Quick start
Terminology
Site organization
Templates
Content files
Page definitions
Preferences
Other components
Tips and tricks
Release notes
Known issues
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Latest release Contemplate 1.2.3 |
Other components
The heart of Contemplate is the Assembler script, which merges content into templates to create finished HTML pages. However, the Contemplate package includes a few supporting utilities that are worth getting to know. You can access these by browsing to the contemplate directory of your website, where you should see this page:
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We recommend limiting access to these utilities by password-protecting each component's directory after adding the Contemplate scripts to your website. The default Contemplate installation includes generic htaccess and htpasswd files to get this started on Apache systems.
You can disable any of these components for your site by opening the contemplate/data/index_settings.js file and removing values from the components_enabled variable.
Formulator
For many site editors, the process of defining and modifying page definitions can be daunting. The Formulator is a visual editor for the page definitions file that site editors can use rather than working in the file directly. The Formulator offers four options -- build a new page from scratch, build a new page based on an existing page, edit an existing page, or delete an existing page -- then leads editors through the process of selecting which pieces of content to display in the place of each embed tag in the template. At the end of the process, the Formulator shows which URLs the editor can use to browse to the new page. Note that the Formulator doesn't have the capability to edit content, merely to place content into templates to create page definitions.
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Flattener
If you want to build a site using Contemplate but need to deliver it in an environment where server-side scripting is not available (such as on a very basic web server or on a CD-ROM), you can develop your site, then "flatten" it. The Flattener component reads your page definitions file and creates a static HTML file for each page listed there. In the process, it edits all the links in your site to point to the flattened versions of your pages, so the only link you'll need to change is the link from your home page to your first Contemplate page.
The first option on the Flattener page flattens your entire site, placing the static HTML files into a top-level folder called flattened. If you've already flattened your site and need to re-flatten just a subset of pages, you can save time by only flattening files whose names match or don't match a given string. If you want to see how your flattened pages will look before actually flattening them, you can use the Preview option to display all pages in their flattened form in a single window. The Preview option also makes a nice troubleshooting tool, since it can give you a quick look at every page of your site.
The second option lets you choose a particular input file and output name and flatten that file only; this is useful for making a version of your home page that links to the flattened versions of your Contemplate pages.
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Reporter
Most web hosts provide some kind of statistics package for their websites, but many are difficult for the average person to read, and some may not distinguish between requests like assembler.php?page=one_page and assembler.php?page=another_page. Contemplate addresses both of these problems with its built-in statistics component called the Reporter. If you turn on the log site traffic preference in your preferences.ini file, Contemplate will keep log files of your site traffic that you can read with the Reporter. This provides a simple, clear view of your site traffic, including readable page names (one_page and another_page) and errors encountered by Contemplate while assembling pages for your visitors.
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