[TYPO3-UG Australia] Newbie question - How do you start with Typo3 4.0?

[Steve Atkins]

Hi Tyler

Thank you for your welcome and your detailed post.

We also develop complex software and so I am aware of the potential
learning curve and of ways to ease the pain. My business partner and I
developed a proprietary integrated relational database and language
product for Unix and dumb terminals which we first released in 1983.
Over the years it has had its small but dedicated following and it
morphed into a web scripting language in the early 1990s. As part of our
full service operation which is centered around designing, developing
and hosting Unix and Windows business applications for the Net, we still
extensively use and still occasionally license our product even with the
competition from open source.

One of the reasons we were able to build a successful business on the
back of this product is that it came with an incomplete but useful
example of a general ledger system. Another reason is that it came with
a source code generator for file maintenance applications. These
showcased what we saw at the time as best practice. The .Net product
'IronSpeed Designer' is an example of how you can make money out of
generators that are based on design patterns.

Over the years you could see where users had rapidly turned our example
into vertical market product at minimum cost. Speed to market is very
important, especially for small businesses.

I have a dedicated Debian Linux 'sandbox' machine that I have setup for
just the purpose of coming to grips with Typo3. I have Typo3 4.0
installed and I have tried installing the quickstart package a number of
ways. Ingmar Schlect has kindly replied in another post and I will try
that route this morning.

It has been my experience over many years that you need to look at a
complex piece of software from a number of points of view. Starting from
first principles is one view and I will certainly take your advice but I
need to see how others have approached the product as well. I need to
see 'patterns'.

I need to compress the time it takes to train new developers in any
technology. We have 15 developers on staff and the money just flies out
of the window if they are unproductive.

Thanks again for your advice. I will take heed.

Regards
Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Tyler Kraft [mailto:headhunterxiii at yahoo.ca] 
Sent: Tuesday, 1 August 2006 5:55 PM
To: typo3-ug-australia at lists.netfielders.de
Subject: Re: [TYPO3-UG Australia] Newbie question - How do you start
with Typo3 4.0?

Hi, Welcome to typo3!

Well you've already done the hard part - lots of reading. Now be 
prepared to be truely lost for a while as you start to get 'going'
going.

Perhaps start with the basics of a good page - good html and css. I know

that seems like common sense but you will not beleieve the number of 
time we hear - "it looks different to and typo3 is messing up my 
design". Please realise that typo3 is simply a mechanism, albiet a 
complex mechenism, but still just a mechanism to output html - nothing 
more nothing less.

After that then set out a list of all the little step by step things you

want to do to integrate that page into typo3 (replace this div with a 
left hand menu, replace this div with a bread crumb menu, replace this 
part with the page content.)

Then install a copy of typo3 to play with (a local WAMP install is dead 
easy onto a laptop, as is a LAMP install for a test drive).

Next download and have a copy of TSref at hand - this is your new 
bible!!! Don't leave home without it so to speak - the mailing lists 
will always tell you to research and look in tsref (as a newbie we all 
understand that this learning process hard because we've been there, but

some questions are so commonly asked that they will get ignored or a 
cold reply of "read tsref and search the lists!")

Then simply down load and have a look at the different templating 
methods - I prefer the modern template building route, but many others 
prefer the futuristic template building method. Try both, it will only 
help you to learn. (Also look at documents listed below)

Then once you've done those and feel comfortable that you kind of know 
what's happening at each stage, just repeat the process for your own 
html. And when it all feels frustrating and tiring,a s invariably it 
will, realise that it is worth it. Once the basics are in place it will 
only take you about an hour or two (sometimes a day) to have a 
semi-complex site up and running from html to nearly finished product.

hth and good luck ;-)

Tyler

Additional reading:
First and foremost is the mailing lists
Then tsconfig - help you set up the cms and users for your site editors
TSbyExample - old and seems a bit cluncky but you will still gain 
invaluable understanding through it
typoscript syntax an in-depth study - good background




Steve Atkins wrote:
> Hi,
>  
> I run a software development company in Sydney and we have a
requirement
> to come to grips with Typo3. 
>  
> I have trawled the Net and read a good deal of the documentaion.
>  
> The general advice is to start with 'Getting Started' and the
quickstart
> package. The problem is that this package is no longer available in
> release 4.0 and the tutorial is dated 2003.
>  
> There has been an attempt to make quickstart available as an extension
> loaded through the extension manager. I tried this approach and failed
> as the mininews extension failed to load. This is a known problem and
> has seen no action since April.
>  
> So, where do I start? I don't mind putting in the hard yards but I
don't
> like to waste time.
>  
> Steve
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