LISE (ListIt2) : Examples, Tutorials, or Explanation?!

[Squire4Hire]

Does anyone have any resources that goes over how LISE or ListIt2 is/was intended to work? The documentation on it is exceptionally horrible and I have been scrounging the net for anything that might help me figure out how this is supposed to piece together.

So far I've been able to build out my list requirements with LISE. I have all my Field Definitions sorted out and I've been able to create some 'test data' to work with. But how the heck do I call it into a page? What are the LISE templates for and how are they used?

All the help file states is to use this tag on a page: {LISELoader item='item' identifier='alias' instance='LISEInstance' value='myalias' assign='tmp'}

But what is considered an identifier value? And what alias is it referring to from the list item?

In the LISE instance Options there is a section named Module defaults. How do the selections for Detail page and Summary page work?

Too many questions and WAY to difficult to find answers if you ask me...

[Jeff]

Look at the help of the LISE child module. But the logic is the same as most CMSms module

If your child module is LISETest, putting {LISETest} will run the default action for the module with is the typical summary view.

[Squire4Hire]

I just figured that out a moment before reading your post. Wow... How is anyone supposed to know to look at the child instance for a How-To on using the module? A simple note in the parent instance suggesting to look there would have saved me 5 hours of pulling my hair out.

But now I'm on to a new problem. I can't seem to get data out of the item lists. Grrr...

The 'help' suggests using {LISEinstance} to get the list of items. Works fine. In my case I can use LISEkProperty and I can see the two listed items I have currently loaded with all their details.

The next thing the help says is to use something like this to get a piece of data from the list:

{foreach from=$items item=item}
{$item->position|cms_escape}<br />
{/foreach}

So in my case I have this:

Code: Select all

{$property = "{LISEkProperty}" scope=global}

{foreach from=$property item=item}
	{$item->city|cms_escape}<br />
{/foreach}

And this does nothing. I would expect a city for each item in my list but I get nothing returned, yet {$property} returns everything.

My frustration is growing.

[Squire4Hire]

My frustration is turning into contempt.

Documentation for anything related to CMSMS is completely asinine. What should have been a simple endeavor has turned into a god-awful nightmare. The documentation is absolute garbage.

How does anybody learn this platform? Where does a person begin to learn the Smarty syntax as it relates to CMSMS? Why are modules so blatantly ineffective at communicating intent and usage?

Absolutely mind boggling.

Anyway... to answer my own question after another 2 hours of screwing around trying to figure out what exactly is going on...

{LISEInstance} will load all items (this is important to emphasize) from your LISE instance list onto the page.

If you aren't yet ready to display all items on your page, assign the list to a variable like so: {LISEInstance assign='variableName'}

The code block that is in the help should not be changed. Your instance variable is not a replacement for $items.

Code: Select all

{foreach from=$items item=item}
	{$item->fielddefs.[i]aliasOfDataField[/i].value|cms_escape}<br />
{/foreach}

'$items' is actually the list of items that has been loaded on the page (which is why it was important to emphasize). And '$item' is actually each piece of data in the list. Now you should be able to work with the data in the list!

Now, what any of this: {LISELoader item='item' identifier='alias' instance='LISEInstance' value='myalias' assign='tmp'} actually means and why it's in the LISE parent module help, or what purpose it even serves (other than to mislead a user into thinking it will show any data in a list at all) is beyond me. Such a complete red-herring.

[Jeff]

The module works like all the other modules work. The module documentation doesn't cover things that should already be known by basic CMSms usage.

I am totally confused by what you are trying to do. But sound like you trying to get next door by going all the way around the block.

Why are you trying to assign the output(which should be html) of the LISEInstance to a variable and process it like a data variable?

[Squire4Hire]

I'm trying to understand how it works.

It's funny that you say that module documentation doesn't cover things that should already be known by basic CMSMS usage when I can't seem to find any decent documentation that explains that basic CMSMS usage. It's almost as though a person has to come into learning about CMSMS with an already advanced level of CMSMS. I mean, really, where does a person start? What are the basics and where are the resources to help new users/devs like myself?

I dunno, maybe I'm missing something but there's scant information on Smarty syntax and logic structures in the documentation on the site.

Since that last post, I've been able to hack my way through trying to understand the implementation of LISE templates and how they are meant to be used... whether or not that is considered "basic CMSMS usage" is surely debatable, but it still stands that there really is no documentation to help a dev out. Any documentation that is present is obscure at best.

It definitely feels like I've been wandering around the block, knocking on every door and every window, hoping to find some semblance of a way to do all this - but that's the only way I can figure it out.

I assigned the LISEInstance output to a variable in order to get my list data to be accessible by {$items} so I could debug and confirm that the list was being passed into the page. I couldn't find any other way to do it.

But, I did eventually figure out that the chunk of code that handles each of the item data can be placed in a template and can be used to format that data as required. Is any of that explained in a blog, tutorial, example, documentation, or website? No...

So {LISEInstance action="default"} will use the default Summary Template to display the data. Now I just have to do up the "detail" template to display each item.

[Rolf]

Some general docs sites:
http://docs.cmsmadesimple.org/
http://www.cmscanbesimple.org/

[Jo Morg]

Additionally, CMSMS sample content still is the best tutorial there is even though it is getting outdated, will probably be removed in favor of an updated documentation site. Not to say the current one is not good or updated, just that it can be better.
Now... me not being the smartest guy on the block did a rudimentary site in 1/2 a day with CMSMS once I discovered it back in 2007, and a few days later did a full featured portal in about 3 days. The first question I made here in the forum was about an integration problem, and I ended up solving it on my own months later. My question was not as simple as I thought it was at the time, and there was no one trying to do things the same way, so there was no solution given to the problem.
To be honest, CMSMS still is the most simple CMS out there in my opinion, fairly well documented and with sample templates and content to study, and getting better and better, but... it's Free and Open Source... and voluntary work from the dev team... and saying things like "My frustration is turning into contempt" or "Documentation for anything related to CMSMS is completely asinine", amongst others, doesn't help your case.
So please abide our forum rules, and read this before you ask for help (particularly the "How Not To Ask For Help" section).
Thank you.

[Squire4Hire]

Thanks for the input Jo.

After a 12 hour grind and banging my head against the wall over what seems to be mundane details, it's tricky to not have that come through in discussion. I'll do my best to be a bit more 'diplomatic' in the future.

I think the frustration that I have with what is documented is that it's not organized very well - at least not in a way that is indexed for lookup. There isn't even a search functionality to look for key terms. Trying to find the syntax of an if or for loop, or variable assignments is not readily accessible - especially when it comes to understanding syntax and structure that falls outside of the tag list.

But, as it was said... Smarty is a syntax that (though used extensively in Made Simple) is explained elsewhere - go figure.

I guess I'll just keep grinding till I get it.

[Jo Morg]

But, as it was said... Smarty is a syntax that (though used extensively in Made Simple) is explained elsewhere - go figure.

Smarty is a 3rd party template engine that was adopted by CMSMS as well as by other CMSs. It's very well documented on their own site, so no need to duplicate it here. Besides, there are sample templates installed with CMSMS and most 3rd party modules, some extensively documented, others pretty self-explanatory.
It's not a perfect world, but not that bad either.