news page, is it possible to load a lightweight Typolight framework that can be easily included that won't make the sites bloated with a full PhpBB framework + full Typolight framework?

[duppy]

I'm in the same situation as Sean. I have a set of existing websites that use custom registration and sign in (single sign on) and I'd like to manage some (not all) of the content with TYPOlight (preferably all on the backend) and reuse the existing frontends.

Is this doable? If so, how?

[duppy]

So I take it this is not possible.

Thanks.

[ramjet]

Duppy, thats a bit of a "how long is a piece of string?"-type question., not that easy for anyone to answer
Its probably do-able (it all depends on the methodologies of what you already have) so yes.
How? By indepth study of how Typolight works, and adjustment of your scripts and extension of Typolights database and a LOT of troubleshooting and php scripting probably - or paying someoneone who knows the system well (ga.n, thyon, andreas, flob etc to work it out for you)
Personally I would remake the website entirely using Typolights way .... most frontend content can be cut and pasted into content elements via TinyMC, and the Style sheets can be imported and adjusted. The database can be extended to your needs and modules can be built or php scripts run from the Templates folder and called using the {{file::myscript.php}} insert tag.
Throwing away your reg/signin stuff and replicating it with Typolights built-in methods will save you time in the longrun I believe. You can use custom hooks to intercept a registration or sign-on to affect any thing you need to happen (and you'll already have the hook logic mostly worked out as your custom methods are probably php anyway).

So, start from scratch and imitate your existing site is my 2c.

SeanFromSoCal ... don't know sorry, but Leo is very conscious of backwards compatability so I think if you work out a way
then it isn't likely to break. Typolight is modular, perhaps your best way would be to develop a module that talks between your database and Typolights???

[duppy]

Thanks ramjet,

From what you've said and I've gathered from reading, Typolight is perfect for a lot of projects. It's not, however, for my projects. I don't just have a 'site'. I have a network of sites with varying complexity linked via seamless single sign on, and resources exposed via web services. Most of these are way more complex than 'blogs', and have very sophisticated backends. Even the 'blog type' ones are integrated with the others via the web services. I have no intention of just tossing out tons of working and tested complex code to redo everything in Typolight. I was hoping that Typolight would give me a lightweight way to managing some new content added to one of the existing sites, with hooks to pull the content into existing frontends, but superficially that doesn't seem to be the case. It may simply be undocumented, but in the time it'll take me to wade through all the Typolight code and possible hack it to do what I want, I can trivially roll my own solution. Whatever the case, the apparent all or nothing approach is a dealbreaker for me.

Still, I'll re-consider Typolight if I ever need to do a simple standalone project for somebody else (or myself).

[ramjet]

roll my own solution

I'm no expert here, but I think you're right to do this

I'll re-consider Typolight if I ever need to do a simple standalone project

Or a complex one from scratch...its a great system.