Blocs with a CMS

Apart from a couple abandoned Wordpress blogs in the past I’ve never ventured down the path of using a CMS, let alone developing a theme in a design app like Blocs that could then be used with a CMS, but I just wondered what are the opinions on the different options currently available for use with Blocs?

I guess my main interest in this is for situations where somebody asks me to build them a site but wants to be able to update it themselves afterwards. I don’t want to go down the Wordpress route and for various reasons I’m put off trying this with Rapidweaver. Is anybody actively working with a CMS for Blocs and what is your experience like?

I haven’t used any CMS with Blocs yet but am really blown away with the way that that CMS options are implemented in Blocs. I would however consider using Pulse as it offers so much but could be easily swapped from a RW site to a Blocs one (or any other for that matter). Pulse is very good indeed with what looks like a strong road map and an add-ons community to provide some useful extra stuff.

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@Flasman
I started to use follow Blocs in december 2014 and bought a version in June 2015, my first impression was: WOW, this project will be something in the future, and tuned out to be so.
specially with the fast updates and new features of Norm.
When Norm introduced the export to CMS was the moment for me as well to check CMS possibilities.
You are like me, I started with Wordpress, but this is not me… there for I started to use PulseCMS
its worth to try it, its cheap and simple ( the owner Michael is like Norm, fast and friendly when you have problems)
I had difficulties in the beginning as well but after a bit af playing and testing you get to know the software and know where things are stored.
I just finished a project, the client wanted to have a simple website design, with simple blog and picture upload possibilities from a iPhone.

I made the design in Blocs ( 100% blocs no editing after export) and the blog and pictures are handled by the end user with the PulseCMS admin

check it out: www.leon-jessen.com

so I would say try it out

Sandy

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It was actually this video about using Pulse with Blocs earlier that started me thinking about this. https://vimeo.com/182571729

A potential client here in the UK asked me to quote on building a fairly large website recently and I was almost in tears thinking about how long it would take in Rapidweaver. If I could come up with a good basic design in Blocs and then work with the right CMS it wouldn’t be nearly so tricky or labour intensive in theory.

I noticed on your site that it has a nice neat url structure that is not typical of Blocs e.g http://www.leon-jessen.com/newzealand and I wondered if you did something particular here or if this is a feature of the Pulse CMS? I actually posted about this very point yesterday Page structures when exporting a project

blocs exports in two folders, content and template, (basically textfiles )this you upload and Pulse is building this together again. thats why i suggest, just try it, and see the things you can use or adapt to your wishes.
Blocs is also exporting a sitemap, the only thing you have to keep in mind is that the sitemap.xml is not in the root anymore but in the template map, so tell google analytics that the file is there :smiley: google will index the files then.

Give it a try

( NO i don’t work for pulse oder blocs I am just a very happy user, and hope that this community will grow and stays for the future, thats why i support them )

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I know Michael and we’ve exchanged a few emails in the past, but it was all in relation to Rapidweaver, having purchased a couple of his Yuzool stacks. He mentioned Pulse a few months ago, but it wasn’t something I really thought about at the time and I didn’t realise he was so heavily involved.

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On a side note I don’t know what the Blocs sitemap is like but I typically use a product called Integrity Plus that costs just a few dollars and has some clever features including an excellent sitemap generator that lists many items that are often neglected by other products, such as images and PDF pages. After using Integrity Plus I found more parts of my site were getting properly indexed by Google and my search ranking improved. Website link checker and XML sitemap generator for Mac and Macbook : Integrity Plus

Thinking specifically about Wordpress, I hated the way it seemed to keep breaking and it felt like being under constant threat of being attacked by some hacker.

This recent thread speaks of that also:

It’s a neat concept to use Blocs + Pulse to create a simple Blog. I would be curious to see how elaborate someone could make a Blog with Blocs + Pulse. @pulsecms & @norm, have any examples?

Thinking specifically about Wordpress, I hated the way it seemed to keep breaking and it felt like being under constant threat of being attacked by some hacker.

Exactly that! And that is a benefit of using Pulse - plus not having to constantly update all your client sites. Do you charge for that? / Don’t you? etc… Less headache as it’s static files with an editable admin layer on top.

Lovely site @sandy and didn’t know it was finished!

@Blocs_User - there’s not so many examples that I’ve been sent in yet…

From the showcase we have going ( https://www.pulsecms.com/showcase ) I know the blog we use in Japan to teach people how to use Pulse (docs only in English at the moment) is a Pulse blog that was designed in Blocs:
http://pulsecms-fun.com/

I’m guessing Sandy’s above is also the same combo:
http://www.leon-jessen.com/blog

It would be good to see more Blocs+Pulse sites in general - there must be a few out there now :wink:

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@pulsecms , thanks for your response.

I was just wondering if anyone had a more elaborate example. Meaning, I would assume things such as a recent post list, categories, tags, and the many other common features of most blogs would need to be manually updated and managed by the user to emulate a traditional blog. Or scripted on the part of the developer outside of Blocs / Pulse if automation is desired for such features.

Again, the concept and ideal is neat. With Bloc’s + Pulse + Disqus , it’s a good start to allow people to share with others. I was just curious about those other common aspects.

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Thank @Blocs_User :slight_smile:

Currently, recent post list can be done with a free plugin:
https://addons.pulsecms.com/p/posts

For tags/categories - yes they need to be manual at the moment. Pulse 5 (in development) has this feature already so no hand coding of this needed soon.

Hope that helps :slight_smile:

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@pulsecms,

That’s great to know these features either exist or are coming. With them it seems Pulse + Disqus, Blocs, etc., along with these added features via plugins could be a viable simple alternative to other blog platforms. Certainly so if such common features can be emulated or offered.

Great work, impressive platform, seems very polished all the way around. :thumbsup:

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