Creating a Block

[spatialguru]

Following from this thread I want to make my first sidebar block for OCS.

I've got the basics of the block up and running, templates, formatting, etc. but I'm at a complete loss for how to get at the database. I see other blocks don't use DAO like other parts of the system. Alec mentioned the use of hooks earlier, can anyone give me a pointer as to how to understand this? To keep it simple, all I want is access to the sched_conf_settings table. Is that readily accessible somehow?

Hopefully this thread can encourage others to make their own blocks and plugins too!

[asmecher]

Hi Tyler,

Actually, using DAOs from plugins is fine -- you can use them just like elsewhere in the system.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[mcrider]

Tyler,
You can access data in the sched_conf_settings table by doing something like this:

Code: Select all

$schedConf = Request::getSchedConf();
$schedConf->getSetting('closeCommentsDate');

Where the parameter in the getSetting function can be any setting_name from the table.

Hope this helps,
Matt

[spatialguru]

Tyler,
You can access data in the sched_conf_settings table by doing something like this:

Code: Select all

$schedConf = Request::getSchedConf();
$schedConf->getSetting('closeCommentsDate');

I'm getting closer, thanks for the comment. Unfortunately it seems I need to learn how to handle arrays a bit better. Even the setting example above seems to return an array for me. Hmmm...

I want to get the $schedConf->getSetting('sponsors') values and then loop through them.

Anymore pointers? I'm starting to repeat my mistakes over and over.. heh.

[asmecher]

Hi Tyler,

Even the closeCommentsDate comes back as an array? If so, that would be news to me -- however, if you mean the sponsors setting, that one should be fetched using the getLocalizedSetting function. This is because sponsors can be entered in multiple languages.

FYI, the print_r function is useful for debugging. Give it an array and it'll dump out the structure of its contents, regardless of whether it's a string, array, object, etc.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[spatialguru]

Thanks for the tips. I'm feeling pretty close now, but still need to find a way to access the contents of the array. print_r didn't tell me anything. Here's my code so far:

SponsorsBlockPlugin.inc.php:

Code: Select all

...
function getContents() {
                $schedConf = Request::getSchedConf();
                $sponsors = $schedConf->getLocalizedSetting('sponsors');
                print_r($sponsors);  // prints nothing, but does when accessing other settings
                return $sponsors;
         }
...


I picked up the getContents approach from some other example. Should I just be doing all of this in my block.tpl instead?

If I had the variable returning properly I know my next challenge would be to iterate through the attributes of the "sponsors" settings array. Here's all I have so far:

Code: Select all

<div class="block" id="sidebarSponsors" style="text-align:center">
        <div class="blockTitle" id="sponsors">{translate key="about.sponsors"}</div>
</div>


I'm not keen on templating yet, so I guess it's where I'm stuck. I've seen two approaches, one loading up the .tpl files and the other focusing on the .inc.php - which approach should I likely need?

Anything jumping out at you guys?

Tyler

[mcrider]

Hi Tyler,

Everywhere else in OCS any request for the sponsors setting uses getSetting(), i.e. not localized. Could you try the same code again with getSetting('sponsors') instead of getLocalizedSetting('sponsors') and see if print_r produces anything? And are you sure you have values in the sched_conf_settings table to pull this data from?

Cheers,
Matt

[spatialguru]

Matt,
Yes that worked for me - thanks. I'd swear I tried it before, but hey, I won't complain

print_r defintely output the data I have in the db as an array now - great! Now I'm just trying to figure out how to process these items in the block.tpl file. Is using the getContents function in SponsorsBlockPlugin.inc.php the right way to go? It seems that the template prints whatever is returned from it - in this case just the object type "array" is printed.

Here is the block.tpl I'm playing with, copied from the templates/about/conferenceSponsorship.tpl:

Code: Select all

<div class="block" id="sidebarSponsors" style="text-align:center">
        <div class="blockTitle" id="sponsors">{translate key="about.sponsors"}
       {foreach from=$sponsors item=sponsor}
        {if $sponsor.institution}
                {if $sponsor.url}
                        <li><a href="{$sponsor.url|escape}">{$sponsor.institution|escape}</a></li>
                {else}
                        <li>{$sponsor.institution|escape}</li>
                {/if}
                {if $sponsor.logourl}
                        <li style="list-style-type:none"><a href="{$sponsor.url|escape}"><img src="{$sponsor.logourl|escape}"></a></li>
                {/if}
        {/if}
        {/foreach}
</div>
</div>

Basically I want to iterate through what the getContents() returned - but it looks like $sponsor variable doesn't make it back to the template? It simply prints "array".

Getting close, I can feel it!

[spatialguru]

So I thought I'd try to do all the processing outside of the template and only pass the final html to the template. I don't think this is ideal, but here's what worked for me. It feels very hackish - so comments welcome!!

I assume I could have assigned my $sponsors array back to the template somehow instead?

Code: Select all

        function getContents() {
                $schedConf = Request::getSchedConf();
                $sponsors = $schedConf->getSetting('sponsors');
                //$templateMgr->assign('sponsors', $sponsors);
                foreach ($sponsors as $sponsor)
                        if ($sponsor['logourl'])
                                $sponsorstrings = $sponsorstrings . '<a href="' . $sponsor['url'] . '"><img src="' . $sponsor['logourl'] . '" width="100%"></a><br>';
                return $sponsorstrings;
         }


[asmecher]

Hi Tyler,

A cleaner way to do this would be to use Smarty's {foreach ...} tag (http://www.smarty.net/manual/en/language.function.foreach.php) to do the loop in the template itself. That way you could keep all the HTML there.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[spatialguru]

That's what I'd like to do, but I can't seem to get the $sponsors array back to the template. It's my total ignorance, but that's where I'm stuck.

[asmecher]

Hi Tyler,

Yes -- you can use something like this in the block code:

Code: Select all

function getContents() {
        $schedConf =& Request::getSchedConf();
        $sponsors = $schedConf->getSetting('sponsors');
        $templateMgr =& TemplateManager::getManager();
        $templateMgr->assign('sponsors', $sponsors);
        return parent::getContents();
}

I haven't tested this, but it should be OK.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[spatialguru]

Code: Select all

return parent::getContents();

I haven't tested this, but it should be OK.

Almost perfect - good job!

I had to pass it the template mgr too:

Code: Select all

return parent::getContents($templateMgr);


It seems to be basically working - will now develop the template side and report back.

Thanks a lot guys!

[asmecher]

Hi Tyler,

Ah -- you're also missing the &$templateMgr parameter from the getContents function definition. You can get rid of the TemplateManager::getManager call once you've added this.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[spatialguru]

Okay, all done now! Thanks a lot. To sum up - here is the final template and PHP code I've got running. See top of this post for the other details.

SponsorsBlockPlugin.inc.php

Code: Select all

...
        function getContents(&$templateMgr) {
                $schedConf = Request::getSchedConf();
                $sponsors = $schedConf->getSetting('sponsors');
                $templateMgr->assign_by_ref('sponsors', $sponsors);
                return parent::getContents($templateMgr);
         }
...


block.tpl

Code: Select all

<div class="block" id="sidebarSponsors" style="text-align:center">
        <div class="blockTitle" id="sponsors" style="text-align:center">{translate key="about.sponsors"}
        {foreach from=$sponsors item=sponsor}
        {if $sponsor.institution}
                {if $sponsor.logourl}
                        <a href="{$sponsor.url|escape}"><img src="{$sponsor.logourl|escape}" width="100%"></a>
                {else}
                        {if $sponsor.url}
                        <a href="{$sponsor.url|escape}">{$sponsor.institution|escape}</a>       
                        {/if}
                {/if}
        {/if}
        {/foreach}
        </div>
</div>


Next I'll want to add another variable to the sponsor settings so I can order the sponsors according to a sponsorship level. That should be fun...

Thanks again - this was a great intro for me to learn and the results look nice too. I'll provide a URL when our site upgrade is completed.

Update: see next page for a screenshot example
Tyler