# Half way through Ep. 93 CMS

**URL:** <https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563>\
**Category:** Elements CMS\
**Created:** [October 6, 2025, 7:26pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563 "2025-10-06T19:26:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2025, 7:26pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/1 "2025-10-06T19:26:08Z")

</div>

Here is my try:

elementsapp://downloadDocument/r55ggtFTCzRA

 ![Screenshot 2025-10-06 at 2.13.28 PM](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/realmacsoftware1/original/3X/d/e/de6c3565b9750532741166926cffbffef2e009d1.jpeg)  
 ![Screenshot 2025-10-06 at 2.13.38 PM](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/realmacsoftware1/original/3X/9/8/98aba0032077b281350f62df295ec3dee5d9cadd.jpeg)

Doesn’t seem to work for me…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![upssjw](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/upssjw/32/26063_2.png) [@upssjw](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/upssjw)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2025, 7:36pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/2 "2025-10-06T19:36:22Z")

</div>

did you change the page names from html to php - home and post

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2025, 7:59pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/3 "2025-10-06T19:59:43Z")

</div>

Ahhhh nope 👎

Each one that has {{item.xyz}} ???

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![upssjw](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/upssjw/32/26063_2.png) [@upssjw](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/upssjw)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/4 "2025-10-06T20:13:02Z")

</div>

all pages using cms need php extension + you have quite few errors looking at your screenshots, your .md file must not be formatted correctly and other cms errors as well

 ![CleanShot 2025-10-06 at 21.12.12@2x](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/realmacsoftware1/original/3X/4/9/496ef884a86821da270fa2c2d29014d5c177bd19.jpeg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2025, 10:28pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/5 "2025-10-06T22:28:46Z")

</div>

elementsapp://downloadDocument/WsJ15DaUW48F

Latest Version - Changed to PHP 🙂

Name not working, image not working, Date is funky

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![handshaper](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/handshaper/32/27373_2.png) [@handshaper](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/handshaper)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 12:47am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/6 "2025-10-07T00:47:39Z")

</div>

> [@MichaelDroste](#):
>
> elementsapp://downloadDocument/WsJ15DaUW48F

I took a look at what you have, and it appears to be mainly working. Please note that the CMS displays dates in reverse, in the format YYYY-MM-DD. I made the change in your MD file, and it worked fine.

I also changed the display of the date to filter out all of the time info at the end of the date, this is what I changed it, too.

```auto
{{item.date_published|date("Y-m-d")}}

```

Next, I looked at the Author value and got that to work by removing the `.name`, so it looks like below.

```auto
{{item.author}}

```

Now the author displayed just fine.

I didn’t test any further than that, sorry.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/7 "2025-10-07T01:34:18Z")

</div>

> [@handshaper](#):
>
> `{{item.date_published|date("Y-m-d")}}`

Thank You - Got it working! Changed to “m-d-Y” United States style LOL 🙂

Still can’t get the image loading from author under cms - but closer - thanx to you!

Appreciate it very much…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![handshaper](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/handshaper/32/27373_2.png) [@handshaper](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/handshaper)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 3:47am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/8 "2025-10-07T03:47:00Z")

</div>

Aloha Michael,

I found several other errors that were causing some of the functionality not to work correctly. On the main blog page, you were displaying the entire contents of a post, where typically you would only do an excerpt. This also meant that there was nothing to click on to navigate to the post detail page.

Your author file had some frontmatter called “bio:”, which is precisely the type of thing that should be placed in the body of the MD file, making it easy to retrieve. You should be able to use your bio frontmatter, but it would be much more compatible and easier to deal with in the body. Over time, you could embed other information there that would be difficult to include in the front matter.

The other issue I found was that the “post detail” page DID NOT have a folder name, so it was pointing to index.php, which, in theory, is your home page.

Plus, this page would not have displayed an image because the file for the author IS NOT the file that would be sent to this page. You need a separate page for the author, and then you point the collection to that page for the author page template. Once I added an image to the welcome.MD file, it displayed a picture, no problem on the detail page.

I added your PNG to the welcome.md file and got the following displayed on the main page.

 ![CleanShot 2025-10-06 at 17.42.07@2x](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/realmacsoftware1/original/3X/4/6/465ae8f6dc7e2ee770f2ae28689344b5f819a738.jpeg)

I hope all this makes sense!

I forgot to add that your author page should be named all lowercase with an underscore between the words. Elements will convert everything to lowercase when you publish so it is best to do it that way upfront.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 11:04am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/9 "2025-10-07T11:04:39Z")

</div>

Wow - thank you for taking the time to look - share and explain….

I was playing - and saw the {{item.body}} tag and was just trying it out…

I had thought that everything in the meta section in markdown had to be in quotes - now I know it doesn’t

I couldn’t get the image to work until I referenced the .md file and put: image: Graphics/MichaelDrosteSM.png in the meta section…

And changed the {{}}

I’ll read over all your help later - gotta drive the wife to work now…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 12:10pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/10 "2025-10-07T12:10:57Z")

</div>

I don’t know what I’m doing yet, but I’m a quick learner…

I would like the homepage to display the most current post and up to 20 clips of posts

So I do want the content {{item.body}} on the homepage

I’m still deciphering your message and rewatching the video again…

-Mike

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![handshaper](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/handshaper/32/27373_2.png) [@handshaper](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/handshaper)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/11 "2025-10-07T16:44:50Z")

</div>

Not a problem to display a full post, but bear in mind that when you are using a collection, you are creating a template for it to populate. To achieve your desired outcome, you will need to use a combination of templates: one for the full post and another for the list.

The downside to this approach is that you will then have to manage the full post version. It would be nice if the CMS would add an option for a “featured post”, which would then allow you to accomplish what you want without needing a two-pronged approach.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/12 "2025-10-07T20:02:02Z")

</div>

Yes! A featured post or most recent post would be very good!!!

I keep making tweaks and watching the video…

When they release more features and the template example file - things will be much easier - swap my menu in change a few things - and done 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![handshaper](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/handshaper/32/27373_2.png) [@handshaper](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/handshaper)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 8:18pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/13 "2025-10-07T20:18:13Z")

</div>

There are definitely many areas for improvement.

One that you were running into was when you have a template that includes an image, but your MD file does not have one specified. This should be handled more elegantly, as it stands now you HAVE to include an image if you have one specified in your template, otherwise it will complain.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 8:59pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/14 "2025-10-07T20:59:04Z")

</div>

Yes going to make a separate folder for blog graphics…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 9:31pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/15 "2025-10-07T21:31:41Z")

</div>

Haven’t tried it - not at the computer…. What size for images? Rectangle or square

 ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/realmacsoftware1/original/3X/8/5/857c6efaf305bdee514b158a31f757a92b12e053.jpeg)  
 ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/realmacsoftware1/original/3X/a/c/ac9d327ae7cc4484aa7d73e736017ca759fa3e8f.jpeg)  
 ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/realmacsoftware1/original/3X/9/7/97c2c4a54442302833db9f172453e575f436e1fb.jpeg)

In the video they were rectangles

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 1:00am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/16 "2025-10-08T01:00:53Z")

</div>

deleted

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 1:30am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/17 "2025-10-08T01:30:47Z")

</div>

elementsapp://downloadDocument/cQTrS4cjgEXn

Well - One Colon : inside the title was messing up the third mark down file

 ![Screenshot 2025-10-07 at 8.28.37 PM](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/realmacsoftware1/original/3X/4/6/46970d74b4c51c21a7bbfd2dae7c5f413cdd124b.jpeg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![handshaper](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/handshaper/32/27373_2.png) [@handshaper](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/handshaper)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 5:26am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/18 "2025-10-08T05:26:14Z")

</div>

Yes, you have to be extremely careful that the formatting is perfect otherwise you can have problems.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![thisisrock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/82dd89/32.png) [@thisisrock](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/thisisrock)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 6:36am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/19 "2025-10-08T06:36:41Z")

</div>

Regarding “featured posts”: you may wanna try adding  
featured: true or featured: false  
to the heading lines in your Markdown files.

Then you can use the “Featured”-option in your Collection element.  
you have set it to “both” which may be the default and shows all your posts.  
Everything else should be self-explaining.

I am always more than suprised how far Ben, Dan and the other developers have already thought and what they already prepared.

You will have your “featured post(s)”-feature right now!!!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dan](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/dan/32/28516_2.png) [@dan](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/dan)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 9:30am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/half-way-through-ep-93-cms/51563/20 "2025-10-08T09:30:04Z")

</div>

> [@MichaelDroste](#):
>
> Well - One Colon : inside the title was messing up the third mark down file

Good catch! Yep, YAML can be picky about colons. Wrapping the title in quotes is the way to go, so instead of this:

```auto
title: OpenAI’s Stargate Data Center Strategy: Power, Politics, and Paradigms  

```

Do this:

```auto
title: "OpenAI’s Stargate Data Center Strategy: Power, Politics, and Paradigms"

```

This will keep the frontmatter parser happy.
