Helo!

I want to call a block (either headlines or news) from with in a custom block that I can really control the look and add a column to.

Any ideas or is there a better way to accomplish the same thing?

JMass

why not just edit the existing blocks for news and headline module?

I have a custoom block that basically takes up the entire front page. It lays out just like I want it. I want to retrieve the 5 most recent news items in a certian area of the page that is not particularly congruant with anything else in the site.

I guess I could edit the template of the news block I would like and make that the "main page" block, but I usually like to leave things stock if possible and work from the outside in. That way updates to modules etc don't screw me up.

JMass

What about 'cloning' the news block (in templates/ blocks/ and xoops_version.php) and using the clone to make your customised version possible?

Herko

Great Idea!

I did just that and am 90% done.

I need to know how to lengthen the lenght of the new title before it is truncated in the recent news block.

Any ideas?

JMass

Regarding extending the title text I find this in news_top.php:

function b_news_top_show($options) {

global $xoopsDB;

$myts =& MyTextSanitizer::getInstance();

$block = array();

$sql = "SELECT storyid, title, published, expired, counter FROM ".$xoopsDB->prefix("stories")." WHERE published < ".time()." AND published > 0 AND (expired = 0 OR expired > ".time().") ORDER BY ".$options[0]." DESC";

$result = $xoopsDB->query($sql,$options[1],0);

while ( $myrow = $xoopsDB->fetchArray($result) ) {

$news = array();

$title = $myts->makeTboxData4Show($myrow["title"]);

if ( !XOOPS_USE_MULTIBYTES ) {

if (strlen($myrow['title']) >= $options[2]) {

$title = $myts->makeTboxData4Show(substr($myrow['title'],0,($options[2] -1)))."...";

}

}

$news['title'] = $title;

$news['id'] = $myrow['storyid'];

if ( $options[0] == "published" ) {

$news['date'] = formatTimestamp($myrow['published'],"s");

} elseif ( $options[0] == "counter" ) {

$news['hits'] = $myrow['counter'];

}

$block['stories'][] = $news;

}

return $block;

}

Is this what I need to messing with? I can hard code a number into the:
"if (strlen($myrow['title']) >= $options[2]) {"
but is this the best thing to do?

JMAss

WOW AM I AN IDIOT!!!

It is in the block configuration.

WOW! Sorry for the wasted time.

On the plus side I did track it down and decipher the PHP code

JMass