Flash and Joomla News by Eyezberg

Modules: small blocks that can displayed in various spots around (and in!) your main content.. how to use them?

There are two main ways to create modules, two main ways to use your modules, and many ways to change a page look with their settings.

As explained in Part One , a Joomla Template is a normal html file (with the .php extension though) with small bits of PHP in it to load the CMS data.

Example:

        <?php if ( mosCountModules( 'banner') ) { ?>
        <span class="banner"><?php mosLoadModules('banner', -1); ?></span>

This willl load ALL published modules assigned to the "banners" position -generally only the banners module- into the spot where this code appears, if there are any modules assigned. If not, nothing happens, which is useful to collapse empty module positions.

There are two Joomla functions used here:

1. mosCountModules will check if there are any modules assigned to a specific position at all
2. mosLoadModules will load all assigned published modules for that position sequentially in order of appearance in Module Manager admin screen.

As you may have noticed, the Count function takes only one parameter: name of the position to check modules for.

mosLoadModules

this function can take two parameters:

1. position name to all modules for
2. display styles (-1 in this example).
   These can be:
   0 = (default display) Modules are displayed in a column.
   1 = Modules are displayed horizontally, each in one table cell.
   -1 = Modules are displayed as raw output and without titles.
   -2 = Modules are displayed in X-Joomla format.(xhtml)
   -3 = Modules are displayed in a format that allows, for example, stretchable rounded corners by using divs.

To learn more about the display styles, please read on at the official Help site . 

Now we know about modules, what else is there to be pulled into the HTML skeleton from the CMS?  

An attempt to answer some (not all!) common, reocurring questions about the usage of Flash (SWF files) in Joomla templates and or content items.

Topics delt with (unordered, even tough the list is numbered..):

1. need of a plugin to display SWFs, thus the recommendation to use a detection script!
2. web standards compliance (validation) 
3. using the MOSMedia component
4. inserting Flash via various mambots
5. integration of complete Flash applications (RIA)
6. replacing a header image by an SWF file in your template
7. using Flash for headers (sIFR)
8. some existing extensions using Flash (as of publication date)
9. importance of path to swf
10. SWF not playing: "play" and or "autostart" params
    

Usefull links:

1. Ambience
2. Hixie
3. Blatek
4. Gilluminate
5. Accessible Flash
6. Deconcept

Compliant Flash insertion code

 <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" 

 data="path/folder/file.swf" width="WIDTH" height="HEIGHT">



 <param name="movie" value="file.SWF" />



 <p>You need flash player</p>



 </object>

 Let's get going.

This article is listed under "components".
Why, you might ask? Because what is generally considered as your site's homepage is just another component, com_frontpage, as you can easily verify by clicking your non-SEFed "Home" link.

This article aims at reducing the confusion between your HOMEpage and the FRONTpage component, as this is really only the same in the default Joomla setup, but can easily be changed.
In fact, the first page to be displayed when entering your domains URL into a browser (aka Homepage) is  the content linked to by the mainmenu's  first link!

This is the com_frontpage component in a default setup. Now try to move anything else to that first spot, a content item link, another component link, as you like, and preview the site...

That being said, the frontpage component is really important, as it provides the content for your site's RSS feeds (all items with the "Show on frontpage" checkbox ticked), used or not as Homepage.
Settings for this component are accessed through the Content => Frontpage Manager link.
On this screen, you can remove items from frontpage display (and thus RSS inclusion) or reorder the items for display.
[Please note that a few settings for your feeds layout are to be found under Components => Syndication.]

I just created 2 very simple admin modules, and would like to share here the ease of doing so.
My goal was to quickly access some functionality without diggin through menus, in one single click, from whatever screen I was on in admin.
All you need to create your own is 3 files:

• mod_yourmodule.php
• mod_yourmodule.xml
• image.png

The image is needed to have something to click on ;
the .php file does all the work ;
the .xml file is needed for installation.

If you are a registered user of this website, I suggest you click below to download one or both of these modules, and use the files as an example.
mod_allcontent provides a link to the Content =>  All Content Items screen (first icon on the picture)
mod_preview opens a new broser window to the frontend of your site. (2nd icon, unlabeled)