PageSprout Documentation

Introduction

This is the documentation for PageSprout.

Because PageSprout was developed in a production environment, it was designed to be used by developers simply and quickly but allowing simplicity for end users.

The goal of this document is to give you enough technical specifics to understand how to get PageSprout up and running. It is not designed to be a complete technical document, but we have that too!

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Installing

1. Before installing the CMS, install:
   • Ruby 1.8
   • Rails 2.2.2
   • OpenSSL - Depends on your system, e.g.: on Debian Linux: apt-get install libopenssl-ruby1.8
   • The ferret gem - rake gems:install
   • Depending on your choice of database:
     • MySQL - gem install mysql
     • SQLite - gem install sqlite3-ruby
     • PostgreSQL (untested) - gem install postgres
2. Download Pagesprout from http://pagesprout.com
3. Extract all the folders and files to the location you wish to host the CMS (e.g.: /var/www/mysite/).
   A typical installation will look like this:
   (Note: Not all files are shown here, just important ones)
   • app
   • config
     • initializers
       • mail.rb.sample
     • database.yml.sample
     • config.yml.sample
     • environment.rb
   • db
   • doc
   • lib
   • log
   • public
     • themes
   • script
   • test
   • vendor
   • LICENCE
   • README
4. Configure the CMS for your preferences by copying these files to these locations then modifying them as required:
   • config/config.yml.sample - config/config.yml
   • config/database.yml.sample - config/database.yml
   • config/initializers/mail.rb.sample - config/initializers/mail.rb
5. Uncomment the first line in config/environment.rb:
   • # ENV['RAILS_ENV'] ||= 'production'
6. Create the database by running these from the command line:
   • rake db:create RAILS_ENV=production
   • rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production
7. Run the CMS from whatever Rails server setup you use.
   On a development machine, Mongrel is a good starting server.
8. For development, the database will be different to the production one. There is a plugin created that allows dumping the development database to the production one: DatabaseMigrate.

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Using

Quick Start

• Create a new user. The first user will be the site admin.
• Create new pages and blogs via the menus.
• For new themes, please visit: "http://pagesprout.com":http://pagesprout.com
• For information on how to create a custom theme, please visit: "http://style.pagesprout.com":http://style.pagesprout.com
• To add a CAPTCHA to your contact page, please:
• Sign up at "http://recaptcha.net":http://recaptcha.net
• Add your Public and Private API keys to the config/config.yml file.

First Use

• When the CMS is installed, there will be no users created. This is a quick and easy way of stopping unsecure pagesprout installs with a default admin user and the default password.
• The first page that is created will be the home page. This cannot be changed until another page is added.
• The Contact Us page and the Search box can be enabled or disabled in the config/config.yml file
• To add a CAPTCHA to the Contact Page to stop Spam emails, sign up at http://recaptcha.net and then add your Public and Private API keys to the config/config.yml file.

Pages

• If there is only one page created then it will be the home page.
  The built-in home page cannot be changed by the users, but it will not be displayed if there is another home page set.
• Title - The title of the page. Displays in the browser header and at the top of the page.
• Body - The content of the page. Currently accepts basic HTML tags, such as <p> <u> <b>.
• Link - Where the page is located, e.g.: http://yoursite.com/pages/newpage
• Home page - Set this if the page will be the home page.
• Enabled - Unset this if the page you are working on is not to be seen by visitors to your site.
  Note: Admin users can still view pages that are not enabled.

Blogs

• Title - The title of the blog. Displays in the browser header and at the top of the blog.
• Description - What the blog is about.
• Link - Where the blog is located, e.g.: http://yoursite.com/blogs/newblog
• Enabled - Unset this if the blog (and all its posts) you are working on is not to be seen by visitors to your site.
  Note: Admin users can still view blogs that are not enabled.

Posts

• Title - The title of the post. Displays in the browser header, in the blog and at the top of the post.
• Body - The content of the post. Also accepts basic HTML tags.
• Enabled - Unset this if the post you are working on is not to be seen by visitors to your site.
  Note: Admin users can still view posts that are not enabled.
• The link for the post is automatically generated to keep it simple for the user.
  The format for the link is: YYYY-MM-DD-title-with-dashes
  The page will be accessible at: http://yoursite.com/blogs/newblog/posts/YYYY-MM-DD-title-with-dashes

Themes

• For information on how to create a custom theme, please visit the PageSprout Style Guides

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