Blog Module Questions

edited March 2012 in Modules
I've been trying to figure out the blog module. I'm understanding now that it has a very specific design.

I was hoping to see a lot more flexibility with it... here are some of the things I was trying to do on the front end (I like the CMS portion).

1) From the home page, I'd like to be able to show the most recent 5 (or so) posts (title & excerpt), linking of course to the full blog post.

2) Have multiple sections for different categories. (I see the CMS has this set up, but I can't figure out how to make it work: per-page).

3) Be able to format the content the way I need it formatted, as opposed to having rigid formatting. ie. without the right bar.

As it is I will create a blog module to be able to provide these tasks.

If I am mis-informed and these are able to be done simply, please let me know :)

Thanks!

I'm loving this CMS layout, it's something I would have created myself, had I not found it.

Comments

  • edited 3:16PM
    1) I'd write a block and have it pull the data out of the blog posts model. There is a method of blog_block() in the blog_helper file that will make it easier with themes.

    2) Not sure I follow.

    3) You're meaning presentation/layout formatting of the page display and not of the data right? Data you could do at the base_module_record level. There's a couple of examples in there like get_content_formatted and get_excerpt formatted.
    The actual design of the layout with right side bars etc you can do anything you want to. You'll need to write/modify the views though.
  • edited 3:16PM
    With #2 I mean having a site with separate topics having distinct uri's.
    ie. Videos at http://site.com/Videos/2012/03/26/My-Latest-Video-Review
    or Reviews at http://site.com/Reviews/2012/03/25/Fantastic-Movie-Review

    That kind of thing. So the "categories" would include of course Videos or Reviews.

    I know I can get the same thing at //site.com/blog/categories/ but not quite what I was hoping.

    Does that make more sense? (I hope)
  • edited 3:16PM
    Ah okay gotcha.

    Yeah that would be a bit tough. If you added blog in there:
    http://site.com/blog/Videos/2012/03/26/My-Latest-Video-Review

    You could at least isolate the routes to the blog modules blog::_remap() method. Certainly not out of the box or that simple to do.

    As you say it would be easier if you were happy to introduce a new segment like 'section/videos'. That way you could essentially replicate the categories functionality. May as well just use categories then I suppose.
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