Pligg CMS Blog

October 19, 2009 | 12 Comments »

Free Pligg Template Contest Voting

Our contest for best free Pligg template has been closed to new entrants and now we need some user input on what you think is the best free template for Pligg CMS. We’ve compiled a list of 16 of the most popular templates that are compatible with Pligg 1.0.0 or above and we would appreciate it if you took a moment to vote for your favorite. If you are unfamiliar with all of the great templates, click on a link for each of the poll options to visit each template’s download page. The download thread on the Pligg Forums will usually contain a screenshot or link to a demo.

Favorite Pligg Template?

Total Voters: 198

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We will be using the poll results as part of the criteria in selecting the winners of the template design contest. Seven of the sixteen templates are not eligible for winning this contest because the authors are Pligg developers who will be judging the entries. Voting will remain open until Sunday, November 1. Make sure that you cast your vote before Halloween is over. If you are an author of one of these templates you will receive an email shortly with a $20 Pligg Pro gift certificate as an entry prize.

October 11, 2009 | Comments Off

Template Deadline Extended

The original deadline for the template design contest was this evening, but I’ve decided to extend the contest to October 19. This gives users 8 additional days to either begin their template or bug test and improve existing submissions. If you haven’t yet voted for Pligg, please vote for us as the Most Promising CMS in the CMS Awards competition. It only takes a few seconds to cast a vote and we really appreciate your support.

October 5, 2009 | Comments Off

How To Design a Pligg Template

In today’s post I will be teaching you the basics for designing a Pligg template. I’ve designed about a dozen Pligg templates so far, and through those experiences I have compiled some quick tips for beginners wanting to create their first Pligg template. Before I dive into the details let me first mention that there is some existing documentation about Template Structure and Template files, which can be read on the Pligg Wiki. This article is a primer for Pligg template designers, and is by no means a good reference for advanced template techniques.

Javascript, CSS and PHP in .tpl Files

Pligg uses a variation of the Smarty template engine, called Template Lite. Smarty code requires special markup when you want to use Javascript, CSS or PHP code in your .tpl files. For Javascript and CSS you will need to begin the code with a {literal} tag and end it with {/literal} tags. For PHP code, you will need to replace the < ?php opening tags with {php} and the ?> closing tag with {/php}. Examples are provided below to demonstrate each of these languages being used in a Pligg .tpl file.

Javascript Example

{literal}
<script type="text/javascript">
document.write("Hello World!");
</script>
{/literal}

A large number of new threads being created on the forums are by users who attempt to add javascript to their templates without knowing that they should use {literal} tags. If you have added javascript to a .tpl file and you see an error beginning with “Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘{‘ ” you more than likely forgot to wrap the javascript with {literal} tags.

CSS Example

{literal}
<style type="text/css">
.example {font-weight:bold;}
</style>
{/literal}

Beginners often overlook CSS files as a good first step for changing the style of your site. Many design projects could probably be completed by only editing the stylesheet file(s). I highly suggest that users start out modifying a Pligg template by tweaking the stylesheet file.

PHP Example

{php}
echo 'Hello World!";
{/php}

You can see more examples of using PHP in .tpl files in the Wiki article “PHP in Template Files“. I will occasionally write entire features into Pligg template files by using {php} tags, which should only be done for very simple {php} code, or when you don’t have time to create a module.

The Top 5 Template Files

Most people who begin a Pligg template without any previous experience will probably feel a little intimidated by the number of .tpl files that Pligg uses. There are roughly 40 files to work with in the stock Pligg template(s). These files control every small detail that a designer might want to take advantage of, but don’t feel like you need to edit all of the files to achieve a unique looking template. You could probably customize just 5 template files and in no time at all your site will look radically different.

1. Pligg.tpl

This template is the main “wrapper” for all other templates. It controls the main layout for the site and includes most of the data located in the of the document. After you’ve finished changing your CSS the pligg.tpl file is the first template file that you should open up and explore.

2. Header.tpl

This template is usually used for navigation for the upcoming, published and submit pages. It is also used commonly to wrap the category, breadcrumb and search box.

3. Sidebar.tpl (and sidebar2.tpl)

As you can guess by the name, these two files are typically used for the sidebar content. It is divided up into two files should you want to have 2 sidebars or use the second sidebar in a more creative position like just before your footer. The sidebar will contain “sidebar widgets” which is what we call things like the “Top Today” or “Latest Comments” modules.

4. Footer.tpl

As you may have guessed by the name, footer.tpl controls the footer content on your website. This is normally used for credits, contact information and site links.

5. Link_summary.tpl

Last, but certainly not least is probably the most misunderstood template file for Pligg. Link_summary.tpl is responsible for styling the story data used by Pligg wherever the story appears. This includes the story data used on the story page, profile page, group page, upcoming page, or third submission step page. It holds the vote number and links, admin tools, story title, story description and a lot of other items. This is probably the most complicated template file to understand because there are so many features in it, but if you take ten minutes to carefully read the code you probably won’t struggle to pick up on how the template is laid out. Because this file deserves it’s own article I will not dive into every detail for this file, but I will emphasize the important features.

Read the rest of this entry »

September 28, 2009 | Comments Off

Arthemia Template and Featured Module

I wanted to demonstrate how quickly templates/themes from other CMSs could be converted to Pligg, so Friday afternoon I began work converting the WordPress theme Arthemia into Pligg. Since WordPress is probably the most widely used CMS it seemed like a perfect candidate to show off how easy making templates for Pligg can be. After about 24 hours I ended up with not only a new template for Pligg, but also a module to go with it.
The Featured module was based on CMStheme’s “Featurify” module. The original module was designed to have admins upload images to rotate through as a slideshow on a Pligg site. The images were linked to related stories and would display the story title and description as stored in the database. The module had a lot of features that were close to what I was looking for, so after a lot of hacking I got it to work as more of a featured story management tool than slideshow tool. View the embedded video above for a quick demonstration of both the module and template. Read the rest of this entry »

September 21, 2009 | Comments Off

Vote “Pligg” for Most Promising Open Source CMS

Pligg has made it to the final stages of voting for this year’s “Most Promising Open Source CMS” award. We are asking users to vote one last time for Pligg so that we can win both a cash and bragging rights from this year’s CMS Awards competition. There are a total of 5 candidates in the Most Promising category list including:

  • ImpressCMS
  • Manhali
  • Pixie
  • Pligg
  • Redaxscript

September 18, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Status Update Module Beta Testing

Today we’ve added the new Status Update module to the Pligg Design Gallery to give users a chance to try it out. You can check it out by viewing your own profile page or by checking out my profile. Even better you can add me as your friend to see all of my updates. If you would like to learn about all of the features that the module has to offer and see what the admin panel settings page is like check out the Preview video on our previous blog post. While you’re testing out the new feature we would appreciate it if you reported any bugs that you might come across to the Pligg Forum. We’ve temporarily disabled the email feature that will send you an email when a friend mentions your username, but that’s a feature that you can expect in the final version.

September 10, 2009 | 6 Comments »

Preview: Status Update Module

Today we are publicly announcing a Pligg Module called “Status Update”. This module is currently still in the development and testing stage, but isn’t far off from completion and I think that this is a great time to share with everyone what this new tool will add to your Pligg website. The new module is designed to add “micro-blogging” to your Pligg powered website, similar to how Twitter and Facebook allow you to submit brief messages that display on friend’s profiles. I prepared a video to demonstrate some of the capabilities of the module, which you can view below. The video was produced a couple weeks ago, so it does not present the full capabilities and features that will be present in the final version.
Status Update Version 0.1a Preview Screencast
This module is already the most advanced Pligg module to date and will add a new level of user interaction to your Pligg site.The Status Update module is still being tested and will not be available for public release until early October 2009. It will be a premium module sold through the Pligg Pro shop, and will retail at a small price to allow us to recuperate some development costs associated with creating the module. Read the rest of this entry »

September 4, 2009 | 5 Comments »

Design a Template, Win Cash Prizes!

Want to show off your design skills and at the same time win some money? Have I got a contest for you! The Template Design Competition gives theme developers a chance to earn up to $300 for designing a Pligg template. Now’s a great time to try designing your first Pligg template, or for experienced developers to brush up on their skills. Users have until October 11 to submit a template, so get to work or tell a friend about the contest.

Prizes

First Place: $300 USD, to be paid through Paypal. Second Place: $100 USD, to be paid through Paypal. Third Place: $50 Pligg Pro gift certificate that can be used to purchase any item(s) from the Pligg Pro shop.

To show our appreciation to all those who contribute a unique and well designed template, we will be giving away a $20 Pligg Pro gift certificate to all qualified template authors.

Rules

To be clear about what we are looking for here is a list of rules, regulations and judgment criteria that will be used to determine the winner of this competition. See the bold items for the most important information.
  • Open Source The source code for the template must not be encrypted and should be licensed under an appropriate open source license. You may license the work under the GPL license, MIT License, a Creative Commons variation, or similar so long as it allows for commercial use and modifications.
  • Pligg 1.0.0 Compatible The template must be designed to work with Pligg 1.0.0 or above.
  • Posting Your Template All templates should be uploaded to the Free Templates forum. Please start a new thread and attach the template files, a screenshot (when possible), and a description of your template. All new threads to that forum are currently being manually reviewed before appearing, so you may have to wait a few hours before others will see your template.
  • Competition End This competition will end October 10, 2009 at 11:59 pm EST.
  • You can re-use templates, CSS, Javascript, etc. from other sources as long as you comply with the source license. For example you can port a WordPress theme to Pligg as long as the WordPress theme is licensed to allow you to modify and re-purpose it.
  • No copyright infringement. Please make sure that all elements strictly adhere to international copyright law. If you are struggling to find images to use try the Flickr Creative Commons search feature or open source image galleries like stock.xchng.
  • Each template should include a link to Pligg.com. You may change the text used to link to Pligg, but we recommend using “Pligg CMS” or “Pligg Content Management System”.
  • No advertisements should be contained in the template.
  • Keep it kid-friendly and “safe for work”.

Judging Method

The top 3 sites will be selected by a simple general vote by the members of Pligg LLC. The second round of voting will consist of a point system to determine the quality, originality, and overall design. These three criteria will be equally weighed in the voting process and each will have a possible value of 10. A perfect template would result in a total score of 30.
Looking for inspiration? Check out the Pligg Design Gallery for examples of what others are doing with Pligg.

The Fine Print

This contest will be judged by the employees of Pligg LLC and announced in a timely manner. Winners must be able to accept Paypal payments in order to receive their prize money. You must have a Pligg.com account to be eligible to win. Employees of Pligg LLC and hired freelancers hired by Pligg LLC are not eligible to be nominated for this contest. By submitting a template you are agreeing to license your work under an open source license as outlined in the post above. If you do not choose a license for your work, by submitting a template to Pligg.com you are allowing Pligg LLC to select an open source license on your behalf. Templates submitted after October 11, 2009 at 12:00 am EST will not be eligible for this contest. The rules, judging criteria, and other items from this blog entry may be adapted, edited or removed without notice.


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