Tutorials

CMS Import & Export

3 Comment(s) | published by Halarewich D. on Friday, February 12, 2010

One particular feature that is especially useful for web designers and developers is Import/Export within the CMS.
This allows you to create templates, pages, set up your partials and supporting resources. Then, you could export all of this work to a file with an .lca file extension. Upon importing this file back into a LemonStand installation, of your templates, pages, partials and resources will be restored.
This is very handy for many different things. Here are a few scenarios:

1. You are building a site in a development environment, and want to port over your pages from there to a fresh LemonStand install on your production environment.
2. You just completed a client project, and before handing over the keys you use this to backup just the CMS objects in case of emergency
3. You're starting a project that is similar to another project you have already completed. To get a head start, you can export the CMS objects from the original project and import them into the new project.
4. You have created a generic LemonStand theme and want to distribute it. You export this theme to the .lca file and others can enjoy the fruits of your labor by importing it into their LemonStand installations.

There are many other uses for this feature, but the point is that you will probably find it quite convenient.

How to use the CMS import/export feature

This short guide assumes that you have already created your pages in LemonStand.

Exporting CMS objects

To export your CMS objects, simply log into the administration area of your LemonStand installation and navigation to CMS / Import or Export / Export.

Select which objects you would like export using the check boxes. Click the "Export" button and wait until the save file dialog window pops up for you. Save the file (it should have an .lca file extension) in a safe and memorable location for later use.

You'll notice that you can export only the objects you want. for example, you can export everything except resources. You could then distribute the resources manually, as the actual files. The application of this will depend on your needs, but it's available to you if you need it.

Importing CMS objects

To import CMS objects, log into the administration area of LemonStand and navigate to CMS / Import or Export / Import.

Click the "browse" button and select the appropriate .lca file that you want to import. Click the "import" button and wait for it to load. This could take a little time depending on how big the file is.

Warning: This operation will overwrite all existing objects which the file contains. So if you want to keep anything, you should make sure that the .lca file you are importing does not contain those objects. For example, if you have any pages you want to keep, and the .lca file has any pages, yours will be overwritten!

A word of caution

It is recommended that you keep your installation backed up. To prevent unrecoverable issues, you should always have an up to date backup available. LemonStand allows you to backup the entire system. We'll cover this in a later post. This feature is accessible by logging into the admin area and navigating to System / Backup or Restore.

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Writing Tutorials = Discount

0 Comment(s) | published by Halarewich D. on Friday, February 05, 2010

We are working hard to build up learning material on LemonStand and we would like to ask for your help. In exchange, we'll provide you a discount on a license for LemonStand.

Now that the beta is available, it's easy to do: Download and install LemonStand Beta, get familiar, write a tutorial, tell us about it and get a discount.

You can publish the tutorial or screencast on your own website, on our forum, give us permission to pubslish it on our blog, or all of the above. Just contact us with your information and we'll make arrangements.

If you are wondering how you can get familiar with using LemonStand to build websites, go through our Wiki. You'll find lots of helpful information there that is constantly being expanded.

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