So what does your essential Umbraco project contain? Do you have a favorite set of packages you almost always install? Any recommendations beyond that?
I just found that I'm pretty empty on U7 and I'll soon start a larger project. If you feel like sharing a shortlist then I think a lot will find it useful.
However I would probably include the following in my base installation by default
Url tracker - Because it's simply awesome that 301 redirects are mapped automatically so editors don't need to worry about making mistakes if they want to restructure their site without thinking about the consequences from a SEO / Content marketing point of view. (Be aware that CE SQL and MySQL is not supported though).
Glimpse7 - Because it's nice from a developer point of view to figure out if the objects etc. returned from your code actually contains anything etc.
SEO vizualiser - Because it makes it easier for the editor to see what a search result in Google would look like.
Multi Url Picker - Seems to be a nice package for handling multiple urls :)
Of all the current v7 compatible packages these 4 would be in my base - Others will be included if needed/makes sense in the solution. The Vorto package for instance looks awesome but if the website is not multilingual I don't see a need for it in my base setup for instance.
Thanks Jan and Chriztian. That will get the list started. Anyone else wanting to add something to the list? If you have made a shortlist of U7 packages that u tend to use almost every time - please share it :-)
If you need a strong form package you really cannot go wrong with Umbraco Contour. It's extremely well maintained by Tim Geyssens (he's really on the ball with updates and fixes). The API is excellent and it's a commercial offering from the core umbraco team.
I've found uSync essential for collaborative development and deployment. uSync.ContentEdition is useful (and reliable) but unfortunately it doesnt handle pre-values on some PropertyTypes yet, hopefully it will soon. Umbraco Courier is terribly unreliable and hasnt improved enough since version 2 was introduced for me to have any faith in using it, avoid!
Your BIGGEST issue will be maintaining your build for your customer! This can cover a whole plethora of potential pitfalls, but just keeping on the subject of packages....
If you have no intention of remaining on the upgrade path other than to fix bugs you will find you can upgrade Umbraco to a point before it's APIs change enough for either your code or code in a third party package stops working! :-( Always test your builds locally before you upgrade anything on a production server.
Whether you decide to keep Umbraco updates to a minimum or whether you want to keep offering your customer new features as Umbraco improves, my advice would be where possible try and avoid third party packages.
In situations where a package is required take an objective view on how much of an impact the package you're thinking of implementing is going to have on your build and then look at how well/long the package has been supported, before you go ahead and install it!
I'm wrote a rather large update on this but apparently it wasn't saved or the forum actively rejected it... Either way ... No time for a retry know but I'll try later.
Note to self: don't actually write posts in the forum editor (you crazy fool). Always write elsewhere and paste here ... Grrrrrr.
For all the layout elements. I really wish that Matt or someone with the superpowers added widget content rendering in U7 backend - then it would be perfect ;) Matt? :)
Tags (not a package) Build in tags system. Or? Manager?
Alternative to Doctype mixins? As I understand it mxins doesnt work on 7.xx - So is it basic use of inherited doc types?
Media
Regarding images and video - nothing. I hope to use the build in features. Image Cropper looks promising and Vimeo is just a tag so ... Am I missing something?
Based on your comments about package choices, here's some further thoughts...
Archtype - looks to me like this has the potential to create some fantastically complex and useful data structures...be aware of the new software smell of this one though. I will be keeping an eye on this one myself for future projects
Widget grid - I seriously don't think there's a need for this, your layout should be well defined by you and i can't see why the end user would require a visual representation for module picking. We just use the MNTP for our module system and just label them as "right hand modules" or say, "bottom and top" modules for our homepage etc.
Tags - by tags do you mean meta tags or tag clouds? If you mean meta, that's simply a matter of implementing standard textbox properties in your doctypes. If you mean tag clouds, you can try uTagsy. http://our.umbraco.org/projects/backoffice-extensions/utagsy
Doctype mixins - this was another great idea for a package, but alas has only reached U6! So very much on my point about getting stuck on version numbers! This one would be great in the core!
301 tracker - I seriously don't understand why on earth a package like this hasnt made it into the core. You could argue this package is essential (although I havent used it yet) lol. We get a lot of stick from our end users about broken links!
SEO checker - This is another one of those packages you could say...why isn't there more of this kind of thing in the core? I think the Umbraco team has become so preoccupied with the massive changes to the .net stack, features that you could argue are essential for website management get left to package developers! Oh Well....its commercial so you might have a better chance of upgrades on this one, like contour!
I use uBlogsy as our defacto blog engine of choice for umbraco, to be fair there arent that many choices and uBlogsy has been a bit ropey here and there. But I think it has settled into a capable and reliable package. This should really be a commerical offering!
On the front end you mentioned partials....you can also use strongly typed "macro partials" which incorporates attributes and caching which is cool with macros. So you basically you're spoilt for choice!
I thought it very interesting when you mentioned Angular.JS as a tech choice for templating At this time, i'm not entirely sure how you would go about implementing Angular.JS into an Umbraco MVC project...I guess it wouldnt be all the difficult to do as there's quite a few tutorials appearing on how to do this in Visual Studio as part of an MVC project.
As the backoffice itself is in angular.js its all perfectly possible! I'll be taking a look myself if I can see obvious benefits over standard razor views.
I liked your comment about BootStrap and the link you provided to "responsive" was a new one for me. We use bootstrap a lot but I agree it requires quite a bit of work to customise.
Umbraco 7.1.x research - the essential list?
Hi all,
So what does your essential Umbraco project contain? Do you have a favorite set of packages you almost always install? Any recommendations beyond that?
I just found that I'm pretty empty on U7 and I'll soon start a larger project. If you feel like sharing a shortlist then I think a lot will find it useful.
best
Jesper
A quick list:
XMLDump, Eksponent.CropUp, DAMP - which are all possible in some way in U7.
uComponents - for some better variations of MNTP and keyboard navigation in trees (!)
/Chriztian
Hi Jesper
I'm still getting my toes wet in umbraco 7...
However I would probably include the following in my base installation by default
Of all the current v7 compatible packages these 4 would be in my base - Others will be included if needed/makes sense in the solution. The Vorto package for instance looks awesome but if the website is not multilingual I don't see a need for it in my base setup for instance.
uSync and Umport also look really nice btw.
/Jan
Thanks Jan and Chriztian. That will get the list started. Anyone else wanting to add something to the list?
If you have made a shortlist of U7 packages that u tend to use almost every time - please share it :-)
best
Jesper
So far with U7 I've been using Archetype a lot!
For me it replaces some of the uComponents ones, e.g. UrlPicker/MultiUrlPicker/DataTypeGrid
Apart from that, I've been keeping it 'native' (so far), haven't had a need for other packages.
Cheers,
- Lee
If you need a strong form package you really cannot go wrong with Umbraco Contour. It's extremely well maintained by Tim Geyssens (he's really on the ball with updates and fixes). The API is excellent and it's a commercial offering from the core umbraco team.
I've found uSync essential for collaborative development and deployment. uSync.ContentEdition is useful (and reliable) but unfortunately it doesnt handle pre-values on some PropertyTypes yet, hopefully it will soon. Umbraco Courier is terribly unreliable and hasnt improved enough since version 2 was introduced for me to have any faith in using it, avoid!
Your BIGGEST issue will be maintaining your build for your customer! This can cover a whole plethora of potential pitfalls, but just keeping on the subject of packages....
If you have no intention of remaining on the upgrade path other than to fix bugs you will find you can upgrade Umbraco to a point before it's APIs change enough for either your code or code in a third party package stops working! :-( Always test your builds locally before you upgrade anything on a production server.
Whether you decide to keep Umbraco updates to a minimum or whether you want to keep offering your customer new features as Umbraco improves, my advice would be where possible try and avoid third party packages.
In situations where a package is required take an objective view on how much of an impact the package you're thinking of implementing is going to have on your build and then look at how well/long the package has been supported, before you go ahead and install it!
I hope this is helpful.
Martin
I'm wrote a rather large update on this but apparently it wasn't saved or the forum actively rejected it... Either way ... No time for a retry know but I'll try later.
Note to self: don't actually write posts in the forum editor (you crazy fool). Always write elsewhere and paste here ... Grrrrrr.
:) jesper
Here's a much shorter list. Im planning on using the following.
Main layout control and doctypes
for anything repetitive on a page (image rotator, features where position in layout is not important)
http://our.umbraco.org/projects/backoffice-extensions/widget-grid
For all the layout elements. I really wish that Matt or someone with the superpowers added widget content rendering in U7 backend
- then it would be perfect ;) Matt? :)
Build in tags system. Or? Manager?
As I understand it mxins doesnt work on 7.xx - So is it basic use of inherited doc types?
Media
Am I missing something?
Features
http://our.umbraco.org/projects/website-utilities/seo-checker
http://our.umbraco.org/projects/developer-tools/301-url-tracker ;
http://umbraco.com/products/more-add-ons/contour.aspx
.. if not Podio webforms directly
Coding / Templates (not really about packages anymore)
Any die hard needed packages for that?
We plan on using Latest Bootstrap this time but I'll probably use http://responsivebp.com/ next time.
when possible.
http://angular-google-maps.org/
My own hybrid of the Google Map implementation from https://github.com/warrenbuckley/generator-umbraco and Dirks http://our.umbraco.org/projects/backoffice-extensions/google-maps-property-editor-w-google-places-autocomplete-lookup ;
Features both lookup and entering lat&lng
http://our.umbraco.org/projects/developer-tools/glimpse7
Nice dev tool
Im still searching for
Featuring categories, blogs archives, xml feed, .... Must be able to add blog "manywhere" in the structure and have multiple.
@Jesper - re: Widget Grid ... something far superior is coming (dev'd by Matt and me) - can't say much yet, but can demo at CG14.
@lee - thanks :) Looking forward to seeing that. I have to start implementing this week so just release it :)
Also looking forward to seeing LECOATÍ's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCoQNoQRa2s on CG14 :)
Also I should recheck Sir Trevor ... http://our.umbraco.org/projects/backoffice-extensions/sir-trevor
/Jesper
@Lee: Apologies in advance for editing your post! (I just thought that was a bold statement, so... :-)
Will stand in line to see that demo for sure!
/Chriztian
Hi Jesper
Based on your comments about package choices, here's some further thoughts...
Archtype - looks to me like this has the potential to create some fantastically complex and useful data structures...be aware of the new software smell of this one though. I will be keeping an eye on this one myself for future projects
Widget grid - I seriously don't think there's a need for this, your layout should be well defined by you and i can't see why the end user would require a visual representation for module picking. We just use the MNTP for our module system and just label them as "right hand modules" or say, "bottom and top" modules for our homepage etc.
Tags - by tags do you mean meta tags or tag clouds? If you mean meta, that's simply a matter of implementing standard textbox properties in your doctypes. If you mean tag clouds, you can try uTagsy. http://our.umbraco.org/projects/backoffice-extensions/utagsy
Doctype mixins - this was another great idea for a package, but alas has only reached U6! So very much on my point about getting stuck on version numbers! This one would be great in the core!
301 tracker - I seriously don't understand why on earth a package like this hasnt made it into the core. You could argue this package is essential (although I havent used it yet) lol. We get a lot of stick from our end users about broken links!
SEO checker - This is another one of those packages you could say...why isn't there more of this kind of thing in the core? I think the Umbraco team has become so preoccupied with the massive changes to the .net stack, features that you could argue are essential for website management get left to package developers! Oh Well....its commercial so you might have a better chance of upgrades on this one, like contour!
I use uBlogsy as our defacto blog engine of choice for umbraco, to be fair there arent that many choices and uBlogsy has been a bit ropey here and there. But I think it has settled into a capable and reliable package. This should really be a commerical offering!
On the front end you mentioned partials....you can also use strongly typed "macro partials" which incorporates attributes and caching which is cool with macros. So you basically you're spoilt for choice!
I thought it very interesting when you mentioned Angular.JS as a tech choice for templating At this time, i'm not entirely sure how you would go about implementing Angular.JS into an Umbraco MVC project...I guess it wouldnt be all the difficult to do as there's quite a few tutorials appearing on how to do this in Visual Studio as part of an MVC project.
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/5af151b2-9ed2-4809-bfe8-27566bfe7d83
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/Australia/2013/DEV331
As the backoffice itself is in angular.js its all perfectly possible! I'll be taking a look myself if I can see obvious benefits over standard razor views.
I liked your comment about BootStrap and the link you provided to "responsive" was a new one for me. We use bootstrap a lot but I agree it requires quite a bit of work to customise.
Kind regards
Martin
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