Welcome to the FirstSpirit Developer Documentation

For which users is this documentation intended?

This documentation deals with template development and plug-in development in FirstSpirit. By linking different sub-areas of the template development and by the sub-division into two difficulty levels for beginners (see Basic principles of template development) and for advanced users (see Template development) this documentation provides clearly structured information and should therefore make familiarisation with the template syntax of FirstSpirit easier.

Sub-areas of the online documentation

This online documentation is divided into the following main sections:

Template development

All important aspects for the development of a FirstSpirit project in the Template Store can be read up in this section. The section is divided into the relevant sub-aspects of template development. These include:

Forms for the definition of input components.
Rules for influencing specific elements or characteristic of a form
Snippets for influencing the display of objects (“teasers”)
Template syntax divided into instructions, expressions, data types and functions.
Variables for evaluation of contents of different areas.
Debugging providing information about finding and fixing bugs in FirstSpirit projects.
ContentCreator provides information about functional scope, requirements and restrictions of ContentCreator. For information about how to implement EasyEdit / InlineEdit / LiveEdit please refer to Chapter Content Highlighting and EasyEdit, for information about developing using JavaScript API please refer to Chapter JavaScript API.
Scripting for automation of control sequences.
FirstSpirit API as a public interface of FirstSpirit.
Security with notes about security aspects for project and template development.

Templates (basic principles)

The topics used in most FirstSpirit projects are dealt with in this section.

Among other things there is a step by step introduction to the development of a FirstSpirit project. From the initial creation of a new project to the creation of page and section templates through to use of databases; simple examples are used to explain working with FirstSpirit.

ContentCreator

for using the editing environment ContentCreator can be read up in this section.

In addition, topics that affect template development for ContentCreator will be covered:

Template development
Primarily to simplify the editorial work in the preview (EasyEdit / InlineEdit / LiveEdit).
Customization
The interface of ContentCreator can be customized to meet the requirements of the respective project.
JavaScript-API (WE_API)
Enables interaction with the user interface and other ContentCreator functions via JavaScript, e.g. from documents in the preview.
Plugins
Custom extensions (modules) that extend the functionality of ContentCreator.

Advanced topics

Over-all aspects of the functionality of FirstSpirit are explained in this section.

are illustrated here. Further subjects will be added successively.

Tutorials

This section provides exercises for developing templates.

And now, enjoy working with FirstSpirit!

FirstSpirit is not a universal “out-of-the-box” product, but is software which is constantly being developed. New functions are continuously being integrated and customer ideas are realised. The documentation can only satisfy this constant updating process to a limited extent. It is therefore possible that a figure in this document differs from the current view in FirstSpirit due to slight time delays. Do not let it confuse you and follow the instructions as usual.

Disclaimer

This documentation is provided for information purposes only. Crownpeak may change the contents hereof without notice. This documentation is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Crownpeak specifically disclaims any liability with respect to this documentation and no contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this documentation. The technologies, functionality, services, and processes described herein are subject to change without notice.

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