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    • Dynamic Content and Ephemerides

    Posted by cgc0202

    Hi,

    Other than the wiki concept itself, that allows for better collaboration in creating a website, the Dynamic Content and the Ephemerides are two features of Tikiwiki that I am quite interested with. Both seem very powerful in helping create dynamic pages.

    For example, I want to use them to create

    1. unique newsbulletin (from those carefully selected news coming from different newspapers)
    2. History today
    3. Random images with captions and short stories
      • Alternatively, featured images (directed for each specific sites) that are then correlated with specific dates (e.g., birthdates, holidays, etc.)
    4. Featured links with a review
    5. Quotes


    etc., etc., etc.

    Unfortunately, I did not find much documentation to serve as a guide. I tried doing trial and error, from the Admin, and I could create them, but exactly how they get integrated to specific sections, or specific pages, I am not too clear about those.

    Anyone who has used either of the Dynamic Content and Ephemerides? I would appreciate any pointers.

    Thanks.

    cgc0202

    Reads: 1410
    Posted by Gary Cunningham-Lee

    I haven't used Ephemerides but understand that it displays information according to the day. Often this means positions of planets and so on, or astrological information, in ephemerides outside of Tiki. With Tiki, it could be used for this or for anything else, like "This day in history," etc. The key point is that the info changes according to the day on the calendar.

    Ephemerides displays as a module, in a side column or in a wiki page with the module plugin. I'm not sure what syntax is used with Ephemerides — wiki syntax, HTML, or what.

    Dynamic content is more flexible in that the content display isn't associated with a date. There's a publishing date but other than that the information is displayed every time a template is used that contains the dynamic content tag. I've only used dynamic content blocks in templates (by adding the tag). I don't know off-hand if there's a way to use them in wiki pages. I used them where I wanted information to be shown regularly, like on a custom index page. You can see an example of this use hereQuestion. The page is a modified tiki-articles.php page, with a dynamic content block tag added to the the top of the articles section on the associated template to display the text.

    A key feature is that you can get text or other content into a part of the web page that normally would require template editing. Well, you still have to edit the template once, to add the content block ID tag, but after that the editing can be done through Tiki's dynamic content admin page.

    I guess the content is dynamic for two reasons. One is that the info will appear anywhere the tag is used, so it's "location" dynamic; another is that the tag can have syntax that displays dynamic content IDs randomly, so it's "content" dynamic.

    There isn't a specific way to integrate these into the rest of the site; it's just a question of if you want to display date-specific info, or place content onto a page in a regular or random way.

    -- Gary

    Posted by cgc0202

    Thanks Gary for the response,

    I already have a general idea of how to create the Main DCS blocks as well as the specific Versions, including how to specify the date. What I am not clear about is how to integrate a specific DCS block to a page.

    You stated:

    "Dynamic content is more flexible in that the content display isn't associated with a date. There's a publishing date but other than that the information is displayed every time a template is used that contains the dynamic content tag. I've only used dynamic content blocks in templates (by adding the tag). I don't know off-hand if there's a way to use them in wiki pages. I used them where I wanted information to be shown regularly, like on a custom index page. You can see an example of this use hereQuestion. The page is a modified tiki-articles.php page, with a dynamic content block tag added to the the top of the articles section on the associated template to display the text.

    A key feature is that you can get text or other content into a part of the web page that normally would require template editing. Well, you still have to edit the template once, to add the content block ID tag, but after that the editing can be done through Tiki's dynamic content admin page.
    — Gary"

    I have a request and questions:

    1. Would it be possible to get the script on how the DCs block is integrated in your websiteQuestion, specifically in tiki-index2.php pageQuestion as indicated in your linked page aboveQuestion

    2. What section is the DCS block in the tiki-index2.php pageQuestion?
      If I have to guess it is the section with the text:
      • "At the end of 2005 and beginning of 2006, we are enjoying our lives, each of us busy with the things we're into, and busy doing things together. Living apart from the rest of our families and so on has its drawbacks, but we also benefit from being together in this culture."
      • The other possibility is that it is the static photo and the "movie" image that comes with the text (or both) — that is actually defined in this specific DCS block?
      • How is randomization achieved with the static photo and the "movie" image?
        If indeed the above is a specific DCS block, one approach of randomizing the static photo and the "movie" image would be to have two versions of this specific DCS block with the "same date and time" publication for both versions?


    3. In your tiki-index2.php pageQuestion the sections:
      • Magnitude-6 quake rattles us
      • Gary's quick trip to America
      • Gary and Pat get Meteoraized
      • etc.

      may be created with multiple "Dynamic Content" blocks (???) using one specific DCS block to create each section. The above sections however do not look like dynamic sections and they might be more linkely created using the "Newsletter" option??? Without access to the script, it is not possible what feature of Tikiwiki (DCS or Newsletter) was used.

    4. You stated above, and I quote "..the content display isn't associated with a date".
      • In theory, isn't it possible to create multiple versions of each DCS block, so that there is a version for each day?



    You stated:

    "I guess the content is dynamic for two reasons. One is that the info will appear anywhere the tag is used, so it's "location" dynamic; another is that the tag can have syntax that displays dynamic content IDs randomly, so it's "content" dynamic."

    • How exactly is a DCS block randomized? I speculated how this may be done (please refer to last bullet in #2 above)


    You stated:

    "There isn't a specific way to integrate these into the rest of the site; it's just a question of if you want to display date-specific info, or place content onto a page in a regular or random way. "

    1. Can't this be done through a Content Template page?
    2. Alternatively, can't specific DCS blocks be incorporated through the header, footer sections?


    Thanks again.

    cgc0202


    Posted by Gary Cunningham-Lee

    > # Would it be possible to get the script on how the DCs block is integrated in your website, specifically in tiki-index2.php page...

    That page is a modified tiki-view_articles page. I added the following to the very top of tiki-view_articles.tpl (angle brackets replaced by parentheses here):

    Copy to clipboard
    (div)
(table width=100% border=0)(tr)(td)
{banner zone=front_top_right}{content id=1}(/td)(/tr)(/table)
(/div)


    Not real elegant but it does the job. The file was saved as tiki-index2.tpl. In Tiki fashion, the matching php file, tiki-view_articles.php was saved as tiki-index2.php, and calls tiki-index2.tpl rather than tiki-view_articles.tpl. (This is specified near the bottom of the page-displaying php files.)

    This kind of page probably could have been done as a wiki page but I didn't want the wiki page icons to show; also at the time I did it there were minor display bugs with the articles plugin such as the square brackets that contain time information being interpreted as link tags.

    > #What section is the DCS block in the tiki-index2.php pageQuestion?
    > + If I have to guess it is the section with the text:
    > **"At the end of 2005....

    Right. That text (etc.) is a dynamic content block.

    > **How is randomization achieved with the static photo and the "movie" image?

    As the code indicates, the images are banners actually, just a mechanism used for the random display and link.

    > ... the sections:
    > **Magnitude-6 quake rattles us
    > ...

    These are just normal Tiki articles, displayed by the page being based on the articles page, as described.

    -- Gary

    Posted by cgc0202

    Thanks Gary for the clarifications.

    An issue I have not tried yet, can html and wiki tags and syntax be used to format the contents of a DCS? I have a related question about images below.

    You stated:

    That page is a modified tiki-view_articles page. I added the following to the very top of tiki-view_articles.tpl (angle brackets replaced by parentheses here):

    Copy to clipboard
    (div)
 (table width=100% border=0)(tr)(td)
 {banner zone=front_top_right}{content id=1}(/td)(/tr)(/table)
 (/div)

    Not real elegant but it does the job. The file was saved as tiki-index2.tpl. In Tiki fashion, the matching php file, tiki-view_articles.php was saved as tiki-index2.php, and calls tiki-index2.tpl rather than tiki-view_articles.tpl. (This is specified near the bottom of the page-displaying php files.)

    • I assume that the reason for saving it as " tiki-index2.tpl" was to ensure tha the insert will not appear in all created tiki-view_articles pages?
    • Can the same module (as coded above) be inserted in a Content Template or an HTML template instead?
      If this works, it will be more flexible way of inserting DCS modules, in the multiple pages I have in mind.


    You stated:

    > This kind of page probably could have been done as a wiki page but I didn't want the wiki page icons to show; also at the time I did it there were minor display bugs with the articles plugin such as the square brackets that contain time information being interpreted as link tags.

    • If the insert is included into a wiki page, are you referring to the ".php and .tpl" scripts that define a wiki page?
    • Or are you referring to ordinary wiki pages created by the double "open and close" parentheses?
      If it is this, the script of the code above, include html tags rather than wiki tags only. Won't this then require a wiki page must include an "Allow MTML" option?


    You responded to:

    > > #What section is the DCS block in the tiki-index2.php pageQuestion?
    > > + If I have to guess it is the section with the text:
    > > **"At the end of 2005....
    >
    > Right. That text (etc.) is a dynamic content block.

    • Is the script for the entire page available?
      I anticipate that the ful page script would be almost the script for the "Snow Template". I requested the script and and stylesheet (in your website) awhile back, but you stated then that they were not yet ready.


    You stated:

    > > **How is randomization achieved with the static photo and the "movie" image?
    >
    > As the code indicates, the images are banners actually, just a mechanism used for the random display and link.

    • Does the insert — — define the location?
    • Is it possible to include images also in a DCS instead of having to use the banner option?
      This alternative would allow better formating of a DCS module
    • A more complex situation, can a DCS module (with text and photos) be placed in the banner?
    • You used the banner mode to achieve randomization. Is it possible to achieve randomization by having multiple versions of a DCS with the exactly same publishing date and time?
      Or is exactly same "publishing date and time" even allowed?
      • [Note: I created two DCS modules with the same date and time, only one worked. Randomization was not achieved doing this approach.]

    Thanks again

    cgc0202