Creating a tutorial base

[72dpi]

Hi all,

i am toying with the idea of adding my own tute base-type content to subdreamer. I really want to be able to show content from a database like:
http://www.zymic.com/show_tutorials.php?id=3
or
http://www.pixel2life.com

By this, i mean, showing alternate table row colors, with an icon, link, description & page views.
Now, content can be added like any other news article, but displaying the content would be nice if you could have the choice, ie, 10 tutes per page,20 tutes etc.

I think tyhis may be a very cool plugin that many people could use.
Any thoughts on how to achieve this in the meantime are greatly appreciated.

[Pyromanci]

Well the alternating colors is the easy part.

be nothing more then if else statement with in the printout loop. That is if you are storing all the tut's links and mini descriptions from with in the plugin it's self.

Then for the plugin settings just have one setting called row color and the another called alt row color.

The hardest parts i have found is the page navigation links. Though thats usually becuase i am tring to pass action, sub actions, sorts ect. So the links end up pretty long.

If you would like i can make a little explain for you. Just give me a open person plug-in ID you have aviable and i can have one for you in just a few hours.

[72dpi]

Hi Pyro,

Cheers for the heads up.

I guess my hardest thing to find, was figuring out the way content should be written out. I started last night by duplicating the news plugin. the new one is plugin id "2001"


Ok, it may not be much, but it is a start. I have my alternate colors working, made the tute name clickable, made a "hover" state for the <td> tag, and made the <td> a link to the tutorial.

Is this the right direction to go in?.

mate, if you had a spare bit of time, that would be really awesome. I will keep working into it & feed the code back into the community. I am sure there are others whom would love to display content like this.

The other thing I wish to add is having a thumbnail to represent the content, I was figuring on using the awesome code from HeavyEddie: http://www.subdreamer.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=517

Since I will be creating tutorials for "photography", "Css", "Photoshop" etc, I was going to call the thumbnail, if it doesn't exist, make one (using gd), or show a standard. These thumbnails would be in the left column.
Once I work into this, they will be using "div" tags as well as being xhtml valid. (for the forthcoming release of SD).

Do you think I am on the right path for this one?, or maybe I should look at a diffreent method?.

if you do get a little time, i would really appreciate it. If you want me to send u the coe for the news (very minor design changes), just let me know.

Cheers mate!

[Pyromanci]

Ah i see what you getting at a little more clearer now. but you pobally don&#39;t want to use a clone of the news plugin do you?

[72dpi]

Hi Ryro,

I only really used the nes clone, due to the fact that it has all the options I want for creating tutes, sincem, they are effectively, a news article.

However, i need to limit the introduction text to 100 characters, add an icon (ie, php icon, photoshop etc,)

I guess it was lack of knowlege is why i am hacking an existing plugin, also, as i don&#39;t expect anyone to develop this for me.

i hope some people may see the useflulness of showing news this way.

Other mods for this would be, as I said:
A list of all available tutes in sections, Sort tutes numbers etc.

I will keep playing with this on the weekend to add the icons etc.

Thanks for considering this & helping me think more about it...&#33;

[Terminator1138]

72dpi, what a great idea, is this something you are gonna share? I&#39;ve been looking for something like this for a while now and just have not figure out how to do it yet. I&#39;m using the news on the backend of things for my tutorials and all. Looks great.

[72dpi]

hey terminator, yeah, definately.

I will create a heap of thumbnails for all types of tutorials, ie, php, photoshop, illustrator, photography, css, xhtml, blah blah, and include them for download. I really don&#39;t know if this is the best use of the news plugin, but it works for me. i will try & add the sorting functionlity too.

Any pro&#39;s wanna get their hands dirty, feel free&#33;

i will post up my code as soon as I am happy with the output..... :rolleyes:

[IGGY]

I have wanted something like this for a long time&#33;

The icon idea is fantastic, if you could get the icon to be userdefined that would be even better.

[Terminator1138]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(72dpi &#064; Feb 3 2006, 08&#58;48 AM) 3630</div>
hey terminator, yeah, definately.

I will create a heap of thumbnails for all types of tutorials, ie, php, photoshop, illustrator, photography, css, xhtml, blah blah, and include them for download. I really don&#39;t know if this is the best use of the news plugin, but it works for me. i will try & add the sorting functionlity too.

Any pro&#39;s wanna get their hands dirty, feel free&#33;

i will post up my code as soon as I am happy with the output..... :rolleyes:
[/b]
I have made a custom plugin that somewhat works but what you have is way so much better...nice work all around and yeah, the news plugin works pretty well for doing the tutorials and you can post them in forums also :)

[internet]

Nice work&#33;

I also have a photoshop tutorial site and really looking for this awesome plugin. I wonder is this the right time for you to share your plugin now :P I really love to have a look and do the same thing to mine.

I am testing SD and definitely gonna buy a version shortly.

[72dpi]

Hi Internet,
My code isn't quite ready.
i can tho, tell you, to:
Duplicate the News plugin,
Start creating tutorials (news articles) in that. I am gonna play more tonight on it.
Basically, I have it now reading my articles. I will now lookat modifying the news so i can upload & link to a "news" icon, which will be my thumbnail


The next bit of code I need to implement is either a case, or an if - else statement (got to figure out which is cleaner). I figure best way is have an extra field called "tute_thumb", in the news section, then you link to the thumb image. if no thumb image exists, show the category image, if no category image exists show the default "noimage" image. (thats a lot of images heh heh).

This is by no means a "nice" plugin. it is emerely a "hack" to get my news article to print out how i like it.

I actually think that a better alternative, would be to take ALL of this output, & put it as a case statement in the existing news, or create a template system, where u can choose the news ouput style, much similar to template selection for categories.

Any thoughs, as usual are greatly appreciated. :P

[IGGY]

Your making really good progress. It would be nice to add the tumbnail next to the article title when reading.

[72dpi]

Good point Iggy,
i didn&#39;t edit that part of the news item, Will do tonight. Cheers&#33;

[IGGY]

Another idea, I don&#39;t know how exactly you would do this, but sort of like the download manager where you can upload a thumbnail image.

Kinda of like this http://www.greycobra.com/

[internet]

To be honest, my coding knowledge is very basic, still have to learn a lot more :( Can&#39;t help you anything tho

I just cross my fingers and wish you release the hack soon .... can&#39;t help to wait for this hack.

PS: one question&#33; I follow the link about HTML and see that you can post an HTML tutorial with all the HTML tags. How can you do that? because when I do it in the news plugin, all the tag disapear ... :(

I am pretty new in SD ... so could be very noob question :unsure:

[Pyromanci]

a image upload is really easy. look at the copy function in php. or you could just mimic the image upload part form the image gallery.

[72dpi]

Cheers Pyro,
YEah, i will prob rip the one fromeither image gal or from the downloads. I also wanted to get the "views" variable from the database & display that on the link.

Hi Internet, & welcome to the SD forums. Stick around, the ppl here are very nice & you will learn lots&#33;

the problem is not with the News, it is with the WYSIWG editor (Tiny MCE), i would head over to their forums to find out more.

Basically, if you want to print out html, you can view the source code of a section you want to write out like:

&#60;table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0&#62;
****&#60;tr&#62;
********&#60;td align=left valign=top rowspan=2&#62;


Then paste this straight into the news editor. This should print out ok. The only issue you will have, is when you edit this content again, it will "re-format" your content.

That succk when you are writing a tutorial like "Next, insert your image like: <img src=" etc, which will convert your text to an actuall image.
My only gripe using the news editor is that you don&#39;t have options for inputting ".php" code blocks, like you can here.
One option is you can always disable the WYSIWYG editor in the main control panel settings.

Hope this helps.

Oh, and I will post up the code in the next few days, so ppl can see the simple mods I am doing. I really think this should be a template system within the existing news section, but i guess will do for now.

[internet]

Yeah&#33; last time I tried to post an HTML tutorial about redirecting code and insert Google Adsense in the IPB forum. But whenever I update the article (due to correction) it re-formats again.

I also try to hack the [php] [ /php] or [code] [ /code] tag but failed. Finally I do all this in HTML and provided a link instead. :D

I am really looking forward to your release ... start counting days now ...

[Varsh]

That&#39;s dead easy guys, all you need to do is put the HTML in XMP brackets like this:

&#60;html&#62;
&#60;title&#62;&#60;/title&#62;
&#60;body&#62;
&#60;xmp&#62;
&#60;table&#62;
&#60;tr&#62;
&#60;td&#62;jglfdjlgkdfjlkg&#60;/td&#62;
&#60;/tr&#62;
&#60;/table&#62;
&#60;/xmp&#62;
&#60;/body&#62;
&#60;/html&#62;

And you&#39;ll get an output like this:

&#60;table&#62;
&#60;tr&#62;
&#60;td&#62;jglfdjlgkdfjlkg&#60;/td&#62;
&#60;/tr&#62;
&#60;/table&#62;


On the subject though, can&#39;t wait for the plugin, it&#39;s something that&#39;ll be perfect&#33;

[internet]

@Varsh: your code does not solve the problem either&#33; bcos when you need to edit your post and it re-formats the whole text again

[Terminator1138]

Curious on any progress....

[72dpi]

Hi terminator,
Sorry, No progress yet. I do, however, have it print out the thumbnail (these require ftp for now)

I have had to work on 4 websites development so kinda snowed under.

I will look into upload functionality asap. Sorry for any delays, but will be worth it in the end.
If you want any code, just let me know, Mine are mainly hacks. I actually feel that the news stsyem shoul;d be template driven, that way, you could change the outup of each news item for each sectionn, and ALL news could be input via the news system.

For now i will try & do a little more.
Will post up as soon as I have some more done..

[Terminator1138]

thanks for the update, no problem I get swamped to in terms of clients :) it pays the bills...I was just thinking of our anniversary that this would work perfect for an unveiling that would replace what we have now :) That is about a month away so just checking

Thanks

[72dpi]

Sweet.
I will get it ready.

the only thing tho, is that since it is a "different" news Plugin, tutorials need to be written into this plugin, and not with the normal news plugin. I will look into the output & see if it can output all "normal news", shouldn&#39;t be too hard. Basically, we just want to select all news from the "Normal" news database tables.. This way, it acts as a "template" of sorts, rather than a new plugin, (I hope u get what I mean lol), brain isn&#39;t functioning to well...

When I get time, I would actually prefer to see if the existing news system can have a check, Ie, for the output, if Section ID == Tutorials, echo this, else echo normal. I actually think that would be pretty simple.

Any thoughts on this let me know&#33;

Cheers......

[Brent]

Autotutorials is the best tutorial management system that I&#39;ve seen so far. Version 3 will be amazing.

Example - http://www.tutorial-s.com/

SemiSubdreamer Integrated - http://www.photoshopchop.com
(Just attempted matching the skin, no real integration.)

72dpi, looks like you are making strides to a subdreamer tutorials plugin, looks great so far, awesome.

BTW - I have a couple tutorial links databases if anyone is interested. 4000 photoshop tutorial links, and another database mixed with 10000 links.

[72dpi]

Hi Mondala,
Welcome to the Subdreamer allegiance of internerd galactic battlers&#33;
Love what you are doing, i think you&#39;ll love subdreamer. I am hoping to make better progress, but am stuck on a few things. I am doing really is changing the output of subdreamer.

Are you gathering your tutes via RSS feeds?, very keen to see what you are doing. What&#39;s the deal with the databases?, are u allowing linking via RSS?, would love to know more...
Cheers...

[Brent]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(72dpi &#064; Feb 19 2006, 07&#58;49 PM) 4081</div>
Hi Mondala,
Welcome to the Subdreamer allegiance of internerd galactic battlers&#33;
Love what you are doing, i think you&#39;ll love subdreamer. I am hoping to make better progress, but am stuck on a few things. I am doing really is changing the output of subdreamer.

Are you gathering your tutes via RSS feeds?, very keen to see what you are doing. What&#39;s the deal with the databases?, are u allowing linking via RSS?, would love to know more...
Cheers...
[/b]

Hi there, thank you.
I&#39;ve actually used subdreamer for a while now..... the tutorials links I have were obtained all at once as an existing mysql database. I will eventually import them into my site which will eventually include RSS output of recent submissions, most recent by category, top searches, etc.

[Terminator1138]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(72dpi &#064; Feb 16 2006, 11&#58;03 PM) 3965</div>
Sweet.
I will get it ready.

the only thing tho, is that since it is a "different" news Plugin, tutorials need to be written into this plugin, and not with the normal news plugin. I will look into the output & see if it can output all "normal news", shouldn&#39;t be too hard. Basically, we just want to select all news from the "Normal" news database tables.. This way, it acts as a "template" of sorts, rather than a new plugin, (I hope u get what I mean lol), brain isn&#39;t functioning to well...

When I get time, I would actually prefer to see if the existing news system can have a check, Ie, for the output, if Section ID == Tutorials, echo this, else echo normal. I actually think that would be pretty simple.

Any thoughts on this let me know&#33;

Cheers......
[/b]
Great that is what I was hoping, I keep the tuts away from news since its not news per say :), plus you can post the tuts in the forums with a news like plugin if it acts the same way, just excited to see this in final form and try it out :)

[Terminator1138]

Excuse the directness, but just curious again :), hows it going

[72dpi]

Sorry Again terminator.
No internet at home, and wedding in Under 6 weeks, makes this a real bugger. I have 3 plugins I want to develop and absolutely no time. I am putting togther the code hack I have done for Donna, will post up my code, icons used & more in the next few days.
When i get back from my honey moon I will get back into it. Unless I take my laptop on honey moon?, heh heh.

Sorry for the wait....

[IGGY]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(72dpi &#064; Mar 6 2006, 04&#58;47 PM) 4367</div>Unless I take my laptop on honey moon?, heh heh.
[/b]


2 things:

That would either be hardcore, or a big mistake. :P

[Terminator1138]

yeah, I would take the time and enjoy the honeymoon, trust me from someone who is married :)

[HeavyEddie]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(72dpi &#064; Mar 6 2006, 07&#58;47 PM) 4367</div> Sorry Again terminator.
No internet at home, and wedding in Under 6 weeks, makes this a real bugger. I have 3 plugins I want to develop and absolutely no time. I am putting togther the code hack I have done for Donna, will post up my code, icons used & more in the next few days.
When i get back from my honey moon I will get back into it. Unless I take my laptop on honey moon?, heh heh.

Sorry for the wait.... [/b]

I have 11 years under my belt... do not... I repeat... do not bring that laptop on the honeymoon. You will never hear the end of it. I was browsing your wedding site again the other day... that is one of the best looking sites I&#39;ve seen.

[72dpi]

Heh heh,

Cheers guys, & Thanks for the comment heavy.

That skin will be made avaialable when i get back, but with other color shcemes.
It will rely on using your Dynamic Titles Heavy, so mebbe I could package it with it?, fonts etc, are included.

Now, with regards to releasing this as a "hack/news mod", I have it named p2001_news. I really want to be able to get news from the p2_news plugin, so instead of referencing the p2001 db tables, I want it to reference the p2 db tables. this will mean you don&#39;t have to create new db rows, and can use existing content. I can do it for most of it, but am afraid that I stuffed it up, since it references p2001 so many times.
Anyone who has 5 minutes spare, i would really appreciate you looking at this, so i can release to to the public.

Oh, and I don&#39;t think I will take the laptop. I want to make it to Heavy Eddie&#39;s stage & beyond too. =)

[72dpi]

*NOTE, DUE TO THE FORUM CHANGE< THIS CODE HAS BECOME UNSTABLE, AND REQUIRES WORK< BUT THE BASIS MODEL IS HERE.

Ok,
For anyone still interested in creating a mod like this, there is a few things to consider. Duplicating the news mod means you have to add your tutorials into another table. I think it is best to get the news from your existing news tables.

I will be releasing the mod on the weekend with all images etc, but for now, if anyone wants to have a play & see what the changes are, please read on.

Firstly, BACKUP your p2_news > news.php. I can't express how important this is. This is your main content plugin. Screw it up & your site screws up.

Now, i created the following category: Tutorials
Then created the following sub-categories: Photography, Photoshop, Html, CSS, etc.

Whilst each has a unique "categoryid", the only results I wish to display are from my category "Tutorials" where the categoryid is "37". Anything written with this category id, will be in my "tutorial style" formatting, everything else will be the standard printout.

Now, the fun bit =)

open up your style sheet, add the following for a thumbnail style:

.thumb3 { border: 1px solid #BBBBBB; cursor: pointer; margin:5px; background-color: #ffffff; }
Open up: plugins > p2_news > news.php
find:
$rows = $DB->get_num_rows($getarticles);After, Add:
// start news mod
// alternate row variables
$row_count = 0;
$color1 = "#ffffff";
$color2 = "#f0f0f0";
$color3 = "#E7FFC7";
$TuteCat = "37"; // Change this to your Tutorial category ID
// end modnext, Find:
$article['settings'] = $globalsettings;
}After, change:

// display article
p2_DisplayArticle($article);To:


// select content
$thecategory = $DB->query_first("SELECT name FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "categories WHERE categoryid = '$categoryid' AND parentid =' $TuteCat'");
// define the category we are viewing
$currentcat = $thecategory['name'];

/*
simple if else statement. here we want to show
the modified content where currentcat is defined
(this really should come from where parent id == 37
but i need help with this one =)
Note, these should reflect the categories you have. I have a Pro version,
if you only have the lite version, you may need to define "currentcat a bit differently, like:
$currentcat = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
Then call like:
if ( ($currentcat =="/index.php?categoryid=9") or ($currentcat =="/index.php?categoryid=12") )
*/

// check if the current category is defined
if ( ($currentcat =="Photography") or ($currentcat =="Photoshop") or ($currentcat =="Html") or ($currentcat =="Php") or ($currentcat =="CSS")) {

// if so, show modded layout
echo"";
echo"";
echo"";
// set path to your tutorial icons
$path = "images/tute_icons/";
// define our image for use, using if/else, so no broken images appear
$theimage = "images/tute_icons/".$thecategory['name'].".png";
echo '<img src="';
if($img = @GetImageSize($theimage)) {
echo $theimage;
} else {
echo $path."noimage.png";
}
echo "\" alt=\"".$thecategory['name']."**Tutorial\" class=\"thumb3\" />";
//echo $thecategory['name'];

echo"";
// display article
p2_DisplayArticle($article);
echo"";
// end modded layout

}
else {
// return normal formatting if not in tute section
// display article
p2_DisplayArticle($article);
}

// end mod
That's it.
I will try & modify it again, so that you don't have to manually write all categories, but at least this gives you some ideas (hopefully not on how to destroy your news plugin =)

I will endeavour to get the proper full mod packed & readyu this weekend, time permitting, otherwise, i would like anyones commnest on whether they thinmk this particular mod is worthwhile, and where it can be made better. Cheers....

PS, This should work fine, I was "coding blind" so to speak :P

[Terminator1138]

so one just has to make the code changes? etc or is there a zip file?

[72dpi]

Hi terminator,
These changes reflect if you wish to change your existing News plugin, for showing different content.

I will be finishing off the new plugin/hack hopefully on the weekend, so you won&#39;t have to do anything, but unzip & upload.

Like i said, the reason i hoped to use the existing p2_news plugin, is so you can use existing database table data, the above mod does this.

I was actually hoping one of the code developers could suggest a better alternative to this.....

Failing that, the weekend I will upload my final zip....

Hope this gives u some thoughts...

[Terminator1138]

ailing that, the weekend I will upload my final zip....
:)

okay just asking a few questions if I try to manually create. Was this done on a clone plugin of p2001 and or how does this affect regular news posting.

also can a clone of latest news etc or most read news be cloned and fit to work with this also?

[72dpi]

Hi terminator,

The release as you prob figerd is on Hold, Weddings in 4 weeks & I have two large sites to finish (one pays for the rings, so is Kinda Urgent)

the 2001 was a direct clone of ps_news plugin. The above code is designed to modify your existing p2_news, otherwise as I mentioned, you need to create new news Items, which get stored in different tables, and you will not be able to access existing tables . That whay the p2--1_news plugin i was developing, is currently being fully modified to utilise existing p2_news tables data.

If you wanna work on this one with me, lemme know & I can email the content to you,. All I realkly need to change on the p2001_plugin to make it work, is get it to read & write data to the p2_news plugin tables. This will be a better option perhaps than modifying the code as above (although my site utilises the above data, and does it very nivcely).

lemme know what u think mate, i am sorryt to make u wait, but wedding is important. =)

[Terminator1138]

ah no worries... :) wedding in 4 weeks, congrates mate, I&#39;m surprised you even have time :). I know I did not 7 years ago...

Yes commercial projects come first...and I have my fair share. I would be happy to look at what you have so far, however I&#39;m not as good as you of course :)....My only curiousity is what will happen to our existing news if the original news plugin has changed, but I think what you are doing and the way is what is best to fit many solutions.

Not sure how much I can work on it with you, but at least looking will not hurt and perhaps more ideas can be made.

[Varsh]

Well I modified the news script and it works&#33; Only thing is that I haven&#39;t made any images for the categories but other than that it looks promising so far, keep up the good work. :)

And have fun in 4 weeks. ;)

[Robert_J_Ellis]

Hmm, this looks very cool :). I could use something like this soon. Kudos to everyone involved.

[recro]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(72dpi &#064; Mar 8 2006, 12&#58;40 PM) 4400</div>


open up your style sheet, add the following for a thumbnail style:

.thumb3 { border&#58; 1px solid #BBBBBB; cursor&#58; pointer; margin&#58;5px; background-color&#58; #ffffff; }

[/b]
Hey m8 1 question now im new to this but i really want to learn this stuff. What Style sheet are you talking about or am i making a new 1? If so where do i place it and what do i name it? Thanks again&#33;&#33;

[Terminator1138]

Just curious if we can make this into a full blown plugin now?

I&#39;m still curious if this is the cloned news etc and a clone of latest news etc that can be edited or just the full original news clone?

[Genesisdesigns]

This would be very helpful if it was turned into a full blown plugin.

[72dpi]

Yup indeedie it would.
i have started operation on it again, will be posting up code, thoughts & progress.

My latest mod was by using the news module, no clones. thius way, U can use all existing news items, unless I mod a new one from the clone, and refer all content from the news plugin tables.

open to suggestions about best way to do it.

Sorry for delays on this one, I have a few plugins to do, plus wanna get started on the Star Wars theme.

[Brent]

Curious if anyone ever though of making a standalone tutorials plugin? I have 11000 external tutorial links in an mysql database that I would love to have a subdreamer homegrown plugin to import into. I would donate a copy of the database to a programmer interested in making one. Not sure how the user integration would work with the existing database structure but thats why i&#39;m ot a programmer. :)

SD tutorials plugin (based off news plugin)
--statistics
--most viewed
--latest tutorials
--ratings
--top rated
--submit hosted tutorial
--submit external tutorial (link)
--email tutorial
--search tutorials
--cats & sub cats
--top authors
--etc
--etc

[72dpi]

hey Mondala,

I would suggest perhaps changing the database table structure to represent the subdreamer tables, then dunmping any tables not needed 9or add them to ur Subdreamer database), then when structiure is same as Subdreamer, take a full DB dump, then include this content from the External to Subdreamer (don&#39;t dlete everything from the external, just take full dump, then create new database for ur testbed).
Hope u know what i mean =0

I don&#39;t think linking to an external database is the way to go.
Maybe someone else has an opinion?

[Genesisdesigns]

I&#39;d just make it like how it&#39;s on pixel2life.com. Have the ability to add tutorials and have a plugin that shows newly added tuts or random on the main page. I&#39;m really excited to see the end product of this.

[Terminator1138]

Just have to bump and ask hows it going on the creation....

[72dpi]

hey Terminator,
i pretty much stopped on this, cos heavy Eddie made a wicked plugin for using templates for sections.
Maybe check that out?

If not, Lemme know.... <-- Sorry for the cobwebs on this one

[Terminator1138]

is this on his site or can it be found here....perhaps I missed that one.. :)

[HeavyEddie]

I haven&#39;t released that one yet. I hope I didn&#39;t step on your toes 72?

I&#39;ve really only just begun. The idea for the template news plugin is to allow you to take any existing news article and display it inside the template of your choice. Creating templates is as easy as writing a standard html file.

Will this work for what you are trying to do here?

This will be my next big plugin and is in my sites now that the event planner is winding down.

[72dpi]

Not treading on My Toes Heavy,
U are answering my dreams =)

I will give you many many designs for this plugin.
it&#39;s gonna rawk&#33;

[Terminator1138]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(HeavyEddie &#064; May 22 2006, 11&#58;03 PM) 6137</div>
I&#39;ve really only just begun. The idea for the template news plugin is to allow you to take any existing news article and display it inside the template of your choice. Creating templates is as easy as writing a standard html file.

Will this work for what you are trying to do here?

[/b]
It might work, just not sure what you mean compared to what 72 was working on. :), What I&#39;m trying to do is display categories or tutorials and each category will have many user submitted tuts etc....similar to how many other tutorials sites run etc.

I definitely like the style of news plugin etc...sound interesting.

[HeavyEddie]

Yep, it will do that :)

[Terminator1138]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(HeavyEddie &#064; May 23 2006, 11&#58;30 AM) 6151</div>
Yep, it will do that :)
[/b]
as a side note, would be cool to assign a picture for the categories also say CSS tutorials would display image etc..just a thought :)

[72dpi]

yeah,
that&#39;s the code I did in Mine, it&#39;s very simple. I am sure heavy&#39;s will allow u to choose what thumbnail u want tho.

This is gonna be a GodSend. Seriously, templating is huuuuge.

Also what would be essential, is ability to:

Limit Link Length (With title="full length of title here"
Title becomes a link
Content length limit, with "..." appended
Templates for Whole categories (as in global)
Templates for Single items (override global settings)

I am gonna have a Party when U get into this work heavy...&#33;

[Terminator1138]

I think this should be sticky since I really think its gonna be an awesome plugin etc....

[HeavyEddie]

The biggest thing working in our favor for this is the next version of the article placer. It supports displaying any article in any category via a url. This means we can have any plugin change the contents of article placer. It currently works via full url (good for a permalink) and AJAX calls.

My only stumbling block remaining is changing the plugin title via AJAX. I know I want to wrap the title in a div, but haven&#39;t decided the best way to do it yet. We can&#39;t really do it in the skin since it could be in any particular plugin position.

I&#39;m also working on two small companion plugins that will allow you to list and index the articles.

[72dpi]

Heavy,

Why, oh why hasn&#39;t Subduck asked u to be on the core team huh?

Great stuff man.

[HeavyEddie]

Thanks for the compliment... but I think the guys on the core team have a great deal more experience than I. I see that often when I look at the maturity of their coding. I&#39;ve only been using PHP since January when... I purchased SD.

[72dpi]

Since January?

OMG, dude, your Brain is a "sponge".
i think mine is a "Turdle"

As always, I salute u matey&#33;

[DarK_AssassiN]

I tried PHP. I got lost quickly... lol

Looking forward to this plugin ;) Got an ETA?

And I agree with one of the previous posters, this should be stickied or something. This is gonna be a nice plugin :P

[Terminator1138]

Well my last comments were erased when sd.org updated but I have some more ideas..

Why not make this more like a true TMS and not a clone hack or at least a full version release? Lots of great ideas but seems this worthwhile idea has been dropped

[72dpi]

Yeah terminatot.

I just cleaned up the code that I originally posted. Unfortunately, my code & links got lost a bit.

I will try & track down my existing stuff also (original working files etc).

This is certainly a plugin mod worth developing, and now that we have awesome coders like heavy Eddie, Condev etc, perhaps soon this may popup again.

I apreciate your patience on waiting for this one.

BTW, i would have to start my code from scratch due to a massive database loss a while back.

DOH.....

[Terminator1138]

Yeah terminatot.

I just cleaned up the code that I originally posted. Unfortunately, my code & links got lost a bit.

I will try & track down my existing stuff also (original working files etc).

This is certainly a plugin mod worth developing, and now that we have awesome coders like heavy Eddie, Condev etc, perhaps soon this may popup again.

I apreciate your patience on waiting for this one.

BTW, i would have to start my code from scratch due to a massive database loss a while back.

DOH.....no problem, just want to keep this alive since there are so few good systems out there and this one would be a big benefit to content providers. I don't like all those ones that just link to other tutorials out there. My forum area rss feed hands that end, but I'm wanting to create some for my site and using so many clone plugins is getting to me :)

[72dpi]

Man, I am dragging up an archaic monster here, I am gonna get back into this. I believe the ability to design your content output (say for a Tutorial Base) is well worth it. I am in the midst of rewriting the output for the LinkBase as well, so stay tuned...