User modules are modules where the content can be anything you want. You can use text, you can use HTML code and you can also use Smarty templates special instructions, we ll talk about these advanced options later.

First let's see how to edit, remove and create user modules. This is the user module listing in the admin modules panel:

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This shows a list of user modules and you have the option to edit or delete a module, user modules are created or edited in this same screen at the bottom.

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This is where you can assign a module to be displayed on the left or right side bar of the application, you have to select the module name, the position (left or right) and the order, modules will be displayed in an ascending order way so module 1 goes first then 2, etc. If two modules share the same order value they will be displayed in random order but never before a module with a lower number or before a module with a higher order.

Cache Time is the time that the module content can be in the cache (regardelss of this number some modules are never cached), if a module can be cached then it will be refreshed after the indicated time passes. Use 0 if you don t want modules to be cached.

Rows are the maximum number of rows a module will display if that makes sense to the module, modules displaying rankings or listings will use this number.

Groups is used to select which groups will see the module if it is assigned. Note that if you don t select at list one group no one will be able to see the module. If more than one group is selected then the module will be displayed if the user belongs to ANY of the groups selected.

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This part of the screen shows currently assigned modules and their order, cache,groups and number of rows. There re two tables, one for the modules at the left bar and other for the modules at the right bar. You can edit (assign) a module, remove it (it will only unassign the module, you can reassigned later) and you can also move the module up or down one position using the up/down links.

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This allows the creation of a new user module, you need to indicate the name (used in the select box to assign the module), the title and the data that will be displayed, the data must be HTML (any since you are admin). The right part of this panel can be used to help you include some objects that can be used in user modules, you can include in an user module:

• A poll (it will display the form to vote for the indicated poll) {poll id=n}
• Any poll from the active polls {poll}
• The current value of a dynamic content block {content id=n}
• A random value from a dynamic content block {rcontent id=n}~/np * An RSS feed ~np~{rss id=n}
• A banner {banner zone=foo}~/np !!Including the current date in user modules The following syntax can be used to display the current server date on a module: ~np~{showdate mode="d/m/Y h:i"}

You can include dynamic blocks in a user module using a simple syntax:

Today quote: {content id=3}

In the example we are including the current version of the dynamic block 3 . You can create/edit and program dynamic blocks using the Dynamic Content System (DCS). Read about the DCS in the DCS section to learn more.

If you want you can include a banner in a user module, using the following syntax:

{banner zone=sidebar}

Where zone must be the name of an existing zone in the banners system and there should be at least one banner assigned to the zone (or nothing will be displayed). You can learn more about banners in the banners section.

You can display the form to vote a poll in a user module using the syntax

{poll id=n}

If you want Tiki to display the form to vote some (random) poll from all the active polls you can use:

{poll}

You can use the following function to display one random image from an Imagegallery:

{gallery id=n}

You can display the content of an RSS feed from another site in a user module after you created the feed (see using external RSS feeds later on this section), the syntax is:

{rss id=n max=m}

It will display the rss feed with id=n and it will display up to m elements from the feed.

If you are not familiar with Smarty the template engine used by Tiki you should skip this section. User modules are parsed by the Smarty template engine before being displayed, you may have noticed that dynamic content and banners are included using two special Tiki smarty plugins. So if you know about Smarty template editing you can use any Smarty tag in your user modules. You can do loops, if constructions, includes, etc.

If you want to learn about Smarty visit http://smarty.php.net you will find the Smarty documentation there that you can use in order to check out what can you use in your user modules.

Some modules are already defined by Tiki, this is the list of modules distributed with this version of tiki.

If enabled from the admin screen you can allow registered users to configure the modules they will see in the side bars of Tiki. The rules are:

• If no configuration is made the user will see modules as configured from the modules administration screen
• The user can remove modules, change the position and order of modules but they can t display modules that are not assigned by the admin from the modules admin screen.
• The user can recover the default configuration with a single click whenever he wants

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The user can move the modules up/down they can move a module to the other column and they can unassign modules (the login box and application menu cannot be unassigned). If the user unassigns a module he will be able to assign the module to any column in any position if he wants.

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The calendar module if enabled can be used to control some aspects of the Tiki application. First of all it is a normal calendar that can be navigated changing the month and year and you can always return to the day for today clicking the today link. When you click on a day the calendar will mark it as the current day for the page you are viewing, if you change the page the calendar will go back to today .

For the articles home only articles with a publishing date lower than the day selected in the calendar will be displayed, this can be used to see the articles home for any previous day. If the date is future and you are admin you can see future versions of the home using to-be-published articles. If you are not admin you won t see future articles.

For the blogs system any weblog will only display posts with dates equal or lower than the date selected in the calendar. If the date is future it is the same as today since we don t have posts with a future publishing date yet in the blogs system.

related links:
UserModule