FrontForum Module

Tags: _module

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• www.wikidot.com/doc:frontforum-module

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Is there a way to use images in FrontForum's Summary

broxen 06 Sep 2011 19:14

Is there a way to display images in FrontForum's summary field?

Basically, I'm trying to create a news blog-roll for the frontpage, but I would like to show a thumbnail for each news item. %%summary%% removes any markup… Is there any other way to achieve this?

Is there another module, other than FrontForum that may help me achieve this?

How about being able to trim forum-post content to a certain point? Like %%content(300)%% to trim it to 300 chars?

Thanks!
-Broxen

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broxen - Do you want the mustache on or off?… too bad.

Re: Is there a way to use images in FrontForum's Summary

RobElliott 06 Sep 2011 20:51

I don't think there is a way to do this with the FrontForum module because of the way it is constructed. However there are better ways to do this anyway.

I always like to give a real-world example to highlight what I am explaining, so if you have a look at my page at http://www.strathpeffervillage.org.uk you will see in the middle of the homepage about half way down news entries with an image. If you look at the left hand side you will see events listings also with an image.

The best way to do this is not to worry about the FrontForum at all. What I have forthe news is a news category which is autonumbered (for the eventws it is an event category). The entries are added via a dataform which requires a live template. So the following code is added to the news:_template page:

Show news:_template

[[div class="content-header"]]
[[include inc:tweet]]
%%title%%
[[/div]]

[[div class="content-block"]]

[[div class="form-image"]]
[[include image-box:image
|image=%%form_raw{newsimage}%%
|width=250px
|float=right
|heading=
|caption=%%form_data{newscaption}%%
|link=fornews:here
]]
[[/div]]

**%%form_data{newssummary}%%**

%%form_data{newsinfo}%%

[[div style="clear:right;height:10px;"]]
[[/div]]

More info: %%form_data{newsfile}%%

Contact: %%form_data{newscontact}%%

Telephone/Mobile: %%form_data{newstelephone}%%

Email: %%form_data{newsemail}%%

Related website: %%form_data{newswebsite}%%

%%form_data{newsvideo}%%

[[div style="height: 10px;"]]
[[/div]]

------

[[div style="color:#074A38; font-size: x-small; padding-left:10px; text-align:left; whitespace:no-wrap;width:400px;"]]
%%created_at|News item added on %e %B %Y%%
[[/div]]

[!-- =================================================================
[[include :snippets:suo BEGIN CODE |unique=first |type=showto  |user1=robelliott |user2=]]

[[iftags -completed]]
[[button set-tags +completed text="Mark Completed"]]
[[/iftags]]

[[iftags +completed]]
[[button set-tags +completed text="Mark Future"]]
[[/iftags]]

[[include :snippets:suo END CODE]]
[!-- ================================================================= --]

[[/div]]

====

[[form]]
fields:
 newsimage:
    label: Image
    type: file
 newscaption:
    label: Caption
    type: text
    width: 75
 newssummary:
    label: Summary
    type: text
    width: 75
 newsinfo:
    label: Text
    type: text
    width: 75
    height: 25
 newscontact:
    label: Contact
    type: text
    width: 75
 newstelephone:
    label: Telephone/Mobile
    type: text
    width: 75
 newsemail:
    label: Email
    type: wiki
 newswebsite:
    label: Related Website
    type: url
 newsvideohint:
    type:static
    value: Add a Youtube Embed link below. You must add [[html]] before it (on its own line) and [[/html]] after it (on its own line)
 eventvideo:
    label: Video
    type: wiki
 newsfile:
    label: Attached file with more info
    type: file

[[/form]]

There's a lot there you won't really need as it is related to the design of my site and displays certain elements to me only. The result of that page after saving can be seen at http://www.strathpeffervillage.org.uk/news:1

The main point to remember is that the below the four ==== you have your dataform structure, and above the four ==== is the way the dataform should look on the page after it's saved.

Now, to list the news entries you want to use a listpages module. The code on my homepage is as follows:

[[div class="content-header" style="width:361px;"]]
Recent News
[[/div]]

[[div class="content-block" style="width:365px;"]]

[[module ListPages category="news" limit="4" order="created_at desc" separate="false"]]
[[div class="form-image"]]
[[include image-box:image
|image=%%form_raw{newsimage}%%
|width=110px
|float=left
|heading=
|caption=
|link=%%fullname%%
]]
[[/div]]
%%tags%% - %%title_linked%% - %%date|%d/%m/%y%% 
[[div style="clear:left;"]]
[[/div]]
[[/module]]

**See more news on the [[[fornews:here | For News]]] page!**
[[/div]]

This code lists the most recent 4 news entries from the news category. It displays the image that was uploaded to the news page (you can use :snippets:image instead of my image-box:image). It then displays the title and other fields from the dataform and it then clears the left float before the next image. If you had a summary of your blog as one of the dataform fields you could display that, that is what I have done with the events on the left of the page. If you click onj the image or the page title (%%title_linked%%) it will take you to the news item.

There's a lot to take in here and it won't all be obvious. So do come back with any (and lots of) questions.

---

Rob Elliott - Strathpeffer, Scotland - Wikidot first line support & community admin team.

Last edited on 06 Sep 2011 21:15 by RobElliott Show more

Re: Is there a way to use images in FrontForum's Summary

broxen 07 Sep 2011 04:18

Wow, thank you for your detailed response!!

Yes, lots of questions… but let me review everything first and play around with it and then I'll get back to you.

However, off the top of my head:

What, in your opinion, are the benefits of this over using the forums to handle news content?
Can I still use comments by utilizing the comments module?
I'm guessing there's no way to convert existing comments over to this alternative system, correct?

I'll be back with more, once I have time to play around with everything.

---

broxen - Do you want the mustache on or off?… too bad.

Re: Is there a way to use images in FrontForum's Summary

RobElliott 07 Sep 2011 08:30

What, in your opinion, are the benefits of this over using the forums to handle news content?

Flexibility, ease of use and the results are the reasons that come to mind. Once you have your dataform set up it is quick and easy just to create a new page in your news category. Also it gives you the ability to tag news items more easily so you can separate your news items easily with the ListPages module.

Can I still use comments by utilizing the comments module?

Yes you can. It goes above the four ====. Alternatively you can have a button to automatically create childpages (one for each comment) which are then displayed under the main news item.

I'm guessing there's no way to convert existing comments over to this alternative system

Not that I am aware of.

---

Rob Elliott - Strathpeffer, Scotland - Wikidot first line support & community admin team.

Re: Is there a way to use images in FrontForum's Summary

broxen 28 Sep 2011 19:06

Hi Rob,

I've been swamped with work, but I wanted to let you know that I keep this tab open in my browser and think about trying this all the time. hahaha.

Once I finally get to it, I'll get back to you with any questions I have… though it seems like it might work for my needs, I'm just afraid about losing the existing comments.

Thank you for your suggestion, I'll get around to trying it soon.

---

broxen - Do you want the mustache on or off?… too bad.