Adding a side pannel to a custom page

jimmytidey · November 2011

I am using the custom pages plugin as a base for my own plugin. I want to make my custom page have a sidebar with some useful stuff in it, otherwise it just looks a bit bare.

I've tried the below code, but the sidebar is not formatted properly - it shows everything overlapping with all possible options showing.

This is the code I'm using in default.php (from the Custom Pages plug in)

 
	
		// See what page was requested
		$Page = ArrayValue('0', $Sender->RequestArgs, 'default');
		$MasterView = ArrayValue('1', $Sender->RequestArgs, 'default');
		$MasterView = $MasterView != 'admin' ? 'default' : 'admin';
		$Path = PATH_PLUGINS . DS . 'Heresay' . DS . 'pages' . DS;
		
		// If the page doesn't exist, roll back to the default
		if (!file_exists($Path.$Page.'.php'))
			$Page = 'default';
		
		// Use the default css if not viewing admin master
		$Sender->ClearCssFiles();
		$Sender->AddCssFile('style.css');
		$Sender->AddSideMenu();
	
		
	  $Sender->MasterView = $MasterView;
      $Sender->Render($Path.$Page.'.php');

I've also tried using:
$Sender->AddSideMenu('plugin/page/default');

Aolee · November 2011

can we see how it looks like? url? i think i had the same problem before. what vanilla version are you using by the way?

Aolee · November 2011

can we see how it looks like? url? i think i had the same problem before. what vanilla version are you using by the way?

jimmytidey · November 2011

Thanks for getting back to me. This is Vanilla 2 - it's actually on localhost at the moment, I'll try and get it and post the link here.

UnderDog · November 2011

This is Vanilla 2

Which version of vanilla 2?
2.0.17
2.0.18 RC3
another version?

jimmytidey · November 2011

Hi,

Here it is:
http://vanilla.heresay.org.uk/forum/plugin/page/test

Vanilla Version 2.0.17.10

Apologies for the rather useless answer "version 2"...

Jimmy

Aolee · November 2011

hmm looks like this is a matter of css designing

try replacing your



<div>
   <div class="Box Group SiteSettings">
<h4>Settings</h4>
<ul class="PanelInfo">
  <li><a href="/forum/plugin/page/default/admin">Custom Pages</a>
</li></ul>
</div></div>

with


<div class="Box BoxCategories">
   <h4><a href="/forum/categories/all">Categories</a></h4>
   <ul class="PanelInfo PanelCategories">
      <li class="Active"><span><strong><a href="/forum/discussions">All Discussions</a></strong><span class="Count">0</span></span></li>
<li class="Depth"><strong><a href="/forum/categories/general">General</a></strong><span class="Count">0</span></li>
   </ul>
</div>

to compare and see the diff

jimmytidey · November 2011

I'm sorry, I don't think I understand how to do this. Where would I make those changes? I haven't done anything to vanilla except add my custom page, so presumably I won't have upset the CSS?

x00 · November 2011

You would have to actually have a AddSideMenu method for that controller and at the moment it is inheriting that from I suspect dashboard.

I would have a look at applications/dashboard/modules/class.sidemenumodule.php

For how to actually construct a side menu.

$SideMenu = new SideMenuModule($Sender);

...

$Sender->AddModule($SideMenu, 'Panel');

mclovin · November 2011

In the same context, you page title for the custom page says "Heresay", which is the default title. Any idea how to override to give a page specific title for SEO reasons?

x00 · November 2011

have you tried $Sender->Title('Some Title'); ?

Actually what is between <h1> is dependent on your theme. The default uses Gdn_Theme::Logo(), which uses the site wide title.

You could also load a different master template

jimmytidey · November 2011

Thanks for all your help on this. As you can guess, I really don't particularly understand the way this is written. I'm guessing that the ... in x00's code represent me building the side content. However, I'd just like that side content to be the same is the configuration in the rest of the site. Is there no way to inherit this?

Otherwise, I've looked at
applications/dashboard/modules/class.sidemenumodule.php

and I don't really understand it. If anyone could post a few lines that put the categories and and the add discussion button in the side menu that would be amazing.

Having searched the rest of the code, I can't see any other instructive uses of the

$this->AddModule($SideMenu, 'Panel');

method.

x00 · November 2011

      $this->AddModule('GuestModule');
      $this->AddModule('SignedInModule');

      $this->AddModule('NewDiscussionModule');
      $this->AddModule('CategoriesModule');
      $this->AddModule('BookmarkedModule');

If you are in garden but not vanilla, you might have to reference the vanilla app. As far as it is concerned it is another application.

Why don't you say what it is you are tying to achieve with this page?

mclovin · November 2011

@x00
$Sender->Title('Some Title'); works from the CustomPages plugin, but then every custom page would have the same title which is not what i want.

I want set a different title for each page created.
Custom Page Plugin:


public function PluginController_Page_Create(&$Sender) {
                // See what page was requested
                $Page = ArrayValue('0', $Sender->RequestArgs, 'default');
                ..............
                $Path = PATH_PLUGINS . DS . 'CustomPages' . DS . 'pages' . DS;
                ............
                $Sender->Title('Generic title for all custom pages');
                $Sender->MasterView = $MasterView;
                $Sender->Render($Path.$Page.'.php');
   }

x00 · November 2011

I'm not giving programming lessons, you need to apply some logic to your code to sort that out.

jimmytidey · November 2011

Hi - apparently the AddModule method isn't available on my class.

You can see what I'm trying to do here: http://vanilla.heresay.org.uk/forum/plugin/page/heresay

I just want the damn page to appear in a normal template!

sahotataran · November 2011

have some patience @jimmytidey
here is what i changed to add some modules to custompages sidebar

  public function PluginController_Page_Create(&$Sender) {
		$Sender->Head->Title('The Page You requested could not be found on this server');
		$Sender->AddModule('SignedInModule');
		$Sender->AddModule('GuestModule');
		// See what page was requested
		$Page = ArrayValue('0', $Sender->RequestArgs, 'default');
		$MasterView = ArrayValue('1', $Sender->RequestArgs, 'default');
		$MasterView = $MasterView != 'admin' ? 'default' : 'admin';
		$Path = PATH_PLUGINS . DS . 'CustomPages' . DS . 'pages' . DS;
		// If the page doesn't exist, roll back to the default
		if (!file_exists($Path.$Page.'.php'))
			$Page = 'default';
		
		// Use the default css if not viewing admin master
		if ($MasterView != 'admin') {
			$Sender->ClearCssFiles();
			$Sender->AddCssFile('style.css');
		} else {
			$Sender->AddSideMenu('plugin/page/default/admin');
		}
		$Sender->MasterView = $MasterView;
      $Sender->Render($Path.$Page.'.php');
 }

note the AddModule function used

sahotataran · November 2011

can you post which modules you are trying to add? so i can try them on my vanilla installation and see what i can do?

jimmytidey · November 2011

Thanks all for getting back to me - I didn't mean to be impatient! The code above causes a "bonk" error message, but hacking it into my own code still causes the display problem - here is what I used:

   public function PluginController_Page_Create(&$Sender) {
	
		$Sender->Head->Title('The Page You requested could not be found on this server');
		$Sender->AddModule('SignedInModule');
		$Sender->AddModule('GuestModule');
		
		// See what page was requested
		$Page = ArrayValue('0', $Sender->RequestArgs, 'default');
		$MasterView = ArrayValue('1', $Sender->RequestArgs, 'default');
		$MasterView = $MasterView != 'admin' ? 'default' : 'admin';
		$Path = PATH_PLUGINS . DS . 'Heresay' . DS . 'pages' . DS;
		
		// If the page doesn't exist, roll back to the default
		if (!file_exists($Path.$Page.'.php'))
		$Page = 'default';

		// Use the default css if not viewing admin master
		if ($MasterView != 'admin') {
			$Sender->ClearCssFiles();
			$Sender->AddCssFile('style.css');
		} else {
			$Sender->AddSideMenu('plugin/page/default/admin');
		}

		$Sender->AddSideMenu();

		$Sender->MasterView = $MasterView;
      	$Sender->Render($Path.$Page.'.php');
   }

Ideally this will show the same content as the rest of the site shows on the right hand column, otherwise - perhaps just the same right hand column on this page:
http://vanilla.heresay.org.uk/forum/discussions

x00 · November 2011

try removing the line $Sender->AddSideMenu();

jimmytidey · November 2011

That seems to prevent it from rendering anything when I'm logged in. When I'm logged out it gives me the login box, which works for me...

jimmytidey · November 2011

ie. that's an appropriate thing to display when it's not logged in.

Adding a side pannel to a custom page

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