Shoestring CMS Technical Manual

Introduction     Installation and Configuration     Basic Usage     Troubleshooting    

1 Introduction
1.1 The Shoestring CMS Philosophy
1.1.1 Historical Context
1.1.2 The Shoestring Niche
1.1.3 Shoestring Licensing
1.2 Shoestring Features
1.2.1 Friendly, Forms-Based Interface
1.2.2 Three Types of Elements
1.2.3 Static and Dynamic Rendering
1.2.4 Templating
1.2.5 CSS Stylesheet Support
1.2.6 Optional HTML Tag Support
1.2.7 Easy Installation on Almost Any ISP
1.2.8 Application and Script Security
1.2.9 A Demo Site
1.3 What's Not Included
1.3.1 Relational Database Support
1.3.2 Workflow
1.4 System Requirements
1.5 Contacting Shoestring
2 Installation and Configuration
2.1 Manifest
2.1.1 Standard Perl Modules Required
2.1.2 Shoestring Application Files
2.1.2.1 Configuration Files
2.1.2.2 Core Scripts
2.1.2.3 Support Modules
2.1.2.4 Templates
2.1.2.4.1 System Templates
2.1.2.4.2 Editing Templates
2.1.2.4.3 User Templates
2.1.2.5 Runtime Files
2.1.2.6 Utility Scripts
2.1.2.7 Image Files
2.1.3 Document Files
2.1.3.1 Shoestring Manual
2.1.3.2 Miscellaneous
2.1.4 Shoestring Demo
2.1.4.1 Data Files
2.1.4.2 Template Files
2.1.4.3 Stylesheets
2.1.4.4 Documents
2.1.5 Expression Parser
2.2 Installing the Files
2.3 Configuring the Application
2.3.1 Set the permissions
2.3.2 Change the Perl path
2.3.3 Change the "use lib" path
2.3.4 Configure Constants.pm
2.3.4.1 Path Settings
2.3.4.2 Security Settings
2.3.4.3 Miscellaneous
2.3.5 Decide if you want to keep the demo
2.4 Configuring Security
2.4.1 Set the Administrative Password
2.4.2 Fine-Tuning Authorizations
2.4.2.1 Usernames and Passwords
2.4.2.2 Privileges
3 Basic Usage
3.1 Creating Elements
3.1.1 Text Elements
3.1.2 Table Elements
3.1.2.1 Table Metadata
3.1.2.1.1 Field Names
3.1.2.1.2 Table Information
3.1.2.1.3 Field Description
3.1.2.1.4 Field Types
3.1.2.1.5 Field Presentational Descriptors
3.1.3 Page Elements
3.1.4 Template Elements
3.2 Rendering Elements
3.2.1 Static vs. Dynamic Rendering
3.2.1.2 When to Use Each
3.2.2 Using and Creating Templates
3.2.2.1 HTML::Template Tags
3.2.2.2 HTML::Template Variables
3.2.2.2.1 Text Elements
3.2.2.2.2 Table and Page Elements
3.2.2.2.2.1 Categorizing
3.2.2.3 Multiple Elements per Page
3.2.3 Rendering Parameters
3.2.3.1 Basic Parameters
3.2.3.2 Sorting
3.2.3.3 Filtering
3.2.3.4 Categorizing
3.2.3.5 Randomness
3.2.3.6 Records per Row
3.2.4 Static Rendering
3.2.5 Dynamic Rendering
3.3 Editing Elements
3.3.1 The Login Screen
3.3.2 Editing Links
3.3.3 Logging Out
3.4 Putting it All Together
4 Troubleshooting
4.1 Server Output Errors
4.2 Cannot Open Lock File or Page to Rewrite
4.3 Someone Else is Already Editing This File
4.5 Table Data is Not Sorting Correctly
4.6 Table Data is Not Filtering Correctly
4.7 My Text Edit Box has P Tags Around It
4.8 Using the CSV Table Template, the Last Row Has No Commas
4.9 Cut/Copy Icons are Not Showing Up on the Full Table Editor
4.10 Other Random Problems