Getting Started
- Installing Refinery Prerequisites
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This guide covers getting your system ready for Refinery. Afterwards you will have:
- A working version of Ruby
- ImageMagick installed
- Either the SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL database configured
- Getting Started with Refinery
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This guide covers getting up and running with Refinery CMS. After reading it, you should be familiar with:
- Installing and creating a new Refinery site
- Changing the front end design of a Refinery site
- Extending Refinery’s functionality with custom engines
- Attaching Refinery CMS to an existing Rails application
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This guide covers integration with Refinery CMS. After reading it, you should be familiar with:
- Attaching Refinery CMS to an existing Rails application
- Attaching Refinery CMS as part of a larger Rails + Devise application
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This guide covers adding functionality provided by Refinery CMS to an existing application, while retaining the existing application’s control over configuration and use of the Devise authentication gem. After reading it, you should be familiar with:
- Getting Refinery CMS to use an existing User model
- Applying your site layout and css to the Refinery front end generated content
- Ensuring your existing app’s tests still run
- Adding the authentication (and authorization) rules from your app to Refinery’s back end administration content.
Documentation
- Writing a guide for this website
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This guide covers writing your own guide. After reading it, you should be able to:
- Format a guide.
- Submit it for approval and inclusion on this website.
Essentials
- How to get help with Refinery
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We all sometimes hit a brick wall. This guide will show you how to:
- Get support and help by connecting with other Refinery developers
- How to contribute to Refinery development
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One of Refinery’s key principles is encouraging people to contribute. This guide will show you how to:
- Contribute to the documentation (such as this guide)
- Contribute bug fixes or new features
- Contribute financially
- Translate Refinery into your language
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Refinery supports translations. This guide will show you how to:
- Improve upon or add a new translation to Refinery
Customising your Design
- How to change Page Parts
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Refinery sets up two default page parts Body and Side Body. Sometimes this is not suitable for your project. This guide will show you how to:
- Change the default page parts to be something else
- Add a new page part to a single page
- How to override a view
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The default HTML Refinery generates on the front end is sometimes not suitable for your design. This guide will show you how to:
- Override a front end view in Refinery and replace it with your own version
- How to add custom javascript files
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By default, Refinery does not load any javascript files on the frontend of your website.
However, most of the time you want to provide your own files so this guide will show you how to achieve this.
Extending with Engines
- Tabbed fields in your engine's admin area
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Sometimes you create an engine with a number of wymeditor fields. Having these display one after another can be overwhelming for your clients (or you!).
This guide will show you how to:- Organise many visual editors into nice tabs like Refinery’s ‘pages’ engine does
- Creating Multiple Data-Tables in a Single Engine
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This guide will show you how to:
- Creating multiple tables on one single engine
Updating Refinery
- How to update Refinery to the latest stable version
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Refinery constantly changes as we add new features and fix bugs. This guide will show you how to:
- Keep updated with the latest stable versions as they are released
- How to upgrade to edge Refinery
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If you’re an experienced Refinery developer you might want to live on the edge. This guide will show you how to:
- Keep your existing Refinery installation on the edge version
Hosting
- How to Install Refinery on Heroku
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Heroku is a popular hosting choice for many developers. This guide will show you how to:
- Install and deploy Refinery on the Heroku hosting platform
- How to use Amazon S3 for storage
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Hosting your site’s files on Amazon S3 is a popular option for many, especially
if you’re using a read only file system like Heroku.
This guide will show you how to:- Enable and configure Refinery to store files and images on Amazon S3
Tips and Tricks
- Using SASS in your views
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Some developers prefer to use SASS to generate their CSS. This guide will show you how to:
- Setup and use SASS instead of CSS
- How to add an image gallery to pages
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By default pages don’t allow you to make galleries of images. This guide will show you how to:
- Use the portfolio engine to display a gallery of images
- How to test Refinery
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Refinery ships with a range of specs and cucumbers to test it. This guide will show you how to:
- Run the tests that come built in with Refinery to ensure your install is working correctly
- How to setup Google Analytics
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Google Analytics is a great free way to find out how much traffic your site is getting. This guide will show you how to:
- Use the built in Refinery setting and layout to easily add Google Analytics support to your existing Refinery site
- How to redirect old pages
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Many Refinery sites replace old ones that have links to these older pages. This guide will show you how to:
- Match old urls and redirect to them appropriate new ones
- How to enable testing in your application
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Refinery ships with a range of specs and cucumbers to test it. This guide will show you how to:
- Run the tests that come built in with Refinery to ensure your install is working correctly
- Run the engines tests