RW Updates Development blog

PlusKit demystified

2008-04-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

Well let it be known that I don't think any self respecting RapidWeaver user should be without PlusKit but until now it has been hard for me to qualify that statement. When I have spoken of it's features and abilities, most have stared back at me blankly, not quite grasping what I was telling them. Thanks to Loghound and kkbrux of CRM Technik I can now just point them to this screencast that shows exactly how PlusKit will make your life easier.

A new year, a new leaf of sorts

2008-01-14T18:34:00.000-08:00

There are very few double or tripple threats in the RapidWeaver developer circuit. There are those of us who develop themes for multiple platforms in addition to RapidWeaver, like SandVox or WordPress. There are those of us who are graphic artists and web designers all in one go. But there truly are few, if any until now, developers who have dared develop both RapidWeaver themes AND RapidWeaver plugins under one roof.

I think it is safe to say that Chris from Varsis Studio and seyDesign is the first well know RapidWeaver theme developer to take plugin development full on and make an excellent first effort into this brave new world. In my years working with Chris, he has never ceased to amaze me with his drive and determination and CoverFlow, his first RapidWeaver plugin, shows that he is willing to do what it takes to break into the plugin market. I couldn't be more proud of him.

RapidWeaver tip: Adding a logo

2007-12-20T15:20:00.000-08:00

If I had a dollar for every time I get asked, "How do I add a logo to my banner?" I would quick possibly retire. So to finally break the confusion cycle, I will tell you how it's done:

Go to the main menu bar in RapidWeaver
Select Site then Show Site Setup
From the resulting panel that pops up, select the "Home" icon (the tool-tip will read "Site Setup")
Half way down the panel you will see the "Logo" with a check-box beside it, select that box
Now select the "Choose..." button and navigate through your files to select the logo you wish to use, appropriately sized of course (png, jpg and gif are supported)
Select the preview button on the main RapidWeaver window and voila, you have a logo on every page.

RapidWeaved is now live

2007-12-07T19:46:00.000-08:00

The once popular RapidWeaved.com is back and fully functional! Slated as the RapidWeaver showcase site for the users by the users, RapidWeaved.com is promising to be the fair to all RapidWeaver users. It is the hope of seyDoggy, RapidWeaved.com's new caretakers, that the new version of the site be packed full of useful news and reviews in addition to the open site showcase.

If you have a site made with RapidWeaver then head over to RapidWeaved.com and submit your site today.

A RapidWeaver showcase for the users, by the users

2007-12-07T05:47:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time coming but RapidWeaved.com is finally making it's comeback. This is the RapidWeaver showcase site that was started by Gary Byrd a while back and was recently adopted by seyDoggy when Gary decided he could no longer feed and clothe this ever growing showcase beast.

RapidWeaved.com is looking for site submissions for sites built with RapidWeaver. Head on over and submit yours today.

Buyer beware

2007-12-06T18:09:00.000-08:00

It's an old saying and and the practice is as old as the market place itself, but never has "buyer beware" been so applicable as is in this age of cyber-shopping. It might be hard to believe but you just can't always trust a shiny website with promising copy. And that was very true today when Jumsoft.com announced their entry into the RapidWeaver theme marketplace.

Jumsoft is known for the Keynote and Pages templates so one would tend to conclude that they might know a thing or two about tempting and the shift RapidWeaver would be a no brainer... WRONG! I was very quick to buy one and test it out only to find it was so incomplete that it was UNUSABLE. Myself and others were quick to point out the folly of their ways on the forum and in emails to which they have responded to say that they are working on it.

Only time will tell if they can pull it all together or not. Hopefully they can. I can attest to how difficult and involved theme development and I think Jumsoft is learning this the hard way. Best of luck to them, we'll be watching.

rwReview is one to watch for

2007-12-04T06:59:00.000-08:00

There is a new RapidWeaver resource I think you should watch out for, rwreview.com. I was hesitant about bringing it so early in the development process since good intentions don't always equal a great follow through, but I thought this might actually have legs. That might be more because I want to see this thing succeed because I think the RapidWeaver community needs a consumer report of sorts for it's many 3rd party offerings. This might be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how truly objective the authors are in the end but I am willing to watch and see where it all goes.

Hopefully the Mephisto powered blog is one that will allow multiple users to register at some point to allow multiple authors with multiple view points to contribute in the future. I suspect that rwReview.com and RWUpdates.com are going to have close ties when things really get going, pulling content and news from each other on occasion. There is no guarantee but it wouldn't surprise me. I can envision rwReview.com somewhat of a sister site to RWUpdates, but only time will tell.

New themer in the mix

2007-11-12T08:56:00.000-08:00

From out of nowhere comes GWDI, a young icon and theme designer. His inaugural effort, Newspaper, shows a lot of promise for this up and comer. Welcome aboard Graham.

RapidWeaver tip: Working with images

2007-11-10T07:56:00.000-08:00

This is one of the most asked questions on the RapidWeaver support forums, "How do I wrap text around my images?"

In reality it is quite easy to do. In this tutorial I will show you how to drop an image into your document, size it and have your text flow around it.

From Finder, drag an image of your choice onto you document. For best results, put it at the beginning of a paragraph.
In many cases your image will not be the appropriate size. Select the image, go to "View > Show Media Inspector".
Using the up/down arrows beside the "Scale" box, reduce the size of your image to suit your needs
You will notice that your image now sits inline with your text. To get your text to wrap around your image, select the image, go to "Format > HTML > Align Image Left/Align Image Right"

To see it with your own eyes, click the movie below.

RapidWeaver tip: How to make a sub page

2007-11-04T04:41:00.000-08:00

It might sound like the most basic task but I get many many questions regarding this very issue; how do I make a sub page in RapidWeaver? It's actually quite easy and logical. Sub pages in web design are often referred to as nested pages. In RapidWeaver that is exactly what you'll do; just grab a page in the RapidWeaver sidebar and drop it onto another page. Click the image below.

RW Updates has a Widget

2007-10-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

The first useful thing we've done on Leopard so far? We've made an RW Updates Dashboard Widget. Cool huh? If you're not a regular RSS reader and don't have time to go to the web site, just pop open your Dashboard and have a quick update on all the latest from RW Updates.

You can download the RW Updates widget here.

Dave comes on board the RW Update train

2007-10-27T12:25:00.001-07:00

Dave Cantù has put up a blog especially for RW Updates. He admittedly is not a blogger under normal circumstances but couldn't pass up the opportunity to be seen and have his message distributed by RW Updates.

Thanks for coming on Dave, we are glad to have you.

Nilrog has been added

2007-10-27T06:40:00.000-07:00

RW Updates is happy to include Nilrog's place, the home of the @STASH and HIGH-LIGHT plugins, in our Daily Digest.

Welcome aboard Roger!

RapidWeaver tip: Add native search

2007-10-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

One of the first things any visitor to a website looks for is a way to search within the site. One thing that has been sorely missing from RapidWeaver is native, integrated search functionality. Understandably it would be tough to get a desktop app to somehow construct a back end database on a remote server, though I bet it's not impossible on mac since they run Unix, as do most server environments. But I think Dan and company have their hands full with more pressing, killer features.

That being said, I thought it was time to revisit this old thread and see how much further we could take this idea of integrated search. So without further delay:

How to add native search to your RapidWeaver site

Create a new MySQL database on your host server.
This will vary from host to host but here is a rough idea:
1. Login into you hosting control panel.
2. Go to you MySQL management area.
3. Create a new MySQL host server (we'll call ours "mysql.yourdomain.com").
4. Create a new MySQL database (call it "isearch" and apply it to the host server you just created).
5. Create a new username and password, i.e. isearch_admin, yourpassword (write them down because we will need them later).
Install iSearch2
1. Download iSearch2.
2. Unzip the package contents.
3. Via an FTP client, upload the folder "isearch2" and it's content to the home folder of your host server, i.e. "public_html", "html" or "home" depending on your host.
Configure iSearch2
Configure your basic settings in "isearch2/inc/config.inc.php":
1. $isearch_sql_server = 'mysql.yourdomain.com'; (depending on your host, this might be "localhost")
2. $isearch_sql_username = 'isearch_admin'; (this is the username I told you to write down ealier)
3. $isearch_sql_password = 'yourpassword'; (and this is the password I told you to write down earlier)
4. $isearch_sql_database = 'isearch'; (this is the name of the database we created)
5. $isearch_admin_password = 'adminpassword'; (this is the password you will make up to administer iSearch from a browser)
Index your site
iSearch2 needs to compile the contents of your site into an indexable database:
1. In a web browser, go to "http://yourdomain.com/isearch2/admin" and login using the isearch admin password you created here.
2. Enter your email address and home page URL.
3. In the last large text box, enter the urls that you don't wish index in the search database separated by a space. I highly recommend excluding all folders that contain xml or other files intended to be read as RSS. These will fair well in searches but will result in the user trying to open RSS feeds when they may not intend to do so or may not have a means of reading RSS (like Internet Explorer users)
4. Click save.
5. Click "Spider" and wait. If it's a big site it will take a while.
6. Test the service by going to "http://www.yourdomain.com/isearch2" and performing a search for a common term on your site. Did it work? Good! Carry on.
Make a search page
In RapidWeaver:
1. In the lower left corner, click the "+" button and add an HTML page (top level is preferable).
2. In the Page Inspector, set your name, folder and file names appropriately.
3. In the content area paste in the following:
  
   <FORM METHOD="post" ACTION="%base_url%isearch2/index.php"> <INPUT MAXLENGTH="255" NAME="s" SIZE="30" VALUE="" /> <INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Search" /> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="action" VALUE="search" /> </FORM>
  
  Note: the %base_url% in the action attribute will allow RapidWeaver to write the proper path to the isearch program. Keep in mind that you have to properly set the base url in RapidWeaver (Site > Show Site Setup > Publishing) for this to work. It is assumed that you will enter your home domain there in this exact format: "http://www.yourdomain.com/" (note the trailing forward slash)
4. Publish your new search page and give it a spin... Still working? Good! Carry on.
Search all over
Search from anywhere on you site by copying the code from here and pasting it anywhere on your site.
Make it sexy
You probably noticed the results page is nothing short of terrible looking. I bet you want to make it look like the rest of your site, right? Ok, here is how:
1. Open the source of your published search page (the one you just finished making) in a text editor.
2. Highlight from "<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC..." to just before "" and copy it.
3. Open the file "/isearch2/index.php" and replace from "<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC..." (at line 19) to "</head>" (line 29) with the code you copied.
4. Go back to source code of your search page and highlight and copy from the end of "</FORM>" to the end of the code.
5. Next, go back to the file "/isearch2/index.php" and replace from "</body>" to "</html>" with code you just copied.
6. Save you changes.
Style some more
iSearch2 allows for some extensive control of it's style. You can begin to control these styles by adding the following CSS selectors to either the styles.css in the theme, live on the site or directly into the file "/isearch2/index.php":

.isearch { } .isearch-title { } .isearch-score { } .isearch-description { } .isearch-highlight { } .isearch-url { } .isearch-size { }
Configure some more
Remember the admin panel ("http://yourdomain.com/isearch2/admin")? If you poke around in there you can set a HUGE number of options that allow for differences in the way the results are delivered, advanced versus simple search, help menus, how partial results are handled... Go ahead and have fun with it.
Some Examples
To see this search engine in full effect try it out on seyDesign or on Merrifield Photography.

It feels good to be loved... or at least listed.

2007-10-24T04:49:00.000-07:00

There is no better adoration than unsolicited love. I mean, it's nice to get on list that you subscribe to, and it's nice to get on lists that you submit to, and it's nice when your friends and colleagues support you... But when you get an email like this:

We just added your website ( http://rwupdates.com ) to our gallery on http://cssflash.com
If we might have published any wrong infos about your work, please let us know by replying to this email.

Feel free to add further beautiful webpages, referring backlinks to us, or just tell your friends about our new project.

It's updated several times a day.

See you later and never stop creating nice stuff!

...there is just no better feeling.

RapidWeaver tip: Adding links in the sidebar

2007-10-22T07:02:00.000-07:00

There is one thing I get asked a lot; How do make a link in the sidebar? It's as easy as it is in the main content area, it's just as obvious so here is a quick guide to help you out.

Open the Page Inspector panel.
Select the sidebar icon (second from the top left).
If you haven't done so already, enter your text.
Select the text you wish to link from.
Click the "+" (plus) button in the bottom left hand corner of the panel.
Enter the URL or Page you wish to link to, enter a title and click ok.

RW Updates welcomes Classic-RWThemes.com

2007-10-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

We are happy to have recently added Classic-RWThemes.com to the roster in our Daily Digest. This is an off shoot of the original RWT site from Gary and offers some of the extensive back library of older RWT RapidWeaver themes. Have a peek at some of the classics they have to offer.

RW Updates does the body good

2007-10-13T06:26:00.000-07:00

Report have come in from a few developers that RW Updates is indeed driving traffic to their sites. For those that post news regularly, RW Updates is in the top 10 on the list of referring sites. That's no small feat!

We'll continue to push RW Updates to be the best it can be, improving the technology as we go. I hope to be the ultimate, streamlined news source for all the developers, swiftly cutting through all the extraneous noise out there and getting straight to the developer source.

I read it on RW Updates!

2007-10-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

I thought this was pretty cool. I subscribe to the RW Updates Daily Digest RSS feed... of course, and today it picked up a new plugin in the Realmac Software Add-on section called Payloom. Wanting to know more about it, I quickly scampered off in all directions looking for a forum post, blog post, or something that would give any substantial press release details... nothing. It was hours before the first signs (aside from the Add-ons section and RW Updates) of anyone claiming ownership of this new RapidWeaver plugin. So I thought to myself, "Cool, I read it on RW Updates first!"

Then came the emails, about 5 in all, with the same sentiment, "Hey did you see Payloom? I saw it on RW Updates first." So I'm thinking this is kind of cool right? So this is my mantra now, "I read it on RW Updates!"

Did you find out about anything on RW Updates first before any other source? Let me hear about in the comments. I'll give this post it's very own category and add my own comments when ever I read it hear first. I encourage you all to do the same.

Permanent status on Design Snack

2007-10-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

RW Updates was well enough received on Design Snack to be awarded permanent status! Kudos are nice to have when you start a project like this. It helps get you noticed, which in this case gets all of the developers involved with RapidWeaver noticed too. It also gets RapidWeaver itself noticed more and more and that is good for everyone involved.

I will continue to promote RW Updates and further develop the technology and ideas behind the service so that it is not only well received from a design standpoint but also from the aspect of usability and usefulness. I want RW Updates to be a definitive resource for RapidWeaver users.

The 5 day stats

2007-09-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

Well RW Updates is certainly not breaking any records with it's stats yet, but I must say I am rather happy with what I see at this time. Only 5 days in and RW Updates is enjoying 194 unique visits and climbing. Once it becomes common knowledge that RW Updates is a must-bookmark RapidWeaver resource, then I suspect those numbers will really climb.

RW Updates got slurped!

2007-09-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

It's always an honor when people take notice of your site, especially when it's unsolicited. One of the best sites for this is the Daily Slurp. They are the best at scouring the web for the latest and hottest site designs and I am often amazed at how fast they get their hands on URL's that I personally know have only dropped days before. Well September 29 was one of those days for us as RW Updates found itself listed in the Daily Slurp (check it out) not even a week after it's somewhat low key launch. That's barely long enough for our first blog posts to get cold! It feels good.

RSS Feed is Live and in effect!!!

2007-09-28T07:44:00.000-07:00

We don't you all mosey on over to the Daily Digest page and look in the address bar. See that cute little blue RSS icon? Yep, that's right... they don't call me a geek for nothing. I will be the first to admit it's far from perfect right now (caching and page anchors kind of combine for the total effect of nothing) but it's a start and definitely a proof of concept.

I plan to make a few subscribe buttons in a little bit but in the meantime pull the feed from the Daily Digest page address bar and let me know what you think.

RSS Feed soon to come

2007-09-27T23:42:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help myself. I worked out a way to feed the daily digest into an rss feed. I'll hopefully implement in the coming week. Having a bit of trouble handling all the feeds right now, and the permalink system I had developed earlier isn't quite as happy to play with rss as I had hoped. It's pretty close though.

Each RW Update post has it's own id!

2007-09-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

HOW COOL IS THAT!!! So I mucked about today on my spare time and came up with a nifty way to link directly to a post on the Daily Digest page. This is useful if I want to bring your attention to a particular entry there. Same goes for anyone linking here. Granted the posts will only exist here for a week (maybe two in the future), but hey, news goes fast!

So all you do is copy the link of the RWU id number and use that in your own site to link back to that post... kind of like this: RWU id: 25SepseyRWURWUpda

Next on the list of cool-ass things to do is build my own RSS feed for the Daily Digest page... at some point.