[SOLVED] Creating many templates from one?

[Charmie]

Hi All,

Not sure if this has been answered.

Basically I have a page template which has 5 components which make up the design:
1 - Left hand navigation
2 - Left news block
3 - Content block wide
4 - Content block
5 - Right hand navigation

The header and footer are the same on every page.

Is there a way I can call different elements that make the page, depending on the page alias, instead of having to create serveral different templates to cover the variations.

So on my template I would have some code like this:
{If page_alias == 'club, training, courses'}
     xxxxx
     xxxx
     xxxx
{elseif page_alis == 'news, gallery, blog'}
     
     

     etc......
{/if}

I thought I could use Smarty Tags, but am not quite sure how they work?

Also the News components for each page would need to display a different category, does anyone know how this would be possible to do?

Thanks
Charmie

[laits]

Hi There,

Personally I think you may be getting into the overthinking trap, use the functions available within the cms instead of trying to do something smarter (or messier as the case ends up) than whats actually a really good cms.

Sounds like you need 2 templates - a left and a right

for the rest use the content block function

For instance I have a different gallery on every page in one of my cmsms's. I call the gallery in the only template i have, by using
{content block="Gallery"}

Whatever you call the content block i.e. {content block="PageNews"} will appear in edit page menu of the cms - no further programming needed - place the block in the template and it shall appear.

You can then put the variables in there - on a per page basis, when entering the content (or {content} in your template)

In my different gallery on every page example, i have

{cms_module module='album' albums='1'} on page 1
{cms_module module='album' albums='2'} on page 2 etc etc

Place the module in the content block rather than tying it down to the template.

You can put anything in a content block, and have as many as you like, and they all magically appear! Just put each one in a div and style with css.

Hope that helps - from someone who has overcomplicated cms far too many times until one day i got a bang on the head!

Rich

[Charmie]

Iaits

Fantastic, that's so much simpler then what I was trying to do.
Perfect and thanks loads.

Charmie

[gap_tooth_clan]

Was just looking at this, trying to find something else. but here is my 10 cents:

I always use smarty if statements in my templates, it is just the best way. But over use can lead to confusion, always bare in mind the end user and how they will be able to use this.

{if $page_alias == 'home'}

do stuff

{elseif $page_alias == 'contact'}

do other stuff

{elseif $page_alias == 'about-us' || $page_alias == 'services'}

do even more other stuff

{/if}

I also like to find the parent page alias and then add in extra HTML depending on what the parent page is. CMS Made Simple is so very flexible there is always more than one way to achieve a solution to your question, sometimes takes a little searching.