Is a News Module the best solution for this unusual layout concept?

[Nullig]

On the page edit screen, there is an Options tab. De-select "Show in Menu" to hide the page within the menu structure.

Nullig

[Vin]

Hello nate22,

warning : I haven't read all the posts in the thread so this may not be relevant.

I think there is no need of the News module, no need of coding : your yellow prototype is a standard template with two {content ...} blocs (columns). You create a new page to create a "pair", you put it where you want in the hierarchy (categories) wich generates the {menu ...}.

Pierre M.

Seems like the solution I posted two posts back 

Hello nate22,

warning : I haven't read all the posts in the thread so this may not be relevant.

I think there is no need of the News module, no need of coding : your yellow prototype is a standard template with two {content ...} blocs (columns). You create a new page to create a "pair", you put it where you want in the hierarchy (categories) wich generates the {menu ...}.

Pierre M.

Wouldn't this add a new Menu item for every pair added? I don't want that. I want only 5 Menu Items (categories) and under each will be a potentially infinite number of pairings which are accessible only through "previous" and "next" buttons.

It depends how you call the MenuManager. In my post, I put this code in template:

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{if $cgsimple->get_root_alias()=='the-specified-root-page-alias'}
{cms_module module='menumanager' template='prev-next-template' start_page=$current_page_alias [b]show_root_siblings='1'[/b]}
{/if}

This would make menu show only the pages on the same level and in the same group of subset of pages - analogically, it will show its siblings (gosh, it's like a big family with parents, childs, descendants... however you want to call it  ), provided that the alias of their root parent matches the alias.

Anyway, regarding the licensing issue :

Thank you, Vin. That seems like an elegant solution. If I use it, I guess I'd have to leave the branding on the admin page as per Calguy's request. I suppose if Calguy's modules are the more important ones used in CMSMS I will have to use MODx for this particular project, but it is nice to understand the different terminology to go about solviing the same problem in both environments.

If I continue the licensing problems here, I'd get off-topic, so let's get back to the original thread here: http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.php/topic,20120.msg99083.html#msg99083

[edit]P.S. - Actually, you don't need to use cgsimplesmarty module, you can use a UDT from Share your tags in Docs, it is made by Calguy, but they don't come with the requirement of adding the branding (if I understand it correctly).

[nate22]

Hi Vin,

Holy crud, I actually stumbled my way through and got a second editable area of content!
Thanks so much!

There was one error in your code for the UDT (for posterity I mention it) ... $global in line 1 should be global (no $)... I kept getting an error message until I removed that.

Now, I just have to figure out how to style this thing to my liking. ... No small feat, I'm sure! 

Wow, I can't believe it... CMS Made Simple actually is pretty simple once I took the templating language at face value and didn't try to interpret it too much. Amazing!

Question: what does this mean: "you can use a UDT from Share your tags in Docs"?  ... the part I'm having trouble understanding is "from Share your tags in Docs". I have no idea what that means.

[Vin]

There was one error in your code for the UDT (for posterity I mention it) ... $global in line 1 should be global (no $)... I kept getting an error message until I removed that.

Oh damn, those mistypes... I corrected it in the post (for other readers).

Question: what does this mean: "you can use a UDT from Share your tags in Docs"?  ... the part I'm having trouble understanding is "from Share your tags in Docs". I have no idea what that means.

Oops, I didn't realize it may be unclear... I meant, in Documentation (the User Handbook section), there is a part "Share your tags here" (under User Defined Tags), and there is a tag which does practically the same as the function from CGSimpleSmarty module.

[nate22]

Thanks. I'm going to read all the documentation over the weekend, I guess. I was trying to selectively search for stuff, but I suppose that's not working too well because I'm bending your ears too much already! Thanks again.

[pixelita]

Just curious if you got that up and running with the dual content blocks? I'm going to be doing something kind of similar, a pro/con side by side series so this may be the answer to my prayers as well.

[nate22]

Yea, if you follow Vin's instructions it works. I'm in the process of studying the documentation to style it how I want, but I have 6 more weeks to finish this. I'm going to use CMS Made Simple after all. (... and I'm leaving the links to CMSMS on the admin footer!)

[omnichaos]

using a UDT called "current_page_alias", which would contain:

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global $gCms;
$gCms->variables['page_name']

(please someone correct me if there is a way to show page's alias without creating a UDT)

Yes there is.
Just use {$page_alias}