Some questions from a ROR newby

Ruby Apps Radiant CMS
1

Dear all

first of all let me apologize if the questions contained in this email
are
in anyway FAQ or stupid
ones … I’m programming in Ruby from a long time (at least 5 years), but
I’m completely new to ROR
applications and to CMS in general …

I’m writing because I’m going to work on the web site of my software
startup (www.datamind.biz) and
after evaluating lots of different possibilities, I’ve decided to do it
with a CMS … I’ve tried some
popular CMS around on my BlueHost domain, but after a while I’ve
realized
that none was really suited
for my needs; the web site I need to do is a simple corporate site, with
no more than 10-12 pages (
the usual About Us, Contact Us, Our Services, Our Products and so on)
that
are almost static and some
contents (like news, job positions, porfolio and use cases) that need to
change or be added from while
to while … but I don’t need a community site or a portal, with users,
comments, blogs and so on …

So, after a while I’ve started to think to move towards Ruby; it is a
language that I know very well,
and althought I don’t work on web applications, the rumors on ROR has
arrived to me too … after a short
google research I’ve finally arrived to Radiant CMS and I think I’ve
just
found exactly what I need …

I’ve managed to install it (well, sort of) on my site domain for some
experimenting, and after few hours
I’ve been able to get the feeling for it … but I have some questions
(here it is why I’m writing here)

  1. is there any way to do a site backup? maybe on the mysql side (I’m
    using mysql since BlueHost is
    giving it)? From what I’ve understood reading this mailing list a
    sort
    of versioning system is on
    the way for Radiant, but I would like what you guru are doing at
    the
    moment to be sure your site
    is not delete by a mistake forever (sorry for the probably stupid
    question … I’m not an expert of
    DB and MySql … maybe is trivial to make a MySql db backup
    periodically) …

  2. is there anyway to change the pages tree structure? I mean, suppose
    I’ve just done a page A
    and a child page B … can I later move the page B in another
    position
    of the tree? Or do I need
    it by hands by copying the page content and parts in a new one in
    the
    right position?

  3. I’ve seen that there is a behavior for supporting multilingual site
    …
    is this working on a full
    hierarchy base (i.e. I need to do two pages trees, one for italian
    and
    one for english) or
    it can be used also at a page level (i.e. I can do on the same page
    the
    two translations, maybe
    using different component of the page)? Anyone has some experience
    to
    share about the use of
    Radiant on a multilingual site?

Ok … at the moment these are my main questions on the possible use of
Radiant for my site … let me again
apologize if these are trivial and let me say thanks to Radiant creators
and contributors, I’m just
at the start of this new travel in the CMS and ROR world and I’ve
already
had lots of fun … thanks! :slight_smile:

Riccardo

2

On 9/2/06, Riccardo G. [email protected]
wrote:

  1. is there any way to do a site backup? maybe on the mysql side (I’m
    using mysql since BlueHost is
    giving it)? From what I’ve understood reading this mailing list a sort
    of versioning system is on
    the way for Radiant, but I would like what you guru are doing at the
    moment to be sure your site
    is not delete by a mistake forever (sorry for the probably stupid
    question … I’m not an expert of
    DB and MySql … maybe is trivial to make a MySql db backup
    periodically) …

All content managed by Radiant is stored in the database, so by
backing up your MySql you should be OK. I addition though, you have to
save all resources you may have copied in the /public/ directory and
subdirectories (images, stylesheets, scripts, etc.). Then you have to
remember that if you added certain behaviors to the system, better you
have a copy of them too to reinstall in the new restored location. The
same goes for the plugin you may have installed: don’t forget to
reinstall them so keep a copy of them just in case.

  1. is there anyway to change the pages tree structure? I mean, suppose
    I’ve just done a page A
    and a child page B … can I later move the page B in another position
    of the tree? Or do I need
    it by hands by copying the page content and parts in a new one in the
    right position?

As far as I know, no. But there are several posts on the list about
“reparenting” posts and probably some patch has been developed: give
them a look.

  1. I’ve seen that there is a behavior for supporting multilingual site …
    is this working on a full
    hierarchy base (i.e. I need to do two pages trees, one for italian and
    one for english) or
    it can be used also at a page level (i.e. I can do on the same page the
    two translations, maybe
    using different component of the page)? Anyone has some experience to
    share about the use of
    Radiant on a multilingual site?

In my experience, so far the best way to go for a multilingual site is
to have two or more separate trees of posts (/en/, /it/, etc.). On the
wiki (http://radiantcms.org) there are some hints with regard to this
subject.

–M