FirstMagic User Guide: Introduction
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Welcome to FirstMagic 2.0 FirstMagic is the easiest way to build websites on the FirstClass platform - you can use your existing FirstClass content as web pages without changing the way you work, and without modifying any of it at all.
FirstMagic will publish your FirstClass Documents, Conference messages, e-mail messages, PodCasts, Conferences, Folders and Calendars as web pages, out-of-the box.
Build your website simply by dropping your materials into an appropriate container, or create new content directly where you want it. Navigation - Menus, Sidebars and Footers - is automatically created while you work, and their behaviours can be customized easily.
However, FirstMagic is a great deal more than that. You can:
- Build highly customized publishing solutions easily
- Design your website to look like absolutely anything you want
- Make personalized homepages and subscriptions for authenticated users
- Distribute and share content in numerous ways - even publish to third-party websites
- Make custom forms just by point-and-click, for both anonymous and authenticated visitors
- Publish rich text, images, galleries, audio, video, forms and public chats
- Connect your site with social media platforms with just a few clicks
Browse the Guide to discover more, or simply try it!
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Whats´New in FirstMagic 2.0
New Website Modes |
FirstMagic Websites are no longer restricted to be a Homepage or a Blog: the Homepage can be a Media Portal, Blog, Homepage, Login Dialog, Splash Screen, or a combination of many different publishable elements.
You can have as many Blogs as you like, anywhere you like. Or Project Tabs, Newslists, Galleries, PodCast directories, FirstClass containers... With a FirstMagic Pro license, even stand-alone, completely independent Firstmagic Websites inside the Main FirstMagic Site.
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Templates and Layouts |
The core of FirstMagic 2: special containers and documents that will publish a wide variety of content types on the web, while still working as standard FirstClass objects on an intranet.
- A FirstMagic Template is a file. In FirstClass it behaves like a normal document, but on the web, it is a media playlist, a custom form, a web page, or perhaps a Pop-Up dialog.
- A FirstMagic Layout is a container - in FirstClass it is a normal conference, but on the web, it will do stuff. For example, a Gallery Layout displays uploaded images and their Exif data, that visitors may share and redistribute - drop an image in and it is pushed to a subscriber´s WordPress Blog elsewhere automatically - if you allow it to, of course.
- A Blog or PodCast Layout works the same way: syndication is instantaneous, automatic, and works everywhere: RSS readers, third-party Blogs, iTunes...
- All FirstMagic Layouts are visually unique to their tasks, and have properties that changes a FirstClass container from being a plain list to being a rich web page in its own right.
- There´s no learning curve to use Templates and Layouts - it is all automatic, and in FirstClass, it is all familiar.
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Personalized Publishing |
Firstmagic 2 will let your visitors Log in to get personalized homepages - unique content for any visitor that has an account.
Laying out hierarchies of content, distribute ownership to it, and do intranet publishing while maintaining a public site on top is as easy as dropping containers into the Website and establishing privilege groups for them.
Teachers can have custom Homepages for every student, businesses can have custom content for each client, and content authors can have any number of tailor-made online presences for different user groups.
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Pickers |
Any Layout, Template, or Widget, installs itself simply by selecting from a picker.
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Semantic URLs |
No more cryptic FirstClass links: any URL in FirstMagic is a human-readable, easily remembered link consisting only of words you can define.
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Plug-and-Play Custom Forms |
Make custom forms with custom fields in minutes simply by point-and-click; the result is a web page that publishes itself and is open to anybody you want - anonymous web visitors, authenticated users, or both. There´s no scripting, only pick-and-save. Responses are delivered to you as plain text files that can be forwarded or exported as is.
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Easy Designs |
FirstMagic 2 delivers a whole series of new custom designed Skins, while creating your own is simpler than ever before with new Presets to choose from and a new, visual interface to the SkinDesigner itself.
You can easily write a custom design from scratch in CSS: classes and methods are documented, and working examples provided.
In FirstMagic 2, Website, Digital Sign and Mobile UI Skins are merged into one: the same stylesheet will work for all three, and as classes are consolidated, a FirstMagic 2 stylesheet is both simple and powerful.
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New Setup Form |
FirstMagic Preferences is now named Setup: it is completely redesigned to be intuitive and simple to use. Much is automated, most options simply configure themselves - and all special functions are now stand-alone Widgets - tiny apps you simply drop into the container where you need it to do something.
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New Interface |
The Website Root is redesigned to be a visual representation of the Website. Menus, Sidebars and Footers are in the Root itself.
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FirstMagic Pro |
FirstMagic Pro is an extension of FirstMagic that enables it to publish stand-alone websites inside itself.
One can build Sub-FirstMagics, import FirstClass Personal Web Publishing Containers, or combine both methods into one... And each one can use the same easy Navigation, Layout, Design and Skinning methods any FirstMagic Site does: each can share, each can be unique, and all can be completely integrated into the Main Site... Or not.
Note: FirstMagic Pro is licensed separately from FirstMagic.
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A Short FAQ
Can a FirstClass Website be converted to FirstMagic? |
Yes. You can move all your FirstClass content into FirstMagic.
If you have custom forms specificially created for a different product, their HTML templates can be translated. Any FirstClass Client counterparts or workflow systems will continue to work exactly as is.
If you have a custom design on your existing site, it can be ported - translated into a FirstMagic Skin.
Your content hierarchies can be transferred as is.
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Can a FirstMagic 1 site be upgraded to FirstMagic 2? |
All your FirstMagic 1 content will continue to work in FirstMagic 2, in the exact same way: you simply move your FirstMagic 1 containers into the corresponding FirstMagic 2 containers.
A customized FirstMagic 1 Skin will have to be updated to FirstMagic 2 if you want to bring it along, however.
Such an update is just a matter of updating class names and do a little fine-tuning; basic structure is the same. If you are familiar with CSS, the classes are well documented. Else, your FirstMagic Reseller will be able to help you with it. |
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