I'm a seasoned nuts & bolt developer and I've worked with DNN and MojoPortal but I'm new to Umbraco; I've just installed the latest version but struggled to find any simple boiler templates or even starter kits I could get started with which work with the latest version! I've looked at USkinned.com for a theme but there's less than a dozen to choose from!
I've also recently installed a WP site for a colleague and was amazed how I could theme in seconds and how easily I could bolt on a zillion plugins which worked straight away!
Seriously disappointed by the peripheral support...
Back when you installed Umbraco CMS you could choose between 3 starter kits, another one which you can use for the latest Umbraco version is the Local Gov starter kit
Then you should see Umbraco CMS as a framework where you have full control over your HTML and CSS, so you can implement any designs in Umbraco that you want.
If you are after HTML templates that you can use the html5up is a good place to visit. https://html5up.net
If you want to get some inspiration for creating your own webdesign, then you could have a look at http://www.templatemonster.com
Since you are new to Umbraco CMS, I would also recommend you to have a look at Umbraco TV https://umbraco.tv/videos/umbraco-v7/ here you will find videos that shows the basic concepts of Umbraco CMS, some of the videos are free to watch and others requires that you are subscribing to the service.
You can read more about Umbraco as a Service here, http://umbraco.com/cloud where you also can signup for a 14 days free trial on Umbraco as a Service.
I'm a simple nuts & bolts developer not a designer and I've previously learnt making a site look pretty actually takes a lot longer than me doing the coding which is why I leave it to others!
I want to be able to switch out of one theme if the client doesn't like it and not have to rewrite the entire markup to suit the CSS template!
BTW - The whole reason I've downloaded umbraco is to make it work for me not simply use it as a cloud-based service. If I wanted a cloud based service I would have gone for Wordpress which is far simpler to use and has over 20,000+ plugins and themes!
From my experience with Umbraco so far, this is not the case. Umbraco isn't designed to be a "plug and play front end theme manipulator" in the same way that WordPress has been hacked around to be.
You need to make your themes work with your content and the two aren't completely independent as templates need to know what properties each document type has.
If you want to change your theme completely, then the odds are you have to change your templates (or add multiple templates) for each document type.
When you make your theme (or purchase it), you will always need to modify it to work with your content structure and document types because each website is different.
If you want that sort of behaviour, you're best bet is going to be to code several theme options that work with your document types so you can simply change the templates being used. Until you have that collection of themes, purchasing one "off the shelf" and throwing it in is, as far as I'm aware, unlikely to work.
I don't know if Umbraco will ever head towards the WordPress model, although personally, I don't think it should, but if it did it would most likely be due to community members building plugins that behave in that manner rather than the core direction changing. (I'm sure others have opinions on this).
Umbraco will, I'm afraid to say, require more customisation work than you are expecting I think.
As for your disappointment in the "peripheral support", feel free to create plugins, contribute to the community and the amount of options will grow over time. Yes there aren't as many plugins as there are for WordPress, however, it's community is much smaller (all be it growing all the time) and it takes time and dedication to get more and more of these options available. :-)
As I'm new to Umbraco, I'm not sure how hard it would be to maybe create a "standard" Master template with reserved key words for header, logo, company motto, description ,sub-description etc.
And then the designer can go mad and create a multiple of sites by simply changing the CSS as they do here: CSS Zen Garden ; This would encourage MORE people to take an interest in Umbracco as they would want to sell/support their CSS templates!
I'm also learning how to create and package modules as I want to be an active contributor to the progression of Umbraco but as the community grows we will need to create new standards (e.g. like simply naming all downloadable modules with 'umb' prefix so its easier to manage - if you're working with several frameworks!)
From what you are saying in your last post, our Source Template would be the ideal starting point for you. This theme is purposefully minimal to provide a blank canvas for you to add your own designs. All our themes are packed full of common features that you would expect from any website and give you a great starting point to learn and develop your Umbraco skills.
Latest Version...
I'm a seasoned nuts & bolt developer and I've worked with DNN and MojoPortal but I'm new to Umbraco; I've just installed the latest version but struggled to find any simple boiler templates or even starter kits I could get started with which work with the latest version! I've looked at USkinned.com for a theme but there's less than a dozen to choose from!
I've also recently installed a WP site for a colleague and was amazed how I could theme in seconds and how easily I could bolt on a zillion plugins which worked straight away!
Seriously disappointed by the peripheral support...
Hi Toppers,
Back when you installed Umbraco CMS you could choose between 3 starter kits, another one which you can use for the latest Umbraco version is the Local Gov starter kit
https://our.umbraco.org/projects/starter-kits/localgov-starter-kit/
Then you should see Umbraco CMS as a framework where you have full control over your HTML and CSS, so you can implement any designs in Umbraco that you want.
If you are after HTML templates that you can use the html5up is a good place to visit. https://html5up.net
If you want to get some inspiration for creating your own webdesign, then you could have a look at http://www.templatemonster.com
Since you are new to Umbraco CMS, I would also recommend you to have a look at Umbraco TV https://umbraco.tv/videos/umbraco-v7/ here you will find videos that shows the basic concepts of Umbraco CMS, some of the videos are free to watch and others requires that you are subscribing to the service.
On Umbraco TV you will also find a free video chapter about our cloud solution of Umbraco CMS, called Umbraco as a Service. https://umbraco.tv/videos/umbraco-as-a-service/getting-started-with-umbraco-as-a-service/
You can read more about Umbraco as a Service here, http://umbraco.com/cloud where you also can signup for a 14 days free trial on Umbraco as a Service.
Hope this helps,
/Dennis
Thanks for the reply!
I'm a simple nuts & bolts developer not a designer and I've previously learnt making a site look pretty actually takes a lot longer than me doing the coding which is why I leave it to others!
I want to be able to switch out of one theme if the client doesn't like it and not have to rewrite the entire markup to suit the CSS template!
BTW - The whole reason I've downloaded umbraco is to make it work for me not simply use it as a cloud-based service. If I wanted a cloud based service I would have gone for Wordpress which is far simpler to use and has over 20,000+ plugins and themes!
Hi Toppers,
From my experience with Umbraco so far, this is not the case. Umbraco isn't designed to be a "plug and play front end theme manipulator" in the same way that WordPress has been hacked around to be.
You need to make your themes work with your content and the two aren't completely independent as templates need to know what properties each document type has.
If you want to change your theme completely, then the odds are you have to change your templates (or add multiple templates) for each document type.
When you make your theme (or purchase it), you will always need to modify it to work with your content structure and document types because each website is different.
If you want that sort of behaviour, you're best bet is going to be to code several theme options that work with your document types so you can simply change the templates being used. Until you have that collection of themes, purchasing one "off the shelf" and throwing it in is, as far as I'm aware, unlikely to work.
I don't know if Umbraco will ever head towards the WordPress model, although personally, I don't think it should, but if it did it would most likely be due to community members building plugins that behave in that manner rather than the core direction changing. (I'm sure others have opinions on this).
Umbraco will, I'm afraid to say, require more customisation work than you are expecting I think.
As for your disappointment in the "peripheral support", feel free to create plugins, contribute to the community and the amount of options will grow over time. Yes there aren't as many plugins as there are for WordPress, however, it's community is much smaller (all be it growing all the time) and it takes time and dedication to get more and more of these options available. :-)
As I'm new to Umbraco, I'm not sure how hard it would be to maybe create a "standard" Master template with reserved key words for header, logo, company motto, description ,sub-description etc.
And then the designer can go mad and create a multiple of sites by simply changing the CSS as they do here: CSS Zen Garden ; This would encourage MORE people to take an interest in Umbracco as they would want to sell/support their CSS templates!
I'm also learning how to create and package modules as I want to be an active contributor to the progression of Umbraco but as the community grows we will need to create new standards (e.g. like simply naming all downloadable modules with 'umb' prefix so its easier to manage - if you're working with several frameworks!)
Hi Toppers,
Marc from uSkinned here. If you want to ask more questions about our themes, fire them over via our contact page and we will be happy to help.
uSkinned Contact
From what you are saying in your last post, our Source Template would be the ideal starting point for you. This theme is purposefully minimal to provide a blank canvas for you to add your own designs. All our themes are packed full of common features that you would expect from any website and give you a great starting point to learn and develop your Umbraco skills.
Cheers,
Marc
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