Textpattern is one of the other famous publishing engines used by many around the world. The first time I heard about it, I got it mixed up with MovableType for some reason. I suppose it’s because it sounded close to TypePad. *shrug*
I’ve yet to try out Textpattern but have come across one blog that has a very in depth user experience of the publishing engine.
From the person behind Musings of an Engineer, he’s setup a Textpattern division on his website with a documentation qualified to be the Textpattern manual called Textpattern Information.
In his series of Textpattern 121 Part One, he’s noted everything from the requirements of the server to even the .htaccess file. If you still can’t get Textpattern running after following his detailed Configuration settings, you definetely might need to use the Textpattern support forums later.
In his Textpattern 121 Part Two series, he continues documenting the styling properties of Textpattern and how you could get the best out of it. Part two is more of a guide for designing Textpattern to fit your needs.
If you find this two part series not enough to consume to aid you in setting up and customizing Textpattern, I think someone better start writing a Textpattern for Dummies really soon. But I’m sure the only problems you’ll experience might be technical if anything goes wrong. That’s when you head for the support forums.
But now weighing other important essentials like plugins for Textpattern, I’m not so sure if it’s big in that department. Nonetheless, I feel Textpattern definetely has something going for it especially with huge resource websites out there on it.
As I’m currently developing a site based on Textpattern, the links you gave me helped a lot, and just in the nick of time too. Thanks man ^_^
Would love to hear your experience with Textpattern later. :)
Cheers.
Hey, I use Textpattern on my sites too. Check out Itchy Hands and David’s Web. I’ve been meaning to write a review of Textpattern. It’s really great coz it’s super flexible. Not as matured as WordPress and Movable Type, but it beats them as a CMS for database-driven sites.
Wan, Textpattern updates have been coming quick and fast, so the forum is the best place for the latest info as I think Mark’s info may be a little bit dated. Good luck with your sites!
Danny, your comment preview is wonky..
Danny your comments stripped out my HTML too *fume*. My sites:
1. Itchy Hands (http://www.itchyhands.com)
2. David’s Web (http://david.itchyhands.com)
Hmm, I’m wondering if Textpattern is also driven by PHP or is it automated into HTML?
As for the stripped out HTML it’s because I don’t have HTML enabled but I do have automated URL conversion swtiched on. I chose it that way for personal reasons.
Textpattern is a PHP+MySQL setup. You can even use PHP code the template pages and even in the entries. Everything is dynamically generated, there are no physical archives so it saves space.
as txp is up to version 4.0.1 now it’s best to check out the textpattern resources, textbook website, and of course the forums for more recent information and instructions. to those checking it out, have fun! if i can figure it out, anyone can imho ;-) i’m glad i discovered it when i did because i couldn’t stand MT, frankly.
dailyMalaysia.org is just one of a growing list of txp-run websites i’ve done, and will have a slight revamp once i get a bit of time to update to 4.0.1.
Danny,
I’ve got Textpattern set up on my server, but i’m not using it currently. If you want to, you can play around with it. It’s just my sandbox, as I’m trying to get my feet wet with it.
Drop me a mail if you’re interested.
PHP driven + non-server-side literate = Bad Webdesigner
LOL! well, I’d like to be knowlegable in something before I get into it. Anyway, I’ll bug Xaph later to peak into the TXP system. :)