Setting Homepage

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Hi,
Wow, C5 is very nice! To try it out I changed the site template, which is my fave quick method of testing a system. Done in less then 1/2 hour, excellent! Now that I'm getting around well, adding content, etc., time for my first silly question, and yes, I read docs and did a search first...

Other systems I use allow you to set a page as the homepage. It wasn't really clear how to do that in C5. The default install has a stock page as "home", and I thought I would exclude it from the Nav. That worked fine, but it's still my homepage.

Can you please describe how a page is designated as the homepage?

Thanks,
Awesome job on the script!

 
frz replied on at Permalink Reply
frz
well - there's a lot of ways to answer that.

everything in c5 is a hierarchy, so basically, whatever is at top is the home - in your sitemap

in reality though, that depends on your theme. everything you present your site visitor is completely dependent on your theme - so you could design a theme that used the autonav starting a level or more deep in the c5 site structure.
flamenco replied on at Permalink Reply
Thanks for the reply, frz. I think I see how it works now. There's a fixed Home Page in the system, and you must change its content; you can't assign other site pages to be "home" (which is a feature of the other systems I use).

At least that's how it appears to be working. In my experiments, I also tried moving other pages above the home page, and though it seemed to be allowing that in the Ajax prompt, it didn't work.

So on to the next problem. Now that I have my homepage reading the way I want it to, I can't get it to show up in my Nav even though it's not marked to be hidden. I wonder if this is by design. Weird.
frz replied on at Permalink Reply
frz
what do you mean exactly by "home"??
just that the site name links to it?

-frz
flamenco replied on at Permalink Reply
I'm referring to the Auto Nav. The pages I add to the site show up in the Auto Nav just fine.

I look at the Sitemap, and at the very top is "Home Page". I edited this page so that it shows what I wanted. But this page does not show up in my Auto Nav menu.

I was thinking that maybe this is by design; some sites don't bother to have a home link. But many sites I'm asked to build do require a home link, and I'm just wondering how to do it, or if it's possible.

I know this sounds odd, and you're probably annoyed. Maybe between the various page changes I made, something is messed up. I may just try a total reinstall, as much as I dislike the idea.

Any info appreciated. Thanks.
frz replied on at Permalink Reply
frz
not annoyed at all - i get what you're saying i just have seen in other threads people basically just turn off the exclude from nav on home and it shows up.

i can tell you there's no fundamental design keeping it out.. . its a page in the tree and that autonav block displays pages in the tree from whatever starting point you want down...

don't uninstall locally as that sounds like a pain in the ass

just setup a free demo at:http://getconcrete5.org/demo

you wont have sftp access, but it'll be setup in seconds on our servers which we know have a perfect environment.. if you cant get it to show up there, you can gimmie the password and i'll take a look
flamenco replied on at Permalink Reply
Good idea, that's handy to have a demo! I just tried it, and looked at the default setup, no changes at all. Thanks for saving me some time. The Sitemap includes Home, About, Examples, and Contact. And indeed, the last 3 are in the menu (Auto Nav) and "Home" is not. And I do understand that this would be a desirable default for many a site. Oh, and "Home" is not marked to be excluded from the menu.

So I guess mine's pretty much doing the same thing, so probably no need to give you a log-in. Absolutely fascinating. :)

The truth is, I wouldn't make such a big deal out of this, except that my clients are amazingly finicky about menuing, completely OCD about it at times. So menu flexibility is something I look for. I'm sure if I want to roll up my sleeves and write some PHP, I can make the menu do whatever I want, I guess.

The system's front-end editing and Ajax goodness are most impressive, in any case.
frz replied on at Permalink Reply
frz
okay so yeah you got me.

this is borked.

the auto-nav block needs its UI rethought a bit and we know it.. the options there made sense years ago for a day or two, and now we all end up dinking with the various dropdowns till we see results that look close and play with the template file to make it look right..

what's happening is "top level" in that thing really does refer to the pages below home.. "first level" would be more accurate.. so you're right, I'm wrong, I don't know what vodooo Jereme was working on his box but that simple solution above doesnt work today...

1) we have a quick fix for this in the next version of c5 which will be out before the end of the year.
2) we're gonna find the time to give that auto-nav some extra sexy and less pain in the new year...
3) just make a external link for now or hack your template.

<mumbles away> ;)
flamenco replied on at Permalink Reply
Frz,
Thanks very much for your attention to this. I'm sorry to bring the bad news. See, with any system I try, I go through the first euphoria period thinking, "this is the greatest thing ever, and will solve all my problems!"

I can certainly stick hard-coded links in my template for now, no problem! I just thought I had borked something.

Though finding things like this is a drag for you, I appreciate your willingness to deal with it. Other sites/systems just give you #$$# when you bring something like this up.

And this system truly is hot, so I'm gonna keep a close eye on it. It thrashes the others I typically use on front-end editing, which many clients would like, I'm certain. This would be MODx, Wordpress, Website Baker, etc. I'll probably give it a glowing review in my blog when I write an article about these CMS's.

And instant version control? Totally hot. The form generation looks hot, too - I spend hours making damn forms at times.

And when the Block thing takes off, I think this system will start spreading like crazy.

So thanks again!
frz replied on at Permalink Reply
frz
it's always nice to hear such glowing feedback. ;)

we'll get the home/auto-nav thing worked out quickly.