Greeting, and confused about Stacks, Foundry, etc

RapidWeaver Classic
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Greeting from a complete newbie! I bought the Rapidweaver as part of Black Friday Mac app bundle. Definitely a great value, as I have a need to make a simple website.

I am not sure the Rapidweaver website is crystal clear on the relationship between Rapidweaver, Stacks, etc. So please help me with the following questons (or confirm my understanding):

  1. Rapidweaver can already make simple website with all the built-in themes and functions, but it won’t do more complicated page layout (like having more columns) without stacks

  2. Is “Stacks” a plug-in for Rapidweaver? (the one on the store for $49 by YourHead) Is this “Stacks” required to run all the other (800 presumably) stacks?

  3. Is the “Foundry” also a “stack”? Can the “Foundry”, function without having the “Stacks”?

  4. Now about the additional themes on the store, do they need anything beyound the basic Rapidweaver installation to function properly? Do they need me having other plug-ins?

  5. Difference between this forum, and the Rapidweaver community website, where the Stacks, themes, etc. are sold? Is that $20/month subscription worth it?

Although I got the Rapidweaver for a great price, I am afraid the “stacks” is where the money is going the most. Maybe I am worrying too much and just stick to the basics first. However the official website tutorial quickly introduced Stacks and Foundry, making me think that these are necessary to get any serious job done.

Thanks for your help!

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  1. Rapidweaver can already make simple website with all the built-in themes and functions, but it won’t do more complicated page layout (like having more columns) without stacks

You got that right.

  1. Is “Stacks” a plug-in for Rapidweaver? (the one on the store for $49 by YourHead) Is this “Stacks” required to run all the other (800 presumably) stacks?

Yes, Stacks is an add on from YourHead software, and is required to run all other stacks.

  1. Is the “Foundry” also a “stack”? Can the “Foundry”, function without having the “Stacks”?

Foundry is a set of stacks, many, for building websites… all the trimmings that you need… includes things such as a gallery, and forms, and columns, grids, banners… you name it, it has a stack for that… It requires “stacks” from your head software.

  1. Now about the additional themes on the store, do they need anything beyound the basic Rapidweaver installation to function properly? Do they need me having other plug-ins?

Themes do not require other plug ins… they go straight into RW

  1. Difference between this forum, and the Rapidweaver community website, where the Stacks, themes, etc. are sold? Is that $20/month subscription worth it?

I’m not aware of a subscription fee anywhere… this forum is free and this is where it’s happening.

Although I got the Rapidweaver for a great price, I am afraid the “stacks” is where the money is going the most.

You got that right.

Maybe I am worrying too much and just stick to the basics first.

Get Stacks itself, the main Stacks from Yourhead, it comes with some basic stacks to get you going, learn how to use stacks, before buying others, you can lose money on stacks if you go crazy on them, there are many free ones however, they are no harm of course.

However the official website tutorial quickly introduced Stacks and Foundry, making me think that these are necessary to get any serious job done.

This is true… with Stacks and Foundry or Foundation, they are competitors, you can do more things… the included stacks in Foundry/Foundation make building websites better… they give you tools… most of us have one or the other, you can however build sites with stacks and themes mixed together… you don’t have to have foundry or foundation… there are many stacks that work by themselves, without one of those two frameworks… they are frameworks because they take over a bit… they have a module you drop in ever page that empowers them… they have a theme that blocks you from using another theme… they give you a lot… but you can pick up free stacks, use them with themes, and get a lot done that way too…

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If you pick up stacks from your head, you can then use anybody’s stacks. There are free ones, many, out there… and they are very good, some of them. For example, Big White Duck, BWD, has Header Pro, Paragraph Pro, and Scribe, and Sections Pro… all of which are free, and very powerful. There is a free grid or two out there… many free little doohickeys that do fun little things… like Rapidweaver Central has many free stacks that do one little thing each… cute things, embellishments… like one say just makes an image raise up on hover… it’s an example… look up stacks4stacks, big white duck, instacks, and do a general google search on “Rapidweaver stacks” and go through some pages… there are many developers… and the stacks forum has most of them, and can send you off to their websites, where you’ll find the free ones… with Foundry and Foundation, what you are doing is buying a lot of stacks from one person who has those stacks integrated to a degree, they are two individuals who have made a lot of stacks whose focus. is to empower the. novice to intermediate developer… to give them what they need to do standard sites that have everything you normally see… other stack developers do not try to give the kitchen sink in this way… other stack developers make ones that interest them and might be attractive to others… and have their offerings up on their websites. but they. dont have say a columns stack… or a header stacks… but they might have a shopping cart, or a CMS… more specialized… what most of us find in the end is we use standard stacks the most… and some stacks are one off uses… one time… only… whereas you use columns all the time… there are free columns with STACKS, but you can’t edit the width whereas with Foundry’s you can, and I imagine Foundation too… I have Foundry… If you search this forum for your questions you will see that they have been discussed numerous times and are answered in various depths in those other posts…so check 'em out.

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It’s helpful to think of the capital-S Stacks as the plugin which allows for a world of other add-ons lowercase-s stacks.

The plugin is worth every penny and allows you to do a ton more, however it is easy to go down a rabbit hole of adding a new stack for every function you can think of. Get to know the main Stacks plugin, check out some of the free/demo stacks, and then proceed accordingly.

At the risk of alienating the fine Realmac fellows, I’m not sure I’d say the subscription is worth it. Maybe if you had it for a month or two and were able to burn through some of the really well-done videos. But as an ongoing subscription, I’d put that money elsewhere…

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Rapidweaver, in my view, is the price you pay and the concession you make, in order to use Stacks (capital S) plugin. The Stacks plugin takes what would otherwise be a seriously mediocre (in 2020) web building tool and transforms it, through the ‘Stacks’ page type, into a very useful website/page building application.

You can build pages and sites without Stacks, but I don’t really recommend it.

Once you have the Stacks plugin you can then go nuts buying (lower case) stacks which will allow you to do things that you’d spend a month of rainy Sundays trying to achieve in basic Rapidweaver. Beware, Stacks is addictive.

Foundry and Foundation are frameworks; you get a theme AND a number of stacks which are designed to be used in that theme which ultimately provides you with a blank canvas to build, more or less, anything you like. Yes, there is a learning curve to these frameworks, but nothing compared to what you would experience trying to produce something comparable in just the base RW product (Ugh, what a thought).

Both Foundry and Foundation are tremendous products which, combined with Stacks, will provide you with a really potent platform upon which to build a highly credible modern website. They are both very well supported and you would not regret investing in either.

You can purchase and use individual ‘stacks’ too. The vast majority will work fine in any theme or framework; these will extend your capabilities considerably, there are hundreds of them so you are very likely to find a stack that does, more or less what you need. Some of the very best, most advanced, stacks are actually free, or at least donation-ware. If you have a development background or skills don’t rule out the possibility of making your own custom stacks either; it’s not too hard.

I recommend that you do your homework though before just splurging a lot of money on stacks, do your research and buy carefully. I dread to think how much money I dropped, in the beginning, on stacks I didn’t really need or use.

Hope this helps.

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Big thanks to everyone who had answered my questions! This is indeed a very helpful forum and I got my questions answered within hours!

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Great thread. Learning a lot.

Will stacks made for Foundry also work in Foundation, and vice versa?

I have a lot invested in RW stacks. If I get Foundry and/or Foundation, will I still be able to use all those stacks in a Foundry / Foundation page?

Regarding Foundry and Foundation, is one more powerful than the other? In other words, does one have any advantages over the other?

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Stacks coming inside the Foundry framework package will only work correctly on a page, where Foundry is used solely. Same for stacks inside the Foundation framework package.

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As Jannis says, the stacks you get with these two frameworks aren’t designed to work together. However, it’s worth pointing out that other stacks (i.e. non-Foundation and non-Foundry stacks) will usually work just fine in either framework. This means you’re not limited to those stacks which are included with these two frameworks.

Is one more powerful than the other? I think that’s probably down to personal preference. They’re both excellent choices for RW users who want to be able to design their own websites from scratch, rather than relying on pre-built themes.

Rob

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What Rob (@robbeattie) said is the absolute truth. You’ll find RapidWeaver users in both camps. They are competing products, and offer similar functions.

Right now foundation just released version 6, which was a complete rewrite. It looks to be good but there’s no tutorials or documentation yet, just some copies of live video streams. Not great learning environment yet, but I think Joe will start releasing tutorials soon.

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And Adam is bringing out a significant update of Foundry next year. And of course there are other frameworks too. It’s great to have so much choice, but it’d be nice to see some new pre-built themes as well.

Rob

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Hello - i am maike. I get the bundle deal to! So now to build my site!!

Stacks - yes. ‘no brainer’.

I think too Foundation (it’s newest?) BUT where can I see contents?

Thank you :slight_smile:

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