Looking To Take The Quickest Easiest Route Today

RapidWeaver Classic
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I am going to be short (but hopefully not rude) here because I am presently overextended and hoping to rely on the goodwill of others.

I have been writing software for over 40 years. I have the skillset to use a textual code editor and build an entire interactive website. But that takes a lot of work/time/effort. I have several small projects that I would like to build rapidly, with as little time invested, as possible.

Today I decided to think outside my box.

I have Setapp, and that comes with RapidWeaver.

Absolutely, positively subscribe if you are a Mac user. Here is my referral link

Here is the NON-referral link

I watched some video on using RapidWeaver (by Realmac themselves) and decided to just jump in here are ask to see if this meets my needs.

Just like using add-ons in WordPress, I want to drag and drop blocks to build some elementary webpages. I need those webpages to include forms. I need to perform logic on the form entries and present conditionally determined response webpages.

In my test case I am building a game-like website. You fill out 1-3 pages of webforms and it then calculates your results and presents them to you.

I would prefer to use a no-code solution, but can just as easily use JavaScript to build functions if need be.

I know that this type of toolset will be more limiting than using, say, hand-coded Meteor sites, but copious amounts of advanced functionality is not my primary requirement for these sites. They need to be rapidly and easily created, and easily maintained/tweaked over time.

So, as I already have RapidWeaver, what do you, the community, suggest that I get in terms of add-ons to build these simple interactive sites?

Looking at the videos I saw, and the Editors’ Choice page, it looks like I should start with:

  • Stacks
  • Foundry

Maybe add:

  • Foundation
  • UIkit

But I am guessing that these together won’t give me the conditional/functional logic that I need to make the site interactive.

I would like to buy a “solution” today, and if it does what I need, I don’t mind paying a few to several hundred dollars to get it now.

So what do you all have as advice? Maybe I have completely overlooked something as I am just diving into this headfirst?

update: I forgot to mention that another reason for my desire to go this route, vice hand-building a full website, is that I would like to be able to hand off the maintenance/updating of this site to a non-developer to ease my future workload.

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Hi, I think RW is the wrong choice for these kind of sites where you calculate logic/ these kind of interactions. You can add some site elements with RW but still have to code quite a few things by hand.

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Valuable input. Thank you for taking the time to help me out Jan.

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I’d agree with @Fuellemann, RW is good for static sites but not for the level of interactivity that you are looking to create.

There is a stack called Siphon which offers branched logic, but i don’t think it can present a final option based on multiple inputs, unless you branched out ever possibility.

Unfortunately can’t think of something that would suit your needs.

Codecanyon could be a place to have a look for a php script etc. thatbettwr meets your needs.

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There is the PI stack from Joe to calculate stuff, even depending on each other:

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Thank you, Paul

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I am building a game-like website

I need to perform logic on the form entries and present conditionally determined response webpages.

I would prefer to use a no-code solution,

I think the constraints you put on the project means you won’t find many solutions. There are not many ways to build much more than basic interactivity without some code.

can just as easily use JavaScript to build functions if need be

I think it depends greatly on how much code is too much code.

RapidWeaver + Stacks will let you lay down the basic objects, but almost all of the components made for RW are designed to insulate the user from code (although there are plenty of exceptions too).

What this means is that to build a highly interactive site – one that’s more like an app than a webpage – means building a lot of the interactive part yourself.

That said, I can’t think of ANY solution that’s too much different. Can anyone? If so, I want to have a play with it, because I’d really love Stacks to be able to grow in that direction, but I can’t think of ANY nice UI solutions. If there’s someone who has managed to crack that nut, I want to see it.

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Thanks, Isaiah for your input.

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For my test project, I need to be able to be self-contained so as to be able to run on a stand-alone (no internet) computer. So I am having difficulty finding a solution.

Now, on the other side, RW combined with Integromat (Webhooks, for example) for a “no code” solution looks good. And if you need more power on the backend, and are willing to code, then Pipedream is an excellent solution.

So far, it looks like RW (with Stacks and Foundation) to rapidly build the webpages (HTML) and, probably, Node-RED running on localhost will be my interim solution.

https://nodered.org/

I’m interested in your comments on this concept.

Great discussion folks. Thank you for your help.

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I get where you come from, I am almost the same.

I do enterprise web development, large scale portals (Java/Groovy, PHP, NodeJS, TypeScript…) and sometimes I need a quick prototype or a small solution without to much coding / work. That’s where RW comes very handy. I use it for companion sites for my mobile apps, smaller static sites for clients who don’t have the need for a wordpress installation or any other CMS (which is probably the case for about 90% of all sites out there :slight_smile: )

My sites are mainly made with Stacks and Foundry (I am a long time Bootstrap user), and some hand written PHP stacks (either some condition stacks I use very often, or specific individual code, e.g. session handling, data storage), and / or some JavaScript - you get PHP hosting nowadays for cheap / included in the packages, or, in your case, with a basic HTTP Server with PHP Interpreter for a kiosk system.

At the end, it reduces the amount of work of the project if you accept some trade offs, using RW as a “almost no code” solution.

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Thanks Heiko. It’s good to know that I am not the only crazy guy around here. :wink:

Maybe we need to start a community project. “Conditional Stacks” and “Logical Stacks”.

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I made a couple of my general purpose stacks (conditions, php code) available for download:

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The main difference between RW for static sites and perhaps a solution that could work “app like”, is the missing state machine and navigation logic.
If we could add a bit of a layer for a navigation / routing (e.g. the Angular routing) and a simple state machine that acts globally, it would increase the options almost endlessly.

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Thanks for sharing!

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i tried to introduce a plug-in a few years ago that would give some more web-app like functionality. a router, a way to add data-only content, and a way to process that data with templates.

it floated like a lead balloon. so bad that i abandoned it and left it for dead and just moved on.

i think there are a few users after that sort of functionality – maybe a few more than when i tried this, but the vast majority of users find Markdown difficult and don’t want anything that looks like code to be part of their day to day use.

i’d recommend adding that on the back-end. making your rw exports publish into something more complex on the back end.

i do this for yourhead.com. i use RW as a way to generate template and run a simple template processor (Handlebars-php) and router (Toro) on the backend to fill in the data.

it works very nicely this way – and it keeps the code-ish bits nicely separated from the data and template bits.

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