How to install demo content manually?

Hi there,

I just finally managed to install this 'machine' theme however i cant really figure out the instructions how to load the demo content, my goal would be to load content for multiple pages just like the demo seen here http://themes.benjamin-regler.de/machine
Can someone please explain how to do this?

If there is no skeleton with the configs and assets you need to build up everything yourself.

If you install this via CLI GPM, it will prompt you to install the demo content (contained in _demo folder) - https://github.com/Sommerregen/grav-theme-machine/tree/develop/_demo

However, this capability is not available via the Admin installation.

You can of course do it manually. Simply copy the _demo/config and _demo/pages folders into your user/ folder to replace the existing ones.

@rhusker Hi and thank you for your reply, bear with me I still dont get it.

I see one folder user/themes/machine/_demo

this is where I can see two more folders

user/themes/machine/_demo/config and

user/themes/machine/_demo/pages

are you suggesting that I simply copy those two folders inside this directory user/ ?

user/themes/machine/_demo/config -> user/config
user/themes/machine/_demo/pages -> user/pages

so I followed your directions, I've overwritten the two folders in user/config and user/pages with the ones inside that machine themes directory this is the result

Server Error
Sorry, something went terribly wrong!

0 - DateTime::__construct(): Failed to parse time string (06-23-2014) at position 0 (0): Unexpected character

Obviously it didnt work, any suggestion how to get this to work?

https://github.com/Sommerregen/grav-theme-machine/issues/2

thank you! it worked, now I'm just wondering as this took several days just to install, is there something for Grav such as a theme installer or launcher as in joomla! or such?
That would be great to make installation a little less painful..

Generally we recommend using a skeleton package which is grav + plugins + theme + content + config all in one package, ready to go. Just unzip and boom, you have the demo site. Can't get easier than that. However, it's up to the theme developer to create these packages, and often they don't.

thank you for you reply, I believe you could mark it as a possible request/issue, I really like the idea behind Grav, and since many years ago when I started to experiment with Jekyll (something related imho)

I thought that flat files/website gen were the future.

However these days and age, where we need superfast trial and error, not having a fully ready demo site on install or launch definitely increases the overhead and sort of defies the all as easy as it gets CMS concept again my humble opinions as first time user.

(since joomla, wordpress etc.. already come with zillions of ready made themes easy to customize)

All in all Grav requires specific coding knowledge whereas I can have a decent knowledge in html, css still it requires to learn new programming skills, which being a UX/UI and marketing expert are not really within grasp for obvious time/expertise constraints.

I will try to play around with html, css, js the little time I got to see what happens but its a shame that there is no ready themes with some features available

Any hopes to see something like this in the near future? Could you make it a requirement for the themes developers? right now most themes are just plain skeletons, barebones layouts with no functionality and no content

We do plan on making a skeleton package builder that can be used to make the whole process of creating packages easier.

that sounds nice, is there any ETA for that? and perhaps making a requirement to theme developers to have some standards for theme development? so that basically when using a theme there is already some styling and features in place pretty much like any other CMS out there..

Nowadays themes they come with extremely features rich packages ot of the box, usually on mostly all CMS platform

We can't really make a requirement for theme developers to maintain a skeleton and demo, because not always the theme developer is ready to commit to maintain such structure and keep it up-to-date. And, that would make a higher entry bar, that I fear would scare first timers. When you publish a theme, you already commit to supporting the users (hopefully) and keep it up to date with the Grav release cycle. That's the same for plugins. Not everyone is willing to setup a demo site (also considering all the themes listed are free), but some do.

We have skeletons and demos for ~all official themes, plus the RocketTheme commercial Grav themes have many ready-made presets and installable demos.

Hopefully that will help raise the bar, especially if people start creating premium themes as well in addition to the free ones, and Grav users would benefit from having a higher quality and dedication from developers.

Hi @designdiverso,

I'm also against a requirement to make skeletons for themes. What we can do at least is to encourage designers to place their pages and configs in the demo content. In principle this is all one needs.

You may have stumbled over my webpage http://themes.benjamin-regler.de/ too, which integrates all themes into one interface. There I provide for some Themes the links for the skeletons (obviously only for those, that have defined them in the blueprints.yaml). For the others skeletons are missing. See the screenshot

Screenshot

However, my plan is to extend the theme preview site in such a way that you can download skeletons for every theme with latest Grav w/o Admin Plugin, Login, and Forms plugin. Unlike the Grav Team (@rhukster, @flavicopes, @mahagr, and @w00fz), I'm not full-time programmer and I do all things in my spare time. Thus, development is slower and maintaining code takes as a one-person more time. But you will see this feature definitely this year :-)

Up to now the only thing what a theme developer should do is to keep their theme up-to-date (and maybe provide updated demo pages and config). From time to time I update the themes via gpm install .... The rest is already doing the site.

BTW: It provides for almost all themes demos (official + third party). Only Gantry themes will be left out in the future as I experienced a heavy load impact and memory consumption of twice the size, which I don't like.

Hi @sommerregen

I didnt mean it should be so strict I was merely referring to the fact that as content creator I have different needs and requirements than developers.
To me I had to stay on joomla and such just because they are so easy to launch and edit however I would gladly move on to Grav if the same features are integrated (website launcher or at least some demo content so that its easier to create the site and edit having just some front end skills...)

While I am at it I just came up with two questions:

1 - is there a email marketing plug in available to grav? something that does mass emails inside cms.

2 - this would be my favourite theme of yours http://themes.benjamin-regler.de/bones

I was wondering would it be possible to migrate my joomla! site to grav using this theme (framework)? is there someone here who will be willing to help (I have a limited budget)

Hi @designdiverso,

To be honest I don't have any experience with Joomla. If there is a backup possibility something like for Wordpress, then you could parse the files and generated the required Grav pages with its structure. Maybe there is someone here with more experience who can join in and help you out.

By the way, the themes you see at http://themes.benjamin-regler.de and in the respective sub-folders are not mine (only a few of them). If you like the Bones theme, then there exists a skeleton https://github.com/smartgravity/grav-theme-bones-vanilla .

AFAIK, there exists no native email marketing plugin for Grav. But what you can do is to use a third-party service and embed the necessary code into your site.

@sommergen

just wondering is there anyone here who could help me out with the migration eventually? could you point me out to the right direction? Eventually I will definitely want to use foundation 6 for this website, are your theme then automatically updated or how shall I update when foundation new version comes out?

@sommergen
just wondering is there anyone here who could help me out with the migration eventually? could you point me out to the right direction? Eventually I will definitely want to use foundation 6 for this website, are your theme then automatically updated or how shall I update when foundation new version comes out?