1.2 – 12/02/2011 – Fixed bug with logo not displaying in IE8. Fixed z-index bug with main nav dropdowns in IE (dropdowns were behind some elements). Moved jQuery function for image hover opacity from superfish.js to functions.js.

Related posts:

1. Slate 1.1 Released
2. Newest Theme Updates
3. Featured Content Slider 1.0.4 Released

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

1.1 – 11/26/2011 – Fixed issue with Breadcrumbs not showing all pages in trail. Removed page-meta div from blog_entry.php and pb_post.php and incorporated it in the pagemeta.php file. Updated ProBlog page type (pb_post.php) with newest trackback area. Added style for layouts in mobile.css file – made it so layout columns go to 100% width when viewed in mobile browser.

Related posts:

1. Newest Theme Updates
2. Slate Theme Released
3. Theme Updates

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Details | Demo

I’m extremely excited to announce we just released our newest theme – Slate. Slate is an HTML5 theme with a clean, minimal, responsive, and mobile-friendly grid design. It has lots of features, including four different styles/skins, 16 different page types/layouts, drop down navigation, and four custom page list templates. Slate is meant to be a great base/starting point for any design and is easily customizable.

Check out Slate now and see all the features!

Related posts:

1. Newest Theme Updates
2. Featurist Theme for Concrete5
3. OfficeSpace: Professional Corporate Concrete5 Theme

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

1.0.4 – Fixed CSS issue with rounded border on top corner of list items caused by newest version of jQuery included with concrete5.4.2.

Related posts:

1. Featured Content Slider Add-On Released
2. Clearview 1.5.1 Released
3. Featured Content Slider 1.0.3

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

1.5.1 – Made ‘back to top’ arrow only show up once user has scrolled down. Fixed positioning of Show/Hide button when logged in as editor (when concrete5 toolbar is at top).

Related posts:

1. Newest Theme Updates
2. Hello Clearview
3. Theme Updates

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

1.4 – Made it so sub nav in left/right sidebar page types are styled correctly by default and sub nav custom template doesn’t have to be picked   (left sub_menu.php autonav template there for older versions but changed class on ul from sub-nav to just nav).

Related posts:

1. Theme Updates
2. Luminosity
3. Newest Theme Updates

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Featurist – 1.2

Added check to see if page types are already installed before installing them. Added blog_entry.php (default Blog) and pb_post.php (for ProBlog) page types as well as styling for them. Fixed problem with main nave dropdowns being visible at first page load. Added border:none to .button style. Removed stylings for tables. Fixed issue with home page slider arrows not showing up in IE7.

Clearview – 1.5

Added check to see if page types are already installed before installing them. Added blog_entry.php (default Blog) and pb_post.php (for ProBlog) page types as well as styling for them. Added Show/Hide button to be able to show/hide all content so only background image is visible. Cleaned up functions.js file and moved menu script call there. Removed unneeded .js file in js folder.

Luminosity – 1.3

Added check to see if page types are already installed before installing them. Added blog_entry.php (default Blog) and pb_post.php (for ProBlog) page types as well as styling for them. Removed stylings for tables.

CorporateAmerica – 1.4

Added check to see if page types are already installed before installing them. Added blog_entry.php (default Blog) and pb_post.php (for ProBlog) page types as well as styling for them.

OfficeSpace – 1.4

Added blog_entry.php and pb_post.php page types and styling for default blog and ProBlog add-on. Added check to see if page types are already installed before installing them.

Related posts:

1. Theme Updates
2. Hello Clearview
3. Luminosity

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Take a moment to check it out! Support Area

Related posts:

1. Welcome to c5mix.com!
2. Announcing c5mix|showcase – A Gallery of Concrete5 Powered Sites
3. Welcome to the new c5mix.com

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

We just released another great add-on for concrete5! Related Content Panel is a slide out panel that displays related pages.

Details | Demo | Purchase ($15)

About the Related Content Panel

Related Content Panel is a set of custom templates (light and dark style) for the Related Pages block that creates a content panel that slides out at a predefined scroll position. It reveals a teaser panel with links to related pages and it can be expanded to full page size to show more. A custom slider allows you to scroll through many items in the panel.

More Info

Related posts:

1. Featured Content Slider Add-On Released
2. Featured Content Slider 1.0.3
3. Concrete5 Gallery Add-Ons

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

About the Book

Concrete5 Beginner’s Guide by Remo Laubacher and published by Packt Publishing is a “step-by-step guide to creating professional, feature-rich sites with concrete5.” It covers a wide range of material such as setting up and installing concrete5 in a local environment, learning how to edit your concrete5 site, how to install add-ons and themes as well as how to modify and create them, working with permissions and users, extending the concrete5 dashboard with additional functionality, and moving your site to a live server. The book includes the following chapters:

1. Installation – walks you through setting up concrete5 in a local environment on your computer
2. Working with concrete5 – teaches you how to edit and add pages to your site
3. Permissions – goes over permissions for pages, groups, users, and more
4. Add-ons – learn what an add-on is and how to install them
5. Creating Your Own Theme – learn how to create a theme for concrete5
6. Customizing Block Layout – shows how to modify a block’s appearance or functionality
7. Advanced Navigation – explains options for the Auto Nav block and how to customize it
8. Creating Your Own Add-on Block – explains what makes up a block and show you how to build a few unique blocks
9. Everything in a Package – explains what packages are and how to create them
10. Dashboard Extensions – gives some examples of how to add functionality to the dashboard
11. Deployment and Configuration – shows you how to move your site to a live server and how to configure certain settings

Who this Book is Written for

According to the author: “This book is ideal for developers who would like to build their first site with concrete5. You will need to be a little bit familiar with PHP, MySQL and HTML but will likely have little to no experience in using concrete5.”

The Good

Here’s what I enjoyed about the book and thought it did a good job of:

• Written in a very easy to read style.
• It gives you easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions (named “Time for action”) when explaining how to do something.
• Has good screenshots of most steps so you can verify you’re doing it right.
• At the end of step-by-step instructions, it has an overview of what you just learned/did (named “What just happened”).
• Includes a nice summary at the end of each chapter.
• Has pop quizzes within chapters to test what you’ve learned (answers are included in the back of the book).
• Gives good explanations of features and concepts.
• Has a bunch of nice code samples for implementation in themes and add-ons.
• Includes some good real-world examples of blocks/add-ons to create.
• In-depth information about creating themes.
• Taught me some stuff I didn’t know (even after working with concrete5 for the past 3 years).

The Bad

I must say there really wasn’t anything “bad” about the book, just a couple of things that I thought could have been done a little different/better:

• In the Installation chapter Remo walks you through installing concrete5 on your local computer with XAMPP. I would have much preferred seeing how to install concrete5 on a host/server, since that’s what most people will probably be doing.
• At some points during the book (mostly dealing with add-ons and creating blocks) it seemed like some of the code might be a little too advanced for the ‘beginner.’  However, the author does recommend having a familiarity with PHP, MySQL, and HTML.

Conclusion

Overall this is a great book and beginner’s guide to concrete5! It gives you a lot of great step-by-step instructions, code samples, working examples, and techniques for working with concrete5. I totally recommend this book and think Remo did a great job. Go grab your copy of Concrete5 Beginner’s Guide today!

Buy the Book

I would love to know what you think. Feel free to leave your comments/reviews about the book.

Related posts:

1. Announcement: Concrete5 Beginner’s Guide Book Giveaway Winners
2. Giveaway: Concrete5 Beginner’s Guide Book!
3. Beginner’s Guide to Concrete5

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.