beta 0.10 content blocking? status?

[rtilghman]

All:

I was wondering if anyone knew the status of the content blocking feature that is currently listed as:

0.10 "Antigua" - Late Apr 2005

    * New admin redesign
    * Multiple content block

on the roadmap page of the main site.  I had elected to use phpwcms over cmsms for a project I'm working on (got sidetracked) more or less because the "article object" approach and ability to create global content objects for reuse across multiple pages was key.  However, if this is or will be available I'd like to reconsider CMSms.  Basically I really liked CMSms, particularly its group and user management features (which is a notable shortcoming with PHPwcms), but content blocking/objects is a make or break feature.

I did a fresh install of 0.10, but I didn't find this feature anywhere... am I missing something?  The revised management interface also makes it a more attractive option... nice job.    So, is content blocking currently on the table?  In development?  Is there a plan to actually have this for the 0.10 dev release or the 1.0 release scheduled for... June?

Any info is appreciated.

Thanks,
Rick

[Ted]

The beta contains it, actually.  It's just not documented yet.  Put a {content block="header"} in a template, and then it a page.  It should just automatically show up as a second content box called "header".

I'm hoping 0.10 will be official in another week or so, but hopefully that gives you an idea of what we're trying to achieve.

[rtilghman]

Cool, glad to hear its in the works.  However, one question I would ask is how exactly the multiple blocks are associated and managed...?  From your description it sounds like content blocks are hard coded at the template level, but this actually kind of defeats the idea of content blocking, which is the ability to change content within a section of a template based on the page being viewed, etc.

While it isn't ideal, PHPwcms has an interesting way of doing this; users add content items within an "article object".  This AO is essentially just a meta-association in which you can have multiple pages comprised of multiple content items, which are then associated with the "blocks" in the page (there is a drop-down on each physical content piece that allows you to assign it to one of the available block tags).  A shortcoming for PHPwcms is that the block names aren't dynamically updated based on the template being used (which means users see and can select blocks that are not actually available... grrrr), but it allows for larger content associations somewhat effectively.

With regards to CMSms, where do I actually put the content I call for in the template?  In other words, if I have, say, "right", in my template, where do I put the content that I will then call or associate with right?  At present CMSms seems to only have the concept of a Page, in which you have a single piece of content.  That being the case I'm not sure how to actually do this...

Are the hooks there but there's no actual way (at present) of associating content with those hooks?  Is the plan to implement a more robust content object approach after 0.10/1.0 or before?  Just trying to get a better idea of the roadmap and timeline.

Thanks,
Rick

[Ted]

The content object gets it's defined block names based on the template that it's associated to.  So, if template has 4 content blocks, then when you edit the page(content, whatever), there will be 4 textareas there.

Make a little more sense?

[rtilghman]

Ah, yes, much more sense now.  I tried it out, very cool.  Now I just need a place to create reusable content pieces within the content structure (apart from Blobs) and I'm all set! : )

Very slick man, looking forward to seeing v1.0.

-Rick

[iNSiPiD]

wishy, are you saying that I could build a template with the following tags in various divs and table cells throughout that they will appear as individual {content} blocks? And that the fileds will also appear as named when you edit the content for that page??

{content block="heading"}
{content block="organisation"}
{content block="description"}
{content block="contact"}

This may just be the best news I've heard all year.

As suggested in another post (which may not have made sense) will you also be able to make the provision for paramters to these blocks in the future that will allow for such things as size, type etc for layout and validation?

e.g. {content block="phone" length="10" type="integer"}

This would mean people could build their own customised template engines for various things like events, jobs etc.

If there was then some way to display links in a page for templates of a certain (like an archive, similar to how the News module works) this would be absolutely terrific.

[Ted]

That's what I'm saying. 

Actually, this is an interesting idea, but a little out of scope (for now).

As for the last thing, I'm not totoally sure I understand.

[iNSiPiD]

What I mean is, let's say I build a template for job listings and call it 'jobs'. I allocate permission to a staff member to use that template to create new job instances. But I then want a page that displays the preview (title, organisation) of all those jobs. I'd like to have similar functionality to the News module so that jobs could have a display and expiry date and I could choose to list them by category even.

I know that doing this through a template is not the right way. What I have in mind is more of a modular module that has has all these parameters and can be customised using the block method above.

[Ted]

Yikes.  That's pretty specialized.  Interesting ideas, though.

[iNSiPiD]

A simpler way to go would be to use the News module as a base, rename it to Jobs or whatever, and modify/add the necessary fields to suit the purpose. I really think the News module is great. Can't undersatnd why some people are having so much trouble with it.

[iNSiPiD]

Hi wishy,

Have you come any firther with documentation for this? Are thre any new additions or changes for the .10 release that we should know about?

My site's about to go live and I want to try to get some of this functionality into the templates beforehand.

[Ted]

The block functionality works as described above.

There are SO many changes in 0.10, that it would be hard to describe them all.  Might want to look in the ChangeLog and see whats in there.  There's a lot...

[iNSiPiD]

Yah, I knows it. Unfortunately the changelog doesn't include a tutorial on each new feature.

S'ok. I know there's a lot to document. Slowly, slowly catchee monkey.

I might even get around to contributing something myself at some stage!

[okulyth]

OHHH HALELUJAAHA, GIVE PRAAAISE TO THE LORD FOR THE GLORIOUS INVENTION OF MULTIPLE CONTENT BLOCKS!!! RAISE YOUR HANDS AND SING WITH ME ...

oh, sorry, wrong occasion, ok, get myself a coffee. lalalala.