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May 14, 2009 - 11:32pm
#1
horusofoz
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Site Building Help

Hi all

This question mainly for john but if anyone else wants to weigh in I will appreciate the extra info. What software is PortableApps.com is built with. I know you use Drupal but what else? Kompozer? GIMP? Dreamwaeaver? Photoshop? Filezilla? Apache? XAMPP? TinyMCE? Notepad++? Expression Web Designer?

I'm guessing a lot is done with Notepad++ but do you build all the pages from scratch like that?

I'm looking into building a site which will be web hosted (As in I wont have my own local server). I'm wanting to do this with FOSS as much as I can and if not then with freeware. If anyone can suggest app (Preferably but not essentially portable) please do so.

At the moment I have Kompozer, Filezilla, Notepad++ and GIMP. Also I'd like it to be a Drupal based site but just can't seem to get one of the ground when I try. If anyone can direct to a good starters guide (I've looked at the official docs and had trouble) it would be appreciated. I've tried using Drupalcafe.com as a host but again couldn't figure it out correctly. Also when I saw that you have to email and request to install modules on your site its kinda turned me off of it = (

Anyway any help would be appreciated?

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May 15, 2009 - 12:57pm
José Pedro Arvela
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So wanting to make a site, uh?...
  1. You need a host.
    There are many hosts. I don't know any payed ones, but you can choose some free ones. 000webhost.com isn't good, but it also isn't bad.
  2. You also want themes. They are made with text editors, as they are made with a mix of PHP and HTML. You can get some themes in here, but if you want to make your own theme, get Zen and personalize it trough the instructions.
  3. Installing drupal is really simple:

    1. Download it;
    2. Extract it;
    3. Upload the extracted files to your host;
    4. Optional: If you use 000webhost, you need to go to the file .htaccess and replace:

        # RewriteBase /

      With:

          RewriteBase /

      So you can have clean URLs;

    5. Create a database. Point out the database name, the user, password (and in some cases host) to access it;
    6. Go to yourdomain.com/install.php and fill in all details, including the database info;
    7. Wait a little and you're done, go to your main page and have fun!
  4. Each page is made the same way you make a forum post/comment, you type it on the edit box.
  5. And, concluding, as you can see above you will need:
    • Required: A host or XAMPP (whether you want to use a host or make your own);
    • Required: Drupal;
    • Required: File uploading tool (FileZilla for example)
    • Optional: A text editor (Notepad++ for example) and an image editor (GIMP for example) to code the theme and make images for it;
    • Definitively Required: LOTS OF PATIENCE!
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May 15, 2009 - 4:28pm
(Reply to #2)
gluxon
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Go with x10hosting.com, I

Go with x10hosting.com, I found it much better than 000webhost.com. And 10 times (lol) 000hosted.com's plans.

And only the custom pages use HTML and CSS (if you know what that even means), like the "Applications" "Support", etc pages.

So I doubt Notepad++ is even used for the actual site. Unless John makes the code in Notepad++ and then pastes it in.

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May 17, 2009 - 11:19am
(Reply to #3)
José Pedro Arvela
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gluxon...

I found out that the host needs the user to visit their forums once every 2 weeks to keep the site active and it not to be closed. So, if you have a site there, I advice you to visit their forums as fast as you can!

And I tough it was a good host until I saw their therms of service, that said that. So my suggestion is to keep with 000webhost.

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May 17, 2009 - 2:25pm
(Reply to #4)
gluxon
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WHAT?!!!!

WHAT?!!!!

[Edit: Hehe... this is easier than I thought. All I have to do is paste whatever's on my clipboard every 2 weeks :P]

http://forums.x10hosting.com/forum-games/81146-ctrl-v-game-65.html#post5...

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May 17, 2009 - 9:03pm
(Reply to #5)
lfluff0001
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byethost

I have tried x10hosting but have found the two week visit thing to be a little annoying. Even though it isn't as great by the services, I am using http://byethost.com/ as my host. The only problem is that they don't allow proxy scripts, but I can understand why. BTW, They use a crappy app called VistaPanel instead of CPanel, but most stuff can be done by FTP anyway. I like how they allow other subdomains. My site is http://lf.totalh.com/.

"Variables won't; constants aren't."

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May 19, 2009 - 5:29pm
(Reply to #6)
gluxon
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I'm pretty sure VistaPanel

I'm pretty sure VistaPanel and CPanel are the same... (well almost)

CPanel is advanced version with more features (most hosting providers choose to use that as their premium services).

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May 20, 2009 - 9:51am
horusofoz
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More help please

Ok I've done spot work here and there following the assistance given here and on IRC.

Following advice from ptmb I've decided not to use the spry menu widget feature offered in Dreamweaver in favour of just setting up a regular menu to ensure compatibility with older browsers. I've decided to model my menu bar upon the PortableApps.com top page menu as I personally like the simple yet attractive look. I've managed to a certain degree but am now having some trouble having the background gradient graphic of the menu. In the table area of the buttons the graphic is slightly moved from the surrounding gradient. it's kinda hard to explain so please see here.

Also you will notice the red rectangles on the sides of the page. This is where I am hoping to insert sidebar columns that stretch for the length of the page down to a footer which I plan to insert. If anyone has any idea how i would go about doing this it would be very much appreciated.

Cheers

PortableApps.com Advocate

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May 20, 2009 - 11:24am
(Reply to #8)
José Pedro Arvela
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Simple to fix

The solution is really really simple: Don't use background images on the menubar items.

Also, the first thing you might want to set up is a structure. Think of content. What is planned to be on the left sidebar? And on the right one? Then make an HTML structure:

<html>
	<head>
		<title>Webpage's title</title>
		<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="LinkToYourStylesheet" media="all" />
	</head>
	<body>
		<h1 id="header">Heading Goes Here</h1>
		<ul id="nav">
			<li><a href="#">These</a></li>
			<li><a href="#">Are</a></li>
			<li><a href="#">Your</a></li>
			<li><a href="#">Menu Items</a></li>
		</ul>
		<div id="container">
			<div id="content">
				<h2>Page Title</h2>
				<p>Content Goes Here</p>
			</div>
			<div id="left-sidebar">
				<p>Altough you should specify it for its function, I use left-sidebar here because I don't know what you will place here.</p>
			</div>
			<div id="right-sidebar">
				<p>Same as above, but this sidebar is at the right.</p>
			</div>
		</div>
		<div id="footer">
			<p>Place here all the footer junk.</p>
			<p>©Including the Copyright</p>
		</div>
	</body>
</html>

From here, most CSS styles will work, some might need changing the HTML, but most won't.

In the example above, to style the navbar as you wanted, you would need:

#nav {
	background: #colorcode url("PathToTheImageYouWantToUse") repeat-x background positioning rules;
	padding: 0;
	text-align: center;
}
#nav li {
	display: inline;
}

Also, from what I read, you slipped the word "table". Tables are for tabular content. If you have a table of the number of employees in a company, it should be in a table, if you have a navigation list, avoid tables, you can use CSS to make it look like the current table design.

I hope I have helped and not only messed you up.

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