How to Find the Administration Panel

First things first. Eventually, you will want to get to the SilverStripe administration panel. You might expect to see an admin directory in the root directory, as done on Joomla, Drupal and WordPress, but you will be surprised to see no corresponding directory in SilverStripe. The SilverStripe administration is virtual, no obvious login or index file for it in particular. To get to administration, enter

• /admin

Voila, you have the login access to the administration area. If you are looking for the actual admin files, they are available in the /framework/admin directory.

Where to Load Add-ons

Curiously, unlike Drupal, Joomla or WordPress, SilverStripe likes to clutter the Document Root directory with all add-ons folders. Retrieve your add-on from Git and the add-on folder will be stored in the site’s root directory.

If you use a ZIP file retrieved from the GIT directory for the add-on:

• Unpack the zip file, leaving content in their add-on directory
• Rename the add-on directory. If the add-on directory name has “silverstripe” prepended, or “-master” incorporated in the directory name, remove the “silverstripe” and “-master,” leaving only the application name as the directory name.
• Replace “-” with “_” if a dash has been used in the naming of the directory.
• Copy the add-on to the site’s root directory.

If you fail to remove the prepended or appended labels, the loading of the files will fail.

If you fail to replace “-” with “_”, the content will load, but, will load incorrectly and fail to function.

How to Rebuild the CMS Control Database

If you load an add-on or make changes to the database, you must rebuild the SilverStipe site. To rebuild, enter:

• /dev/build

How to Clear Cache

To speed site display, SilverStripe caches page content. Anytime you make changes to template files and data base, clear the cache. Clear the cache every time you add a new add-on, anytime you create a new page type (explained later), or make any change affecting database or available php or ss files. Clear cache by entering:

• /index.php?flush=1

Where to Load Images

SilverStripe design suggests that specific content belongs in specific directories. Templates will be placed in /themes subdirectory, you images belong in the /assets. As you load content via SilverStripe, images will be loaded to /assets/upload and subdirectories you request. You may want to arrange to use /assets as the area to store all files you ftp onto your site for consistency. Expect your images stored in subdirectories of:

• /assets/upload

Summary

• /admin – access to the administration panel
• / – location to store add-on directories
• /dev/build – command to rebuild the site database
• /index.php?flush=1 – command to flush the cache
• /assets/upload – appropriate directory for storage of images

The next article will discuss creation of a template