Nao

  • Dadman with a boy
  • Posts: 16,079
Permanent sidebar
« on May 7th, 2011, 01:04 PM »Last edited on September 11th, 2011, 06:58 PM by Nao
Feature: Permanent sidebar
Developer: Nao
Target: users, modders, themers
Status: 100% (complete; might need to add features in the future.)
Comment:

This is one of our most controversial moves. Well, maybe not, but at least one that could be questioned.
Basically, Wedge now always shows a sidebar on the page, and moves it to the bottom if the page is too narrow. It systematically shows your user box (hello user, date, avatar, unread posts, unread replies) at the top, and RSS links at the bottom, and then adds contextual data based on the current page. Calendar pages show day links in the sidebar. Media item pages may show item details in the sidebar (although they'll usually use their own additional sidebar.) Dropdown menus may be moved to the sidebar... Things like that.

In addition, modders can easily add any kind of block to the sidebar by calling loadBlock('my_block_function', ':side'). The same can be done with the top template, which is a series of blocks (sub-templates) that are called before the main template is actually shown, allowing you to add important information at the top without reorganizing everything.

Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #1, on May 7th, 2011, 01:44 PM »
Does that mean that creating blocks will be easier? Like a protal or something?

Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #2, on May 7th, 2011, 01:57 PM »
I have no idea. I wrote the sidebar code and loadSubTemplate, but I never, ever ever touched a single portal mod. So I have no idea what they do with 'blocks', how they do it, etc. It's just not my thing. I'm just saying it's easy to add sections to the sidebar (or anywhere else really.)

Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #3, on May 7th, 2011, 09:26 PM »
Quote from DoctorMalboro on May 7th, 2011, 01:44 PM
Does that mean that creating blocks will be easier? Like a protal or something?
Not really. Portals add their blocks  using their own template layers. In this case, just replace adding a layer with a sub template and the job is largely done.

Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #4, on May 8th, 2011, 03:49 AM »
Oooh... Even though I don't think is neccesary considering wedge will have a blog (and I figure you can use it as a standalone thingy).

Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #5, on May 8th, 2011, 11:19 AM »
Some people will think it's not necessary that Wedge has a forum system, you know :P


Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #7, on May 9th, 2011, 12:31 AM »
CMS = content management system

Wedge is already this.

Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #8, on May 9th, 2011, 12:41 AM »
But shhhh, apparently SMF users don't like the term ;)

And to me, a CMS is a tool that helps web agencies build quick websites with pages and such. (Basically, a copy of SMF with a portal is a CMS.) But that's because I read .net Magazine too much :P

Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #9, on May 9th, 2011, 12:42 AM »
.net calls WordPress a CMS... but that doesn't really seem right to me :P

Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #10, on May 9th, 2011, 12:45 AM »
I don't know, I think I've seen enough sites that use WP as a CMS and many of them 'feel' like they're built upon a CMS, yes.
Only, it's not a proper CMS in the sense that it wasn't originally built as one. It's only be turned into a CMS these last few years. Just like Wedge may become a full-fledged, but not 'proper', CMS in the future.

Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #11, on May 9th, 2011, 12:48 AM »
I dunno, it feels like they keep trying to sell it as an 'out of the box' CMS when it really isn't up to that task. It's that slightly holier-than-thou attitude that keeps discouraging me from subscribing, even though I bought the last couple.

Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #12, on May 9th, 2011, 12:58 AM »
Tell you that. Just try reading Web design magazine or whatever, forgot the exact name. It'll make you subscribe to .net in a second :P
Although I'm so addicted to these magazines, I'm considering subscribing to the other crap, just to have some more reading material. (It's that, or I'll spend more time watching South Park.)

Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #13, on May 9th, 2011, 01:20 AM »
Mmm, I don't know if a forum can actually *manage* content... I see that as something complicated IMO.

Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #14, on May 9th, 2011, 01:22 AM »
It's often all about offering to use custom fields inside posts (text items.)
With this, you can do a lot. And I'm sure we'll end up doing that in Wedge. We already have tags under the hand -- technically it's a custom field...

Re: Permanent sidebar
« Reply #15, on May 9th, 2011, 11:07 AM »
Specifically, it's a single purpose custom field, you can't readily use it for anything other than tags.

Custom fields attached to a post can be awfully tricky to make work, actually... it's been one of the banes of my work on SimpleDesk recently, and it's not something I'm overly keen on reintroducing over here because it makes everything that much more complex.