Well I've just started out looking at Umbraco and it looks like a very nice CMS. As for some reason I just never like DNN. Anyways, I guess what I'm asking is...
What steps should I take to completely learn Umbraco to the point where I can do what ever I want with it? At the moment I struggle with the documentation as its seems sparse in places, then very dense. So I find it hard to learn from there, and then I would just like to clear a few things up.
If I make a backoffice plugin, is there anyway I can write the markup of the admin interface like in a Wordpress plugin?
Do I need to learn IronPython to be able to do whatever I want with Umbraco?
Finally, which language is Umbraco written in? C# or VB.net?
Umbraco is written in C#, however it is compiled against the .NET framework, meaning that you can use any .NET language with Umbraco - e.g. VB.NET, F#, IronPython, IronRuby, etc. Based on experience, its fair to say that most of the community developers use C#.
For the back-office plugins - there are limitations to what you can do. If you are creating your own data-types or admin sections, sure - you can use your own HTML/CSS ... but it might look a little out of place with the overall style/design. Its definitely worth experimenting though! :-D
For Umbraco skills... if you're serious, get yourself on both the Level 1 and Level 2 courses. For more fast-track stuff, sign-up for Umbraco.tv too!
As for becoming an Umbraco ninja! The path is long and wide... my best advice is embrace the community.
Subscribing to and watching the Umbraco.tv is very useful, also there are some great blogs and a good way to find them all is via Hendy's blog pipes http://blog.hendyracher.co.uk/umbraco-blogs-and-pipes/ also the level 1 and/or level 2 training course is very worth doing. Twitter is also a great place to get help with the #umbraco tag. The documentation is very sparse. It does tend to be community rather than documentation led, but the new Wiki is a lot better and there is some good material there if you're patient with the navigation. Asking questions here is always very very welcome too. There's lots of people hanging around just desperate for questions to answer :) no really there really are :D
Best way imho is to take a simple site and build it and ask lots of questions as you go though, you do pick it up best that way I find it easiest to learn by doing. You can achieve an entire highly functional site just with XSLT and packages, you don't need to be a developer at all to make very rich experiences.
You definitely can write the markup of the admin interface via ascx user controls, and of course as it is open source you *can* do anything you like :) It's worth downloading the source and having a good read if you enjoy that sort of thing. But you can achieve everything without doing that.
There is no need to learn IronPython unless you like it, everything can be done using any .net language, typically most people seem to use C# and it is mostly written in C#.
The one thing you will find about Umbraco again and again is that it is a great community that really love to share their experiences and knowledge to push forward the best CMS in the history of the universe onto more sites! (you can see why they don't let me do marketing for anyone with tag lines like that!)
It's worth remembering that asking questions earns as much karma as answering them, so we need you questions :) It's also really worth coming to any of the events to talk in person and buy beer for anyone who's really helped you :D
@John, thanks for your reply! Yeah its great to see such a thriving community, hope I can give something back in the future!
@Lee, yes, but I left the account logged in at collage and now I'm locked out of it! (So you should probably delete it and all of its posts) I still wish to make some premium skins by the way! Just give them away, as I'm looking into creating an eCommerce plugin that adds the normal features, including a customer database and newsletter functionality targeted at certain people. For example those who have spent more than £550 in the last month. I could do this in plain .Net but I'm getting my head around how to do this with Umbraco. I was going to do it a while ago but I got into MVC! :(
Yeah I have had hell with it, I got my Umbraco forums account jacked, nearly my ASP.net forums account (saved thankfully), Gravatar and some Windows Live ID account. All because I used a public user account and Safari didnt empty its cookie cache! They use OSX there and the servers cannot cope with a spike in users, so Firefox was off limits. Look what it did too me! (Stupid Apple)
But apart from that I have recovered. So what would you recommend in terms of developing a plugin? Will there be an all new architecture in Umbraco 5 or will it be familiar to an Umbraco 4 user and MVC novice? Finally, (I know, a lot of questions!), have you had any experience with developing eCommerce plugins with Umbraco?
Becomming a ninja!
Hey everyone,
Well I've just started out looking at Umbraco and it looks like a very nice CMS. As for some reason I just never like DNN. Anyways, I guess what I'm asking is...
What steps should I take to completely learn Umbraco to the point where I can do what ever I want with it? At the moment I struggle with the documentation as its seems sparse in places, then very dense. So I find it hard to learn from there, and then I would just like to clear a few things up.
If I make a backoffice plugin, is there anyway I can write the markup of the admin interface like in a Wordpress plugin?
Do I need to learn IronPython to be able to do whatever I want with Umbraco?
Finally, which language is Umbraco written in? C# or VB.net?
Thanks for your help in advance!
Hi Ryan,
Umbraco is written in C#, however it is compiled against the .NET framework, meaning that you can use any .NET language with Umbraco - e.g. VB.NET, F#, IronPython, IronRuby, etc. Based on experience, its fair to say that most of the community developers use C#.
For the back-office plugins - there are limitations to what you can do. If you are creating your own data-types or admin sections, sure - you can use your own HTML/CSS ... but it might look a little out of place with the overall style/design. Its definitely worth experimenting though! :-D
For Umbraco skills... if you're serious, get yourself on both the Level 1 and Level 2 courses. For more fast-track stuff, sign-up for Umbraco.tv too!
As for becoming an Umbraco ninja! The path is long and wide... my best advice is embrace the community.
Cheers, Lee.
PS. Are you the same Ryan?
Subscribing to and watching the Umbraco.tv is very useful, also there are some great blogs and a good way to find them all is via Hendy's blog pipes http://blog.hendyracher.co.uk/umbraco-blogs-and-pipes/ also the level 1 and/or level 2 training course is very worth doing. Twitter is also a great place to get help with the #umbraco tag. The documentation is very sparse. It does tend to be community rather than documentation led, but the new Wiki is a lot better and there is some good material there if you're patient with the navigation. Asking questions here is always very very welcome too. There's lots of people hanging around just desperate for questions to answer :) no really there really are :D
Best way imho is to take a simple site and build it and ask lots of questions as you go though, you do pick it up best that way I find it easiest to learn by doing. You can achieve an entire highly functional site just with XSLT and packages, you don't need to be a developer at all to make very rich experiences.
You definitely can write the markup of the admin interface via ascx user controls, and of course as it is open source you *can* do anything you like :) It's worth downloading the source and having a good read if you enjoy that sort of thing. But you can achieve everything without doing that.
There is no need to learn IronPython unless you like it, everything can be done using any .net language, typically most people seem to use C# and it is mostly written in C#.
The one thing you will find about Umbraco again and again is that it is a great community that really love to share their experiences and knowledge to push forward the best CMS in the history of the universe onto more sites! (you can see why they don't let me do marketing for anyone with tag lines like that!)
It's worth remembering that asking questions earns as much karma as answering them, so we need you questions :) It's also really worth coming to any of the events to talk in person and buy beer for anyone who's really helped you :D
Hey,
Yeah I'm serious about learning Umbraco!
@John, thanks for your reply! Yeah its great to see such a thriving community, hope I can give something back in the future!
@Lee, yes, but I left the account logged in at collage and now I'm locked out of it! (So you should probably delete it and all of its posts) I still wish to make some premium skins by the way! Just give them away, as I'm looking into creating an eCommerce plugin that adds the normal features, including a customer database and newsletter functionality targeted at certain people. For example those who have spent more than £550 in the last month. I could do this in plain .Net but I'm getting my head around how to do this with Umbraco. I was going to do it a while ago but I got into MVC! :(
Thanks for your help!
Hi Ryan, no worries - just your name looked familiar to me! :-)
Umbraco 5 is being developed using MVC3 ... a preview is due out next summer - so its worth keeping that in mind for anything you develop.
Cheers, Lee.
Hey,
Yeah I have had hell with it, I got my Umbraco forums account jacked, nearly my ASP.net forums account (saved thankfully), Gravatar and some Windows Live ID account. All because I used a public user account and Safari didnt empty its cookie cache! They use OSX there and the servers cannot cope with a spike in users, so Firefox was off limits. Look what it did too me! (Stupid Apple)
But apart from that I have recovered. So what would you recommend in terms of developing a plugin? Will there be an all new architecture in Umbraco 5 or will it be familiar to an Umbraco 4 user and MVC novice? Finally, (I know, a lot of questions!), have you had any experience with developing eCommerce plugins with Umbraco?
Thanks / Ryan
If you want to be an Umbraco ninja you need to battle me! :P
Let the battle begin! ;)
Don't rule out the possibility that it was Aaron who hacked your college mac :)
is working on a reply...