1
comegona
Documents on modifying...
  • 2003/11/9 4:36

  • comegona

  • Not too shy to talk

  • Posts: 165

  • Since: 2003/11/9


Hello
I’ve searched this site but found nothing that will help me. I'm looking for documentation on modifying modules and templates. One example is, I have the mylinks module and I would like to modify it so that the main, index, page will show only the categories instead of the last # of links added. I tried modifying the html in the modules template folder but that did not help. What I need is a document that will explain how the modules work so that I can modify any module. Also the same goes for templates. A detailed explanation of what each file within the template and module does.

Am I asking for too much? Is there such a thing?

Thanks

2
Catzwolf
Re: Documents on modifying...
  • 2003/11/9 7:26

  • Catzwolf

  • Home away from home

  • Posts: 1392

  • Since: 2007/9/30


Sadly, at the moment this is where XOOPS falls over the rest of the CMS's out there, but this area that has been neglected for so long is about to change in the very near future and we should have this rectified.

Try looking through the Wiki for hints and tips on this subject. Try the XOOPS Wiki block and the module development link.


My suggestion meantime is to use this forum for help and have a look at how other modules are put together, good one to start off with would be the news module.

3
comegona
Re: Documents on modifying...
  • 2003/11/9 16:47

  • comegona

  • Not too shy to talk

  • Posts: 165

  • Since: 2003/11/9


One extra question, what does the files in the 'templates_c' do? Can I delete them? The reason is I did a change on a module but the change did not show up.

Also how does XOOPS deal with search engines? Is there any problems with them ‘spidering’ a XOOPS site?

Thanks

4
DFBH13
Re: Documents on modifying...
  • 2003/11/9 22:16

  • DFBH13

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 61

  • Since: 2003/6/26


You can add them to search engines concidering your host allows it.

5
comegona
Re: Documents on modifying...
  • 2003/11/10 4:16

  • comegona

  • Not too shy to talk

  • Posts: 165

  • Since: 2003/11/9


Quote:

DFBH13 wrote:
You can add them to search engines concidering your host allows it.


What I'm trying to ask is if there are any problems with search engines seeing that XOOPS is sort of a dynamic based system. Static pages are easily spidered but will XOOPS cause pages that are not to be looked at?

Still looking for what template_c does.

6
mvandam
Re: Documents on modifying...
  • 2003/11/10 8:12

  • mvandam

  • Quite a regular

  • Posts: 253

  • Since: 2003/2/7 2


Quote:

What I'm trying to ask is if there are any problems with search engines seeing that XOOPS is sort of a dynamic based system. Static pages are easily spidered but will XOOPS cause pages that are not to be looked at?


From what I understand, there should be no problem. Most current search engines (including google) understand dynamic pages. Keep in mind though that spiders crawl through your site by following links. e.g. Your news articles won't be indexed unless other pages such as your home page link to them.

Quote:

Still looking for what template_c does.


This is where the smarty template engine caches the compiled templates. If you delete the files, they will be regenerated when the page is viewed next. If you are having problems getting changes to show up, check the wiki. There are a couple of suggestions of things you may need to do before the changes take effect.

7
comegona
Re: Documents on modifying...
  • 2003/11/10 16:51

  • comegona

  • Not too shy to talk

  • Posts: 165

  • Since: 2003/11/9


Quote:

This is where the smarty template engine caches the compiled templates. If you delete the files, they will be regenerated when the page is viewed next. If you are having problems getting changes to show up, check the wiki. There are a couple of suggestions of things you may need to do before the changes take effect.


Well I deleted all files in template_c and I saw my changes. Now that brings me to two questions.

What is Wiki?

Is ‘ant the 'Update module template .html files from themes/your theme/templates directory?' supposed to flush the template_c directory when you select Yes in the Site Preferences? Also I have 'No Cache' set for all modules. I assume the 'No Cache' setting would cause it not to save a cache file.

8
mvandam
Re: Documents on modifying...
  • 2003/11/10 22:56

  • mvandam

  • Quite a regular

  • Posts: 253

  • Since: 2003/2/7 2


Quote:

What is Wiki?


A 'wiki' is a documentation system where the documentation can be edited online (via a web browser); usually *everyone* can edit the documents. The XOOPS wiki is http://wiki.xoops.org . Here you will find much of the existing XOOPS documentation.

Quote:

Is ‘ant the 'Update module template .html files from themes/your theme/templates directory?' supposed to flush the template_c directory when you select Yes in the Site Preferences? Also I have 'No Cache' set for all modules. I assume the 'No Cache' setting would cause it not to save a cache file.

The option doesn't 'flush' the cache directory, but means any changes to files in the themes/templates directories will take effect immediately rather than waiting for e.g. the admin to update the module.

The module caching options are not related to this option. Module caching means the whole entire page is cached, with the template already filled in. Normally the templates_c directory caches *only the templates*. This is an optimization where the 'smarty' template is converted to a PHP file. When the page is viewed, the template still has to fill in data from the database etc to show the page. With module caching, the whole page is cached already filled in so no additional database queries are needed. The upside is faster page loads and less database traffic... the downside is that the information gets out of date.

9
comegona
Re: Documents on modifying...
  • 2003/11/10 23:26

  • comegona

  • Not too shy to talk

  • Posts: 165

  • Since: 2003/11/9


Thank you very much for that explanation.

10
ajaxbr
Re: Documents on modifying...
  • 2003/11/11 1:13

  • ajaxbr

  • Quite a regular

  • Posts: 276

  • Since: 2003/10/25


If you want to get a glimpse of what your site looks like to search bots and crawlers, try http://www.delorie.com/web/ses.cgi and http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html. You'll notice that even a text-only browser can grab most of a site's content (and also that alt attributes are important for people that can't get images...).
Search engine wise, having flash-only menus or large amounts of info that can only be accessed thru graphics is much worse that generating pages on the fly

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