I would like to write a generator plugin to add some post-like items to my blog. The items are supposed to appear in the blog index, but they have no page associated to them (you can't click on them).
I know I need something like
class QuoteGenerator < Generator
safe true
def generate(site)
# add a single post
site.posts << QuotePost.new(site, site.source, "Blub")
end
end
But what I don't understand is how to implement my Post subclass. I've found that other plugins (like this one to embed Flickr photos) write the data they want to a markdown+YAML file, and then reference this file:
class QuotePost < Post
def initialize(site, base, title)
# Nooo, I don't want to create a .md file for this
name = "2016-05-13-test.md"
dir = ""
# (write out .md file here)
super(site, base, dir, name)
end
end
But then, I would hardly need a Plugin in the first place. I could just generate the markdown files myself (with an external script).
What I'd like to do is to just set a couple of variables in my Post subclass, and have them available in the template for the blog index. How can I do that?
The case you've described looks to be unrelated to Post, since usual posts are file-based. Collections may be suitable, but again - that's not clear how you getting the content.
I'd suggest two major options:
Use _data/ to set an object list, where each item has the required properties if you can define them via a static JSON/CSV/etc file (or generate it once, to separate external data producer and jekyll visualization).
Use :pre_render hook and a plugin if you have to define the data via code -
your hook will also receive a payload hash as a second parameter which allows you full control over the variables that are available while rendering
Having your data in site.data variable allows you to iterate through items, render something or include a template and so on. Also there are plugins which generate new pages based on site's data.
The right answer depends on how you're getting the content, which markup you need and how those items will be used.
Related
I would like to generate Rules DSL from the helper module. I have custom blog helper and i would like it to generate RSS feeds automatically so I don't have to specify any compile and routing rules in the Rules file as long as specific metadata is present.
So lets say I have my blog in news.erb and news\*.md directory. Erb file has blog configuration in its metadata section (number of articles to show, ordering etc..) In preprocessing I have create_blog function which generates \page\N depending on the metadata I have in news.erb. If this metadata includes rss: true section I would like the create_blog function to also register 2 aditional rules (if those are not previously defined) and 1 aditional file /feeds/news.xml:
compile /feeds\/.+/ do
filter :erb
end
route /feeds\/.+/ do
item.identifier.chop + '.xml'
end
I can generate the file all right, but in order to keep the site modularized I want to create those above rules in the create_blog itself. This allows me to later, if I want to remove the blog, just comment out the module and not change Rules file.
I'm creating a widget where there will be 2 types of params:
-The one that can change depending on where we call the widget, those one will be defined in the widget call:
<?php $this->widget('ext.myWidget', array(
'someParams' => 'someValues',
)); ?>
-The one that are the same for all the call to the widget (a path to a library, a place to save an image, ...)
I would like to know what is the best way to define the second type of parameters.
I'm hesitating between making the user define it in the params array in the config file or defining it in an array in the Widget file.
The main advantage of the first option is that the user won't have to modify the Widget file so in case of update his modifications won't be overwritten, but this is not a specific user params so putting it in the parmas array in config file might seem strange.
So what would be the best solution? If there is another one better thant the 2 above please tell me!
Edit:
To clarify my thought:
My widget will generate some images that can be stored in a configurable directory. But since this directory has to be the same each time the widget is called I don't see the point of putting this configuration into the widget call!
This is why I was thinking about putting some params into the config file, in the params array like:
params => array(
'myWidget' => array(
'imageDir' => 'images',
)
)
But I don't know if it is a good practice that an extension has some configuration values in the params array.
Another solution would be to have a config.php file in my extension directory where the user can set his own values so he won't have to modify his main config file for the plugin. But the main drawback of this alternative is that if the user update the extension, he'll loose his configuration.
This is why I'm looking for the best practice concerning the configuration of a widget
Maybe what your looking for is more of an application component than a widget. You've got a lot more power within a component that you have with a widget. It can all still live in your extensions directory, under a folder with all the relevant files, and still be easily called from anywhere but the configuration can then be defined in configuration files for each environment.
When your setting the component in your configs, just point the class array parameter to the extensions folder, instead of the components folder.
Update:
If you do want to use a widget because there's not a lot more complexity, you can provide some defaults within application configurations for widgets I believe, I've never used it myself, see here: http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/1.1/en/topics.theming#customizing-widgets-globally.
But I've found with more complex widgets that a component serves me better in the long run as I can call methods and retrieve options on it much easier and cleaner, but still have everything related to the extension within one folder.
I know this doesn't exactly match the form of www.example.com/class/function/ID/, but what I want to display to the user would make more sense.
This is what I would like to do:
www.example.com/project/id/item/item_id/
So, an example would be:
www.example.com/project/5/item/198237/
And this would be the behavior:
www.example.com/project/ --> This would show a list of projects (current implementation)
www.example.com/project/5/ --> This would show a list of items on project 5 (current implementation)
www.example.com/project/5/item/ --> This wouldn't really mean anything different than the line above. (Is that bad?)
www.example.com/project/5/item/198237/ --> This would show details for item 198237.
So, each item is directly associated with one and only one project.
The only way I can think how to do this is to bloat the "project" controller and parse the various parameters and control ALL views from that "project" controller. I'd prefer not to do this, because the model and view for an "item" are truly separate from the model and view of a "project."
The only other solution (that I am currently implementing and don't prefer) is to have the following:
www.example.com/project/5/
www.example.com/item/198237/
Is there any way to build a hierarchical URL as I showed at the beginning without bloating the "project" controller?
There are 3 options, sorted by how practical they can be:
Use URI Routing. Define a regular expression that will use a specific controller/method combination for each URL.
Something like that could help you, in routes.php:
$route['project/'] = 'project/viewall';
$route['project/(.+)'] = 'project/view/$1';
$route['project/(.+)/item/'] = 'project/view/$1';
$route['project/(.+)/item/(.+)'] = 'item/view/$2';
That is, considering your controllers are item and project respectively. Also note that $n in the value corresponds to the part matched in the n-th parenthesis.
Use the same controller with (or without) redirection. I guess you already considered this.
Use redirection at a lower level, such as ModRewrite on Apache servers. You could come up with a rule similar to the one in routes.php. If you are already using such a method, it wouldn't be a bad idea to use that, but only if you are already using such a thing, and preferably, in the case of Apache, in the server configuration rather than an .htaccess file.
You can control all of these options using routes.php (found in the config folder). You can alternatively catch any of your URI segments using the URI class, as in $this->uri->segment(2). That is if you have the URL helper loaded. That you can load by default in the autoload.php file (also in the config folder).
Improving on this question:
Is it good practice to add own file in lib/Varien/Data/Form/Element folder
The accepted answer shows how to extend a Varien form element, but this will not work if you want to package it into a custom module.
What would be the proper method of extending the Varien form element in a module? A simple XML setting I'm hoping?
Update:
Thanks Vinai for the response. Although that does work, I was hoping to extend the form element somehow. My extension is using the base File form element to allow administrators to upload files to categories. So, I'm not directly adding the form elements to the fieldset myself.
I suppose it's possible to to check for the file input on my category block on the backend: Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Catalog_Category_Tab_Attributes , and then change the form element if it is 'file' to 'mycompany_file' -- but this seems like a workaround.
Is there an easier way? Thanks again Vinai.
On the Varien_Data_Form instance you can specify custom element types like this:
$fieldset->addType('custom', 'Your_Module_Model_Form_Element_Custom');
Then, add your element with
$fieldset->addField('the_name', 'custom', $optionsArray);
If you are using a form without fieldsets you can do the same on the Varien_Data_Forminstance, too.
EDIT: Expand answer because of new additional details in the question.
In the class Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget_Form::_setFieldset() there is the following code:
$rendererClass = $attribute->getFrontend()->getInputRendererClass();
if (!empty($rendererClass)) {
$fieldType = $inputType . '_' . $attribute->getAttributeCode();
$fieldset->addType($fieldType, $rendererClass);
}
Because of this the attribute frontend_input_renderer on the attributes can be used to specify custom element classes.
This property can be found in the table catalog_eav_attribute, and luckily enough it isn't set for any of the category image attributes.
Given this, there are several ways to apply customizaton.
One option is to simply set the element class in the table using an upgrade script.
Another would be using an observer for the eav_entity_attribute_load_after event and setting the input renderer on the fly if the entity_type_id and the input type matches.
So it is a little more involved then just regular class rewrites in Magento, but it is quite possible.
You don't necessarily need to have a file in the lib/Varien/ directory in order to extend it. If you needed to add an element to that collection, you should be able to extend one of the Elements in your app/code/local module. The answer to the question you referenced seems to also indicate this is the case. I would create your custom field, extending its highest-level function set (i.e., lib/Varien/Data/Form/Element/File.php).
If you want to override the Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Catalog_Category_Tab_Attributes block, then you should extend that block in your module and then reference the new one. You may wish to extend the block using an event observer rather than an XML rewrite, for compatibility purposes.
This question has probably been the most covered question in all of DotNetNuke's lifetime but I'm going to ask it here in StackOverflow because I need an answer, a really good one that doesn't make me look the other way. Thanks in advance to all DNN experts.
I've researched many ways of making this work for me and i've seen Michael Washington's solutions (Panels, MultiViews, ...) and Will's (Strohl) blog post on DotNetNuke's personalization engine through setting SkinSrc which is useful, as well as reading through Default.aspx's code which has given me more insight, however, i'm still faced with the problem that calling EditUrl()/NavigateUrl() brings me to a page with a single module in admin skin or a page with nothing respectively.
The specific version is DotNetNuke 6.0.1 (DNN). This Module has 4 other views in addition to the main view which I desire to navigate through sequentially. e.g.
Begin Checkout -> Collection of Delivery Details -> Confim Order
Have you found a solution?
I want to achieve
1) Module loads with other modules around. No module isolation
2) Views in a module that don't Preload e.g. Page_Load in each view gets called when the Module loads up
Help!
Assuming you are asking this as the module developer, the solution is to not use DNN's mechanism for specifying a control. So, you can't use EditUrl or specify the ControlKey in the NavigateURL call (which both generate "ctl=mycontrol" in the URL). Instead you need to have your module display your various controls based on the Query String parameters. So, you'll generally have a control in your module who's primary purpose is to dynamically load other controls based on the query string. So, for instance:
You will start with your control that lists items. You'll have a "Buy Now" button for each item. The hyperlink for each item can be generated by calling
NavigateURL(TabID, "", "View=BeginCheckout", "itemid=" & id, "mid=" & mid)
2.) On the page load of the handler control, it looks to see if anything is specified for the "View" Querystring parameter. If not it displays the listing control, if so, it displays the corresponding control.
Dim controlPath As String
Dim path as String = "~/DesktopModules/MyModule/Controls"
Select Case Request("View")
Case "BeginCheckout"
ControlPath = path + "BeginCheckout.ascx"
Case "DeliveryDetails"
ControlPath = path + "DeliveryDetails.ascx"
Case "ConfirmOrder"
ControlPath = path + "ConfirmOrder.ascx"
Case Else
ControlPath = path + "ItemList.aspx"
End Select
If System.IO.File.Exists(Request.MapPath(controlPath)) Then
placeholder.LoadControl(controlPath)
Else
Throw New Exception("Unable to load selected template. Please go into module settings and select a list and details template.")
End If
Most of the advanced modules for DNN do something along these lines so there's plenty of sample code out there. I would guess some of the core modules do something similar. I adapted the code above from Efficon's Articles module for DotNetNuke.