I am new to both MAC OSX and RapidWeaver8. Been a windows user for over 25Yrs.
Please exscuse me if some of my questions are elementary for this group but I am really keen to progress and learn.
I have installed RapidWeaver8 and must say I find it really nice to use. I have created my first web site and really enjoyed doing it (www.tpconsultancy.co.uk). After a bit of research I would like to go further and it seems that Stacks looks like a good way to have more options available. My questions are as follows:-
a) Is it easy to install Stacks? Is installation automatic? Where is Stacks installed, what path?
b) Can I change my website from http to https (I understand the later is more secure). Is it worth doing? What are the advantages?
c) Is there a Stacks add on just for a Contact Form? The current one is letting some spam through, I guess via some sort of trolling software looking for pages with contact forms on.
d) Is there a Stacks add on for a header with includes social media icons (LinkedIn,Twitter,Facebook)
e) Do you need to have Stacks installed to install Foundry. It seems from research that this would also be a useful addition.
Many thanks for all help and assistance, much appreciated
Ed
Welcome to the forum, you’ll find a lot of helpful people here.
In answer to your questions:
a) Stacks is a fantastic way to extend the functionality of RW, the install is straight forward. Stacks appears as a new page type in the menu, from there there is a separate Stacks library which you then drag and drop to create your page. Stacks comes with a few basic ones and you can buy many more which can really extend functionality.
b) you can only change to https if your web hosting supports it and can give you a SSL certificate. There are many free options, if your supplier tries to charge you for it walk away and change your hosting company.
For your other questions I’ll try to answer them altogether as they overlap a bit.
You do need Stacks to install Foundry, as it depends upon it. There are a few options, depending what you want to achieve for a new contact form.
As you don’t have Stacks yet you are at an interesting point.
You can buy the stacks you want to achieve what you want to do, another option is to look at the Frameworks available (Foundry is one of them). Different frameworks offer different functionality, so worth looking into seeing what each does.
Individual stacks will deliver what you want, Frameworks are large collections of stacks that cover a lot of possibilities and functionality in a single purchase. As you have already been looking at Foundry I’ll leave it off the list (not one I have, so can’t offer much insight on).
Frameworks to look at are:
Source by Shaking the Habitual
Free basic version and not so expensive full version (£20). A micro framework which focuses on layouts, images, text; doesn’t have it’s own contact form, sliders, etc. You can do a lot with it but may need additional purchases to achieve what you need. Paid training courses are available, as well as project files, to get you up and running faster. I have done some of the courses and they were very good, not too expensive (~£20).
Foundation 6 by Weaver Space
$99.95. Very comprehensive stacks suite but unfortunately documentation is thin on the ground at the moment because it’s only just been released (it’s a much anticipated upgrade and the dev behind it, Joe Workman, wanted to get it out to users asap) there are a good few free videos showing how to build and functions available. There has been some significant upgrades to it’s predecessor Foundation 1 (less code, accessibility), which was very popular.
UIKit 3 by Weaver’s Kingdom
$99.95. Another one which has been updated this year and proved popular lately. A fairly comprehensive stack suite, unfortunately don’t have it but some have said a bit of a learning curve which once you complete can achieve impressive and fast sites with. Both Weaver’s Kingdom and UIKitter (a Third party) offer project templates for purchase to get up and running faster.
Platform by Barth Partnership
A recent addition to the field, a comprehensive suite. I have it but haven’t gotten around to playing with it much. I think it’s currently on 50% offer at $34.98.
The terminology might be confusing when you first jump into RapidWeaver.
A plugin is basically a a type of page in RapidWeaver, there are the ones that came with RW and a few additional ones that you can purchase from other developers.
There’s the Stacks the plugin, the most versatile and widely used plugin or type of page used. It allows you to be very creative with page layout. Then this is the confusing part, the little widgets you add to a Stacks page to build the page are also called stacks.
So you need the stacks plugin to use any of the stacks add-ons you see being discussed.
RapidWeaver also needs a theme. You’ve already seen some of the themes that come with RW. There are also many additional themes available from other developers.
My advice would be to go slow and ask questions, you can spend a lot of time and money on things that you might not use.
The stacks plugin would be the next step I’d suggest you take. By the way, it comes with a handful of useful stacks to start building with. There are also a number of other free or donation-ware (give a gift if you like) stacks available.
I’d suggest you learn how to use stacks before you spend a lot of money on additional stacks.
Feel free to ask questions that’s what the forum is for.
Hi Doug, many thanks for your input and advice.
I can see how this forum is very useful, especially for web developers who and using RW most days.
I am just really interested in developing my own web site so as you rightly say have to be carful with costs. I will get Stacks today and have a play, then concentrate on sorting the Contact form out. Formsnap may be the way to go by the looks of it but seems quite expensive as i will only ever use it once. Even so I guess it will be worth the cost.
I use that one everyday…works well.
I will tell you that I am a foundation guy…I have used foundry…works great…but a bit of a learning curve and not as advanced as foundation…if you can…start with Foundation 1.
I don’t think you can buy foundation 1 anymore. Foundation 6 is what’s out right now. And there’s really no documentation or tutorials yet, just copies of some live introduction videos.
I think it’s (Foundation 6) going to be very good, but it would be not really a good place to learn right now. I know Joe will have the tutorials and documentation out as soon as possible.
Besides a basic personal site can be done very nicely with a regular theme and stacks. Frameworks like Foundry or Foundation are great, but not necessary to make a nice site.
I’m a relatively new user as well and have reached a point where I need plug-ins and stacks too. I have found it rather difficult finding the pertinent info, (Old school - like manuals for the complex stuff), since the videos and tutorials are fine once you have some of the software installed, but the installation how-to is lacking. Having said all that, this thread has been very useful, since it was not obvious from the start that one needed the “stacks” app in first, before looking for any other stack! That took two full days to discover, until now! So thanks to Ed, Paul, and Doug for the discussion.
Yes lots of very helpful people on the forum Brian. Like you I am also a new Rapidweaver fan so on a very steep learning curve. Really enjoying the journy though.
Ed
Thanks for the support! It has been quite difficult in going beyond the basics, with so much stuff available, and trying to see the relationship between the different sources. The recent replies to your questions, along with responses to others has proved very helpful in sorting out the relationship between RW8, the various stacks and plug-ins.
