HT_TEEPEE

Playing with layouts - ez.no

Posted September 12th, 2008 by admin

 

From a base 4.0.1 install using eZ Flow..

Remove the Live video top level menu item.

In the admin interface..

Click the Folder for “Live Video”->Advanced->hide/unhide, it is a toggle.

Refresh the user view and note that Live Video has vanished from the website.

 

Now add a new top level menu item.
**Important, when creating new objects, the type is always important, know your types**

In the admin interface, click the highest level folder in the structure pane->Create here->Frontpage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fill in the details and send to publish.  This front page item got named “Fishing”.  Just for fun, use the 3 zones (layout 2).  This completely replaces any existing layout details.  It is up to admin to put something in these zones so visitors have something to view.

Left Zone, Add Block, then Add Item, select the existing Conference Blog, which is a Blog type.

Send for publishing and review the site.

You should see the “Conference Blog” appear in the upper left pane, but the right and bottom panes are still empty.

Create a new content item, of type event, to have something to put in the Right zone.

Login to the user interface of eZ Flow.

Create new content of type “Event Calendar” by selecting it from the drop down menu and clicking the + icon.  This calendar page is created, and available from the Fishing top level menu or site map, but not yet on a pane anywhere.  

Add this new content to the Front page Fishing object.

Flip back over to admin interface.  

Click on Right Zone, notice no objects are currently in this zone.  

Add block, Add Item, notice a list of top level items.  The Event Calendar was created as a subitem of Fishing, so drill into it by clicking the Fishing text.  The name of the Event Calendar type appears, click the box next to it and click select.  Click Send for publishing.

Put a tag cloud in the bottom zone.

Still in the layout for the Fishing frontpage, go to bottom zone in the layouts view.  Name the block TC, for Block Type: select Tag Cloud.  A good reference to all the block types available is in block.ini.append for the siteaccess.  Send for publishing and go to the Fishing page on the site.

Visitor should see something in each of the panes.

How to add more and better content to each view?

First create the content paying attention to the type you choose and where you create it, then follow along with the examples in the demo combined with the short set of instructions above.

EXAMPLE, create new content, add new content to the new Fishing front page layout.

Create a new poll in the user interface, select “Poll” in the drop down and click the + icon.

Something similar to the below.

 

 

To make this Poll content appear in the “Left zone” in a new block in the Fishing layout..

Go to the Fishing front page layout, the left zone, add a block.

For block type select “Poll” from drop down, then “Choose source” and find the newly created poll in the content structure, select it, and send for publishing.

 

Final should look something like this.  3 panes, with two blocks in the upper left pane.

 

 

Tag clouds are a great user interface enhancement for data that does not neatly fit in a tree structure.  Like for fishing reports regarding the Mississippi river for instance.

In a very likely scenario, for a fishing reports tree view, the user would most likely be forced to start at a particular state of interest, and jump state to state to state to glean all info for Mississippi river.  

In a tag cloud, users can see every Mississippi river report with one click on a tag.

Tags: eZ Flow, fishing, layouts