Widgets & Theme Layouts

I am new to Grav and wanted to know if there was a layout manager for themes or how to add widgets to the side columns? Is there any plugin that allows you to manage layouts and how do widgets work. I am used to wordpress CMS. I have also experimented with Typsetter CMS and see that there is a layout manage which does make it a bit simpler. Does grav have anything like this for their admin plugin?

Any help would be great. Thanks

Hi
Short answer is: no though you might have more luck with the Gantry based themes.
Much of the logic sits within the theme in Grav so plugins add functionality and the admin panel gives a content editor but layout is mostly down to the theme itself which would require CSS skills and probably twig as a minimum.

There is a lot of detail and a few walkthroughs here: https://learn.getgrav.org/

Ok, great. thanks for the reply. So the Gantry theme would work.

I not understand why in the themes area, there's not a section for layouts of themes. Maybe something with a drag and drop interface for the layout, columns, widget areas, etc., as well as an editor interface for the markup and styling in case you just want to edit manually.

Well there are skeletons which are a bit more of a packaged experience and include plugins so you might want to start off with one of those as a taster.
I think the themes are most searchable by framework rather than usage as they more of starter templates than full blown WP type themes.

Ok, thank you very much for your answers. I will check them out. Would you know how to answer this post i created?
/forum/general/grav-and-adding-xmlrpc-t3389

Sorry I am not familiar with XMLRPC.
Its probably not the same experience but since Grav is flat file you only need to put files on the server for them to be processed so maybe FTP or git sync might provide an alternative to getting your posts up to multiple sites at once?

Is there a gantry theme that uses the gantry framework that is similar to what is in Joomla with the drag and drop as well as adding rows, widget areas etc? If not can the gantry 5 framework be added to grav?

I cannot find any grav gantry theme tutorials for setting up the themes. Are there any?

Which are components are used to create a custom layout?

@CrucialNic:
Is there a gantry theme that uses the gantry framework that is similar to what is in Joomla with the drag and drop as well as adding rows, widget areas etc? If not can the gantry 5 framework be added to grav?

The Hydrogen theme seems to be that. You can install it from the admin panel in the "Themes" section. You also need to install the "Gantry 5 Framework" plugin which you can also do from the admin panel. Looking at it quickly, that seems to give you a mousable layout interface.

(I don't use this kind of stuff myself and I'm glad it's not in Grav's core. Though, I thinks it's cool that it's available for some end users.)

Hi Utis, yes i did realize i could install the gantry framework and the hydrogen theme, which I did do. I was playing around with it and it seems to be ok, but is rather cumbersome to edit the layout in gantry 5 and then have to move over to pages to edit content in a page. Its not very user friendly.

I wish it was an all-in-one solution like the Enfold theme in Wordpress or the Boo theme builder by ThemeRella sold on Envato. Both of these page and layout builders are very nice and incorporate everything into one solution. I still to this day cannot find a decent layout and page/theme builder that i like that is in a CMS thats not wordpress or creates static pages.

I have used wordpress for over 10 years, have done web design for 14, software and UI design for 6. I do use both html coding / markdown and we also like to use a simple layout and page builder for websites we need to get up in a hurry that clients would like to edit on their own.

I am trying to figure out if we can create a plugin that will do both in a flat file CMS

Cool. Maybe I should have a look into theme builders myself at some point. Sorry that I couldn't be of more help.

@CrucialNic:
Enfold theme in Wordpress or the Boo theme builder by ThemeRella

checkout both of these to see how easy they are to use. Too bad these arent open source.
https://kriesi.at/documentation/enfold/portfolio-item/intro-to-the-advanced-layout-editor/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-OMaAzLpfQ

Hi @CrucialNic,

just found this post and thought I add my thoughts here. I totally understand what you are after working with WP over a decade as well and using ACF and custom fields as well as layout builders at the moment Elementor or we could even add WP5 Blocks in that mix? ...

Unfortunately Grav doesn't come with a plugin like that. It might be a limitation of the frameworks possibilities.. or maybe someone could build it but it might be a massive task for which revenue? I just think the market is too small for someone to jump it...

Anyhow - you are able with Grav to create custom fields. If you used Wordpress and ACF or you know about the WP custom fields - then Grav comes with a similar counterpart. This allows you to break-out from you standard Markdown editor per page and build your custom fields and layouts really.

Some of theme themes, I am eg. using Quark as a base theme to start out, also come with built in CSS frameworks such as Spectre which come with a ton of features including Grid (similiar to Bootstrap Grids). This can help to build your responsive columns within the standard markdown editor.

Now I know this is far fetched from a layout builder but better than nothing - at least it allows you to manage some aspects of the front-end layout visually....

Hope this might be of some little help.

Sam