CTA Featured Threads & Portal [Paid] 2.17.0

[masterchief]

Edit the content when you feature it and delete everything after the second paragraph.

aha! plain as the nose on my face.... good one!

I love this addon....

 

[Live Free]

I'm interested in this, however, I'm looking to use it as as a replacement for Wordpress/Xenporta. I'll have many articles/blog posts and I'd like to keep them in "article format" forever. My concern is that as far as I can tell there aren't any categories (or tags) for this add-on. If I want to categorize a group of featured threads (articles) for navigation purposes or for ease of discovering, is that possible?

In other words, to what extent can this add-on replace CMS/Portal options?

 

[Paul B]

There are no categories or tagging so it probably wouldn't suit your requirements.

 

[Gazhyde]

Just thinking about icons in general, not sure if already suggested/asked or not. Wondered if it was feasible to be able to have an image browser/icon library so you could reuse previously uploaded icons.

I use 192x192 images for uniformity on all my FT's, so I have to switch to my PC to create an icon to upload. I could theoretically reuse any images I've previously uploaded if I had some way to select them.

 

[Paul B]

Each featured thread has its own icon - the icon name is directly related to the thread ID.



So although you can have a library to choose from, a new icon will still be generated for each featured thread.

That being the case, as icons need to be uploaded anyway, I would suggest having an icon library on your computer.

The only difference will be when 2.9 comes out and with automatically featured threads.
They will all use a single icon by default, unless a custom one is specifically uploaded per featured thread.



The suggestion has been made before but it would require fairly fundamental changes to the code and templates, including a new UI, so it's not something I currently have planned to implement.

 

[Gazhyde]

Fair enough, interesting to know how it works currently

I would suggest having an icon library on your computer.

I'll have to start syncing my growing library of FT icons to my iPad so I can feature threads while I'm not chained to my PC!

 

[Paul B]

Ironically, my original plan was just to have a URL field for the icon as it would have been far easier to develop than the current system of uploading, resizing, cropping, etc.

So there are still some open suggestions relating to icons but the list of things I would like to implement is growing faster than I can keep up at the moment.

 

[Paul B]

Someone just contacted me in private and asked whether the upload icon function could be used to add a different background to each block.

The answer is yes, very easily.

Simply uncheck this:


Then ensure the options are changed to allow for large "icons":


Then edit the template to add the icon to the container background:

<div class="sectionMain ctaFtContainerPage node_{$featuredThread.node_id}" style="background: url('{xen:helper featuredthreadiconurl, $featuredThread}') no-repeat top"><span class="helper"></span>

The result is this:



Obviously further tweaks and settings may be required, but that took me about a minute.

 

[Paul B]

Having seen the result, I have just added a new item to the suggestions list for per featured thread custom backgrounds.

I should also point out that you can do it using EXTRA.css too, targetting the li id for each block.
But that would require manually uploading the image and adding a new entry for each featured thread.

 

[CTXMedia]

Is there no end to the cool features this add-on provides ... (and do you ever sleep Paul?)

 

[Paul B]

Hehe, averaging around 5-6 hours a night...

I hadn't even considered using the icon for that; it was only after someone queried whether it was possible that I checked how easy it would be to do.

Adding a new function to be able to independently have custom icons and backgrounds just seems like the next logical step.

 

[CTXMedia]

You're like the Ambassador from the Ferrero Rocher ads ...

 

[CTXMedia]

Not sure if this has been mentioned (and I'm afraid I'm still falling behind with getting the latest version installed) - but I notice on TAZ when I go to dismiss a featured thread that when I select to dismiss it from the drop-down, I also get an additional overlay and have to click again to dismiss it. Can it be done in one click from the first drop-down?

 

[Paul B]

Does it differ from the behaviour on your own site?

 

[CTXMedia]

Does it differ from the behaviour on your own site?

TBH I haven't got the latest version installed yet - I'm still using the prior version where you couldn't dismiss. It just feels a bit redundant to click on a drop-down to open an overlay to perform the very same action. @Martok - do you have the version installed where you can dismiss threads? If so, do you have to click the drop-down on the featured thread and also the button on the pop-out overlay?

Thanks,
Shaun

 

[Paul B]

Well the functionality is the same for all of the links in the dropdowns - dismiss, feature, update, unfeature.
Click the link, overlay appears.

I was just curious why you mentioned that site in particular, as if the behaviour was different.

 

[Martok]

TBH I haven't got the latest version installed yet - I'm still using the prior version where you couldn't dismiss. It just feels a bit redundant to click on a drop-down to open an overlay to perform the very same action. @Martok - do you have the version installed where you can dismiss threads? If so, do you have to click the drop-down on the featured thread and also the button on the pop-out overlay?

Thanks,
Shaun

Yes, I have the dismiss threads version installed and it behaves as you described. I'm fine with this, seems pretty standard and for mods it means they can't be accidentally dismiss a thread when they were intending to update or unfeature it instead.

 

[Paul B]

and for mods it means they can't be accidentally dismiss a thread when they were intending to update or unfeature it instead.

^ This.

 

[CTXMedia]

Okay, thanks a lot for clarifying (I know TAZ has some custom layout changes so wasn't sure if the dismiss behaviour was standard or something they'd tweaked).

Just for my own interest, do you think I'd be able to change it to a one-click dismiss by editing templates or is that aspect of the featured block hard coded in?

 

[Paul B]

It would require PHP changes, rather than a template edit.