A niave designer question on embed related objects

Saturday 18 October 2003 3:12:24 pm

I want a three column design.
Left column menu
Centre column content
right column related content

So afr I have acheived,
Customised pagelayout = yes, success in overriding standard
Left menu expndable=yes, borrowed from round here somewhere
right column - help required!

I want the contents of one folder, eg 'CARs' to be related to the contents of another folder. So when i view the node 'CARs' in the centre column i can view the related folder content in the right column [not all the related content but select drop down or first 5 content objects]

I understand from reading this has to do with placing an embed_class_x.tpl file in the override/templates/content/view directory, where x is the related object class id [is this right]
Ok so I do that but how on earth do i get the right column of my page layout to show the related content for a given piece of content?

The help i have read seems to assume to much knowledge to complete the process [not uncommon round here - this is intimidating for a newbie wrestling with EZ].

What needs to happen next to acheive this holy grail?

all answers will receive best newbie kiss or miniature Elvis

alans

Sunday 19 October 2003 5:16:04 am

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it.

However, i don't think this is enough information to complete the task.

1. The code to acheive this is documented I suspect - ok i'll read and experiment - I am not asking to be completely spoon fed!
2. Once I have the template code does inserting it into embed_class_x.tpl and placing this in the correct override dir automatically produce the desired result?
3. What else is there to do to complete the task?

Like I said previously, "The help i have read seems to assume to much knowledge to complete the process .."

many thanks for persevering with me!

alans

Sunday 19 October 2003 8:05:10 am

Hi Alan,
I actually did something similar for articles on my web design. In your case you want to relate folders. Your solution will be a little different but basically the same idea. If you want to do folders, override your full folder view with your own folder.tpl (you may have done that already) and add the following code to your folder.tpl wherever you want your list to appear i.e. right column:

{*Related Objects List*}
{let enableendtag=0 name=Rel}
{section show=count($node.object.related_contentobject_array)|gt(0)}
{section loop=$node.object.related_contentobject_array}
{section-exclude match=$:item.contentclass_id|eq(5)}
{switch match=$:index}
{case match=0}
{* if starttag *}
{set enableendtag=1}
<table width="150" border=0 cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0 class="related-information-table">
<tr>
<td align="center">Related Information<td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><ul>
<li><a class="related-information-link" href={concat("/content/view/full/",$:item.main_node.node_id)|ezurl}>{$:item.name}</a></li>
{/case}
{case}
<li><a class="related-information-link" href={concat("/content/view/full/",$:item.main_node.node_id)|ezurl}>{$:item.name}</a></li>
{/case}
{/switch}
{/section}
{section show=$:enableendtag}
</ul></td>
</tr>
</table>
{/section}
{/section}
{/let}
{*End Related Information Link*}

The line {section-exclude match=$:item.contentclass_id|eq(5)} ensures that any related images are not included in your related items list. This was particualrily important for relating articles since most articles contain related images but it will likely be a non-issue for folders.

Hope this helps.

working at www.wardnet.com
blogging at www.jamesward.ca