I'm searching a most simple solution to create my own page builder system. I want to code my own blocks and then add to them some controls, only that what I choose.
So on firs fire goes ACF with ACF Extended. Works great until I didn't create more flexible fields. For example, I'm creating ROW (first flexible content) with a specified numbers of columns. Then, in each column I'm adding a BLOCK (second flexible content). Some of the blocks can contains other flexibles or repeaters. In ACF the problem is a lot of flexible and repeater fields. If is to much of them, then WP admin crash, data is saving, but sometimes only a partial.
So I'm searching other, lighter solution for that. I've tried I think every page builder like Elementor, WP Backery, Beaver. Problem is they are based on build-in elements and a lot of controllers. It's fine if someone want's to create site quickly, without coding. But I need a some kind of developer environment when I have control on each function of my HTML blocks.
So, is anyone knows what tool I could use for that?
Thaks!
You did not name it in your list, so what about the Gutenberg Editor?
It's already in the core of wordpress, so the wordpress developers thought, this is the best block editor.
You can easily create your custom blocks and controls with ACF:
https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/blocks/
This may also help:
https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/acf-5-8-introducing-acf-blocks-for-gutenberg/
With Gutenberg, you can be sure, this is not an editor which will be gone in a few years. It will stay in wordpress core and it is only in the beginning of becoming the best WYSIWYG Editor in the core of a cms.
Related
I have a strange question but I don't find any hint about that (if it's possible), for a drupal 7 website I have to modify some content of a page in the backoffice, but I really don't know from where some content of this page is created (a table, similar to a view table but not a view table).
I just want to know if there is any way to show which php function the page use to finally be showed. I know there is something like that for the theme (drupal theme debug) but I don't find something for my case.
Any idea ?
You need PHP profiler to check all functions called on page, there's a module for Drupal7 for XHProf integration. But I would suggest you to use your browsers inspector as mentioned by 2pha before. For example if there's a form on the page just use the form ID to find it. Custom classes are very useful in these cases, parts of the html codes etc. In your case search for table headers...
The code you are looking for is most probably in custom modules and the
general suggestion is to keep you custom modules in separated folder from contributed ones.
I'm going to create a theme and I would like to create a functionality that I have seen in other themes that I have used: for example every page can be created with different modules in different order (videos, images, texts, etc...) so its up to the person creating the page to decide which elements are going to be used.
What is the best way to achieve this? I have created custom templates but I have never tried to separate the content with modules, my first guess is that it can be done using WPBakery or a similar plugin because that is what I have seen in the themes I have bought but I'm wondering if that's the best option. Do you have any recommendations or maybe a tutorial where I can see how I can accomplish this?
Thank you.
Use Advanced Custom Fields plugin and create a field with multiple possible elements. So you decide how elements will look like and the client can build his own site with that modules. The chance the client will break the layout because of superfancy layout builder is nearly zero.
In a typical WordPress project I guess there are 3 parties. Party 1 is the graphic designer providing psd/pdf or html that party 2 (the developer) will create a theme from with probably some custom posts so party 3 (the client and content editor) can update the site without messing up the design and with no knowledge about HTML, JavaScript, Gimp or PHP.
This would tie the main theme of the site or it's specific pages in the php page(s) and if some minor design changes need to be made it needs to be done through editing php files.
I was thinking the following for a theme design:
(assuming a content only site without having complicated sales statistics and such)
Instead of "programming" the page.php to fit the graphic design and bring in specific (custom) posts and other data I would have the page.php bring in sub content. This so the graphic designer can create the page without having to program.
When images need to be provided then wordpress can pre scale/crop for different screen sizes.
The entire page should be created from the editor by the designer NOT the editor/client and not in page.php:
<html {{lang}}>
<title>{{title}}</title>
...
{{main-slider}}
JS and css are added through custom fields so they can be merged to one file.
Main slider post looks like this:
<div id="main-slider">{{main-slider-content}}</div>
JS and css can be provided to overrule page css or js and will be merged to one file.
And the main-slider-content is content that the editor can provide through a custom post provided by the programmer that will hold the editor's hand all the way and makes sure everything goes right.
Some of these fields can be set with custom fields values of the page (reverting to defaults if missing) some will be overwritten by the post (like language or title).
The type of sites that will be produced by this theme are used by small business owners who would like some web presence.
I have a couple of doubts about the design and hope someone with more experience with wordpress can shed some light on this.
When the editor/client edits a custom post like some slider content they cannot preview the item because that content is basically used on every page. Even if I find a way to list pages where the slider is used and show that one it won't show the new content until it's published. Previewing pages seems a bit complicated to implement.
It takes longer to generate the pages because content and sub content needs to be fetched from the database after parsing the content. I've tried to do this with DOMDocument before and used <div data-custom-content="main-slider"></div> but that is too slow so I'll try with regexp.
Because content isn't going to change that much I thought maybe APC cache the page after a first request and serve it from there. Delete the cache only when something is updated. On VPS the cache could be (probably would be) trashed when the site is inactive for a long time (which would be quite often). This means that requests take a long time to process when people try to view the pages.
Anyone with experience or helpful tips in this
[UPDATE]
I see that particular design and the html template will still have strong dependencies on each other. I am thinking now of trying out Twig. The benefit will be that re usable components are classes that can be added to the project and full content is controlled in the wordpress editor in a way that someone with no programming experience can still manage the content.
When data needed in the page is going to change a programmer is going to be needed though.
This is kind of what the Advanced Custom Fields Flexible Content system does, and the way you've styled your examples looks very like Smarty, a templating system that used to be very popular, and which is still used by a few systems like Prestashop.
In my experience, this removing the middleman kind of idea doesn't work. You either need a very extensive - and therefore bloated - initial theming system to flex to different projects, or you need a basic one which a developer will customise later - in which case the best you can achieve is moving the developer's role to a different phase of the project.
Overall, I think the best scope for this type of idea is for designers to learn a bit more code.
Am I able to add the following field to a content type, so that each piece of content I create can be conditioned to a page?
Or is there a module to extend Publishing Options, where by it adds all the pages I have created (just like 'Promote to Front Page')?
If not, why is no one doing this? As a new user to Drupal this seems like it would be a handy operation. (I have already tried this module but it doesn't achieve the results I'm after).
If none of these solutions are available, what would be the best alternative way of doing this?
I've posted this question on Stack Exchange for Drupal but I need a quick answer and there seems to be a bigger community here :D
You should use Context. With Context, you'll be able to manage contextual conditions and reactions for your drupal like Regions.
Have you used Views? it is one of the most common used drupal modules. It doesn't extend publishing options directly but it does replace it in a way. You can say by example put a list of al content-types: your_own_Content_type that have the publishing options of promoted to front-page. then sort them by title, date, what ever you like.
you could also create only one view and create multiple blocks out of it. you have to understand the logic of drupal: if you want different blocks on different pages, you have to create the different pages AND different blocks
create the view for one type of content-type and make one block out of it. put this block on the desired page. All your other blocks are made with the same view, just adjust a condition in your view and create a new block out of it. You should also put all your blocks in the same region, and set the to the right pages
here you can find a lot of documentation if you run into any problems... drupal.org/project/views
Views is the best at creating a slideshow of images or any type of data on your site.
Used in combination with nodequeue it might offer near or the full functionality you are trying to achieve (check this out ... and this too) - but I don't understand your question entirely.
By my opinion Views is too complicated task for much simple request.
There is a few ideas for solution:
Easy way - You can create a specific template file or add some if statments to the node.tpl.php(specific tpl better)
For minor changes - Create a new context with "path" filter and "theme html" reaction, than hide the field by the css
Best but complicated(large usages) - create a new "view mode" and implement the display by new "hook_menu".
~ Almog
I was wondering if someone with Drupal experience could advice what are the best practices in the following situations. I think they are all common tasks for any website that you build.
Display a custom HTML of a certain content type at front-page (e.g., only the link and title).
Should I build a module only for this?
Customize the login form HMTL, including inputs, labels etc, to something very different from the default login block.
Again, another module?
Format the node view of some content types; for example: showing additional fields values. I have some Joomla experience and with it, it's very easy to override the template on your theme.
But with Drupal, it seems HTML is hard-coded on PHP files and there are very few thing that uses templates. Or am I missing something?
You should create a view (from Views module), and for this create display 'block'. This block you can use later on your site. Within your view settings you can choose what and how you will display.
It depends what you would like to put there. If you put just some static text, change theme could be a solution. But still, a bit smelly. What you should do, is to create a module use hook_form_FORM_ID_alter and add both - field to your form, and code to use values which user added.
Change templates for this content type in your custom theme; or use Panels module - here you have nice introduction; or use Display Suite module - which do pretty much the some work as creating a template
html is in php files, but where else can it go? Drupal also has it template overwrite system. The customization of the theme can be usually done using that alone.
As for your questions (there are also other alternative)
load the content type in view/block, display in list format on home page.
create your own theme for css changes. create custom tpl.php for
layout, and div naming etc.
same as above.
It doesn't hurt to create a new module, but generally it's not necessary unless you are going for something like a muti-step form.
You can use both Views & Panels in order to achieve what you've mentioned above.
For instance, Panels gives you the option to override the home page with your own content. This content can be organized with Views.
From drupal.org:
"The Views module provides a flexible method for Drupal site designers to control how lists and tables of content (nodes in Views 1, almost anything in Views 2) are presented."
"The Panels module allows a site administrator to create customized layouts for multiple uses. At its core it is a drag and drop content manager that lets you visually design a layout and place content within that layout."