CTA Featured Threads & Portal [Paid] 2.17.0

[FredC]

Brogan was there any particular reason you chose icon images to be 192x192px in options? just curious if there is an obvious UI advantage/reasoning behind that size specifically. I intend to adjust mine to be 200px and cant think of a reason such an insignificant change would make to much of a difference, but still wanted to double check.. I suppose ill just have to try it out to know for sure..

 

[Paul B]

Not really, it was just double the size of the medium avatar and an arbitrary size.

I personally use 256 x 192 on my own site: http://cliptheapex.com/
I find that ratio is better for most photos/images.

For the page views they are resized to 128 x 96, which stops the block height changing depending on whether an avatar or icon is displayed.

 

[FredC]

Was also curious if there is a CSS trick to use in place of the maximum character limit that would use specific px dimensions for the container size opposed to the character limit in place now?
I use something similier for signatures in extra css.

/* limited sigs */

.message .signature

{

max-height: 150px;

padding: 0px;

overflow:auto;

overflow-y: hidden !important;

overflow-x: hidden !important;

}

 

[Paul B]

If I understand your question, you just use the settings which are used for the blocks on the forum index, etc.

You can see there that there is more content but the height is fixed and the overflow is hidden.

 

[Martok]

@tajhay, I do use both Featured Threads and Widget Framework and you can see them in action on my site.

It isn't possible to put Featured Threads into a widget. However, it is possible to include widgets on the Featured Threads page. Check the FAQ which links to the post I made on how to use the WF sidebar on the Featured Threads page.

In addition with the 2.6 update, you can now include widgets at the top and bottom of the Featured Threads page, as @Brogan has kindly added hooks to the new cta_featuredthreads_featured_custom_top and cta_featuredthreads_featured_custom_bottom templates. The hooks have exactly the same names. (There's also a cta_featuredthreads_featured_custom_sidebar with a same-named hook though you'll probably not use this if you're replacing the sidebar with the WF one).

So, to add widgets in these positions:

ACP > Appearance > Add widget

Choose the widget you want to add (e.g. New Threads) and configure the settings as you require
In the Position box, set this to hook:cta_featuredthreads_featured_custom_top or hook:cta_featuredthreads_featured_custom_bottom depending on where you want the widget to appear.
Save and the widget will appear on the Featured Threads page.

Note: You can display several widgets in each of the hook positions. Just repeat the above for each widget and set the Display Order for each so that they appear in the required order.

 

[Martok]

Brogan was there any particular reason you chose icon images to be 192x192px in options? just curious if there is an obvious UI advantage/reasoning behind that size specifically. I intend to adjust mine to be 200px and cant think of a reason such an insignificant change would make to much of a difference, but still wanted to double check.. I suppose ill just have to try it out to know for sure..

Not really, it was just double the size of the medium avatar and an arbitrary size.

I personally use 256 x 192 on my own site: http://cliptheapex.com/
I find that ratio is better for most photos/images.

For the page views they are resized to 128 x 96, which stops the block height changing depending on whether an avatar or icon is displayed.

Following a recent discussion with Brogan, I changed the size of my icon images. I'm now using 256 x 144 px on the Featured Threads page and 171 x 96 px in the blocks. The reason for my choice of size is that my site is about PlayStation gaming and most screen shots these days are 16:9 ratio as they are designed for widescreen TVs. It means my images are now more suitable than before as cropping them to a square size just didn't work for some images.

 

[RobParker]

It isn't possible to put Featured Threads into a widget.

I think he was asking for a renderer to be created so that featured threads could be used as widgets.

 

[Martok]

I think he was asking for a renderer to be created so that featured threads could be used as widgets.

I know what he is asking as he PM'd me. I am just answering publically so that everyone is clear about what you can and can't do with Featured Threads and Widget Framework.

 

[tajhay]

I think he was asking for a renderer to be created so that featured threads could be used as widgets.

I was asking for both actually.
First preference would obviously be a renderer as it opens up a world of goodies for anyone using this and wf widget.

Good to hear there are hooks to add widgets ontop and bottom of featured threads. Guess beggars cant be choosers...

 

[Paul B]

I don't use the WF add-on so I'm not entirely clear on what it is people want to do.

Is the WF add-on capable of creating a home page?
If so, is it that you want to display a Featured Thread block on the WF home page?

In the same manner it currently works on the forum list or forum view? A single featured thread displayed at the top of the page?

 

[Martok]

Widget Framework allow you to create a Widget Page - this is an additional option when you create a new node or page. On the Widget Page you can then add widgets and of course you can set the page as your home page. I also believe that xfrocks is developing another portal solution.

 

[tajhay]

I don't use the WF add-on so I'm not entirely clear on what it is people want to do.

Is the WF add-on capable of creating a home page?

Yes, and much much much more. You can hook an element to anywhere on a site, on anypage.

You are able to create different instances of say featured threads all on the same page, in two totally different locations, getting data from two different source forums.

 

[Paul B]

I also believe that xfrocks is developing another portal solution.

In which case, putting effort into developing something for the WF add-on is probably a waste of time.

A generic system is probably better, which will allow a FT to be embedded on any page.
Something like @Chris D has done with XMG.

 

[Martok]

In which case, putting effort into developing something for the WF add-on is probably a waste of time.

A generic system is probably better, which will allow a FT to be embedded on any page.
Something like @Chris D has done with XMG.

I would say that it would seem strange for one portal developer to adapt their product so it could be used with another portal solution. Having said that, I'd agree with that approach if you want to go down that route. Chris D's solution works well and can be used with a range of other add-ons as you have seen from my guides on XMG on adding the recent media and other blocks into Featured Threads, Widget Framework and XenPorta.

Although I use Widget Framework I won't be using it for my home page - I much prefer Featured Threads for this and I like the current solution with custom templates and hooks for that extra flexibility.

 

[Paul B]

Yes, I think that is the better direction so I will look into that once I have finished working on the current feature(s).

 

[RobParker]

I don't use the WF add-on so I'm not entirely clear on what it is people want to do.

Is the WF add-on capable of creating a home page?
If so, is it that you want to display a Featured Thread block on the WF home page?

In the same manner it currently works on the forum list or forum view? A single featured thread displayed at the top of the page?

A renderer in the WF is code that allows data to be pulled into a widget (and set various options like source node, etc). There are renderers for things like latest posts, todays birthdays, etc.

I don't know the technical details for what would need to be done but it'd basically allow featured threads to be used as widgets (as opposed to using widgets on the featured threads pages which is already possible).

Not sure if that makes sense and someone else can probably explain it better

 

[tajhay]

In which case, putting effort into developing something for the WF add-on is probably a waste of time.

A generic system is probably better, which will allow a FT to be embedded on any page.
Something like @Chris D has done with XMG.

Its actually not a waste of time. Yes he is developing a portal solution and it is embedded within WF. It is simply a way of bookmarking posts/threads which can be promoted to the front page. It has widget renderers, and all on a widget page. WF and CT together would be a win win for the community.

 

[tajhay]

Brogan remember the CTA Countdown you made. Well a widget was made for that. It could be placed anywhere on the site. WF is truely a framework, because if no renderer is available you are also able to utilise html or xf templates to display things to grab the data.

 

[Paul B]

As I posted above, Chris' solution is better as it allows the content to be placed on any page, not just a WF page.

So I am going to look into that.

 

[HenrikHansen]

Yes, please Brogan, consider adding some widgets. Also see how nicely "nodes as tabs2 and the "widget framework" add ons work together.