Mambo help, or other CMS/Design options?

[karz10]

Hi, this is more of a design question, but I've seen a lot of people on the forums that do their own design professionally and as a hobby, I figured someone could help me out.

I've had two designers bail, or fail, to complete my project, and I'm at a point where I may be forced to figure it out for myself. I can play w/ photoshop graphics pretty well, and I can take an existing page in HTML and replicate it with different content, so I'm not completely helpless, but I do need help getting jumpstarted on a project this size.

Here's the thing, I have several partnerships, customized Web sites, co-branded partner Web sites, and affiliate sites, all relating to each other and gaining in popularity. What I'm trying to do is build one big corporate site to tie everything together, and 6 product specific sites that route customers to various other back-end co-brands already in existence, but again, it's an effort to streamline the user exerience by giving them one single place to start for certain targeted advertising.

The main site is written (all original copy by me) with a layout in mind of a top navigation for corporate related info, and a left navigation for product related info, there will be proprietary add barkers and tools down the right side, and the copy will be in the main middle body section. Pretty much the same layout and menu on every page, just the text changes, and some graphic changes.

There are about 125 pages on the main site, with 5 top categories and 22 side categories.

Then there are about an average of 15 pages per sub site, and there's 6 of those. 3 of them can look a like, while 3 of them need to replicate their co-branded sister site already in exististence. Eventually, I will build additional content on all sites specific to regions etc., but that's all replication of data etc., not new design work.

Someone I know that does a lot of their own stuff and ironically also hosts at HostGator recommended I go to HG and get Mambo, but he was pleasantly surprised that I already host w/ HG, since we've never talked about that before and we're thousands of miles apart.

Anyway, I installed Mambo, and have read part of the manual, but I can't get off the ground. I can't seem to figure out how to use the existing preloaded templates to suit my project, and can't seem to find another template that matches my design needs. I can't seem to get rid of the templates and start from scratch, it's like it makes me use a template. I can't seem to edit the main menu to create the proper categories and sub categories, and although I can add my own menu items, they only house regular text, not a structural menu of categories. I tried adding sections and categories and publishing them, but they don't show up for me to learn how they look or work.

I've posted in a Mambo forum and asked the guy that recommended Mambo for advice, but nothing yet.

So, is there anyone here that can help me get started in the right direction? Or based on what I'm saying, is their another CMS that will help me with this type of design? I know HG has SiteBuilder, but I'm under the impression I may not be able to customize it to the point that I need to, am I wrong?

Any help or advice is appreciated.

Regards,

Karsten

[bheka]

I use mambo a fair bit and wil help you where I can but cannot answer all your questions. When asking at the Mambo Forum, ask one question per thread you are most likely to get a response, also search the forum thoroughly.

For Mambo Templates try here or here or a google search.

For new section and categories ... First go to the "Content Menu" select add section .. once ection is added select the section and you can add Categories. Once the Categories are added you can add the new section to the main menu.

Please also list the errors you get .. it will make it easier to understand what is wrong.

I hope the above is a bit of a help.

[3Cell Hosting]

To start with make sure you are on Mambo 4.5.1a. This allows you to apply different templates to different pages - this will be your subsites.

There is a great tutorial for creating templates on the www.mambosolutions.com site. The new manuals are in pdf and have changed a bit from the old 4.5 version.

Also try www.mambohut.com for ready templates and they also list a good tutorial for version 4.5 templates which will help you to understand the working of templates a bit better.

Hope this helps

[karz10]

Thank you both for posting, and I see you both recommend MamboHut, but as far as templates go, I've searched thousands of templates for Mambo and other general HTML, Flash, or other CMS templates/themes, and I can't find a good one that has an extensive left navigation as well as a top navigation, so that is my main problem.

bheka, thank you for the advice of adding the section to the main menu, I thought I created the section and it's categories, and published it, but maybe I didn't "add it to the main menu" after I did that, I'll have to revisit that and see if that helps me figure out that one step properly.

3cell, I'm not sure I understand what you mean about 4.5.1a, hosting here at HG, I just installed Mambo from the cPanel w/ Fantastico, and it says I have (4.5(1.0.9)). Are you suggesting I scrap this install and attempt a manual installation of this 4.5.1a? Or can I do some kind of upgrade? I notice a lot of people have problems installing these kinds of things on their own, so I was concerned about that.


Thanks again, I'm not giving up yet, but any clarification above, or other ideas are appreciated.

So to recap, my main problem is that I have a lot of pages to publish, preferably in a format that uses a top corporate navigation and a left product navigation which is making it hard to find a template, or modify a template to suit this structure.

Also struggling with how the left Nav will work and look. What I'm trying to do is have three main sections/menus on the left that ARE NOT clickable, with a handful of categories in each section/menu that are clickable, and once you click on one category it takes you to that page, while also showing subcategories under that category that are now clickable as well.

So, in Mambo world, I want like 3 "main menus" on the left, but instead of calling them main menus, I'll call them something else, and they'll each have their own separate clickable categories, know what I mean?

As for the top corporate nav, I did see something on that mambosolutions page you mentioned http://www.mambosolutions.com/index....d=97&Itemid=43 , 3cell, there was a guide to add a horizontal navigation item, but it confused me a little, if I have to try something like that, I would really want to already like the template I'm using and understand more about these other problems before I go modifying the code in the php, as he suggests "Cut and Past the following code into the head of your Template's index.php" as I don't yet know how to do that, I'm just really new to the CMS world.

Anyway thanks for the replies, and any additional help.

Karsten

[3Cell Hosting]

Hi Karsten

I have just checked my fantastico and the Mambo version is 4.5.1a. Maybe HG can upgrade your version of Mambo in fantastico. I am on cadillac server.

The reason I picked this up is because I did a Mambo site for a client and it was version 4.5. Another client (last week) also wanted a cms system so I opted for Mambo. I did the install and went to admin and found a completely different layout to the one I was used to. I checked the cpanel and it was showing as 4.5.1a which is the latest stable version of Mambo.

If I understand your needs correctly you can use the main menu on left and add in seperators but instead of using --- or === you could type the section name. This would look like 3 menus (vaguely) but actually be one.

The horizontal menu can be standard too on 4.5.1a. I have just started this client's site but it has two menus (even though they are identical at present). As I have only just started playing with 4.5.1a I couldn't tell you all of the details but please feel free to have a look at the layout and see if this anything like you need. www.peopleprogression.com

Cheers

David

[karz10]

Thanks David, I'll have to email HG about the version and see what's up with that.

As for the link you provided, thanks. On a basic level, that is what I'm trying to do. So how did you get to that point so far? In other words:

Is that site using a preloaded template? If so, did you modify the graphics somehow?

Or did you find a template elsewhere and modify it, or create your own from scratch?

Thanks again.

Karsten

[karz10]

Ok, so I upgraded to 4.5.1a, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

I'm still more or less stuck though. I did attempt to add a section and section-category to the main menu, which was one step missing before, but I still can't get it to *act* right, all I get is -just another menu item-, when I'm trying to create separate sections/menus on the left that have clickable categories and expand to reveal other pages underneath, and I can't seem to figure out how to do this.

I also haven't made any headway with the top horizontal navigation, so I'm somewhat frustrated there...

Anyway, any help is still appreciated

Karsten

[bheka]

Originally Posted by karz10

I'm still more or less stuck though. I did attempt to add a section and section-category to the main menu, which was one step missing before, but I still can't get it to *act* right, all I get is -just another menu item-, when I'm trying to create separate sections/menus on the left that have clickable categories and expand to reveal other pages underneath, and I can't seem to figure out how to do this.

I also haven't made any headway with the top horizontal navigation, so I'm somewhat frustrated there...

Karsten

I think both of the above issue would depend on the template in use ... definately the horizontal navigation at the top.

[karz10]

Ok, so I got the 4.5.1a etc...

I wasn't getting anywhere, then I had an idea. I was defaulted to the solar flare template this time, so I noticed on Mambo's site, they have a demo that shows a public solar flare template and a demo control panel that changes the public site, so I figured anything on the public site would have a matching attribute in the demo panel, and since the demo site had a top menu, I found the top menu in the control panel.

So, I opened my control panel, went to that area, and published the same item, with all the same attributes, but it took a few tries of seeing I had to manually type in parameters to replicate what was on the demo site, like something about a type had to be topmenu_style, or something.

Anyway, I'm still having trouble making sense of all these sections, categories, menus, components, content items, modules, etc. All the documentation I can find and most of the posts in their forums all have people, even so called newbies, talking about functions and code, and all this stuff that makes me feel like I showed up a semester late to an advanced science course while not having the past 2 prerequisites...I thought this was supposed to be a tool for non coders...

I feel like I'm not making the basic connection of how these pieces go together to do what I want it to do, I have trouble accomplishing even simple tasks, and it's irritating me because people act like it's so easy.

I know I'm rambling and ranting, but I'm frustrated. I appreciate your posts, and I don't expect a free tutorial, but if anyone can remember what it was like to not know anything about this tool, or any environment like this, and give me like a **before you do anything, read this**, or **try these simple things to give yourself the basic idea how this works** kind of thing, I would certainly appreciate it.

It seems all the docs I've looked at, or the forums I've looked at talk about how to develop stuff by manipulating the php code and stuff. I thought there would be something for the *never designed a web site* crowd. I understand basic HTML, but this is totally unrelated to that, it's like until you know what you're doing, there's all these random pieces that seem to require each other's presence, but there's nothing to tell you how to connect them. I can't create even a simple architecture coz there is no physical architecture, and I haven't gotten past that, I don't know step one, so I feel like I'm fumbling around with step 7, then step 2, and step 4, etc. trying to find some sequence of events. I mean it seems like there should be some kind of way to simplify getting started.

What do most web pages need? Well my web page needs:

Content on the front page

A Top Menu that links each item to a page of content &/or other submenu items

A left menu that does the same thing

I just need the architecture, the strucure of pages to put the content in, I've got all the content, and what the structure should look like, I just have to buld the structure, I can't understand why it's so complicated to get started.


Thanks

Karz

[bheka]

I like solving things 1 at a time so ....
What do most web pages need? Well my web page needs:

1. Content on the front page
When adding your new content, you should have a check box labeled ("show on front page") tick this and when you publish you the page it will appear on the front page,


2. A Top Menu that links each item to a page of content &/or other submenu items
I can't help you with this. I haven't done it

3. A left menu that does the same thing
under the "Site" menu --> Menu Manager --> Main Menu you can add, remove and move around your menu items.

The above answers are basics and if you play around you will learn more. Try solving one problem at a time .. when you get stuck for a while ... ask .. but just about that one problem ... and we'll see if we can make any progress.

[karz10]

Originally Posted by bheka

... ask .. but just about that one problem ... and we'll see if we can make any progress.

Hey thanks, bheka...I guess I'll let you pick which one item you have time to address. I have a technical problem adding a new section, and before that problem arose, I did add a menu and a menu item below it, by adding a section and linking it to a menu, so feel free to comment on either, or both. Thanks.
--------------
Ok, well I have been reading and working with it, and to be honest, my real problem right now is if I attempt to add a section, I get errors as soon as I load that page, I've posted a couple times on the MamboServer Forums, but no result yet:

************
http://forum.mamboserver.com/showthread.php?t=22041

Anyway, when I go into section manager, add new section, I get errors reported in lower left of IE, says done but with errors on the page...DC it and says:

Line: 371
Char: 3
Error: Access is denied.
Code: 0
URL: http://www.mydomain.com/m,ambo/administrator/index2.php
************

That's the summary and link to the post, but basically, the page loads with errors, and won't let me go to add text in the box or save the section. As I indicate in the actual post, I added a section before, but then ran into errors the next time. I removed that install of Mambo, and resinstalled 4.5.1a, and added my first section without problem, but now get these errors again.

I want to try to keep it to one problem as you requested, but in case you are interested as to why I'm adding a section, I noticed a lot of overlay between adding items to the menu, and the sections and cateogories. For one thing, when you add any other item to the menu, it makes you assign it to a section and a category, so I thought I would create a section for each top level menu item, and then a category for each sub-menu item so that everything would have a logical place in the world, and I could later edit sections and categories that were related to the same product menu and submenu of its corresponding category (after I understood what I was doing)

So I created a Menu Title for a new menu, which created a module for that menu, which I then properly placed in the desired location (traditional main menu spot).

Now I went to add a menu item to the new menu I just created. But it asked me to assign it to a section and category. Well, since my menu item had nothing to do with a news item or any other pre-existing section or category, I quit doing that and went to create a new section.

This was before the errors started on the new (2nd) installation, so it allowed me to create the section. Once I created it, I went back to it, and realized I could assign the section itself to the menu, so rather than go back and add a menu item, I thought I would see what happened if I linked it to the menu I just created. So, that's what I did, and since I was starting w/ the easier stuff first, this was my first and only item that I would add to that particular menu, and I tried adding it as various items, then refreshed to see what happened, and the one I settled on was saving it as a SECTION TABLE, and then put in some text in the description box, and refreshed the site and the menu was still there, the menu item was there, and it linked to a page that had my text, so all was well.

I went on to add a new menu, and repeat the process, and this time try to see what happened when I tried to get to the sub-menu part, since the next menu was more complex. But this time, when I tried to add the section, I got the errors mentioned above.
---------------
So, if you know how to fix the error issue, great...

Or, if you would like to provide any feedback on my last process for adding my menu item, via linking a section to the menu, or if I should be doing that differently, then feel free to address that...

Thanks!

Karsten

[karz10]

In follow up to my above post, I was reading another thread on MamboServer where someone was trying to help me, and I think he may have helped me make a connection, so at the risk of making you read more text, hopefully this additional information will allow for an easier answer to me to see if I figured out what I'm trying to do when adding menu items...

******************************************
Regarding your statement about not linking to a menu, and the fact I should be able to create items directly in the menu, let me reiterate, what you (the other poster) said:
-------------------------------------------
"All you have to do then is create an item in the category. This is how you create various content items.

When you are creating that menu item in your new menu just click content item and it should list out the content you just created. I never use the link to menu function that shows up when creating an article.......

...........So under you new menu you would create a new menu item, this item would be the "table-content Category" from here you will select your category which would be the Cuban Cigar category. Because you selected the table-content category.... you articles will list out"
----------------------------------------------

So, if you read the top portion of this, you'll see I created a section and linked it to a menu directly. The problem I was having before was if I went to create a menu item as you suggested, I got confused because a lot of the choices you have of the type of components you can add as a menu item are things I didn't want to add, like external links or newsfeed items, etc., and when I tried to select a Blog - Content Category or Section, or a Table -Content Category, it would only present me with options of adding the default template items, which I didn't want to do.

But as I read your comments, I think I'm making a connection. What I should be doing is creating a section, then a category, and then a "Category Item" to quote your exact term, then this category item is the information I want on the page I am trying to create, and to complete the process, NOW I go back to the MENU I created at the beginning, and select NEW, TABLE - CONTENT CATEGORY, and THEN I will see my newly created content category item listed among the other default template items like FAQs/Examples, newsflashes/newsflash etc.

Then, once that works, if that item requires a submenu, I go create a new item under my category under its section, and then go back to the menu, and select NEW, TABLE - CONTENT CATEGORY, and THEN I will see my newly created content category item, just like above, but THIS TIME I add it as an item with a parent of the last menu item I created........

.........I guess that would still leave me with the problem that I can't add a new section though. And guess what, I just checked to see if I could at least add a new category to test the above theory you helped me with, and I get the same errors when going into the window to add a new category too, so I can't do that either right now....so I'll work on fixing those errors, but if you could confirm that I'm understanding what you said, that would be great!
*********************************

So that's where I left it with them, maybe with my new revelation, you can confirm if I'm missing something still, or have an accurate understanding of what I need to do once I fix the errors I'm having.

Thanks again.

[bheka]

I am busy today and tomorrow, but should be free, from Firday 17.00GMT ... can we schedule a 1-2 hour msn chat session on Firday or over the weekend and I will see where I can help.

Regards

[karz10]

Hi Bheka, I'm not sure what happened, but I wasn't notfied, or didn't realize that I was notified about your post, but thank you for your past offer, that was very generous of you.

I've actually made quite a bit of progress with Mambo, after scouring the mambo server boards, and the tips here, I've managed to put up over 100 pages so far, in a pretty organized way. I'm going through and adding the written copy now, and adding the links and images, etc.

I've even played around w/ the HTML and the CSS files quite a bit, but I'm still dealing with some of the original colors from the solar flare theme, when I have more time after adding the main content, I'll look more at other colors etc.

I've added the Search Engine Friendly URLs, and want to add the Advance SEF URLs, but I've learned how to add content links via their virtual php address, and let the SEF manage that conversion.

I must say, the biggest pain I have right now is every time I want to add an image to a page, because HG/cPanel forces the install in the non-root directory, it's a lot of extra effort to make the links work, if you are using the TinyMCE WYSIWYG html editor, because it inserts ../../ as a shortcut path to the image, which doesn't route properly, I have to go back in after turning the editor off and manually re-enter the hard code URL of the image, and hope I never open that item w/ the editor again...

If you happen to know an easier work-around for that, either a better way to insert the image using a WYSIWYG html editor, or tricking it somehow to go to the right directory, or even *forcing* the install into the root directory to make it a lot easier, I'd be real happy about that.

I'll also have to figure out how to move it from one account to another to make it go live, that's why I came back in here looking around...

Other than that, I'm banging out copy right now, I'll let you know when I get further along...maybe I'll even post in the site promotion area when I'm happy enough with it...

Karsten

[karz10]

just to update, i figured out how to install in the root directory, so don't need help with that anymore, now am working on moving from one account to another...and evaluating the advanced SEF urls to see if I want to do that...

[bheka]

Originally Posted by karz10

jevaluating the advanced SEF urls to see if I want to do that...

I'd advise that you do it, it will help your search engine rankings.