Designing the Layout

[Caleb]

WPBook works great for me but I can't find any documentation on basic
layout editing. I'm not a PHP programmer so I don't know, offhand, how
to achieve the following.

I'd like the posts (in tab view) to display (1) excerpts instead of
full posts (2) thumbnail images at the beginning of each excerpt (3)
different colors and font sizes (4) and the comment section below the
post, without having to click on the headline of the post and go out
of tab view into full app view.

Are these even possible? (I suspect #3 is possible merely through
manipulation of the CSS, but I don't see any CSS file in the plugin
directories.)

Thanks for your help.

[John Eckman]

Hey Caleb - unfortunately much of what you want to accomplish will require PHP programming.

1. Excerpts instead of full posts - edit the index.php inside wpbook/theme/.

At line 123 (in the current version) replace:
get_the_content();
with:
get_the_excerpt();

You may also need to eliminate or comment out line 124, which applies a filter to the content, as that is already applied by get_the_excerpt();.

2. Thumbnail images at the beginning of each excerpt

This is a bit complicated. Where should it get the thumbnails from? You mean the "featured image" from WordPress 2.9 and later? Or thumbnails of all the images in the post?

Not sure how to begin that one.

3. Different colors and font sizes

At random? Controlled how? Span and Div style tags you provide are passed through to the tab.

There's also, at lines 7-47 of wpbook/theme/index.php, a set of inline defined styles

4. Comment section in the post

Currently, Facebook doesn't allow many html tags inside tabs. I'm not sure the comments section will work inside a tab, but if you wanted to try it you could add:
comments_template();

At line 128 (after the "echo wp_kses($content,$wpbook_allowed);" line but before the next set of lines).

Let me know what you find out as I haven't tested that - it may be disallowed by Facebook.

Some day they have promised to allow iFrames inside tabs, which will make much more customization possible - but for right now tabs can only contain FBML.

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ScholarPress Dev" group.
> To post to this group, send email to scholarp...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to scholarpress-d...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/scholarpress-dev?hl=en.
>

----------------------------------------
John Eckman
eckma...@gmail.com
http://www.johneckman.com/

[Caleb Griffin]

Thanks John,

Although I'm not a PHP programmer, I believe I understand enough to implement these suggestions. Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction.

As for the thumbnails, I have Wordpress 3.0.1. I have no experience with previous versions of Wordpress, but I have been placing a single image in the "Post Image" field for every post. This is the image I'd like to show up on Facebook. Thanks.
------
Caleb

I have reasons to love the unlovable, ways to understand the misunderstood, and practical techniques to deal with the difficult. Want some? Read: mwlfblog.com

[John Eckman]

Thanks for your interest Caleb.

We do have a current wishlist of features, and using the "featured image" is one of them - unfortunately I've got no specific timeline.

The other thing to remember is that these customizations will get overwritten whenever we release new releases - there's no good way at the moment to separate out the plugin from the user's customizations at that level - so keep a backup of whatever changes you make!

On Sep 19, 2010, at 7:56 PM, Caleb Griffin wrote:

> Thanks John,
>
> Although I'm not a PHP programmer, I believe I understand enough to implement these suggestions. Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction.
>
> As for the thumbnails, I have Wordpress 3.0.1. I have no experience with previous versions of Wordpress, but I have been placing a single image in the "Post Image" field for every post. This is the image I'd like to show up on Facebook. Thanks.

[Caleb Griffin]

Reporting my success. The excerpt code worked. The CSS worked too. The comments didn't, which is okay with me. I tried a plugin that supposedly inserts featured images into excerpts, but that failed as well.

One final question. The CSS only changed the tab view. The full app view looks pitiful. Where is the CSS file to adjust that? Thanks.

------
Caleb

I have reasons to love the unlovable, ways to understand the misunderstood, and practical techniques to deal with the difficult. Want some? Read: mwlfblog.com

[John Eckman]

wpbook/theme/default/style.css

On Sep 19, 2010, at 8:56 PM, Caleb Griffin wrote:

> Reporting my success. The excerpt code worked. The CSS worked too. The comments didn't, which is okay with me. I tried a plugin that supposedly inserts featured images into excerpts, but that failed as well.
>
> One final question. The CSS only changed the tab view. The full app view looks pitiful. Where is the CSS file to adjust that? Thanks.

[BandonRandon]

I have been also replying to this thread over at WP.org see
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/wpbook-plugin-layout-design-edit

Just posting here to we have a referance to the other post and because
others may find both post helpful.

> eckman.j...@gmail.comhttp://www.johneckman.com/

[Caleb Griffin]

Thank you both. It loads slowly. Is there a way to edit the loop to display only a few posts instead of EVERY post I've ever written?

On Sep 20, 2010 3:05 AM, "BandonRandon" <bandon...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have been also replying to this thread over at WP.org see
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/wpbook-plugin-layout-design-edit

Just posting here to we have a referance to the other post and because
others may find both post helpful.

On Sep 19, 6:57 pm, John Eckman <eckman.j...@gmail.com> wrote:
> wpbook/theme/default/style.css
>

>...

> eckman.j...@gmail.comhttp://www.johneckman.com/

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ScholarPress Dev" gr...

[Caleb Griffin]

Reporting Success. Images show up in the excerpts on my FB app if I use custom excerpts in Wordpress by actually adding the image href and the text to the Excerpts field in Wordpress as opposed to letting Wordpress automatically generate the excerpts.

Now I just have to figure out how to CSS that image and non-wrapping text.

Also, I need to know how to prevent it from loading so many post excerpts at once. I'd think the most five most recent is plenty.

------
Caleb

I have reasons to love the unlovable, ways to understand the misunderstood, and practical techniques to deal with the difficult. Want some? Read: mwlfblog.com

[BandonRandon]

I repsonded over at wp.org on the number of post displayed "issue"

On Sep 20, 4:48 am, Caleb Griffin <calebgrif...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Reporting Success. Images show up in the excerpts on my FB app if I use
> custom excerpts in Wordpress by actually adding the image href and the text
> to the Excerpts field in Wordpress as opposed to letting Wordpress
> automatically generate the excerpts.
>
> Now I just have to figure out how to CSS that image and non-wrapping text.
>
> Also, I need to know how to prevent it from loading so many post excerpts at
> once. I'd think the most five most recent is plenty.
> ------
> Caleb
>
> I have reasons to love the unlovable, ways to understand the misunderstood,
> and practical techniques to deal with the difficult. Want some? Read:
> mwlfblog.com
>

> On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 7:19 AM, Caleb Griffin <calebgrif...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > Thank you both. It loads slowly. Is there a way to edit the loop to display
> > only a few posts instead of EVERY post I've ever written?
>