“Contented CMS” Documentation by “Alex Saidani” v1.0

“Contented CMS”

Created: 1/10/2011
By: Alex Saidani & Alex Woolley
Email: alex@saidani.co.uk

Thank you for purchasing my script. If you have any questions that are beyond the scope of this help file, please feel free to email via my user page contact form here. Thanks so much!

Table of Contents

  1. Features
  2. Read Me
  3. Setup Guide
  4. HTML Structure
  5. CSS Files and Structure
  6. Sources and Credits

A) Features - top

The following is a list of all the outlying features of Contented CMS. Which will hopefully help you to grasp a basic understanding of the functionality and potential power that Contented CMS can offer.

B) Read Me - top

All purchasers, are encouraged and legally entitled to copy, reinstall and modify this script for personal or commercial use; however you are not allowed to distribute or sell it on to others - this would be illegal. We do in fact recommend that you adjust the design for yourself, nonetheless you are, if you wish, entitled to use the design or customise it slightly for use too. All images related to the design, were designed by Alex Woolley and converted for the website by Alex Saidani, these can be used.

Unfortunately, you are not able to simply drag and drop this script; a small amount of configuration is required in the form of a MySQL database, and config file, as well as inputting the basic site settings upon installation - these will need setting up and configuring in order for the script to function correctly. Information on how to set up the database is supplied.

C) Setup Guide - top

0) You will of course have to put the files downloaded from code canyon in the zip folder, onto your server or web hosting.

1) First off, you will have to setup a database to store all of the information required by the Contented CMS, you need to have MySQL databases from your hosting provider to carry this out. Once you have made sure that you have these, then you can begin.

2) Using the table structures provided in the tablestructure.sql file (which you cannot simply import) copy and paste the first structure into your MySQL admin section and run the command, this will setup the table for storing all of the posts using the CMS.

3) You then need to do the same with the second structure, this will setup the table for storing all of the configurations required for the CMS to function.

4) Once you have created both tables in your MySQL admin section you then need to adjust the 'config.php' file found the in 'configs' folder, you need to add your database information where it is labelled - including the: database name, database password and database username.

5) Once you have done this, Contented should now be fully functioning and you will be able to access the site.

6) On the first load of Contented, you will be directed to an install page - where you will be able to setup the site according to your configurations, you have to enter all of the details asked for in order to make use of Contented to it's maximum ability. The details include: site name, logo link, tagline, root url, notifications (on or off), posts per page, admin name, admin info, admin photo, email and password.

7) Submitting the installation will insert all of your configurations into the database and remove the installation files from the server, you will be able to configure your submitions in the settings page of the backend - where you will be able to define the site theme if you wish.

8) The script is easily implemented into any site and can be easily adjusted if you wish, the quoted code will help you to understand what each individual page and section does enabling you to only use part of the site if you wish.

9) It is recommended that you include all of the code and pages when using the CMS on its own as each page plays a part within the whole system and is required.

10) You are able to make use of the CMS without having any coding knowledge - everything will work in just a few clicks and you can start making posts about anything.

11) You are able to style the site for yourself if you wish, simply by selecting the "Creative Custom" option on the settings page in the backend. This will mean that the style applied to the site is a custom one. To make adjustments to the custom file simply open up the 'themes' folder and go to 'custom' you will find a 'style.css' which you can add your own CSS and element designs too. As well as an image folder for any images that may be used for your design of the site.

12) There is not much else to it really, if you require further help simply contact alex@saidani.co.uk for more information. There will be numerous updates of Contented, which will add to the basic infrastructure and functionality of the CMS, as well as more information and themes that can be used.

D) Table Structure - top

The table structure outlines the basic requirements of the CMS, as you can see below, two tables must be created within your database in order for Contented to function correctly, the first table is for storing the configurations of Contented, that are unique for each user and are customised upon installation. So before carrying out anything else with Contented, it is of the upmost importance than you copy the first table structure and run it as an SQL command to create the table and columns for each separate configuration value. The same must be done with the second table structure - this however being the table for storing content posts, including title, information and photo columns.

Table Structure

The first table structure is the most important, and you are required to setup this table for you to be able to access the installation of Contented - each value is entered upon installation.

	
  CREATE TABLE `settings` (
  `id` int(1) NOT NULL,
  `name` varchar(55) NOT NULL,
  `logo` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `tagline` varchar(55) NOT NULL,
  `rooturl` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `notifications` varchar(5) NOT NULL,
  `postsperpage` varchar(2) NOT NULL,
  `style` varchar(100) NOT NULL,
  `adminname` varchar(55) NOT NULL,
  `admininfo` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `adminphoto` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `email` varchar(100) NOT NULL,
  `password` varchar(100) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

After creating the first table, you must create the second - this is also important as you will not be able to create, display and share content posts without the table. Content is clearly the outlying principle of Contented, so it is obvious that this table is needed too.

  CREATE TABLE `contented` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `title` varchar(150) NOT NULL,
  `month` varchar(55) NOT NULL,
  `day` varchar(55) NOT NULL,
  `date` varchar(55) NOT NULL,
  `text` text NOT NULL,
  `photo` varchar(255) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

The table structures should not really be changed by those who are not so technically inclined and have little knowledge of SQL commands - the structures are pretty self explanatory however and can easily be adjusted if needs be. The beginning of each row is the name of the column, the second part is the data type and character length.

E) HTML Structure - top

This theme is a fixed layout with two columns. All of the information within the main content area is nested within a div with an class of "wrapper". The sidebar's content is within a div with an id of "author". The general template structure is the same throughout the template. Here is the general structure.

HTML Structure

If you would like to edit the colour, font, or style of any elements in one of these columns, you would do the following:

	.header li {
		color: someColour;
	}

If you find that your new style is not overriding, it is most likely because of a specificity problem. Scroll down in your CSS file and make sure that there isn't a similar style that has more weight.

I.E.

	.wrapper .header a {
		color: someColour;
	}

So, to ensure that your new styles are applied, make sure that they carry enough "weight" and that there isn't a style lower in the CSS file that is being applied after yours. The tag "!important" can also be used within an individual style to move the importance of a style to the top and thus consider it first before any other style that may be put onto that element.

F) CSS Files and Structure - top

Two default CSS files have been used within Contented, the front end stylesheet and the backend one. Both of which provide a generic style to the layout and looks of the CMS. There has also been a IE fix CSS file that includes numerous work arounds for Internet Explorer due to it's different interpretation of the default behaviour of HTML elements and CSS styles. The front end stylesheet provides the basic looks and layout of the user access side of the CMS, and sticks to a basic structure, as with the back end stylesheet - which provides the basic looks and layout of the admin access side. There are obviously also different stylesheets for each individual theme - which you should keep in mind may override some of the values found within the default CSS files. There is also a custom design, that when selected will apply the CSS values found within the custom CSS file - users should only customise this and make use of it, if they wish to create a different layout and design to the one provided - which is actually pretty simple as the CSS files all follow a similar and easily understandable structure.

The second file contains all of the specific stylings for the page. The file is separated into sections using:

	/* All Content */

	some code

	/* Header */
	
	some code
	
	/* Author Info */
	
	some code
	
	/* Date */
	
	some code
	
	/* Individual Posts */
	
	some code
	
	/* Single Post Page */
	
	some code
	
	/* Read More */
	
	some code
	
	/* Pages */
	
	some code
	
	/* 404 Error */
	
	some code
	
	the code in each section is easily followed and flows well - the tag names are also logical.

If you would like to edit a specific section of the site, simply find the appropriate label in the CSS file, and then scroll down until you find the appropriate style that needs to be edited.

Most, which I would value at 99% of the design, is done completely using CSS, the reasoning for which is quite simple - load time, using just CSS instead of a large number of images drastically increases load time of the site instead of having to load over ten 500KB images, the visitor will only have to download two 10KB files. As many studies have shown, load time really does have an effect on your amount of active and returning visitors and the first 5 seconds do count - so load time is a seriously important aspect to consider when developing for the web. The CSS has been written to support the latest, efficient and modern browsers that includes: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Apple Safari and the likes as they all have the latest in CSS reading standards unlike the likes of Internet Explorer - which in many cases is really falling behind in web trends. Obviously the CSS is bound to work best when using one of the modern more efficient browsers, however a web developer must always consider all users, so numerous work arounds have been put in placed to make Contented CMS work using Internet Explorer as best it can - perhaps not as well as the other browsers.

G) Sources and Credits - top

All of the code, images and documents used within Contented are the rightful work of Alex Saidani and Alex Woolley. Everything was created for use within Contented and no external work has been used whatsoever.

Once again, thank you so much for purchasing this theme. As I said at the beginning, I'd be glad to help you if you have any questions relating to this theme. No guarantees, but I'll do my best to assist. If you have a more general question relating to Contented CMS on CodeCanyon, you might consider visiting the forums and asking your question in the "Item Discussion" section.

Regards, Alex Saidani & Alex Woolley 2011

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