Posted by Dave R. on December 9, 2010 at 6:02pm
I wonder if I a missing something from page-front.tpl.php? I read a lot here about a center column in the front page context, but I don't see any way to get blocks or anything else in there. Is this the content region in edit/context?
In short, I want to clone the front page to add a block views to the center, but don't know how best to do it. This raises the general question for me whether context or panels would be better for the front page anyway, but that is another discussion.
This is all I see in page-front.tpl.php about regions:
<?php
print $left;
?>
<?php
print $over_content;
?>
<?php
print $right;
?><?php
print $page_footer;
?>
Comments
Middle Column in theme
I've been using OP now for several months, and have gone through 2-3 upgrades.
Although I like OP a lot, I've NEVER been able to figure out how to get text, i.e. CONTENT, in the middle col. or any thing else.
Can't even get anything to show up on the front page in the "below content" section.
What's with such a method that seemingly has no simple explanation?
If there is an OVER content, and a BELOW content, then there must be a CONTENT section or something usable in between over and below. What is it, and how does one set it up?
A site, to my way of thinking, is useless if the middle column is always blank while the side columns run way down the page on each side!!
Please, someone, give us a simple explanation and method on how to correct this.
And, just because some are able to figure it out, there are others without the necessary background in coding, who cannot figure it out.
My upgrade from 2.0 to 2.3 went flawlessly, so it seems so far. But, what use is that if I can't balance the view on the site by filling the center of the theme.
Thanks, someone(s), for your replies, in advance.
When adding blocks to the
When adding blocks to the front page, choose "on top of content" and select "show only on pages" and type in and the blocks will show in the middle column. I may not have the exact wording correct but you should be able see what I'm talking about when configuring the block. Hope this helps.
Also, I think when you add "Multimedia" and/or "Events" they automatically show up in the middle column.
In openpublish-listing_pages-frontpage/edit
I should have said that the context edit for the page only shows the following when you click on Block on my development site:
Left sidebar
Right sidebar
Content
Header
Footer
When I added a nice nodeque I made to the Content region, for example, it did not show up. I assumed that this was because the region was not defined in my front template.
Progess
I had an "aha" moment this morning, noticing that under Context Editor, if I clicked the edit button next to openpublish-listing_pages-frontpage, then opened the drop-down menu for Blocks, that what appeared to be radio buttons did not do anything and that the cursor had turned into the "hand" tool.
"Well. I'll be!" I thought, "I bet I can drag-and-drop the block to the region! How come I did not read this anywhere in the documentation? They must just skip the obvious stuff, not counting on dummies like me getting ahold of OP. "
But, wait! There was no region appearing in my sub-theme's center column!
I had to switch back to the default theme to actually find the On Top of Content region working, which reminded me that I had run into a problem with regions when I created my first sub-theme. So, I copied the region info out of the Openpublish theme and pasted it into my subtheme.info file, uploaded it, cleared the cache, and yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have a center-column region to which I could drag whatever I like.
And -- checking in admin/build/context, I found that all my regions were listed under the Block option. Hope this helps anyone equally context-challenged as me.
Can you clarify?
Dave R., I see you have had some success with solving the problem. I have the same problem, but, can not quite understand what to do to solve the problem. Can you be more specific as to what you actually did to allow you to move forward with the adjustments to the sub-theme' center column?
appreciate if you can clarify the details.
:)
drhodes
Can you clarify?
Dave R., I see you have had some success with solving the problem. I have the same problem, but, can not quite understand what to do to solve the problem. Can you be more specific as to what you actually did to allow you to move forward with the adjustments to the sub-theme' center column?
appreciate if you can clarify the details.
:)
drhodes
sorry I accidently saved twice...
drhodes, I am swamped with
drhodes, I am swamped with other projects right now, but if you are really stuck, I can circle back to this.
This was the key: I copied the region info out of the Openpublish theme and pasted it into my subtheme.info file
Dave R., Glad to hear you are
Dave R.,
Glad to hear you are busy. I am stuck, but, I can take alternate tacks, I can go directly though the standard Drupal block assign interface.
However, if you have time in the future, it would be interesting to hear what you did more specifically. I understand that you did post quite sometime ago and this is probably not something you really have time to revisit at the moment. But perhaps more detail will help me find the correct method to deal with the problem, rather than use the alternate method to deal with OpenPublish.
I did copy the content from the OpenPublish theme into my subtheme.info, but, I did not have the success you had. Perhaps I misunderstood the results you had, or have failed to understand something somewhere else. Even after copying the content to the subtheme.info file, I could not drag and drop to the second column, and it would be really nice to use drag and drop to configure the second column.
Have a good day and thanks for your time.
:)
Dave
What my problem was . . .
Have you closely compared your OP theme to your sub-theme.info? In my case, the On Top of Content region did not copy over when I made my sub-theme.info. I have no idea why, but the following was missing.
regions[over_content] = On Top of Content(Maybe I misunderstand your issue; mine was that I did not have a "center" column at all in my sub-theme, though I did in the default OP theme.)
Thanks very much
Dave R,
Thanks for spending your time with me. It was my mistake, I did not understand the problem you had solve. I am getting the center column. I thought you had found a way to get the drag and drop blocks into the center column. My Bad.
Really, I appreciate your spending the time to try to help me.
You have a great day, week and year.
:)
drhodes