There are some free videos on umbraco.tv with some good Getting Started information. Check out this series to start with - Introduction to Umbraco. There are also more free videos if you go to Umbraco Fundamentals etc you can filter by Free. There are also some good paid videos so it definitely wouldn't hurt to buy a subscription temporarily.
Another good way to learn is to install one of the starter site packages, and just look at the code (templates, document types, macros) to see how things work and play around. Here are a few good ones:
I managed to get a development install running on my Windows test box and I think I understand the concept behind Umbraco.
Am I right in saying that Document Types in are 'content blocks' and can be made up of text fields, images etc. In ExpressionEngine I could have a field group/channel of say 'People' and that would be made up of image field, wysiwyg for description, text field for email address, drop-down list for position or similar. I could then attach a standard template for that content or overwrite it at publishing?
Your Document Types are your data storage, similar to database tables if you're familiar with that. So you can use them for things like People, News, etc...but you also use them for your pages (Homepage, Textpage, etc). You add fields (properties) to your document types for datastorage. The fields are rendered using Datatypes (textstring, media picker, etc).
As you said the templates are used for presenting the data in your doctypes. In your templates you can also have Macros (XSLT or Razor) for more advanced functionality such as creating a dynamic listing of doctypes.
Yeah that makes sense. I guess because Umbraco/ExpressionEngine are both sitting on an MVC framework (EE uses CodeIgniter) then there's bound to be some crossovers in approach.
Looks like I understand the basics. Just need to understand how to render those in templates but I guess the starter sites are a good starter point...if I can work out how to install them :-)
To install them you simply setup a clean Umbraco install, then goto Packages -> Install package and upload the zip file that you download from one of the links above.
Note the information I've been giving you us for Umbraco v4, which is based on webforms. v5 was just released this month and runs on MVC, and it has similar concepts but a few changes - and the links I provided won't work on v5 :)
Yeah that makes sense. I guess because Umbraco/ExpressionEngine are both sitting on an MVC framework (EE uses CodeIgniter) then there's bound to be some crossovers in approach.
Looks like I understand the basics. Just need to understand how to render those in templates but I guess the starter sites are a good starter point...if I can work out how to install them :-)
I installed Umbraco using WebMatrix on an old Windows laptop of mine. Is there anyway I can share the access so that I can access Umbraco from say 192.168.0.13:49600 on my Mac.
I've already got folder sharing setup so I can edit files on the Mac fine but just can't preview the site at the moment.
Where to start
Hi guys,
I've just acquired a client whose site runs Umbraco. I'm coming from a designer/front-end developer who uses ExpressionEngine as my usual CMS.
Everything I've seen regarding templating guides seems to point toward a subscription service.
Any other avenues I should look at to get an understanding of how Umbraco handles its templates.
Thanks,
Steven
Hi Steven,
There are some free videos on umbraco.tv with some good Getting Started information. Check out this series to start with - Introduction to Umbraco. There are also more free videos if you go to Umbraco Fundamentals etc you can filter by Free. There are also some good paid videos so it definitely wouldn't hurt to buy a subscription temporarily.
Another good way to learn is to install one of the starter site packages, and just look at the code (templates, document types, macros) to see how things work and play around. Here are a few good ones:
Creative Website Starter (CWS)
Real Estate Agents Starter Site
Business Website Starter Pack
Hope this helps,
Tom
Thanks for the reply Tom.
I managed to get a development install running on my Windows test box and I think I understand the concept behind Umbraco.
Am I right in saying that Document Types in are 'content blocks' and can be made up of text fields, images etc. In ExpressionEngine I could have a field group/channel of say 'People' and that would be made up of image field, wysiwyg for description, text field for email address, drop-down list for position or similar. I could then attach a standard template for that content or overwrite it at publishing?
Am I on the right lines?
Yep, sounds right.
Your Document Types are your data storage, similar to database tables if you're familiar with that. So you can use them for things like People, News, etc...but you also use them for your pages (Homepage, Textpage, etc). You add fields (properties) to your document types for datastorage. The fields are rendered using Datatypes (textstring, media picker, etc).
As you said the templates are used for presenting the data in your doctypes. In your templates you can also have Macros (XSLT or Razor) for more advanced functionality such as creating a dynamic listing of doctypes.
Check out this diagram that Matt Brailsford created, helps put things in prespective as far as doctypes/templates: http://blog.mattbrailsford.com/2011/04/07/anatomy-of-an-umbraco-document/
Do be sure to check out one of the starter sites as it really helps put things together also.
-Tom
Yeah that makes sense. I guess because Umbraco/ExpressionEngine are both sitting on an MVC framework (EE uses CodeIgniter) then there's bound to be some crossovers in approach.
Looks like I understand the basics. Just need to understand how to render those in templates but I guess the starter sites are a good starter point...if I can work out how to install them :-)
Hi,
To install them you simply setup a clean Umbraco install, then goto Packages -> Install package and upload the zip file that you download from one of the links above.
Note the information I've been giving you us for Umbraco v4, which is based on webforms. v5 was just released this month and runs on MVC, and it has similar concepts but a few changes - and the links I provided won't work on v5 :)
-Tom
Yeah that makes sense. I guess because Umbraco/ExpressionEngine are both sitting on an MVC framework (EE uses CodeIgniter) then there's bound to be some crossovers in approach.
Looks like I understand the basics. Just need to understand how to render those in templates but I guess the starter sites are a good starter point...if I can work out how to install them :-)
not so much an Umbraco based question but...
I installed Umbraco using WebMatrix on an old Windows laptop of mine. Is there anyway I can share the access so that I can access Umbraco from say 192.168.0.13:49600 on my Mac.
I've already got folder sharing setup so I can edit files on the Mac fine but just can't preview the site at the moment.
Thanks,
Steven
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