Adobe CS5 and Joomla Template Creation/Editing

[mlipscomb]

Yesterday @ 11AM CST (GMT-6) Adobe launched their world premier of the new CS5. It's scheduled to start shipping in May for all pre-orders.

If you missed the event, not to worry - you can watch it here: http://cs5launch.adobe.com/

Aside from really sweet "Content-aware Fill" in the beloved (or behated - depending on your current coffee levels) Photoshop, the Adobe creators have given us new integration in DreamWeaver for CMS (Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress) template creation.

They've also included an advanced "live preview" that makes calls to the database of the live (or staging) site to show what your real content will look like!

To me, this will be game changing.

Other comments?

[ranwilli]

I agree it COULD be game-changing... but I don't see it as important enough for me to spend the cash to upgrade my DW copy.

[mlipscomb]

All of Adobe's products are expensive. The one saving grace on cost is if you are a student (or I suppose have one in the family) you can get the full version of the Master Suite for a bit under $900.

[ranwilli]

That's about $880 MORE than it's worth to me.

[david3605]

Hi - I'm on the Dreamweaver team. There is a sample video from the lynda.com Dreamweaver CS5 course that shows some of the new CMS integration:

http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=59959

Once on this page, click the link: "Working with CMS frameworks". The instructor is using WordPress in the video, but the same functionality applies to Joomla.

- David

[Leftfield]

Aside from really sweet "Content-aware Fill"

Which GIMP had it for a looong time.

[izzy1]

Does anyone know if Dreamweaver CS5 can now be used to edit Joomla page content? Or is it only for templates?

It would be great to have Dreamweaver for editing Joomla pages with all the link functionality. Right now, I have to cut code out of the Joomla editor and paste into Dreamweaver to do basic page formatting. And then, cut the code back out of Dreamweaver and paste it back into Joomla and then add all the links.

We really need a high-powered editor like Dreamweaver for Joomla. If it can interface with the server for template and component development, can't Adobe figure out how to interface for page editing, too? Maybe they have?

[ranwilli]

Dreamweaver has always been able to edit page content indirectly (copy and paste from your Joomla editing interface), but it does not have an interface to edit Joomla database rows.

[mlipscomb]

The difference between CS5 and CS4 for Joomla sites is primarily the live preview (and some code snippets). Editing CSS files, etc in the template has become more intuitive since it pulls dynamically from the site's database. Editing content directly on the site through Dreamweaver is not an option.

It sounds like what you are seeking is more of an external blogging/writing tool. Windows Live Writer functions well for this, and allows source formatting.

[izzy1]

Thanks for your feedback on what Dreamweaver CS5 supports for Joomla.

What I really need is a Dreamweaver-like replacement for the Joomla editors (JCE, JoomlaCK, etc). I was hoping that CS5 would support that editor function for content, not just templates.

[ranwilli]

Thanks for your feedback on what Dreamweaver CS5 supports for Joomla.

What I really need is a Dreamweaver-like replacement for the Joomla editors (JCE, JoomlaCK, etc). I was hoping that CS5 would support that editor function for content, not just templates.

I don't mean this unkindly, but IMO, you really need to learn how to set up and use JCE or JCK...

Dreamweaver in essence is a plain text editor with a preview mode and an ftp client.

I cannot think of even 1 thing that Dreamweaver could do with your site content that those text editors, either of them, could not do as well or better.

[izzy1]

Here's a feature that would be the most helpful. Highlight the text in WYSYWYG, switch to code view and it drops you to the highlighted code. Instead, all the editors bring you at the top of the page for code and you have to try to find what you had highlighted in WYSYWYG.

Here's another feature. Click on the <p> tag in the lower left, have it highlight the content within that <p>, switch the <p> to a <div> and select the style. JCE doesn't do that. Have to go into code. Then I have to search for the code. Then, I have to fix the html by hand.

Here's another feature - search.

And another one -search and replace.

Here's another one -Highlight text, right click, add a tag.

Here's another one - code syntax correct function; especially for xhtml

[ranwilli]

Your point is taken, I was mistaken - Still The least I have to do with Dreamweaver, the better I like my life.

[izzy1]

I agree. There are good things and not so good things about all the editors. As long as we still have to type something, there's gonna' be work involved.

Thanks for your responses and for your help.

[werewolf2]

I am good in Joomla. I need to create my own template in Dreamweaver. But, I am not good enought in creating templates in Dreamweaver. Can anybody tell me where I can start, from where to start in order to make some interesting template for my website?

[Node-0]

@izzy

I'm curious, and your comments have attracted my attention.

Can you show me your site?
An example of content posted using this method?

Thanks!

-- Joe

[werewolf2]

I found some interesting templates for Joomla, but I need to do some changes on it. All I want to do on these templates is to change color of the background, and colors of the menus. Also, I need to know how to remove some pictures that go on together with templates. these days I found HTML codes who have some impacts on templates, but I still have my problem.

[BlackBulletIV]

I cannot think of even 1 thing that Dreamweaver could do with your site content that those text editors, either of them, could not do as well or better.

You obviously haven't used Dreamweaver a whole lot. Dreamweaver is crammed full of helpful stuff, it's handling of CSS is awesome (especially with the addition of a firebug like thing where you can hover over to see margins and padding and the ability to turn CSS options on and off in CS5), it has a tonne of code generation, FTP client, powerful WYSIWIG editor, site file manager, automatic link checker, and so on.

I don't use it as much now, as a lot of the time I just code in something like eclipse; but it's helped me so much in the past.

And on the actual topic, I do think that the new CMS support will be pretty cool (although I don't know the full details); not sure how much I'll use it though.

[ranwilli]

Actually, I use it all the time (an old version), but I do not use very much of it's capabilities.

[BlackBulletIV]

Oh, ok then. Don't think you have a very good life then, according to this statement:

Still The least I have to do with Dreamweaver, the better I like my life.

[ranwilli]

Sigh...

If you look at the earliest posts, this thread is about a guy who wants to use Dreamweaver as an editor for Joomla CONTENT, not for coding a template. To me, that wouldn't be any huge advantage. I have no real problem finding what to edit, or changing a <p> tagged object to <div>.

I use DW for template coding, and I could just as easily use JEdit, or Crimson Editor, or 100 others. DW is just handier because of the built-in ftp client.

It's biggest plus (the ftp client) is ALSO its largest drawback, because it simply isn't reliable (probably because ftp is not as reliable as it should be). I never use DW to transfer an installation set or an upgrade patch because it often skips files.

I use a variety of tools when building or modifying Joomla sites. I suspect most Joomla developers do.

The only reason I got involved in this conversation is to emphasize the fact that a new Joomla developer shouldn't get the impression that he or she must use Dreamweaver in order to "Joomla" successfully. It just isn't so.

[BlackBulletIV]

I agree with all that. If it's about Joomla content then, shouldn't I use Joomla?

If that is the point you're making, then good, because that is the truth. I'm just trying to make sure that people also don't get the impression that Dreamweaver is a load of rubbish that costs a fortune.

[ranwilli]

So I will willingly grant that it is not a "load of rubbish", however I do think it costs too much... defined in this way:

I would probably upgrade from my tired old version, and might even be coerced into learning some new features IF I could get the upgrade for $50 or so...

My current version (MX2004) doesn't qualify me for an upgrade, so my cost would be $399.

By my reckoning, it costs a fortune.

[BlackBulletIV]

If you don't use a lot of it's features then of course it would "cost of fortune", because you would be paying for something, and only using half (maybe less, maybe more) of what you paid for.

[peskyhuman]

I agree with all that. If it's about Joomla content then, shouldn't I use Joomla?

If that is the point you're making, then good, because that is the truth. I'm just trying to make sure that people also don't get the impression that Dreamweaver is a load of rubbish that costs a fortune.

I use Dreamweaver heaps - it is not rubbish - but it does cost a fortune!

[BlackBulletIV]

Actually looking at the current price, I'm not sure whether a fortune would be correct; but I do agree it does cost a lot.

P.S. Just as a note, hopefully you didn't read the last bit of my message and get the impression that I think that Dreamweaver is rubbish; I was saying that it wasn't that.

[forumtr]

Adobe is usually expensive but pays it costs in time. I like to use cs5 it's more pratic than early versions to me.

[BlackBulletIV]

Yeah that's right. Hopefully soon I can CS5 myself.

[hamsel]

First of all, if you want to do a quick / slick job creating Joomla templates, use Artisteer. You might end up with a template meeting your requirements to the point.

If you don't (and have proff ambitions and/or the needed portion of the Fort Knox content), then use Dreamweaver from Adobe CS5 to refine your design.

Have a look at http://foreveryone.dk - the template was built from the ground with Artisteer, and then with the excellent help from CS5's LiveView I fiddled around with backgrounds, menu item backgrounds, hoover/visited/active attributes etc.

I would say that Dreamweaver in its CS5 reincarnation has moved from a CMS nuiseance at best to an excellent way of getting and keeping an overview as well as an easy way to find the right spots in the CSS files - in LiveView you <alt>click somewhere on the live site, and, voila, you've got a list of all the CSS statements applying to that section of the screen. In that view, by clicking on the CSS statement you want to change, the actual file is automagically brought up in a split screen mode, pointing the text cursor at the exact spot in the CSS file. Really cool.

(And, no, I do not get paid by Adobe, nor by any Adobe associates, for writing this... )

Response to the original thread: Dreamweaver will do you no good as a content editor. Joomla content is stored in a MySQL database, so if you want to bypass Joomla's excellent content editor, you will need to operate via a MySQL Query Browser. But be careful - you might very well end up destroying the article ID structure if you try to create new content (equals new rows in the jos_content table), if you don't know exactly what you are doing.

If you don't like Joomla's editor (tinyMCE is too tiny for me...), then get and install another from Joomla.org. My favourite is JCE, but there are many different out there - I'm sure there's also one that fits your taste and needs.

/Per Hertz

[ronwessels]

Well, I tride to use Joomla in DW cs5. It works okay at the localhost. I can play whith css et cetera. Live view as well. But not on the externel server. On the other hand, Drupal en Wordpress are working very well on the externel server. I can play with css et cetera. Both are to see in the live view mode.

My question is: is joomla (1.5) working differently than Drupal and Wordpress?