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View Full Version : How do I get my news pages not to look like posts?


mmcgann
05-04-2005, 03:07 PM
Someone else installed my CMPS system for me — and botched it royally, leaving me to clean up the mess. We're talking Superfund site, here.

I've spent the last month fixing it and adding the gallery module, which works great except for a paths issue no one seems willing to explain. You can see it here: www.gothambaseball.com — hip, it's not. My html skills come from the way back years of 1994-95, so I know it still needs visual work.

I've got most of it functioning, although I'm still not thrilled with the ways the list of news stories is displayed — but the big problem is how the news/column/feature posts display as stories.

They look like freaking posts.

Basically, this makes my magazine staff look too amatuerish to even have a blog.

I know it's not supposed to work this way (hence the point of the CMS), that there's supposed to be a template call that excludes the proper forums IDs, in this case, forums 22, 23 and 24. But I can't figure out, a: which template calls should made out of the news module, and b: where they are to edit, so they don't look so bloody awful.

I'm ripping my hair out here on this, and having spent about $250 to get this up and running — it's taking away from time needed to design the magazine — and no one here seems willing to help.

This is what I want: the new stories (and archives, columns and features) to use an alternate template, with a large headline (the threadtitle), a byline of the poster and bodytype in a different font used in the rest of the forums, and as a nice touch, an indentation for each paragraph start, instead of skipping a line.

Failing that, if someone could explain to me what I need to look for in terms of templates and/or editing SHOWTHREAD.php (which seems to govern how the posts are displayed) I would really be happy.

Some response would be appreciated.

Brian
05-04-2005, 03:25 PM
To change the look of your news posts you simply need to edit the 'adv_portal_newsbits' template and change it to fit your needs.

mmcgann
05-04-2005, 04:03 PM
To change the look of your news posts you simply need to edit the 'adv_portal_newsbits' template and change it to fit your needs.

Well, in a normal install yes, that may be true. However, as currently set up, that files controls how the listing of newsstories looks on the portal page — and yes, I've edited that a great deal.

I'm talking about what the page looks like when you click on the headline, it reverts to standard forum post look, avatars and so on. Ideas?

theMusicMan
05-04-2005, 04:07 PM
If I understand you correctly... you can use a conditional to check for your news forumID and then display a new template for those forum threads. The templates you'd need to ammend to your taste are either postbit or postbit_legacy.

I have added a conditional to my 'User Submitted News' section that then displays some rules and regulations regarding the format of posts in this category. It's a similar thing to do for your postbit template.

J

mmcgann
05-04-2005, 04:15 PM
Yes...but i'm not really sure how to write that conditional (or where) to make the call for the revised postbit_legacy template.

I understand the basic concepts, but I'm struggling with the specifics.

disco4me
05-04-2005, 04:51 PM
To me it sounds like he needs an articles module. For example, Tom's at http://www.vbadvanced.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5740

mmcgann
05-04-2005, 06:46 PM
I don't know it the articles module will work right, either. I just want to conditionally change the display of the output three very special forums — with no comments, replies or so on.

Is this not the normal function of the CMPS? Or am I pushing this beyond its orginal intent? (Which will, at least, make me feel a lot less stupid).

Borgs8472
05-04-2005, 07:44 PM
^ ^
nah. If you want to make your portal articals look radically different from your posts, you'll need articals rather than posts powering it.

Mind you, could COULD make a special no-reply, no avatar, stripped down skin and then force it's style for your news forums...

mmcgann
05-04-2005, 09:27 PM
^ ^
Mind you, could COULD make a special no-reply, no avatar, stripped down skin and then force it's style for your news forums...

Yes...that's probably what I'd prefer to do...any suggestions of how?

Brian
05-06-2005, 01:42 AM
Create a new style, set your news forum to use that style, and then edit the templates for that style to change the look as you wish.

mmcgann
05-06-2005, 10:27 PM
Okay...but which template governs that, postbit or showthread?

Thanks for the help, though, really.

theMusicMan
05-07-2005, 04:08 AM
I gave you that information in post 4.