Zikula Community

• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Registered User
  • Registered: Mar 16, 2002
  • Last visit: Jul 19, 2005
  • Posts: 16

  Posted: Jul 13, 2005 - 11:37 AM

  I've used and developed for postnuke for a long time and today I started thinking about the limitations.
  
  Basically what I came up with was the lack of clear sections to a site, any site made with postnuke is pretty uniform, every page pretty much looks similar with different content (kind of the purpose of a CMS I know, but I was hoping for something a bit more flexible). I also know that newer templating engines try to address this by allowing module specific templates but that's only part of the problem.
  
  The block system is horrible, it forces the same blocks to appear on every page which is really a big problem for me, a few years ago I ran a site that had thousands of pages of content and there's no way I could have done it with the same menu system on every page.
  
  One of the smaller problems with modules is reusing them, if you wanted two different download sections that weren’t connected, it's hard to achieve through postnuke.
  
  Now I realise that multisites kina cover these three complaints but I never really liked the idea of having to use multisites just to define a small of shoot of my site. Not to mention the difficulty of using multisites, if you don't have whm access to standard shared hosting web space setting up the dns can be impossible and you normally have to email the host (repeatedly if it's a large site).
  
  While thinking I also thought up a way that might help to solve these problems and a few more too. A pages system, where a user can create a new page, select a predetermined module fill in some information and save. Rereading that I’m not explaining it well and come to think of it I can't think of a good way too, but let me go on.
  
  In version 8x coming up Pagesetter is going to be included with the release, I always thought it was kind of funny that postnuke missed a content module, but now it's going to have a very powerful one, Pagesetter. I've used Pagesetter and I like the idea a lot but it could be expanded in a lot of way so more advanced layouts could be created (but I wont go into that here), an improved page setter providing the standard page creation tool, with a type of module integration to add further functionality would provide a very flexible content creation system.
  
  Every time a page is created the blocks viewable could be changed on a by page system (which would be a very simple way of implementing a block system that could change depending on what page you are). Of course a theme could also be specified for that page. Because you are using pages short urls become much easier to implement and a lot better on the whole.
  
  Here's an example. I'm running a clan site and one of the members on the site wants to have his own section where he can add videos of his games. So I create a new directory:
  http://www.somewhere.com/player/
  And then create a new page that is an instance of the downloads module:
  http://www.somewhere.com/player/downloads.htm
  And give him his own menu and theme.
  
  I realise this is a big difference to the current system, but it seems to me to be a much more flexible content system. I haven't quite worked everything out yet either, like the repercussions on the permissions system, the language system or a way to mass manage the pages (for example you wouldn't want to have to create every page used by the downloads module). I also realise that such an idea is more the kind of thing that spurs an off shoot of postnuke but I wanted to get some other people's opinions.
  
  So am I crazy? :P

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• MMaynard
  
  

  • Rank: Expert
  • Registered: Mar 15, 2003
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 1221

  Posted: Jul 13, 2005 - 12:43 PM

  Both Xanthia and AutoTheme allow you to specify what blocks appear on what pages.
  
  As for the other stuff, I am pretty sure something like Pagesetter or ContentExpress can do what you are looking for as well.
  
  --
  Zikula Themes

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• HalbrookTech
  
  

  • Rank: Developer
  • Registered: Dec 31, 1969
  • Last visit: Jun 01, 2010
  • Posts: 6859

  Posted: Jul 13, 2005 - 12:48 PM

  DATR

  The block system is horrible, it forces the same blocks to appear on every page which is really a big problem for me

  
  The blocks system presents the blocks, the theme is what handles what shows where, and I believe both Xanthia AND AutoTheme address this concern. With AutoTheme, use AutoBlocks to create a virtually unlimited number of custom block locations, then only use the ones you want on a given template. With Xanthia, I believe you can do similar, but I've not yet delved in to Xanthia, it may not work as well as it does in AT, but AT is more mature at this point.
  
  
  

  Quote

  One of the smaller problems with modules is reusing them, if you wanted two different download sections that weren’t connected, it's hard to achieve through postnuke.

  
  I don't get the purpose, why two different modules instead of one module with two different categories? And if that's really a concern, you could always use Pagesetter to achieve what you want.
  
  
  

  Quote

  In version 8x coming up Pagesetter is going to be included with the release

  
  THis has been discussed, but I'm not aware of any definitive decision to do so. There are some concers about it's complexity for newbies and it's UI.
  
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• JørnWildt
  
  

  • Rank: Softmore
  • Registered: Jul 02, 2002
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 240

  Posted: Jul 13, 2005 - 07:38 PM

  Quote

  In version 8x coming up Pagesetter is going to be included with the release

  
  I don't know where you got impression from, but so far there's a consensus among the core devs that Pagesetter should not be included. This consensus may of course change or you might get different PN distributions or ??? But right now - no.

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• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Registered User
  • Registered: Mar 16, 2002
  • Last visit: Jul 19, 2005
  • Posts: 16

  Posted: Jul 14, 2005 - 07:00 AM

  Sorry, I had no idea Xanthia could do that (and now I feal embarassed ), are there any plans to advance the ammount of control to say different parts of the module like admin and user? Or even to a function level?
  
  The other problems I think could be solved with a much improved multisite system, which I'm going to attempt to do myself.
  
  I had read a few stary comments on the forum that Pagesetter was going to be included (or at least rumoured too), I guess I got the wrong end of the stick, but thanks for clearing that up. :)

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• Lobos
  
  

  • Rank: Expert
  • Registered: Dec 02, 2002
  • Last visit: Apr 30, 2010
  • Posts: 1474

  Posted: Jul 14, 2005 - 08:12 AM

  here's some more on autoblocks - at this time they seem to have more functionality than Xanthia:
  
  http://docs.postnuke.com/Article26.html
  
  --
  -Lobos
  Professional PHP Framework Services: Concept, Development and Deployment

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• HalbrookTech
  
  

  • Rank: Developer
  • Registered: Dec 31, 1969
  • Last visit: Jun 01, 2010
  • Posts: 6859

  Posted: Jul 14, 2005 - 02:05 PM

  DATR

  Sorry, I had no idea Xanthia could do that (and now I feal embarassed ), are there any plans to advance the ammount of control to say different parts of the module like admin and user? Or even to a function level?

  
  
  In theory, it should be possible to do that with the logic abilities in Xanthia. In practice, I don't know.
  
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