Admin missing in download

What's the point of providing a "with admin" download that doesn't actually include the admin??? If you want people to use your software at least make usable.

The "Core + Admin" packages does include the Admin-plugin, as does a few Skeletons though not nearly all. If a Grav site has the Admin-plugin, the first visit there will redirect to /admin to set up the first user to get you started.

Just seems very illogical to me. And no column support built-in, I have to hack files to be able to use columns, are you serious? I've been looking for a replacement for WP as the whole WP eco system is crumbling, and this is about the best option bar 1 or two others - but no column support (which is an immense basic that shouldn't need hacks) prevents this from being the best.

Hopefully you guys fix this as it really is a great product.

Where are you expecting the columns? They are very easy to construct in Twig templates, and can be used with Markdown-content as well.

Grav is based around extensions in the form of plugins or themes, and columns are a specific feature of a theme, thus if creating a custom theme you would need to construct these yourself. The link above has an example of how to do this. Many available themes also use them, so you should have no problem finding an appropriate theme with columns.

Yes, this completely took me by surprise too! I downloaded the skeleton packages thinking that was all I needed to get it started as mentioned on the download page "....and you are ready to start using Grav!" Is there a notice somewhere I missed warning users? O my word, where do I start?

I would expect them to be in the text editor. Columns seem to be avoided by most I don't know why. They're NOT part of a theme, columns are in the same category as paragraphs text, lists, images, etc - basic text editor stuff. I really don't know why you think they are something special to be integrated into a theme, it should be built into the text editor.

I did read that link, before you posted, it doesn't work the text does not show in columns and I followed it to the T. No worries will try another solution.

Thanks for quick response and help :)

@dessington:
They’re NOT part of a theme

Except that you need css and not only html ?

I just tried the solution provided by @olevik, it works like a charm...
Do you need any help ?
If you paste your twig file and your .md file, we could tell you what's going on.

Not to worry I don't want to hack theme files for something as mundane and basic as columns. Thank you for prompt responses and support offer though.

There is no HTML element for columns, thus there are no columns in the Markdown-editor. The closest you'll get is HTML tables, which are supported by Markdown Extra. That said, Markdown allows arbitrary HTML written within it, so you could just as easily do:

Paragraph of text.

<div class="container">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-6">
      Column 1
    </div>
    <div class="col-6">
      Column 2
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Another paragraph.

Then just make sure your theme includes a modern version of Bootstrap, eg.:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0-beta/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-/Y6pD6FV/Vv2HJnA6t+vslU6fwYXjCFtcEpHbNJ0lyAFsXTsjBbfaDjzALeQsN6M" crossorigin="anonymous">
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0-beta/js/bootstrap.min.js" integrity="sha384-h0AbiXch4ZDo7tp9hKZ4TsHbi047NrKGLO3SEJAg45jXxnGIfYzk4Si90RDIqNm1" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

You could also use a theme based on Bootstrap, or some other CSS framework that supports columns. For example Gravstrap (source).

Maybe you should try a Theme with Gantry included. There is a really fancy column editor in Gantry.

The official statement goes something like this:

"Grav is a flat-file CMS built for speed and flexibility. Grav only requires a file editor to build and maintain sites. The admin plugin is a powerful web-based administration tool that's completely optional"

As many many of our users don't use the admin at all, it's not included by default because then you would just have to remove it. We do provide a package with it included for those that are that way inclined, and also via the GPM system we have built-in to Grav, it's easy to add.

If you are confused about how to use Grav in any way, I strongly urge you to read the docs: https://learn.getgrav.org

They are going to give you a lot of insight into Grav and how to use it best.