Customize the way content is displayed

[mfresco]

Hello there!

My first post on the phpWCMS forum deals with one topic specifically: Does phpWCMS allows the developer to customize the way content is displayed . This question arises from installing Mambo on my computer.

Mambo is nice, template writing easy, installing modules, components: All a piece of cake! However, I am a designer and a control-freak. With Mambo you cannot leave the Portal-look, without a serious core-module hack. After all, I want to change more than just some css-sheets.

Actually I designed my site before thinking of a CMS. Therefore, my design does not fit the standard Mambo / Php-nuke portal style. That's why I'm now looking for a CMS with content modules which can be fully configured, adjusted, changed to fit my design. Will phpWCMS fit my specific needs?

Thanks in advance,

Michael Fresco

[spirelli]

as far as I can see you can custom write the whole design. Phpwcms has got some table based layout possibilities, but you can also ignore that and drop your custom code into the template(s). Per template you have ONE main content are that can be managed dynamically.

have you had a look here: http://www.phpwcms-docu.de/index.php?english_version

would be intersting to see your site!

[mfresco]

Spirelli, thanks for your reply! Interesting guide you have provided, I'll take a look at it.

The picture above, comes directly from Photoshop. As you might guess, the design is indeed inspired on Macromedia's homesite. Mainly, it has got two 2 cells for dynamic content. (main & side). The menu will be managed manually, through some javascript.

I'd like to re-create the frontpage look with phpWCMS. It actually consists of this code:

<tr>
<td>thumbnail</td>
<td>article introduction</td>
</tr>

but you can also ignore that and drop your custom code into the template(s).

Can I make a phpWCMS module generate this code, or do I need to write a new module, for my frontpage?

Thanks,

Michael

[spirelli]

AS far as I can see you will be only able to manage one cell dynamically, as there is only ONE {CONTENT} replacement tag allowed per template. The {CONTENT} will throw your articles on the page. The rest of the page design goes either in the different fields of the template (headder, footer, main, left, right ...) if you base your seaidn on phpwcms' table layout ability or you have all your design code in the 'main' field if you want to manage the layout completely by CSS only for example.

Phpwcms can generate different table based layouts for you. So it would do the code. You only have to type in the measurements and then put the content in the different areas of the template.

I'm not sure what you mean with 'frontpage look', But if you want a frontpage with just one article and a bit of tect on it you will sure be able to do this.

[mfresco]

Thanks again Spirelli, your last post is very convincing! To give more insight in the design, I have created another screenshot.

Since phpWCMS allows me only one {content} block, I hope that you can put more blocks in this content block, e.g. a ‘RSS newsfeed’, or a ‘ community news block ’ (blue blocks on screenshot). So you would end up having 2 dynamic cells on the frontpage, instead of 4.

Sorry for asking once again, but how should it be done with phpWCMS?

All have a nice weekend ,

Michael

[spirelli]

I'm afraid I'm not so sure about this. Maybe someone else can help here.
I know that you also can include externatl php scripts. maybe things can be done with that. Better someone else to talk about that. Try searching the forum also.

[pepe]

Hi mfresco,

of course it's possible to create YOUR Layout in phpWCMS by using LAYERS.

Have a look at:
http://www.peperkorn-online.de/index.ph ... sen-layern

This is an example to put 3 or more special layoutfields (layers) into the main-contentfield of phpWCMS.

The content of all the layers is inside phpWCMS.


First: Put in the whole contentelements and replacement-tags into the article as usual.

Second: Add the few lines of code (each line inside an own HTML contentpart), which manage the begin and end of the several layers.
The layers are defined in the frontend.css.

That's all. Try it... and you will see, it works fine

[shocktone]

Great concept. But...
I dont get how that really works.
I checked out the link but can't find a description.

Greetingsj

[shocktone]

ok forget it. I just realized how it works;
divs before and after the articles. So you can place them, the way you want.
right?

[pepe]

That's it

[kubens]

From my point of view the only way to solve this problem is that we need a technique which enables us to access every content part separate by an index. For example, one article contains three differnet content parts:

Code: Select all

<div id="divPicture">
{CONTENT:1} 
</div>

<div id="divDescription">
{CONTENT:2} 
</div>

<div id="divTechnicalSummary">
{CONTENT:3} 
</div>

But unfortunatelly the {CONTENT} does not consider any parameters at this moment

[mfresco]

Thanks for all your information! PhpWCM's has got a really helpful community, very important for a cms too!

More and more I am getting a better picture of what is possible with phpWCMS. Today I installed phpWCMS and started playing with the templates. Though I find the Mambo way easier (all template information stored in accesible files) it is working now.

Have a look at:
http://www.peperkorn-online.de/index.ph ... sen-layern

This is an example to put 3 or more special layoutfields (layers) into the main-contentfield of phpWCMS.

The content of all the layers is inside phpWCMS.

Thank you for pointing out this method. I will give it a try. Will be a bit harder, since I never used css tables (=layers right?) before. Hopefully Dreamweaver will incorporated this quickly.

From my point of view the only way to solve this problem is that we need a technique which enables us to access every content part separate by an index. For example, one article contains three differnet content parts:

Totally agree with you, actually I'd prefer this method above using the css tables (still quite heavy for the browser). I do really hope that phpWCMS will allow this kind of customization in the soon future. You only see this at the real complicated CMS's, like TYPO3 and ez Publish.

Michael