Getting Familiar With RW - Part 1 of 3

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Hello RapidWeaver Community…
This is my first post here. I am reaching out to you all as I would value your direction or input regarding a clearer definition to what the following three features in RW are. I have pored through a lot of documentation and viewed quite a few of the video tutorials but still need a little more assistance.

Terms I need more clarification with…

  1. Themes
  2. Plugins
  3. Stacks

Kind Regards,
Dave

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  1. Themes - These are like templates, they give your website the look it has. There are standard themes that come with the App and then there are developers like Nick Cates Design, Elixirgraphics and many many others that make themes for sale. Then there are themes that let you make your own design, like Foundation by Joe Workman, Freestacks by Blueball Design, Pure by 1LD and Bootsnap by Yabdab (these need the Stacks plugin, see #3).

  2. Plugins - these are the different page types. The standard ones that come with RapidWeaver like Markdown, Contact, Styled Text are free as they come with the application. There are many others out there, but the biggest one is Stacks, which brings us to #3.

  3. Stacks - This is a plugin, that is kind of like legos for your website. It is made by Yourhead. It gives you the freedom to add lots of different kinds of content on your site. There are some that come with the Stacks plugin, but there is a HUGE developer group for Stacks, Joe Workman, DooBox, 1LD, RapidIdeas, Instacks and many many more.

A good place to start looking is the Realmac Community page here:
http://rapidweavercommunity.com
under addons there is a list of different theme developers, plugin developers and stacks developers.

Hope this helps.

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Hello Zeebe…

Thank you for your detailed reply, it is much appreciated. There are a few other questions I still have. So just to clarify I am picking up on the RapidWeaver approach…

  1. Pages and plugins are actually the same thing? Meaning, the default plugins / pages are quite limited in what each is designed for, or perhaps I should say highly dedicated?

  2. So if I want a page that has a mixture of features found in several plugins I would need to use a Stacks page to accomplish this. Thus allowing me to then work inside of the Stacks page mixing matching varied stacks in such a way to achieve my desired UI for that given page?

  3. I am generally familiar with the Foundation framework outside of RW. So what Joe has done is to bundle this amazing framework up into an elegant theam which allows for its stacks to be used inside a RW “Stacks” page (plugin)?

  4. If I am getting this so for, what is the main advantage to using the Foundation Theme stacks over the varied stacks that come with the Stacks Plugin and would the “Blocks” by YourHead be similar in concept to Foundation just much more limited in features and functionality?

  5. I am also looking at RapidCart Pro 4 which is also a plugin. Since it appears a RW page only uses a single plugin at a time how is this accomplished?

Kind Regards,
Dave

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Hi Dave, hopefully I can continue to help you out.

Pages and plugins are actually the same thing? Meaning, the default plugins / pages are quite limited in what each is designed for, or perhaps I should say highly dedicated?

Yes Pages and Plugins are the same and can be limited. Most people (if not all) will tell new users to purchase the Stacks plugin right after RapidWeaver

So if I want a page that has a mixture of features found in several plugins I would need to use a Stacks page to accomplish this. Thus allowing me to then work inside of the Stacks page mixing matching varied stacks in such a way to achieve my desired UI for that given page?

Yes, if you want a mixture, Stacks is the way to go. Be sure to check out the new great feature in Stacks 3, Partials. - Stacks 3 Public Beta

I am generally familiar with the Foundation framework outside of RW. So what Joe has done is to bundle this amazing framework up into an elegant theam which allows for its stacks to be used inside a RW “Stacks” page (plugin)?

He has worked very closely (been in to their headquarters multiple times) and they have acknowledged him publicly (on twitter) about his success with Foundation for RapidWeaver. Actually more developers (theme) have used Foundation in the past, Joe was the first though to use the ENTIRE framework and allow users to use the Stacks plugin to design their own look and feel to their sites. It currently uses Foundation 5, but he has plans to release a version that will use the current Foundation 6 later in 2016.

If I am getting this so for, what is the main advantage to using the Foundation Theme stacks over the varied stacks that come with the Stacks Plugin and would the “Blocks” by YourHead be similar in concept to Foundation just much more limited in features and functionality?

The stacks that come with the Foundation for RapidWeaver theme are highly tied together. They will make your site faster than using the standard stacks. Now, you can use MOST other stacks with Foundation, BUT unless you are going to code the site yourself in RapidWeaver, you will at least need the Starter Pack to use stacks (this gives you the theme styles and nav system you need in RapidWeaver).

I am also looking at RapidCart Pro 4 which is also a plugin. Since it appears a RW page only uses a single plugin at a time how is this accomplished?

I am not too up to date on using RapidCart Pro with Foundation, but I do know they offer stacks that can work in stacks pages and other users have also used a plugin called PlusKit (by Loghound) to import a Nav bar into a RCP page.

Wether you go with Foundation or not, Joe has a great Google+ Community that a lot of users here have joined as well, you can always ask questions there, but if you do use Foundation, the users there are REALLY knowledgable about Foundation and what works great with it and what does not. If you do decide to go Foundation, I also suggest you look at Big White Duck, he has made some free add-ons for all RapidWeaver but most of them only work in Foundation (although he does have a number that will work in any theme).

Hope this helps and keep asking if you have questions!

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Many Thanks Robert…

Your thoughtful and detailed input has been most helpful. I have also been pouring through many of Joe’s tutorials and RW documentation. I believe I am gaining a clearer picture of how to best work in RW.

Kind Regards,
Dave

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Glad to be of help! Enjoy your start with RapidWeaver and just ask if you have any other questions.