Evaluating Pulse for Rapidweaver/Foundation project & have questions

I am a Rapidweaver/Foundation developer and am evaluating Pulse for a project and would like to know how it would handle some unique needs. The main site will be RW/Foundation-based with multiple pages each representing a unique mobile food vendor. The iOS and Android app (soon to be released apparently) is a key attraction. However in addition to the current Pulse features which I am still reviewing, I would like the ability for the vendor to be able to upload his location to a map stack and have it displayed on his unique page. The location can change daily. Currently I use Doobox Maps 2 stack which works well for static purposes, but am looking for a CMS/Pulse feature that can be controlled by my multiple clients for their unique pages with the RW/Foundation main site.

I also would LOVE to have a way to have the Pulse Blog cross-post to social media. Are these features currently possible? Potential feature requests?

  1. Map feature: If there is some embed code by Google Maps / whomever, you might be able to put that code into a text block and have it displayed on the RapidWeaver side.
    If that is not possible, we could create a Pulse CMS Stack which would allow you to display a map.
    I am quite hesitating to include standard support for Google Maps, as they are constantly changing their API, and as a business person, you do not have unlimited page views available.

  2. I like the social media idea. What about having dedicated social media buttons, where you are able to click on an you will get a pop up for sharing with your followers?
    Automatic posting is difficult because of the API ant authentication hurdles.

Hi Jannis, the goal is for the vendor to be able to upload the address of their current location, and their followers be able to get a map and directions. I don’t want to deal with code and it is not really the solution for this case. There will be 20-50 different vendors all with constantly changing locations that they need to post. How would a Pulse CMS stack work? Could the vendor use the Launcher app to post their location and a map would pop up which would show the location and give directions? Let’s talk about this possibility because I could see it could be useful for Pulse users for a variety of purposes - artists displaying at galleries, craft fairs, etc.

As for the social media cross-posting, the idea is to try and cut down the work they would have to do, by making one Blog post via the Launcher, then having that post replicated on Facebook, Instagram, etc. How could this work? The goal is to use Launcher to compose the post, then “somehow” have it show up on their social media pages so they don’t have to create and post over and over again.

That will not work. The launcher app is (sorry to say that) currently only a HTML view on the admin page.

The customer would have to enter latitude and longitude at least.

Hi @Jody,
It sounds like you want the vendor to be able to log into Pulse and update the details of their location on the site. Pulse would certainly let you do this and you could possibly use my Google Maps plug-in to allow then to add a map location to their page using a short code.

Where I think you may come unstuck is with Pulse having currently only one level of admin control. You can’t (easily) limit your vendor to just his or her own page which may be an issue.

In terms of social media posting have a look at If This Then That which has loads of recipes to automate things like this. For example this one. Buffer is also very good at this although it is more about sceduling posts.

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Good points all!

I second IFTTT with hooking into the Pulse RSS to get the info needed to perform that.

As @instacks says - with the Launcher app you can edit any of the Pulse content but would need to be able to edit the map variables. @TimPlumb’s plugin would help with that.

Also, yes, Android on the way. Having trouble getting it approved but hopefully get there shortly then will announce…

But sounds like you can get there so give it a try and let us know how it goes :slight_smile:

Hello Tim and Michael, I will definitely see how IFTTT could handle social media postings, it’s probably the easiest way to do this. When it comes to the Pulse pages and map, I will not be creating the site in Pulse, but in Rapidweaver using Foundation. I haven’t yet decided how how best to incorporate Pulse, but within RW I’m guessing I will either set aside a page for each vendor, or only those blocks I want the vendor to be able to control via Pulse.

Will there be an issue having multiple admin/logins for 20-50 vendors? What would be the roadblocks and what would be the best strategy so there are no issues? Can Vendor A have his own page with his own separate login and the same for Vendor B, etc.? Can Pulse items - content blocks, blog, etc. be combined on one page, each in a separate container or must separate pages be used for each container?

Has anyone done something like this that you can show me?

I’ve been checking out the documentation and have a question - can Pulse do feeds? Can you pull out a specified feed, i.e. latest one or two, and place them in another block on another page automatically?

Can you mimic a feed in a block by using the Recent Blog Posts or Recent Posts plug that I checked out on the Addons page?

Yes Pulse creates a feed for the blog - you can embed that in pages.

Regarding all the logins, as it stands - that would probably mean a separate Pulse install for each vendor. You can put these in sub folders on the same domain.

And yes, you can combine many Pulse blocks on a page - as many as you wish.

Hope that helps!

That helps a LOT! Great to know about the feed capability since that lends itself to diverse layout potential on other pages. Since there will be one domain that will need separate Pulse installs, and once I finish my research there are 2-3 other domains needing a CMS solution, would the Video Console licensing cover these?

Can you please point me in the direction of documentation regarding the feed that the blog creates? I checked the Blog documentation page and don’t see it there.

Questions:

  1. Will multiple Pulse installs create multiple Admin pages, or can I use one Admin page with unique login credentials for each vendor?

  2. Within Rapidweaver must the Admin page be visible in the menu? I suppose I could use a graphic or Font Awesome to link to the Admin page which can be hidden from the menu. Any obstacles to doing this?

  3. If I do 10 Pulse installs and there are 10 pulse folders within Rapidweaver’s Resources section, can I rename them to identify the vendors, i.e. pulse106, pulsemaya, pulsesmokehouse, etc. Any issues with doing this?

Yes video console license covers you for up to 5 domains…

Here’s the RSS feed for the Pulse site (as an example):
https://www.pulsecms.com/rss.php

Questions:

  1. Yes multiple installs creates multiple (each) login
  2. No, you can hide it. Just remember the URL you specify. Yes you can link to it using a graphic or icon
  3. That should be ok then you would link to them /pulse106/ etc from the browser

Hope that helps!

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