Adding Articles to Gantry 5 Templates
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- DanG
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This mini-guide is an extension of the
Gantry 5 Documentation
.
In the first part we'll create a menu item for an article to show on an existing Outline's Front page. For this guide I've chosen the Front page but you can use this guide to create the article on any menu page.
In the second part we'll create a menu item for Featured Article to show on a user created Outline's Front page.
N.B. If you want to see Joomla article output you must select one of these menu-types, "Category Blog" or "Featured Articles", for the page that this content will be displayed on in the MainBody. This requirement also exists for Gantry 4 templates.
If you look at G5_Template-Home -> Layout Manager -> you will see a page content particle used to to display Joomla's MainBody filled with articles.
So for the DEFAULT Home page menu item if you set this to "Category Blog" or "Featured Articles" and set the assigned template to any G5_Template-**** template, your front page will have a MainBody filled with articles courtesy of Joomla.
If instead you choose "Gantry 5 Themes » custom" as your menu-type then NO page content will appear since its Joomla's responsibility to output this and our "Gantry 5 Themes » custom" doesn't call the Joomlas article generation routines. If for a menu page you select a menu-type of "Gantry 5 Themes » custom" then in the MainBody or MainBar(dependant on the template) you can only place Particles or Modules.
So you MUST have a Joomla menu-type selected and then you can use ANY template that has a page content particle in its template Layout Manager.
Single Article
We start by creating an article:
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Next we'll create a menu item for that single article:
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I've indicated with numbers 1-3 the most often used menu-types to display Article(s).
Here is generally how an Article is setup:
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You'll notice that the option "Template Style" is set to use the default template. In the case of this guide I used Ambrosia - Default.
So SAVE and we move on.
Now to Template Manager and we select the Ambrosia - Default to edit.
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Staying in our Outline Ambrosia - Default go to the Assignments Tab
Here go to Main-Menu column and toggle-ON your menu item "How to add an Article"
In Gantry 4 some our templates had the Display Main body turned OFF for demo styling of the Front page. We would get some of our users asking why their articles were not visible.
Much the same exists for Gantry 5 where a demo Outline may or may not have the "Page Content" particle. This particle is similar to the Main body, the container that housed articles in Gantry 4.
In our case Ambrosia - Default has an existing "Page Content" particle so articles will display in that Outline.
SAVE and go to your Front page and click on your menu item:
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Please log in or register to see it. - Last Edit: 8 years 10 months ago by DanG.
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- DanG
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Adding Featured Articles
With your articles created and set to "Featured" we'll create the menu item:
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If you were using an existing Outline to display this menu page then you would set it with "Template Style".
However we're going to create our own Outline to display this page:
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The process goes like this:
1) Select the template you want to use to make the copy by checking the box.
2) Click on the Duplicate button
3) your new copy will appear
Now we go into Template Manager again and edit our new Outline:
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1) We'll rename the generated name to something more relevant - Ambrosia - Page Content
2) For this step you should be in the Layout Manager Tab. For this guide I decided to put my "Page Content" particle in the empty Mainbar Section. I clicked the "+" icon to create a row in this Section. Then drag the "Page Content" particle from the Particles column and place it in my Mainbar Section row.
SAVE the layout.
Go to the Assignments Tab and go to the Main Menu and toggle ON the menu item "How to add Featured Articles":
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SAVE. Go to the Front page and click on your menu item to see your Featured Articles:
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Thanks to our moderator David Goode for his assistance. - Last Edit: 9 years 1 month ago by DanG.
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- Michelle Diamond
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Thank you dan.
I actually did it another way.
I pulled in the horizontal menu and created 2 then I deleted the first one and fixed the column sizes.
It worked.
- Michelle
http://www.artifectcreative.co
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- Michelle Diamond
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Hello Steve,
I see you are extremely frustrated. It will pass when you get the hang of it. I am also struggling.
1. The first thing I think you must do is use the default theme and not duplicate as your own. At the top of the themes - base, default, home, etc.. you have the option to click on the title and change the name. I would recommend htis until you are more familiar with the new gantry system.
2. I also struggled between getting changes to stay in place from one version to the next. You must start with the base and then the default and then the home. When you extablish the base first then the changes hold across all others. When you then work on the default, those changes also move over to the home theme which is actually an override of the default. I hope this makes sense.
3. I cant make out what is going on with your menus as per screen shot. I think this is caused by the additional themes you have created.
4. Try and get the theme back to the original without your extra overrides and then tackle the menus again. Follow the instructions given in this post and the one that explains how to create the custom particle.
5. Remember to compile the css. I found this helps. Also clear the cache under extras plus the system cache and browser.
M -
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- Michelle
http://www.artifectcreative.co
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- DanG
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Michelle Diamond wrote:
Thank you dan.
I actually did it another way.
I pulled in the horizontal menu and created 2 then I deleted the first one and fixed the column sizes.
It worked.
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The key is realizing that our particles are preconfigured. Once you pull it into your Layout Manager, any changes made to the original DEFAULT particle will NOT appear in your particle. At this point it will only accept your customizations of it.
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- DanG
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Steve_ wrote:
I know you all are trying to help, it just seems like or every 1 step fwd I may have in trying to understand this new gantry 5 system, every “Fix” tears down my understanding and leaves me further away from understanding…
Okay I see Michelle has already provided some support so kudos to her for that.
I'll take a different tack this time. I'll use your images to respond, so:Q1-What controls HorizontalMenu-on-HOME-Page.pngI'll use our RocketLauncher for Ethereal/Ambrosia/Salient templates as an example.
When you go Template Manager -> Ethereal/Ambrosia/Salient - Home -> Layout Manager -> scroll through tha page and you will find in a SECTION-Row this particle:
Horizontal Menu
horizontalmenu
I'm not sure what the Update on your image means so I'll take a guess as you want to know when this is going to be fixed. As Mods we aren't given definitive information when any given bug-fix release is coming out. So keep checking here " RocketTheme Product Updates "
If you don't want to wait then you can use the interim fix posted here. If your having issues making the change then provide for me a Super Admin login for me along with FTP access info and place it in the SECURE part of your Reply
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so that I can take a look.
Q2-WhyNON-HomePages Updted.pngCheck to see that a HorizontalMenu particle actually exists on your Ambrosia-Demo page. If it does but it doesn't look like the non-home pages then make the item name changes in the HorizontalMenu particle itself.
Q3-Messud Up Menues trying to update particles.pngI'll repeat what I said to Michelle:
Our particles that appear in the Layout Manager LH column called PARTICLES are preconfigured.
Once you pull it into your Layout Manager, any changes made to the original DEFAULT particle will NOT appear in your particle. At this point it will only accept your customizations of it.
So assuming your using a HorizontalMenu particle on the Home page that you placed AFTER the fix was made all you have to do is gone into the Particle settings to make any changes you wish.
Q3-What to change to get HOME horizontal and NON Home Horizontal to be Equal.pngI'm assuming this pic is to verify what I just said above. If you wish reply to this post and please create a Super Admin login for me and place it in the SECURE part of your Reply
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so that I can take a look.
Q4-Why Green CheckMark on Demo Template.pngActually Michelle had it right on in her reply. I don't know if you've used our Gantry 4 templates but if you did then this is similar to the concept of "template overrides".
Lets assume that the RocketLauncher just installed one template for you -> Ambrosia Default.
With only this template ALL your menu-item pages will have the SAME styling defined by Ambrosia Default.
Now you want to create a new menu-item page called AlumniCharity-first try. You create and go to the page but you don't like the modules, particles setups and styling that is defined by the Outline (think of template) Ambrosia Default.
So you duplicate it and now you have a new Outline called AlumniCharity-first try.
Here you would make any changes that reflect the way you want the menu-item page AlumniCharity-first try to look like.
In the Layout Manager once you've made your changes and SAVED the Layout you have to ASSIGN it.
ASSIGNING is key! You made all these changes to the AlumniCharity-first try Outline but when you go to that menu page you still see that the Ambrosia Default Outline still controls the page styling.
So we have to OVERRIDE Ambrosia Default. We do that in the AlumniCharity-first try OUTLINE Configuration page. Go to the ASSIGNMENTS Tab and you will see all your menu groups appear. Assuming that your menu item AlumniCharity-first try is part of the Main Menu group, as you scroll down the list you will come across your AlumniCharity-first try. It will have its Enable-Toggle button set to Red. This means this page will use the Default Outline.
So here we need to flip the Enable-Toggle button to Green. This will cause this page to use the styling as defined by AlumniCharity-first try.
To double check this go to your menu-item AlumniCharity-first try edit screen. When you created it the "Template Style" field was set to "Default" indicating the Default Outline.
However looking at it you will see that the "Template Style" field is now set to the AlumniCharity-first try Outline.
Looking at the comments you made on Q4, going back to my example of a RocketLauncher install with only the Ambrosia Default as the installed template you would see that the check box under the column Default would be marked with a yellow star indicating this is the Default Site template (Outline). It will have no Green checks beside it as its used for EVERY menu page.
You now have created AlumniCharity-first try that Overrides the Default Outline on the AlumniCharity-first try menu page. So the name will obviously appear under the Style column but you will also notice a green check beside. This indicates that on some menu page(s) the Default Outline is being overridden by AlumniCharity-first try.
Hope this helps. As an aside I had to change the batteries in my keyboard while writing up this post
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- Bob
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- I may be missing something here, but I have no problem adding a link to an article in the main menu. It's the top right menu in the Ambrosia template that I am having trouble with. I edit it using the layout and everything appears as it should in the top menu, but the link to the article does not work. Where am I going wrong?
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- DanG
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Bob wrote:
I may be missing something here, but I have no problem adding a link to an article in the main menu. It's the top right menu in the Ambrosia template that I am having trouble with. I edit it using the layout and everything appears as it should in the top menu, but the link to the article does not work. Where am I going wrong?
This should work for you -> Outline -> Layout Manager -> HorizontalMenu-Particle ->
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- Bob
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- I guess I did not make my question clear. I understand the mechanics of getting the item into the top menu. But, does the article also have to be published in the main menu for the link to work in the top menu? When I place the link in the top menu without having it in the main menu, the link does not work.
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- DanG
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Bob wrote:
I guess I did not make my question clear. I understand the mechanics of getting the item into the top menu. But, does the article also have to be published in the main menu for the link to work in the top menu? When I place the link in the top menu without having it in the main menu, the link does not work.
Worked fine for me, HorizontalMenu particle setup:
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Clicking the HorizontalMenu link that doesn't exist in the Main Menu:
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Would you please create a Super Admin login for me and place it in the SECURE part of your Reply
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so that I can take a look.
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