Symphony.

Hello, Symphony Community!

I’ve been thinking about taking on a few more freelance jobs lately, and wanted to find a decent CMS to dig my teeth into. I just recently discovered Symphony and am pretty excited about it so far.

A little about me. My name is Craig. (At least, the second in the community, I’ve noticed. Hopefully that doesn’t get confusing.) I’ve been writing software 25 years, developing websites for the last 16 years, and writing web applications for about 14 years now. Most of my web development experience has been with asp, asp.net, and asp.net mvc, but I’ve delved into php and RoR a bit here and there as well. I have a strong background in OOP and the MVC pattern, so I’m not much concerned about that side of things.

Where I’m definitely lacking in regards to using Symphony is in my knowledge of XSLT and XPath, though I’m already reading some books on that. My php could also use some brushing up I’m sure.

I’ve read all the docs I’ve been able to find on the Symphony site and the light bulbs are starting to turn on, but I’m still not finding myself making the leap between an idea in my head and a clear path to implement it in Symphony. What resources beyond this site are available for coming up to speed with Symphony? Is it a matter of diving into the available code and figuring things out the long way? Am I correct in assuming that some of this will also come with a better knowledge of XSLT and XPath?

Also, assuming that Symphony becomes something I commit to using regularly, I’d like to contribute to the community codebase. I’ve noticed that Git is widely used here. I have absolutely no experience with it. Can anyone recommend good resources for getting up to speed with Git and Github?

Any other recommendations on learning resources are also appreciated.

This seems like a friendly community. I’m looking forward to becoming a part of it!

I’m still not finding myself making the leap between an idea in my head and a clear path to implement it in Symphony.

Have you completed all the Beginners tutorials? They’re a pretty good start. There are definitely lots of gaps in the documentation though, so after that, usually the best bet is to just start asking questions here on the forum. Our community is very friendly and responsive.

Is it a matter of diving into the available code and figuring things out the long way?

Not unless you’re trying to write extensions and such. One way to proceed might be to download and install a couple of different ensembles and poke through them to see how they’re set up.

Am I correct in assuming that some of this will also come with a better knowledge of XSLT and XPath?

Sure, although it almost sounds like where you’re still a little unclear is on more of conceptual level…

Can anyone recommend good resources for getting up to speed with Git and Github?

Github’s documentation isn’t great, but it covers most of the basics. I’m a trial-and-error guy, so I always prefer to sort of get going even if it means I stub my toes here and there.

If you’ve got a project you’re working on yourself, try setting that up as a Github repo and managing that for a bit. Try working on multiple branches and so forth. Sooner or later, it’ll ‘click’.

Any other recommendations on learning resources are also appreciated.

Use the community. Some brilliant folks floating about in here…

Oh, and by the way… don’t sully my good name ;)

Have you completed all the Beginners tutorials? They’re a pretty good start.

Thanks for reminding me about those tutorials, Craig! I looked at them, but was still a bit too confused to understand them. I’ll take another look and run through them now that I’m a little more clear on the building blocks.

And I’ll do my best to keep our name in good standing. :)

Github has a few good getting started articles.

I always advise that the strength of Symphony is directly related to your strength with XSLT. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend the w3schools XSLT tutorial. It covers the basics well, and gives you an online sandbox. I’m also not ashamed to recommend XSLT for Dummies (Richard Wagner). It is a nice intro to a pretty unusual programming paradigm. Here’s an outstanding FAQ on xslt with contributions from some of the foremost experts.

The zvon.org reference is also a good one.

Where ever you go for your XSLT stuff, just keep in mind that PHP is currently stuck with XSLT 1. This is kind of a 2-edged sword:a more limited functionality, but plenty of resources available, since it’s unchanged for almost a decade. Don’t be put off by outdated-looking online resources; as long as they are writing about the v1 standard, you’re fine.

Welcome to the community, Craig.

You should definitely take a look on Git Casts. It’s a good start.

Thanks for the xslt and git suggestions, guys. Those gitcasts should help a lot. I’m reading Fitzgerald’s Learning XSLT from O’Reilly right now. I’ll check out the other xslt stuff also.

The beginner tutorials were a huge help. They filled in the pieces I was missing.

I’m rolling with Symphony now and it flat out rocks. I’ll definitely be using it heavily on a lot of projects, so I’m sure I’ll have more noob questions soon. :)

The beginner tutorials were a huge help. They filled in the pieces I was missing.

Very happy to hear that, and glad you’re excited about Symphony. Good luck and let us know how it goes!