Promet Knowledge Sharing

This weeks theme is “Blocks”

with 6 comments

**We must all watch the video below on Drupal blocks and communicate at least one of the following:

  • Those with Questions: You must post at least 1 question you may have about blocks.

    • Post your question.
    • Search for the answer to that question online or ask a co-worker who may be more knowledgeable.
    • Post the answers you get.
    • Post how getting the answer to your question helped you.
  • Those with Experiences to Share: You must post at least 1 experience you have had building blocks.

    • Post the client/manager request.
    • Post how you decided on implementing the request into a block.
    • Post the staging link to the implementation.
    • Post a screenshot of the block and where it is on the site so there is no confusion.
The following video briefly explains what blocks are and how to create them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs_5IT1-K00
 
 
Happy sharing!

Written by admin

April 14th, 2009

Posted in Drupal Knowledge Sharing

Tagged with , , , ,

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6 Responses to 'This weeks theme is “Blocks”'

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  1. Site #1:
    I was once assigned to redo the Promethost site and and it will using Drupal CMS. After the creation of the theme, I proceeded on creating the contents. I decided on implementing blocks on some areas of the site for the following reasons:

    - This section of the site should be separate from the content and should be editable without affecting the main content.
    - This section is repetitive and should be displayed to various pages in the site. So to avoid creating and recreating similar contents to different pages block will be the answer.

    With these things in mind the blocks generated by the menu module was used to implement the section as seen in the screenshot #1. Same procedure was done based on the video provided above.

    Site #1:
    But then again, what if I wanted to have a different region in the site aside from the generic portions of the theme. as I have experienced a certain area in the mock page is not available to the redefined areas of the theme. So I decided to creae a new section on may own. I am using Drupal 6 so the would be feasible.

    Here are the steps:
    - First have complete copy of the package of your theme.
    - Open the .info file and add the ff lines: regions[computer_readable_region_name] = human readable region name. This region will now be detected by drupal. If it is not detected instantly all you ahve to do is go to Administer > Site Configuration > Performance (http://www.yourdomain.com/admin/settings/performance) and click “Clear cached data” button at the button.
    - Now you have craeted your own customized region, but how do I display its content?
    - So that the content of this region will be displayed add the following php line on the region where you want it to appear:
    - And its done after you commit your changes.

    Links:
    Site:
    #1 http://staging.promethost.com/
    #2 http://johnrosssbox.prometdevelopment.com/bakers/

    Screenshots:
    #1 http://www.screencast.com/t/uG910AyT
    #2 http://www.screencast.com/t/wzLDWbaa

    Tips on how to create your own blocks generated by a custom module:
    Main link: http://drupal.org/node/206753
    |___ http://drupal.org/node/206758
    |___ http://drupal.org/node/206759

    JRJ Castano

    17 Apr 09

  2. For a Drupal newbie, I found another video which shows and explains the use of blocks, how they are created and configured, as well as tips on hiding/showing them on the site. Though the video is using Drupal 5, I don’t think there are major differences on setting up and configuring blocks.

    Check out the video at http://digg.com/d18XoE

    Even a non-pro can administer a Drupal site instantly and with Blocks, managing sections of the site is pretty easy with lots of options you can play around.

    tere

    17 Apr 09

  3. I used blocks to create sections/portions of the website. I like using it because it’s highly manageable. You can set where to place it, what page to show it, and who can view it, without having to worry on coding.

    I also use blocks to display output from Views. It allows me to print Views output dynamically and easily.

    Blocks have solved many issues i encountered when converting JAI site to Drupal. It made a lot of customizations possible.

    For more details about blocks, please visit http://drupal.org/handbook/blocks.

    cyrose

    19 Apr 09

  4. I was looking for a “preview” feature for blocks, or at least, a page preview showing what the page will look like with the block displayed.

    Seems that there is a current feature request for this.

    Having the ability to preview before making it live would surely make editing faster and easier.

    Rolan

    20 Apr 09

  5. I am also a beginner in Drupal and I was doing a research about blocks and came across this page http://drupal.org/project/blocktheme. It’s a Block Theme module where you can customize your block, choosing different theme for different blocks in Drupal’s User Interface, without altering too much of your css.
    I think this module is neat.

    zarrah

    20 Apr 09

  6. I am looking for a way to export/import blocks. So far I haven’t found any solution yet. This will be an awesome module if ever because I find myself sometimes updating staging and testing my blocks there and then I need to update production.

    rachel

    21 Apr 09

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