Exponent CMS Blog

The primary scripting language used in Exponent CMS is PHP, just as with most other CMS packages such as W***P****, J***la, and D***pal. PHP is a scripting processor running on the web server which parses the PHP scripts to perform a task or output a page. Unlike javascript which is processed within the browser on the viewer's device. PHP development has been advancing at break-neck speed over recent months, and here's how it affects Exponent CMS.

The new v2.3.8 Patch #4 contains an updated form designer for Bootstrap 3 based themes (sorry we're still running into issues on the non-Bootstrap 3 themes). This allows for much easier and quicker form creation and editing. Whereas the previous interface required going back and forth through various screens (page loads), everything now takes place on the main form designer page with updates being performed in the background. What's more...the form designer looks and operates very similar to the previous version.

Exponent provides an excellent environment for writing and sharing articles or 'blogs'.  A site where the 'back-end' is on the front-end and a variety of what-you-see-is-what-you-get WYSIWYG editors take away some of the creative hassles with writing.  Another nice convenience for writing articles which is found on other blog applications (like WP), is editing the articles offline by using an application to manage and edit multiple blog articles.  Though there was preliminary support for this feature in the v0.99beta1 release (before v2.x), it has not been available to the v2.x code line...until now.  

The 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:

(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.

A '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?'

...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.

In the first article, I explained some of the basics of creating a Twitter Bootstrap 3 (BS3) based theme for Exponent. In this article I'll attempt to alleviate some of the myths or quirks associated with BS3 that may be delaying your move to use this versatile framework for your next custom theme.

Twitter Bootstrap version 3 (BS3) is becoming the user interface framework library of choice for Exponent CMS.  Though initially shipped with Exponent v2.3.0, that BS3 implementation was still lacking some refinement, and wasn't fully implemented across the entire user interface.  This has been somewhat remedied by the first three patches to v2.3.0, and will be even more-so in the upcoming patch #4 release.  In this article I'll attempt to share some of the basics of how to create a Twitter Bootstrap 3 custom theme.

The 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.