I also took a look to the documentation in the Website and it does not show how to make a simple thing (just like the video does). It is like a dictionary, showing the meaning of things but not the grammar.
It seems Neos is now only for their users, not new ones.
Even when the edition looks promising, it seems there is no way to start a project if you do not have a tutor.
I do not have the skills to tell what is wrong with your documentation, but I can share my experience.
I have a multilingual website with statistics, banner and comments systems. I need to add a CMS with user and versions management for editors with no technical skills. I require fully customizable templating because everything must have the same look and the menus to include the current pages as well as those made with the CMS. I have not decide if the home will be managed by the CMS or by the current system so there must be both options. My first choice is Typo3 but it needs discipline in the editors so I tried to find another more user-friendly option.
In paper, Neos features cover my needs but in practice I could not find a single working example of it.
I did not find:
System requirements: Hardware (memory, processor, hd, etc.) and Software (how to configure Nginx, Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL). How does it works with shared hosting, VPS or dedicated. Actually I do not understand why it is not included in Softaculous.
A list of steps to make a simple Website with a simple custom template.
How to configure the directories per language and source, neither how to set up the home page and sections.
How to insert the banners, comments and statistics systems codes into Neos pages. I do not need database integration I just need to know how to put a couple of html and vanilla javascript in each page. Creating an extension is no option for a so simple project.
How to develop a desktop version and upload it to the production Webserver when it is finished.
Something I do find is an enthusiastic community and you are the reason I spent my time in this long a boring comment, I hope it will help you to improve the documentation. This is also the last chance to include or not Neos in my project.
Thank you for the suggestion but the videos require a lot of pre-knowledge to understand what they are trying to explain. I guess this guy as the one from the other video learned the system at their jobs and not by themselves. This is why I say you need a tutor to start.
When I found Neos I did not understand why it is almost unknown when it has so much to offer, now I can say the reason is it does not provide what is needed to attract new users.
Unfortunately I do not have the time for a try an error journey, so a I wish the Neos community the best with your endeavour.
thank you very much for spending the time to write down your struggle! This is so important for us to understand where beginners are coming from and what we can do to improve, because all current users already have collected a lot of knowledge around the concepts of Neos and hence are blind for the PoV of a newcomer. We do have a very helpful community here on discuss and on the slack channel though, to help everyone get over their struggles with the project. But that surely doesn’t fully make up for a lacking beginner-friendly documentation.
I’m sorry you found the documentations we provide until now not helpful enough to get you really started. I’m pretty sure you would have been a great member of the Neos community with your spirit and openness!
So thanks again, and maybe at some point in time you will give us another chance and possibly we have improved the guide for newcomers into our project We’ll surely take your hints as input to improve!
I forgot to tell you the most important missing thing is that Neos is not a CMS but FMS, this means you have to define the backend, frontend and template with every project. A CMS has the backend fixed and sometimes the frontend and the template too. This is why it is “easy”.
It is important to explain because a CMS user would not understand why so much configuration languages and wt* is a “package”.
Actually I catch it because I work with Typo3 and I guess in the “package” you save such definition, but it is not clear in the documents and videos I found.
Yes, it would be nice to have one or a couple of Site Packages with placeholder content included for optional installation, that cover most common scenarios and allow a designer to quickly put together some pages and start customizing the rendering and styles.
The Skeleton comes with Headline, Text, Image and Content Reference NodeTypes, as well as Page and Shortcut.
The Demo Site Package has a couple more and could be used as an easy starter “Theme/Design/SitePackage” if the demo content is omitted.
Standard sets of some of the best and most useful NodeTypes would be helpful to have, too
— e.g. for simple/blog/gallery/presentational/informational etc. sites.
It is nice to have the option to reinvent the wheel, though that’s not always necessary and easily discoverable go-to components would suffice in many cases.
I have been thinking about you and I found you need to get more exposure between new users.
Having this in mind the best thing I could imagine is to include Neos in Softaculous. I had knew many people who try the SW in there just for fun, additionally, the installation and updates are so easy that any one would be able to give it a try in minutes. Actually, I also know people that do not use any other Open Source product if it is not in there, because this would mean that it has weird system requirements and require a manual deployment and maintenance.
Please note Typo 3 has been in Softaculous since the first moment with very good results.
Having the same Problem, I am looking for a System like Neos and its fun to work with, but the start is hard. Spend a lot of hours to get into the system, but i still have a lot of questions.
It would be realy helpfull to have a basic installation with the basic features like Slider, Accordion, Gallery etc. where you can have a look
But i dont give up, Neos looks like a nice Project if you are into it!
What parts of