PageLines Framework vs. PlatformPro

Revision as of 18:11, 26 January 2012

Since the launch of the new PageLines Framework, we’ve had tons of questions about “what’s different.” Here are some highlights on some of the new features and information on how they compare to PlatformPro.

A Better Experience for Your Users (Responsive/Mobile Design)

Responsive Design Options

PlatformPro is based on a static website framework. Meaning the front end design won’t adapt to your users browser or device. While 99% of the web is still ‘static’, with v2 there is now a better solution!

PageLines is now the first major framework to be based on a responsive grid and this is one of the most far reaching changes in this Framework.

Having this grid means you can now allow your website to ‘respond’ to user’s browser; even if they’re viewing your site on a mobile phone or tablet. this makes for a much richer, more professional viewing experience and your visitors are gonna love you for it.

More Placement Options

Better Options for Drag & Drop Placement

PlatformPro didn’t have the ability for many sections to be added to the content area. For example, the feature slider could only be added at the full width of your site.

This isn’t a problem anymore.

Because the framework is now ‘responsive’ it’s also possible to place sections like the Feature Slider, or the Carousel, in the content area of your website. These sections themselves are also responsive and adjust based on different browser resolutions.

Control New Page Types

Control New Types of Pages

In PlatformPro it wasn’t possible to edit pages that didn’t handle “meta data” or page-by-page options. This presented a challenge and some pages (for example “tag” or “search” pages) couldn’t be controlled very well. Essentially they all had to have the same setup as the blog page.

To solve this, we built a new system called ‘special page handling’ to deal with this. A new panel in the framework is designed just to create handling for all types of pages that weren’t not possible to control in PlatformPro. These include tag listings, categories, archives, search results, etc..

Better Page-by-Page Control

In PlatformPro, there were two major design issues that have been vastly improved…

Meta Options > Global Options

Enhanced Options On Pages

In PlatformPro, most options were created on a global scale which prevented you from controlling certain features on different pages. In effect, you needed to have the same settings “site-wide”.

To fix this, we vastly enhanced the meta option api (e.g. the page by page option handling) to handle things on a more granular basis. Now in the framework you’ll easily find dozens of options you can set either globally, or via the meta settings. This allows you way more control of how your individual pages look.

Cloning Sections

Way More Section Flexibility

PlatformPro was only designed to handle one instance of a section per page; and this caused some frustration among users. For example, if you wanted to use a ‘callout’ section on the top and bottom of a page, you couldn’t do it. This got very frustrating for people who were having to create custom sections just to solve the problem. For this reason, we built something called cloning which allows you to simply duplicate most sections right on your page.

Another feature that was improved is Section Control, a feature that allows you to selectively hide and show sections that you’ve placed on a template. That system is now way more robust and intuitive.

Organically Build Your Website, Without Coding

Purchase New Sections in the Admin

The concept behind the new PageLines Store is that it will allow you to dynamically add new tools to your site over time. Meaning that if there are features that don’t exist yet in the framework, they will no doubt someday be added to the store.

We think that once the Store is running at full-speed this will be a massively useful tool for developers and professionals who continually tweak and improve their websites.

There are already 30 items available for you to purchase from developers with dozens more in development. Remember, when you purchase, you are also supporting independent development by the budding PageLines Developer community.

Better UI and Other Improvements/Fixes

New Drag & Drop Interface

Again there are way over 50 new features and enhancements in the PageLines Framework compared to PlatformPro.. In the development, we thought through all types of user scenarios and issues and redesigned to improve usability and fix issues. In this article its really hard to keep going and cover every specific improvement, so there is a partial new feature list at the bottom of this article…

Partial New Features Listing…

• Design - Responsive grid + all core sections made responsive
• Design - Improvements to all core sections: Banners, Features, Boxes, Branding, etc..
• Section Handling - Cloning (multiple duplicate sections per page)
• Section Handling - Improved section control and viewing options
• Localization - Made 100% translation ready, addressed plugin issues
• Background Image - Responsive Supersize Option
• Background Image - New fixed background image option
• Feature - Dynamic, simpler color control
• Feature - Navigation Enhancements
• Image Option - Login Page Image
• Image Option - New icons in branding
• Feature - Text shadow embossed effect
• Feature - Content drop shadow
• Typography - New Google fonts
• Feature - New excerpt options
• Feature - One click upgrades
• Sections - New Simple Nav
• Sections - Massive enhancements to Features, Boxes, Carousel, Banner, etc...
• SEO - HTML5 Tags
• Posts - New posts thumb handling
• Posts - New clip thumb handling
• Posts - Metabar shortcodes and finite control
• Layout - Percentage width site
• Layout - Fixed width responsive
• Enhancement - Improved Options Handling
• Enhancement - multisite handling
• Enhancement - Complete port to HTML5/CSS3 (Backwards compatible)
• New API - Special Pages
• New API - PageLines Options
• New API - PageLines Themes
• New API - PageLines Sections
• New API - PageLines Plugins
• New API - PageLines Launchpad
• New API - Integrations
• New API - LESS CSS
• New UI - Drag and Drop Templates
• New UI - MetaPanel
• New UI - Section Control
• New UI - Profiles
• Performance - Better CSS loading
• Performance - PHP Memory Control
• Performance - Refactoring and Load Speed
• Extension - 50 new filters
• Extension - New option types (graphical selector, fonts, etc..)
• Integration - MediaWiki
• Integration - Vanilla Forums
• Tool - Equalize columns
• Tool - Supersize Image
• WordPress - Better Custom Post Type Handling
• WordPress - Admin bar integration
• WordPress - Support new features
• WordPress - Inline help

Ready to Make the Switch?

Check out this doc on How to Migrate from Platform to PageLines for tips and important information on upgrading.