Quick Start
In this video we look at taking your first steps in setting up Alloy's Editor as well as configuring your credentials. It's super simple to do, so you'll be managing Blog Post, Embeds and Droplets in no time!
In addition to the Editor Quick Start video we also have a Quick Start: Blog video that takes you through the steps of setting up a simple blog. Once you've completed these Quick Start videos be sure to watch our other videos below on how to manage your content and customize your Editor and Blog as well. We've organized this page in a flow to help you get the most out of the tutorials.
Blog Setup
One of Alloy's main focuses is blogging. While the Editor stack handles creating and managing the actual blog posts we still need to be able to display them to our site's visitors. To do this we need to build out a page for all of our Blog Posts. In the video below we create our first blog page using the Blog Entries stack.
Content Management
Alloy excels at helping you manage your content. Starting with Alloy v3 you can manage not only your Blog Posts but you can also create embeddable content with Alloy's Embeds and Droplets. All of this content is managed directly from your site right inside of the Alloy Editor.
In these videos we look at managing your content in three different forms -- Blog Posts, Embeds and Droplets. Each is a unique type of content, with each having their own unique tools. We take a look at what those tools are, how they work and how you can make use of them.
Blog Posts
Alloy is primarily focused on creating beautiful, easy to use blogs. The blog posts can be created, maintained and deleted all directly from your Editor. We can schedule future posts, work on drafts and more.
Embeds v3
Embeds allow us to create chunks of content that can be inserted right into our RapidWeaver pages. Once they're embedded and the page has been republished we can edit that content straight from the Editor.
Droplets v3
Data Droplets allow us to use small snippets of text, or images, to control aspects of our pages. As with Blog Posts & Embeds, Droplets are created and maintained right in the Alloy Editor.
Stacks Settings
The stacks included with Alloy allow you a great deal of customizations for your Editor, Blog and more. Each stack has its own unique set of settings and controls.
The videos below walk you through the included stacks and their settings. We explain what these settings do and how the stacks are used and how to configure them is various ways. In addition to these videos each stack has its own documentation page that gives you a rundown of what each settings does for future reference.
Alloy Control Center
The main Alloy stack does the heavy lifting for your blog. It will be included on any page where you're including other Alloy blog specific stacks so that it can process and parse your blog contents.
The main Alloy stack doesn't contain an abundance of settings, as each of the other individual stacks have their own controls. This stack does allow us to setup our Blog Posts folder name as well as to configure our blog's RSS Feed.
Blog Entries Stack
The Blog Entries stack's job is to render your Summary, Categories, Full Post and Search results views for your site's visitors as they're viewing your blog. After the main Alloy stack the Blog Entries stack is the next most important stack when it comes to Blog Posts.
Editor Stack
The Editor stack will allow you to create a backend for your site. This secured backend allows you to create, modify and delete Blog Posts, Embeds and Data Droplets directly from your website. It is the hub for all of your Alloy based content.
Search Stack v3
The Search stack allows you to add a search bar field to your Blog page so that your visitors can search through your Blog Posts for content they may be interested in reading.
Droplet Stack v3
Allows for you to use the Editor's Droplet tags on your page. This stack replaces these tags with the contents of the associated Droplets you've created in your Editor.
Categories List Stack
This stack lets you to insert a list of your Blog Post's categories as a linked list. This gives your visitors the ability to see all posts on your blog within a specific category.
Recent Posts Stack
Recent Posts allows you to build a linked list of your most recent posts from your blog, allowing your visitors easy access to some of your most recent entries.
Conditional Stack
Lets you to display content on your blog page depending on whether your visitor is seeing the Summaries, Categories or Full Post view. Used to show various layouts.
RSS Feed
In this video we look at setting up our blog's RSS feed as well as using the RSS feed stack to insert a link to our feed on our Blog Page.
Topper Plus Stack
Assists you in building a modern style design for your Full Posts view. You can create banner like displays for your Full Entry posts where the blog entry title is displayed on top of the post's Topper Image.
Markdown Import Stack
The Markdown Import stack, while not tied directly to any of Alloy's main functionality, is a utility for importing your own plain Markdown files into your RapidWeaver pages. It is a predecessor to what Alloy's Embeds.
Advanced
Alloy is easy-to-use right out of the box. But it also incorporates additional features that let you take things even further.
These videos look at more complex features such as Pretty URLs, Blog Commenting, and more. These more advanced topics help you take things just a bit further.
Pretty URLs v3
Some people prefer to have what is commonly known as Pretty URLs for their Blog Posts. In this video we look at what they are and how to set them up in Alloy and RapidWeaver.
Commenting v3
We've added the ability to include commenting functionality directly within Alloy's Blog Entries stack. This video talks about the two services you can choose to use that Alloy supports and how to use the feature.
Previous / Next Posts v3
We've added the ability to let your visitors go to the previous or next blog post, chronologically, via stylish visual links at the bottom of each post. In this video we look at how this feature works and how you can customize it.
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