Whats the best editing program?
 

hey guys,
just started up my site and wanted to start editing it. i dont no anything about php codes ect so i was wondering if i could get some tips on a good program for editing it. i have prchased dreamweaver and adobe go live but i cant get them to work properly.
thanks

I use TextPad (www.textpad.com) .
There are other commercial tools like Ultra Edit & free tools like editor ps pad http://www.pspad.com/

is there a program where go can edit it like fontpage where you design the page by inserting pictures, text boxes ect (not html coding)?

Be careful of WYSIWYG editors like Frontpage and Dreamweaver as they can change the underlying code and break the smarty templates.

I would suggest learning the basics of HTML first using a text editor (use the text editor in Dreamweaver).

All WYSIWYG web page editors change the html but in a visual manner, but you still have to understand what is going on behind the scenes when you change things.

i use both dreamweaver and the text editor in my FTp program to edit the files and both work fine. You do need to geta grasp of HTML though to understand whats going on

I am using Adobe Golive CS and am doing a TON of template changes on a store right now (first XCart site which means my brain is close to being fried) and am having excellent results.

Golive only "breaks" templates by changing quote symbols in the smarty code- which is not a biggie and real easy to keep an eye out for and fix.

One of the guys posted a Golive tut for working with Smarty and it has worked great for me. Do a search and it should not be too hard to find.

You can edit ANY code including PHP, Javascript, Smarty, CSS, and HTML.

I just use the FTP engine in Golive to update any and all changes instantly on the server.

As a matter of fact I would say that if some poor soul is working with XCart WITHOUT a WYSIWYG you are making life a lot harder than it should be -UNLESS you are simply a hardcore coding geek and if that is the case why are you using XCart in the first place?

This helps with Dreamweaver:

http://forum.x-cart.com/viewtopic.php?t=17274

By the way Ryan- nice CSV tut- :wink:

new to all this - but noticed this thread.

I use dreamweaver mx to create my websites with a bit of html changing here and there.

Simple but stupid question......... how do I get the tpl files to open with Dreamweaver anyway?? I have changed .tpl extensions to associate with DW, but to no avail. Am I missing something simple here?

I would rather work with the website on a WYSIWYG basis, as at the moment my x-cart site is out of the box and totally unprofessional and boring - hence my client isnt toooooo happy 8O

See the link above.

Gonna give this a try today, Thanks!

the link above is a download only, and the instructions are vague. I have copied the contents to the DW dir, but for some reason .tpl files are not associating themselves with DW.

Are you trying to double click on the file and have Dreamweaver open it? Try just opening it IN Dreamweaver, or associate the .tpl extension with Dreamweaver.

it opens whilst in dreamweaver to a load of code.

i thought the idea of this was to enable us to edit on a WYSIWYG basis with the templates :?

GoLive
 

All I get when I open a .tpl fle in GoLive is raw code. If I understand the GoLive posts I believe I am suppose to see a wysiwyg page similar to what it should look like on the web. And I should be able to edit that code--right? I'm VERY new at this. All I need to be able to do at the moment is add a couple of lines to the out of the box templates.

I've tried the info from the previous posts using GoLiveCS 7.0.2.

Thanks for any help I can get. I'm suppose to have a site up by Tuesday week.

likewise! :lol:

Hi,

I am using Dreamweaver and helps a lot...hats off to macromedia ????

Just to let you guys know I too am using Dreamweaver MX. If it wasn't for Dreamweaver I think I would have given up with X-Cart ages ago. I love the way you have unlimited undo's and how different code is highlighted in different colours (very easy to find code and read). The built-in editor you get in X-Cart is absolute and utter CRAP! How anyone can do any editing with it is beyond me. The window is too small and because the text is wrapped, everything looks a mess!

God bless Macromedia. ;)

yeah but i think the idea of the built in editor in x-cart is that you use webmaster mode to find the correct template, click on it, copy and paste the code out of it, amend it and then paste it back rather than dealing with ftp.

If it's a complex edit then i copy and paste it into dreamweaver, if it's a simple one i just paste it into notepad change and then paste back.

You have a valid point and I hear what you're saying cotc2001, however, if the editor in X-Cart was nearly as good as the humble text editor in Windows (at the very least), then we wouldn't need to cut and paste and muck around and use 3rd party software at all. I would love to see a poll on this (shame we can't have polls here)... and see, among the forum members, just how popular the x-cart editor is compared to the Windows editor, Dreamweaver, etc., etc.

Anyway, in my opinion, the 4 most important things in an editor are:

a) A big open editing window (less text wrapping that way),
b) Unlimited undo's (we're human, we make mistakes),
c) Ability to work on multiple files at once (it's very rare that IБ─≥m ever working on less than two files at a time),
d) Colour coding of text, numbers, and special code (easy to identify code and much easier to read).

Dreamweaver MX allows me to do all these things and a million more but those are the more important ones.

anyone know of any software that compares 2 files and tell the differences?

For example I got v4.012 and v4.0.10 product.tpl I want to know what has changed between these 2 version without having to compare from line to line.

Something that would highlight the difference instantly.

http://www.scootersoftware.com/

and i think there is a free program on sourceforge called winmerge, but i havent tried that one just googled for file compare utilites

Nice find! :D

edit the size of the text area if you ant it bigger.

Why not use your FTP client to edit files too

Thank you for the suggestion, shan.

I keep forgetting that the administration screens have templates just like the storefront does. Changing the default width of 65 to a more useable 170 made a big difference for me.

I'm with El on this one - what files are you supposed to open in GoLive in order to edit the x-cart templates.

Cheers,

Re: Whats the best editing program?
 

OK, I have the same problem with GoLive that everyone else seems to be having with opening the .tpl files. I know there was a tutorial on how to use GoLive with .tpl and I was thrilled to find it. HOwever, when I opened .tpl files and saw only raw code in my layout and preview panes, then to see the references to other .tpl files in the source pane I was very disappointed.

Has anyone figured out what to do (preferenced, settings, opening, etc) to get the WYSIWYG function to actually work?

My client has been patient, but don't know how much longer I can say I'm working on it. Please someone have a solution, I really don't want to have to lay out the money for Dreamweaver.

THANKS!
Darlene

Re: Whats the best editing program?
 

TPL files open just fine in Golive. I use Golive for everything web related including editing tpl files.

Just add tpl to the text suffix in the Web Settings Menu under File Mapping, the mime type should be text/html.

Re: Whats the best editing program?
 

A very good plugin for Dreamweaver to work on smarty (tpl) files you can find here: http://smartydwt.klitsche.org/

Re: Whats the best editing program?
 

Hi Jim,
OK then something's definitely amiss. I use GoLive everyday almost all day long and am at a loss. Here's what I see and if that's what I should see I'm still lost. http://www.nanasbaby.com/pic.png

The tpl suffix is in my File Mappings and the mime is set to text/html.

If this is correctly displaying, how do I edit the various areas of the template to look like my customer's main site? I'm trying to do a very simple edit of the header and footer. The other areas I can change via the CSS file just fine, but I want to use a header and footer I've created. You can see the temporary page at http://www.nanasbaby.com

THANKS for any help you can provide.
Darlene

Re: Whats the best editing program?
 

Yummy tpl stuff! Yup that's what you are supposed to see. Remember, this is a TPL file and not an HTML file so you have to adjust how you work within Golive.

Listen, you are a female (I hope this is a proper assumption) which means super multi-tasker so just relax a bit and adjust to this new way of working and you will actually start to enjoy it.

OK, first off some serious surgery here...kill averything IN the top table except for {include file="head.tpl"}. OK, ok you might need everything else but let's keep this simple at the outset. Just create a new folder in your Golive site manager to store all your ORIGINAL tpl files as backups.

Yeah, yeah, I know the backups are already on the server but I like'em in GOLIVE!

Next, find and edit the "head.tpl" file. Kill everything in this file except for the top line in {}'s and slap in your header HTML gizmoid

FTP that tpl-adjusted puppies onto the server (yes, overwrite), reload the page in the Foxy browser and voila- Darlene Done Did It.

Same with the footer.

And remember this is the easy stuff but let me tell you once you start wrapping that noggin of yours around the process (pronounced with a UK accent for effect) it really is not to horrible of a lifestyle, editing tpl's.

OK, once you get this down then throw back in the Smarty stuff you need, if necessary.

Just break things girl! This assuming you have backups back to Jersey of course, because breaking and tweaking and comparing is a great education for getting started with Smarty and this XCart thingy.

Yummy design by the way on the baby page.

Also, my name is not Jim, I was quoting Jim. No problemo, I would have done the same thing myself actually.

Re: Whats the best editing program?
 

Thanks for the help. I'll let you know how my female head wraps around it. LOL... and thanks on the design.

Darlene