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Creating Custom Fields for Article Types

Harvey
User

Apr 26, 2008, 2:20 PM

Post #1 of 7 (1308 views)
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Creating Custom Fields for Article Types	Can't Post

Let's say I have a car magazine. I want to insert special fields to force writers to always enter basic data on a car on prepropulated forms or one with empty fields.

Let's say, I have a lot of reviews on Toyotas. I want that some of the basic info on a Toyota always be included in any article published in the Toyota category and ditto for say Ford. How do I modify the article page templates for these categories to either pre-fill some information, and leave some blank fields at once, that the writer has to fill up, so that it can all be formatted in a way, and so I may also collect that data in the database for other purposes?

Thanks

Jake
Staff / Moderator

Apr 27, 2008, 4:05 PM

Post #2 of 7 (1293 views)
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Re: [Harvey] Creating Custom Fields for Article Types [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Harvey,

Thanks for posting. Smile

The best way to do something like this is to create new fields in the category database for this purpose. You can add in new fields for categories by going to Admin -> Database Editor and clicking the "edit table & fields" link for db_category. Here, you can add in text fields for entering content specific to each category that you'd like to appear on each page. By doing this, you content is stored in one central location making it easy to modify. To have this content appear on your article pages, you just need to add the placeholders for these new fields to your articlePage.html template. Would this work for you?

If you have questions about this, let us know!
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Cheers,
Jake Swanson - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com

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Harvey
User

Apr 28, 2008, 9:03 PM

Post #3 of 7 (1280 views)
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Re: [Jake] Creating Custom Fields for Article Types [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Jake. Thanks for the answer, but not hanks at the same time. I've tried what you said before I posted my question and it didn't work. I did do a search on previous posts. What I need is a step by step tutorial, not generalities.

Although I've read most of the docs, I still can't figure out how to make the placeholders work, as I can't create or add anything.

Can you please explain for a dummies?

Cheers

MikeB
Staff / Moderator

Apr 29, 2008, 10:24 AM

Post #4 of 7 (1276 views)
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Re: [Harvey] Creating Custom Fields for Article Types [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Harvey,

Thanks for the post!

I'm curious about which point you're at in Jake's post. If you've already created the fields in the admin program, then you'll want to modify the template Jake mentioned (/articlePages/articlePage.html). From here you'll want to find the spot on the page where you'd like your category fields output and enter something like this:

$category.FIELDNAME$

In this case "FIELDNAME" will be the actual name you used when you created this field.

If you can let me know where you are in this process and what issue you're running into, or what isn't working, I'd be happy to have a look at this for you.

I look forward to hearing from you! Smile

Cheers,
Mike Briggs - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com

Harvey
User

Apr 29, 2008, 6:45 PM

Post #5 of 7 (1273 views)
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Re: [MikeB] Creating Custom Fields for Article Types [In reply to]	Can't Post

I need a step by step - assume I am a dummy and understand nothing.

Thanks

MikeB
Staff / Moderator

Apr 30, 2008, 1:43 PM

Post #6 of 7 (1262 views)
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Re: [Harvey] Creating Custom Fields for Article Types [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Harvey,

Thanks for the post! Smile

While I'm not too sure what issue you might have run into previously I'll give you a step-by-step overview of how to create a category field and how you can add this to Article Manager's templates.

1. Log into Article Manager and click Admin->Database Editor. For the "Category" table you'll want to click "edit table & fields". From there you can add a new field with all of the details you'll need (enter your field name, field type, etc.). The main thing you'll want to keep handy is whatever you use for "Field Name" as this will be used as the place holder in step 2.

Once you've entered all of the details you'd like for you new field, you can click "Save". What you should have now, is a new field that will show up in the "Categories" section of Article Manager. This will allow you to enter details that apply to an entire category so you won't have to enter those details on an article by article basis.

2. Now that you've created a new field in the admin program, you'll want to open up Article Manager's template for the article pages (/articlePages/articlePage.html). In the HTML code in this file, you'll want to add the placeholder for this new field and find the appropriate spot in your template. For example, if you'd like to have this field show up near the article author and date, then you'd just find that bit of code and add the new placeholder below so it looks like this:

By $article.author$<br/>
$article.date$</div>
$category.FIELDNAME$

I hope this helps Harvey, if you have any questions about this just let me know! Smile

Cheers,
Mike Briggs - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com

Harvey
User

May 3, 2008, 10:54 AM

Post #7 of 7 (1230 views)
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Re: [MikeB] Creating Custom Fields for Article Types [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Mike. I understand why the placeholders I had created did not show up when I was testing. The default template for publishing previews was the regular ArticlePage template as opposed to the custom one I just created.

So whenever I was making tests, I could not see that I had everything right and was doing all the steps correctly. But I did a test publish just to see, and suddenly, I could see my custom placeholders.

I think I get it now.

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