Showing detailed news at it's own page

[Raven]

Hi

Is it possible to have detailed news shown at it's own page?

The problem is as follows. At my web site I'm using a special welcome page, here I only want to show a welcome text and, a few news summaries and a menu. However when I click the [more...] link at news it want's to show this news at the welcome page.

A similar problem occurs if I want to use the "Bulletmenu Vert 1col+News". With this layout short summaries of the news are shown in it's own column. If I first show a page about "gorillas" and then click one of the news links. I will still have the headline for the "gorilla" page shown and then the news article show up below the headline. Looks stupid..... 


At the moment I have a temorarly solution, that is to modify the news summary template to link an own news page showing all news instead of detailed newsview. This can be confusing for some, especially when several categories are listed, and annoying since the user have to click two times to get the information.

Example see: http://www.oslotkd.no (in norwegian...).

[westis]

Hi Raven,

This is a popular request and it is likely to be a solution that is one step on the way for the next release.

Step 1
- redirecting to another page for the news details -

With a parameter like page='pagealias' in the news module tag, it would be possible to set what page that the news details should be displayed on.

For example, if this tag is in the front page:
{cms_module module='news' category='general' page='news-general'}

That could display the news summary on the front page and redirect the user to the page news-general to display the news details when the visitor clicks on "More...".


Step 2
- changing the template of the page, to display news summary and details on the same page, but with different templates -

As for your other problem, when using Bulletmenu Vert 1col+News. That template has two content blocks (the normal content + one content block where the news is displayed). If the details are displayed on another page, that is using a template with only one content block, then only that news article would be displayed (and not the other content block with the news summaries).

But the ideal would be to be able to display the news on the same page, but with a different template. However, right now each page can only have one template, which is selected when editing that page. The second step would therefore be a parameter like template='nameoftemplate', that is changing the template that that page is using.

This second step would require much more work and is therefore not likely to be in the next version (which will be 0.12), but hopefully in 1.0.


I hope you follow the difference between these two things and that I also understood correctly what you (and others with the same request) want to achieve. I have also wanted this to be implemented and now it seems like it's on the way.

[Ted]

i've committed the first solution to svn this evening.  Basically, {cms_module module='news' detailpage='some_page_alias'} will show the details in that page instead.

A new version of News isn't quite ready yet, since I know there are a few things left to do, but it shouldn't be too long before it's released.

[Raven]

To give you some feedback:

The solution for step 1 would be what I'll be looking for and I see this has already been done by wishy.

Regarding step 2; I think using an own template would be more work for the site admin. Whenever the main template changes he/she might want to change the news-template as well. If one want a seperate template, the template would follow the page right?

I'll stick to my temporarly solution for a short while.  I'm planning cmsms upgrade for my site around easter, just to get the fixes, new features etc. and whatever good things that are plannet for cmsms.

Thanks for your answer.
Keep up the good work.

[westis]

To complicate the matter further, there is a third issue, redirecting to different pages depending on the category that the news article is in...

For example, on my site I have a div box listing the latest news from any category. Then I have another page called "News" with each news category on separate sub-pages. Now I'd like that when I click on a news article on the front page I'd like the detail page to open on the page for that specific category.

The problem is how this can be done. The news module must know what page to open for each category. A spontaneous idea is to use a parameter for the News module tag, like categoryRedirect=true and in the Categories tab in Content -> News one can set a page for each category, that is redicted to when a news item from that category is clicked if the parameter categoryRedirect is set to true.

Ideas?


About step 2, that idea is for when there is no specific page for displaying news. But then again, I think there always should be and then the template can be changed for that page instead.

However, this is also an issue when the news page has several content blocks, that for example displays five news articles each, in columns (possible with the svn version of News). Then the detailed news article is only displayed in the {content} placeholder, while the other content blocks stay the same, which may look a bit weird.

Don't know if the latter makes any sense... but the category redirection issue we'd need to think abotu a solution for, I think.

[liquid]

I was just going to ask if anyone had tackled issue #1 as well. Thanks wishy!

[lemkepf]

Is this a global technique or is it only implemented for the "News" module? I'd really love for it to be global....

[westis]

Is this a global technique or is it only implemented for the "News" module? I'd really love for it to be global....

Do you mean clicking a "More" link for a normal page, that takes the visitor to a more detailed view of that page? Or do you mean using it also for modules like Calendar?

I suppose there shouldn't be much problem copying this parameter to the Calendar module, although I think it for now is only for the News module specifically. I'm sure Wishy can give you more details on that.

[volcanoboy]

Step 1
- redirecting to another page for the news details -

With a parameter like page='pagealias' in the news module tag, it would be possible to set what page that the news details should be displayed on.

For example, if this tag is in the front page:
{cms_module module='news' category='general' page='news-general'}

That could display the news summary on the front page and redirect the user to the page news-general to display the news details when the visitor clicks on "More...".

So this is not working as of now? I'm guessing not because I can't seem to get it to work 
I'm having the same problems as some of the others. I have set up an Archive with subcategories News, Articles & Media. My first problem is that on my main page I have set up the main area to only hold a photo so I have no padding. To the right i have the news module set up to show the last 5 news. It doesn't look very nice when it loads the news into the Main area.

Also, I have headlines on all the archive section and again the news module to the right. If I choose one of the articles when I'm in the news section it shows the article with the headline News.

Anyone else found a solution that works? Anyway...really hope ti see it in the next version 

[Ted]

This new version hasn't been released yet.  I did just check latest svn to make sure it still works.  It does. 

[volcanoboy]

aha?
Ok, so just to be sure (I'm almost falling a sleep and my brain is on hold )
the {cms_module module='news' category='general' page='news-general'}. Is it supposed to work now in the latest release or is it to come in the next?

Thanks!

[Ted]

It's detailpage=''.  And it won't be available until 0.12 is released (unless you're using a 0.12 beta, which it's also in).

[volcanoboy]

ok. Looking forward to seeing it implemented. I't the only thing missing for me right now.

Thanks!

[petert]

just upgraded (wasn't easy) and the detailpage param works as advertised, thnx!

[iNSiPiD]

Ted, can I run this version of news (or at least the detailpage paramter patch) in 0.11 series?

I don't want to upgarde just yet but would love this new feature.

NB: You can solve your page "template" issues by simply having a different tempate applied to whatever page you redirect to.