Introduction

 Explanation

 Comparison

 Demonstration

 Documentation

   Quick start
   Terminology
   Site organization
   Templates
   Content files
   Page definitions
   Preferences
   Other components
   Tips and tricks
   Release notes
   Known issues

 Downloads

 Community

Quick start

These are the general steps you'll go through in building a website with Contemplate. If you get stuck, click the headings for more detailed explanations of each step.

1. Download the software
   You can download the latest version of Contemplate, for PHP, ASP, or Perl, here.
   
   
2. Create the main folders for your site
   At the root level of your site, you'll need the following folders: contemplate (the folder you just downloaded), content, and templates.
   
   
3. Design your templates
   You can create templates using any HTML or text editor; just save them as HTML files in your templates folder.
   
   
4. Add embed tags to your templates
   Embed tags are similar to server-side include tags, and tell Contemplate where in the templates to place dynamic content. Here's an example (view the page source to see the embed tags).
   
   
5. Set up your content files
   The most common type of content files is an HTML file with separate pieces of content laid out in a large table. Here's an example.
   
   
6. Define your pages
   A page definition is a series of name/value pairs telling Contemplate which template and which pieces of content to merge together. For the greatest functionality and ease of maintenance, you can list all your page definitions in one shared text file. Here's an example.
   
   
7. Create links to your pages
   Once you have your page definitions, you can create links that call them up at runtime. The most common type of link looks like this: ../contemplate/assembler.php?page=home.