Have you tried removing everything from your server and then doing a republish of all files?? What version of RapidWeaver are you using? What version of the Stacks Plugin do you have?
I’ve gone through Ben Counsell’s steps (of lesson 2, Creating Blog Posts.mp4) three separate times from scratch, each time deleting all files from my server, then rebuilding the basic blog following Ben’s instructions. I only republish all files, since it’s been my experience that republishing takes the same amount of time whether it’s a simple ‘republish’ or ‘republish all’ files.
Not once have I found a cms-data or cms-data/cms.log file on the server after republishing all files.
I use RapidWeaver 7.4.1 and Stacks 3.0. All stacks are up to date.
My latest tactic is to build [again] the same basic blog using a different, test server/URL I use for problematic projects like this one.
Thanks for your assistance with this…
Can you post a screen shot in edit mode of your admin page. So we can see what stacks are where.
So the EXACT version of your Stacks plugin is 3.0??? The latest I believe is 3.2.7, get the update for that if you are on 3.0, that is probably the issue (I say this as there was a 3.0 beta version that did not offer updates, and you could be on that).
If you do not know how to find your exact version of a plugin, open RW and then hold down Command and 7 and that opens the addon manager. Click Plugins and search for stacks:
Hello Robb:
Stacks is 3.2.7.
Thanks for the tip for finding the Addon Manager!
John
Scott, here’s a pair of screenshots showing the two Admin pages (Fig. 1 and 2). I was hoping the problem lies in the CMS ID fields, or perhaps folder naming under General Settings. Still no sign of the cms-data log. Thanks for your help!
By the way, my fourth attempt at building a basic blog post on a different test server/URL was unsuccessful.
I have not seen the videos from @ben so I am not sure why you only have 3 pages and making a blog. When making a blog you need 4 pages. One Blog page, which lists all the blog post. One Blog Post page which is the set up of what each blog post will look like, so when someone clicks on a link in a blog, that is the page they go to. One Admin page, which will have the Blog List stack on it. And one New Post page, which is the page you make the blog post from. Again, not sure why as I have not seen the videos, and it really SHOULDN’T matter, as when the pages are published with the core stacks, they should put the cms-data folder on your server. Just trying to inform.
Here is what I would do. Login to my server with an FTP app. Remove EVERY folder on there (this is just a test page right??) Once it is all deleted, then do a republish all files.
If that does not work. I would start a whole new project and publish that one because if that does not work, then there is something wrong with the file that is not allowing a cms-data folder to be made.
It’s late here, I will have a look on my computer in the am. But if you want to proceed, here’s what I would do;
Dup your pages to save them.
On the new test pages…
Get rid of the two column that is inside blog form and just build a page with a container (one or two column stack) inside that add blog form
Inside blog form add only child stacks of blog form. - title, summary, etc.
Preview in RW and try to add a post (no image or gallery yet just title, summary and main content.
See if that works.
If you have skype, pm me your skype name and I will try to help you tomorrow via screen share. As @zeebe says, you should have four pages set up. 2 admin - 2 public.
Hello Robb:
Thanks for the insight. I too don’t understand why Ben’s project (at the end of the second lesson) works with just three pages, though it may be that he has only saved a blog post at that early stage. Key stumbling point: I can’t replicate his final step of saving a blog.
I’ll try your suggestion to republish the files. What is the URL for your server?
Thanks for your help!
Thanks for the suggestion, Scott. I’ll try a new minimalist approach with directions from Joe Workman’s site. There’s gotta be a better way.
Not sure why you are asking this?
Based on suggestions from experts here, I’ve written the steps I took as I built a barebones blog in a new RW project, which is now online (see below). These steps are based on what I’ve learned in this forum topic and in Ben’s course.
Note: Rather than guess what the correct Total CMS ID settings should be, I intentionally left them in their default settings!
The project is online at my site: http://jitkavesela.com, but the blog is not functional because Total CMS IDs are invalid, the Admin - New Post “Save” blog-button doesn’t work, and other errors and omissions. But I can confirm that with this new project–for the first time–a cms.data folder does appear on my server, and that CMS Debug Info appears in Preview on the two pages into which I installed Debug. (Thanks for your tip, Robb.)
What have I missed? Please point out correct CMS IDs and what else I should do to make this a functional blog. Thanks so much for your help!
-John
1. BLOG PAGE
- This page lists all blog posts.
- Design of this page derives from the Total CMS Content-Blog List stack.
- See Fig. 15.
Step 1. Add a stack and name it Blog.
Step 2. From Total CMS Content, drag the Blog List stack to the Blog page.
Step 3. From inside of Blog List, add Layout, into which then add Title, Summary, Author, and Categories.
Step 4. From Total CMS Content, drag the CMS Core stack to bottom of the Blog page.
Total CMS ID setting: totalcms (default)
Question: Replace existing CMS ID with “blog”?
Fig. 15.
2. BLOG POST PAGE
- This page defines the design of existing blog posts as readers will see them.
- This page is the destination of links to blog posts.
- See Fig. 16.
Step 1. Add a stack and name it Blog Post.
Step 2. From Total CMS Content, drag the Blog Post stack to the Blog page.
Step 3. From inside of Blog List, add Summary, Author, and Categories.
Step 4. From Total CMS Content, drag the CMS Core stack to bottom of the Blog page.
Total CMS ID setting: totalcms (default)
Question: Replace existing CMS ID with “blog-post”?
Fig. 16.
3. ADMIN PAGE
- This page defines the interface of the Admin page for creating new blogs.
- The Admin Core stack used here enables this page to function as an admin page.
- See Fig. 17.
Step 1. Add a stack and name it Admin.
Step 2. From Total CMS Admin, drag the Admin Core stack to the Admin page.
Step 3. From within Blog List settings → Total Admin - General Setup - Blog Form Page, click on Set Link.
Step 4. From the pull-down menu, select Page → Admin - New Post.
Total CMS ID setting: totalcms (default)
Question: Replace existing CMS ID with “blog”?
Omitted from this page: CMS Core stack
Fig. 17.
4. NEW POST PAGE
- This page defines the interface of new blog posts to be written by the author.
- The Admin Core stack used here enables this page to function as an admin page.
- See Fig. 18.
Step 1. Add a stack and name it Admin - New Post.
Step 2. From Total CMS Admin, drag the Blog Form stack to the Admin - New Post page.
Step 3. From inside of Blog Form, add Blog Author, Blog Summary, Blog Content, and Blog Categories.
Step 4. From inside of Blog Form, add Blog Button (not shown in Fig. 18).
Total CMS ID setting: totalcms (default)
Question: Replace existing CMS ID with “blog-post”?
Omitted from this page: CMS Core stack
Fig. 18.
The Total CMS IDs MUST be the same on all pages. Which it looks like they are all totalcms, correct?? If that is true then those should be good. The IDs can be ANYTHING you want, they just need to be EXACTLY the same! Make sure there are no spaces before or after.
Looks like you are using the Foundation theme. Add a TopBar stack to the page so we can navigate to the other pages and see what might be wrong.
Here are some other helpful hints:
Blog Page
Looks good, keep this the way it is.
2. Blog Post Page
Did you preview this page and submit the URL in the lightbox that comes up? This needs to be done on the Blog Post page only. I did not see that in the instructions you provided.
Admin Page
Looks good, keep this the way it is.
New Post Page
From what I can see this looks good.
Thanks to your help and that of others, I was finally able to publish something that approaches a crude but functioning blog. No more red boxes around unsavable fields!
1. Total CMS IDs
Regarding CMS IDs, yes, Total CMS IDs on all pages are untouched in their default setting.
I’d like to mention that in his tutorial, Ben says this about CMS IDs:
“The first thing you want to do when you add any type of Admin stack is ensure that you give it a unique CMS ID. You’ll see in the Page Inspector for the [Blog List] stack settings, on the Total Admin - General Setup, you have a CMS ID here. Now they should be unique for each Admin stack” (2. Creating Blog Posts.mp4 at 4:53 minutes).
I do plan to use Total CMS blog pages for purposes other than simple blog posts.
Question: Under what circumstances would I want to change CMS IDs?
2. Debug added
I’ve added Debug to all four pages, which now each produce the same error message (see excerpt, Fig. 19).
Question: How should I act on the error message?
Fig. 19.
3. Blog Post Page error
I did view this page in Preview, and did attempt to submit the URL in the lightbox. However, an error occurred and the URL submission failed (Fig. 20).
Question: How should I resolve the error message?
Fig. 20.
4. Blog Post Page
The Blog Post page online is blank, which I assume this is related to the Blog Post Page error. I’ve attached a screenshot of the Blog Post page for reference (Fig. 21.)
Fig. 21.
5. Instructions v2
I’ve included updated instructions for the sake of completeness.
1. BLOG PAGE
- This page lists all blog posts.
- Design of this page derives from the Total CMS Content-Blog List stack.
- See Fig. 15.
Step 1. Add a stack and name it Blog.
Step 2. From Total CMS Content, drag the Blog List stack to the Blog page.
Step 3. From inside of Blog List, add Layout, into which then add Title, Summary, Author, and Categories.
Step 4. From Total CMS Content, drag the CMS Core stack to bottom of the Blog page.
new Step 5. From Total CMS Admin, add Debug; enable CMS Log.
new Step 6. Create Site Styles Partials, with embedded Top Bar.
new Step 7. Add Site Styles / Top Bar Partials to top of Blog page.
Total CMS ID setting: totalcms (default)
Fig. 15.
2. BLOG POST PAGE
- This page defines the design of existing blog posts as readers will see them.
- This page is the destination of links to blog posts.
- See Fig. 16.
Step 1. Add a stack and name it Blog Post.
Step 2. From Total CMS Content, drag the Blog Post stack to the Blog page.
Step 3. From inside of Blog List, add Summary, Author, and Categories.
Step 4. From Total CMS Content, drag the CMS Core stack to bottom of the Blog page.
new Step 5. Add Site Styles / Top Bar Partials to top of Blog Post page.
new Step 6. From Total CMS Admin, add Debug; enable CMS Log.
Total CMS ID setting: totalcms (default)
Fig. 16.
3. ADMIN PAGE
- This page defines the interface of the Admin page for creating new blogs.
- The Admin Core stack used here enables this page to function as an admin page.
- See Fig. 17.
Step 1. Add a stack and name it Admin.
Step 2. From Total CMS Admin, drag the Admin Core stack to the Admin page.
Step 3. From within Blog List settings → Total Admin - General Setup - Blog Form Page, click on Set Link.
Step 4. From the pull-down menu, select Page → Admin - New Post.
new Step 5. Add Site Styles / Top Bar Partials to top of Admin page.
new Step 6. From Total CMS Admin, add Debug; enable CMS Log.
Total CMS ID setting: totalcms (default)
Fig. 17.
4. NEW POST PAGE
- This page defines the interface of new blog posts to be written by the author.
- The Admin Core stack used here enables this page to function as an admin page.
- See Fig. 18.
Step 1. Add a stack and name it Admin - New Post.
Step 2. From Total CMS Admin, drag the Blog Form stack to the Admin - New Post page.
Step 3. From inside of Blog Form, add Blog Author, Blog Summary, Blog Content, and Blog Categories.
Step 4. From inside of Blog Form, add Blog Button (not shown in Fig. 18).
new Step 5. Add Site Styles / Top Bar Partials to top of New Post page.
new Step 6. From Blog Form, add Title.
new Step 7. From Total CMS Admin, add Debug; enable CMS Log.
Total CMS ID setting: totalcms (default)
Fig. 18.
Depends, you could have 50 different blogs on your site, as long as each different blog had different CMS ID. Now, if you want to use one blog and display different things, then we are talking about filters with different categories or tags.
You can ignore those errors, the CMS should function still.
If you don’t care, you could put your project file here for me to download and see what might be happening. If you do not want others to see this, then you can either send me a message here on the forums, or email support at support@joeworkman.net
There is actually a setting in the Blog Post that you need to set up for this to work. It is the Preview Post setting, which is the second setting for the stack. You have post-permalink in there (not sure if Ben tells you to do this or if it is set that way by default). You need to put the name of a permalink for a post you make, so this is something that you do after you make your first post. Write down that permalink and you can then enter that in the stack and republish that page.
Hope this helps out
Not being one to give in without a fight, nevertheless I must yield to good sense and end this project.
Special thanks to Jason, Scott, and Robb for their advice in my attempts to create a functioning blog.
I get the frustration but I’d encourage you to send your project file to Rob. I’d bet he can get you sorted. Total CMS can have a bit of a learning curve but it’s a really powerful system.
I’m having the same issue in-which the cms-data file only has the file cms.log in it and nothing else. I can’t save any posts. Happened after I deleted the original website I had under that domain folder and was doing a fresh install of a different design.
Republish-All files isn’t helping either.
Do you have a URL for us to look at?!
I’ve been messing with it and copied several of the files missing from another website to see if I could get it to save. That actually worked. However, though I can save the data now, when you go to view the blog, it is redirecting to a random page.
Here’s the link, but I’ve got it hidden from the navigation right now.