Stepping into templates

[Michael]

Hello,

A few days ago a customer pointed me to the TYPOlight CMS. After reading the available information on the TYPOlight website, I have become interested to work with this system.

Besides my specialization with WordPress, I intend to provide Web sites with the TYPOlight CMS. But .. where should I start?

I hope to learn how to convert a PSD document into a TYPOlight website.


Thanks,

Michael

[Medianomaly]

What I would do first is just get it installed on a test/development area and simply play around a bit -- get a feel for it. It took me about an hour of exploring for everything to "click", but once it did, I was blown away.

I would also read this: http://www.typolight.org/documentation.html
And watch the video tutorials: http://www.typolight.org/books-and-videos.html

Between the user guide and the custom page template video, you should be on your way.

[Michael]

What I would do first is just get it installed on a test/development area and simply play around a bit -- get a feel for it. It took me about an hour of exploring for everything to "click", but once it did, I was blown away.

I would also read this: http://www.typolight.org/documentation.html
And watch the video tutorials: http://www.typolight.org/books-and-videos.html

Between the user guide and the custom page template video, you should be on your way.

Thanks for your response.

Have seen the video where you talked about and everything is much clearer. Thank you.

[Michael]

What I do not understand is the difference between a page layout and a page template. Can someone clarify this?

[markhurd]

A page template is the foundational markup on which a page layout is based (fe_page.tpl is the standard one).

For many situations, you won't need to worry about templates since the page layout based on fe_page is flexible - multiple columns, header/footer, page width, JavaScript in the head element, etc.

You'll need to start managing templates when you require more flexibility than what the main template provides. For example, if you need an extra wrapper div around your left column, you could copy fe_page.tpl into a new file (I'll call it fe_page_extra_wrapper.tpl) and make any adjustments you need to. From there, you can specify your page layouts to use the new template.

As a personal example... in my last project, I needed to tweak the way a Navigation module worked. Since the module utilized nav_default.tpl by default, so I copied that into a new template file, made my markup adjustments, and used that instead.

Templates can be found in /system/modules/frontend/templates. Your custom ones are placed in /templates. I suggest renaming them so you can keep track of them against the default ones!