Blog items tagged with "tutorials"

Making your Custom Theme more Accessible

We're recently added better 'accessibility' support to Exponent so it may be used with a screen reader. This is mandated with some public website due to the Americans with Disabilities Act. While the code shipped with Exponent v2.4.0 includes these changes, they may need to be integrated into your custom theme. Though you can check your theme/subtheme templates and custom views with the ones we ship, here are some things to look for:

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eCommerce Payments

BillingThe goal of this article is to help better understand how 'payments' operate within the Exponent eCommerce system.  'Payments' are used to virtualize an online cash transaction for goods (products) or services (event registration or donation).  There are basically two (2) types of payment systems called 'billing calculators' within Exponent:

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Theming with Twitter Bootstrap version 3 - Part 3

Twitter Bootstrap 3(Corrected May 5, 2014) Recently, Google changed the way they rank search hits by elevating those from 'mobile friendly' web sites and lowering those which are not mobile friendly.  To be 'mobile friendly' your web site must conform to modern standards (HTML5) AND must be small device and 'touch friendly' ...meaning the page is viewable on a small screen and the buttons/links have some space/distance between them for 'fat fingers.  The easiest way to make your Exponent CMS site 'mobile friendly' is to switch or update to a Twitter Bootstrap 3 based theme.  Exponent CMS allows you to do this in just a matter of minutes.

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Basic Theme Framework Concepts

Bootstrap 3A 'theme framework' is a tool or library of stylesheets and javascript code which help a web designer more efficiently create a stylish web site. In most cases they allow for effectively sectioning off a page using styles instead of tables. They also include code to easily create the different user interface 'widgets' and utilities which would otherwise take a lot of code (e.g. time) to produce.  Exponent CMS currently contains built-in support for two (2) different theme frameworks: 1) Yahoo User Interface (or YUI), and 2) Twitter Bootstrap (or Bootstrap).  And within each of these frameworks we include two (2) versions.  The question is 'which one to use?'

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Where, Oh Where Has My Little Script Gone...

Scripting...oh where, oh where can it be!  Was your web site running a script that has seemed to stop working (or no longer even appears in the content) since your upgrade to v2.3.1 (or one of the v2.1.4 or v2.2.3 security patches)?  Well on the 'plus' side, that means the security fix is working, but that's not what you wanted to hear.  To help eliminate possible site security issues which could be caused by script injections, we now strip all content of any 'script' tags EXCEPT within Code Snippet modules.  Therefore, if you had embedded a script such as Google Analytics or similar within a Text module, it is now stripped out before saving or displaying.  What you'll need to do is either embed the script directly within the theme/subtheme template file (e.g., v2.3.3 now allows calling a script or code directly from the expTheme::foot() call) or use a Code Snippet module on the page.

jQuery and Exponent....sitting in a tree...

jQueryThe jQuery javascript library has been integrated into Exponent since v2.2.0 in an effort to help us move away from the YUI library.  jQuery is more popular and has many more add-ons/plugins/widgets than does YUI.  It is also the javascript library of choice for Twitter Bootstrap.  Just like YUI, Exponent easily integrates the use of jQuery into the Exponent framework.  Here are some tips on using jQuery with your custom theme or view.

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Using the new Workflow Feature

Version 2.3.0 includes a new optional feature called 'Workflow'.  This feature allows greater control over a multi-user site, especially where there are many users adding new material which should be edited or approved prior to being visible to the public.  'Workflow' adds 1) Revisions, and 2) Approval.Workflow Revisions

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Preparing to Upgrade to v2.3.0

Version 2.3.0 is the follow-up to version 2.2.3 and was given a version bump due to the many new features added.  It also marks a 'slowing down' of version releases as it's purposely been five months since the last release.  While it doesn't require as many changes as the move to v2.2.0 (which deprecated all the old 1.x code), it would still be wise to note and adhere these following changes.

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Using the new elFinder File Manager

Version 2.3.0 includes a new modern File Manager which (in the long run) will make it much easier to manage and work with uploaded files.  In general, elFinder follows an 'operating system' paradigm, so it should be fairly logical to begin using, but it is much different than the old Exponent File Manager.elFinder File Manager

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Successful Site Upgrade Strategies

Exponent is a very active project and frequently receives new features.  Issues or anomalies are also corrected shortly after being identified.  You'd think those would be great incentives to update to the most recent stable version, just to make managing and maintaining a web site much easier.  Here are some tips to help in upgrading a site, or to prepare to upgrade a site.

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