Re: [Phpslash-devel] Page blocks

[Peter C. <li...@cr...>]

On Monday 10 Nov 2003 12:39 pm, Joe Stewart wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 10, 2003 at 12:01:04PM +0000, Peter Cruickshank wrote:
> > Still getting my head round the pure-blocks approach to building the
> > site... a couple of questions:
> >
> > 1. Is there a way to get several modules to be in the same section?
> >
> > I'm thinking of say a 'General information' section, with common blocks,
> > but used by two modules:
> > - the glossary
> > - a feedback/contact us form
>
> Do you want the two modules shown on the same page?
>
> > It seems to me that I'll need to have separate Glossary and Feedback
> > sections,

> If not it sounds like you are describing two sections.
...
I think so, now...

In the old days (ie before the move to module blocks), they could have been in 
the same section - the section was a way for ensuring that they had the same 
blocks surrounding the generated content. The benefit was that the number of 
sections could be kept under control, saving on admin time if you want to 
change what blocks appear on what page - this pays off if like me, you're 
using PSL as a site-building engine, rather than a news-blogger.

I'm not saying to go back to the old set-up tho, and I know I may be in a 
minority.

Slightly different topic - it's a hassle to delete sections, because you have 
to delete all the (many) blocks first. Maybe it's time to add to the section 
admin page some indication of what blocks have been assigned to the section + 
the option to add/remove them?

> > 2. What contains the blocks in the top and bottom columns?
> >
> > The old navbar and topic bars were in slashHead.tpl and slashFoot.tpl. It
> > now seems they are inserted between slashHead/Foot.tpl and
> > index?col*.tpl.
>
> You're right.

[...]

> So if you don't use the topic bar or want to move the navbar to the left
> blocks, you can do it right from the block admin.

That's a cool new feature for sure.

> uses:
>
> Got different ad zones?
> I guess you could do away with the header file and have everything in the
> index template if you edit html in a wysiwyg editor.

That would also allow more design flexibility over how/where the topic and nav 
bars appear (eg some designs might need the topic bar before the site logo 
etc).

Thinking aloud...

slashHead + slashFoot are now embedded into the index*tpl files...
Wouldnt it make more sense to generate pages from slashHead + index*tpl + 
slashFoot, with all the columns in index*.tpl files? (ie dont embed slashHead 
etc). That way, the {TOP} / {BOTTOM} elements in index.tpl could be enclosed 
by TABLE or DIV tags if that's what the design required.

... it'd be easier for the programmer/designer interface IMO.

But not a big deal... 

[...]

Peter
-- 
The Macintosh is Xerox technology at its best.