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Creating Page Templates
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A page template for use with Comanche requires two files - a PHP template and a CSS file. Page templates will need to be installed by the system administrator of your site.
First choose a name. Here we'll create a template and call it "demo".
You will need to create the files "view/php/demo.php" and "view/css/demo.css" to hold the PHP template and CSS respectively.
To get a better idea of this process, let's look at an existing template - the "default" template. This is used by default throughout the application.
view/php/default.php
====================
<!DOCTYPE html >
<html>
<head>
<title><?php if(x($page,'title')) echo $page['title'] ?></title>
<script>var baseurl="<?php echo $a->get_baseurl() ?>";</script>
<?php if(x($page,'htmlhead')) echo $page['htmlhead'] ?>
</head>
<body>
<?php if(x($page,'nav')) echo $page['nav']; ?>
<aside id="region_1"><?php if(x($page,'aside')) echo $page['aside']; ?></aside>
<section id="region_2"><?php if(x($page,'content')) echo $page['content']; ?>
<div id="page-footer"></div>
<div id="pause"></div>
</section>
<aside id="region_3"><?php if(x($page,'right_aside')) echo $page['right_aside']; ?></aside>
<footer><?php if(x($page,'footer')) echo $page['footer']; ?></footer>
</body>
</html>
Here's is the corresponding CSS file
view/php/default.css
====================
aside#region_1 {
display: block;
width: 210px;
position: absolute;
top: 65px;
left: 0;
margin-left: 10px;
}
aside input[type='text'] {
width: 174px;
}
section {
position: absolute;
top: 65px;
left: 250px;
display: block;
right: 15px;
padding-bottom: 350px;
}
Some things you may notice when looking at these definitions:
* We have not specified any CSS for the "nav", "right_aside", or "footer" regions. In this template "nav" and "footer" will be the full page width and we will let the size and placement of these elements be controlled by the theme. "right_aside" is not currently used.
* There are elements on the page such as "page-footer" and "pause" for which there is no apparent content. This content will come from Javascript elements.
* Our default template uses absolute positioning. Modern web design often uses "float" div containers so that scrollbars aren't typically needed when viewing on small-screen devices.
To design a new template, it is best to start with an existing template, and modify it as desired. That is what we will do here.
The way that Comanche provides content inside a specific region is by using a region tag.
[region=aside][widget=profile][/widget][/region]
This example will place a "profile" widget in the "aside" region. But what it actually does is place the HTML for the widget into a code variable **$page['aside']**. Our default page template defines a region on the page (the CSS positions this as an absolute sidebar) and then inserts the contents of $page['aside'] (if it exists).
So if you wanted to create a template with a region named "foo", you would provide a place for it on the page, then include the contents of $page['foo'] wherever you wanted to use it, and then using Comanche, you could specify
[region=foo][widget=profile][/widget][/region]
and this would place a profile widget into the "foo" region you created.
Use the CSS file to position the region on the page where desired and optionally control its size.
[To be continued]
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