Concrete5 Templates

How to Concrete5 Template

There are several ways to add a picture. You could save all the pictures with the name of the sites and fetch it, using a little php script. What happens, if the user wants to change the page name? Right, it doesn’t work anymore! Because of that, we’re going to use the “page attributes”.

First, we have to create a new attribute where we can select our thumbnail. It’s located in “Pages and Themes” – “Page Types”:

After we created the attribute, we navigate to the page where we want to add a thumbnail. Edit the site and open the “Properties” dialog. Select the newly created fiel in the drop down menu “Custom Fields” and select your thumbnail:

Now it’s time to write some code. We start using the existing page list view. We copy the content of “/concrete/blocks/page_list/view.php” and save it to “/blocks/page_list/templates/thumbnail.php”. The folders probably don’t exist yet, create them.

And here’s the finished template:

<?php 
defined('C5_EXECUTE') or die(_("Access Denied."));
$textHelper = Loader::helper("text"); 
// now that we're in the specialized content file for this block type, 
// we'll include this block type's class, and pass the block to it, and get
// the content
 
if (count($cArray) > 0) { ?>
<div class="ccm-page-list">
 
<?php 
for ($i = 0; $i < count($cArray); $i++ ) {
	$cobj = $cArray[$i]; 
	$title = $cobj->getCollectionName(); ?>
<h3><a href="<?php echo $nh->getLinkToCollection($cobj)?>"><?php echo $title?></a></h3>
<div class="ccm-page-list-description">
<div class="ccm-page-list-thumbnail">
		<img src="<?php echo $cobj->getAttribute('thumbnail')->getFileRelativePath() ?>" alt="<?php echo $title ?>"/></div>
<?php 
	if(!$controller->truncateSummaries){
		echo $cobj->getCollectionDescription();
	}else{
		echo $textHelper->shortText($cobj->getCollectionDescription(),$controller->truncateChars);
	}
	?></div>
<?php   } 
if(!$previewMode && $controller->rss) { 
		$btID = $b->getBlockTypeID();
		$bt = BlockType::getByID($btID);
		$uh = Loader::helper('concrete/urls');
		$rssUrl = $controller->getRssUrl($b);
		?>
<div class="rssIcon">
			<a href="<?php echo $rssUrl?>" target="_blank"><img src="<?php echo $uh->getBlockTypeAssetsURL($bt)?>/rss.png" width="14" height="14" /></a></div>
	<link href="<?php echo $rssUrl?>" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="<?php echo $controller->rssTitle?>" />
	<?php  
} 
?></div>
<?php  } ?>

Only the lines 18-20 are new, everything else is identical to the previous file!
The foreach-loop returns a page object, out of which we get read the value of the attribute, using the method “getAttribute”. Our attribute isn’t just a simple text value, we therefore have to call the method “getFileRelativePath” to get the path to the picture.

After we created the template, we have to navigate back to the page where we added our page list block:

Select the custom template and here’s the result:

Fine tuning (Update: 11. März 2009)

We’re already finished, but there are a few nifty functions in concrete5 to optimize our template. We’ve added a little check that makes sure, you don’t get an error, if there’s a page without a thumbnail.

We also added the method “getThumbnail(100,100)” which makes sure, we get a pictures with the dimension of 100×100 pixels or less.

<?php 
defined('C5_EXECUTE') or die(_("Access Denied."));
$textHelper = Loader::helper("text"); 
// now that we're in the specialized content file for this block type, 
// we'll include this block type's class, and pass the block to it, and get
// the content
 
if (count($cArray) > 0) { ?>
<div class="ccm-page-list">
 
<?php 
for ($i = 0; $i < count($cArray); $i++ ) {
	$cobj = $cArray[$i]; 
	$title = $cobj->getCollectionName(); ?>
<h3><a href="<?php echo $nh->getLinkToCollection($cobj)?>"><?php echo $title?></a></h3>
<div class="ccm-page-list-description">
	<?php if($cobj->getAttribute('thumbnail')): ?>
<div class="ccm-page-list-thumbnail">
		<img src="<?php echo $cobj->getAttribute('thumbnail')->getThumbnail(100,100)->src ?>" alt="<?php echo $title ?>"/></div>
<?php endif; ?>
	<?php 
	if(!$controller->truncateSummaries){
		echo $cobj->getCollectionDescription();
	}else{
		echo $textHelper->shortText($cobj->getCollectionDescription(),$controller->truncateChars);
	}
	?></div>
<?php   } 
if(!$previewMode && $controller->rss) { 
		$btID = $b->getBlockTypeID();
		$bt = BlockType::getByID($btID);
		$uh = Loader::helper('concrete/urls');
		$rssUrl = $controller->getRssUrl($b);
		?>
<div class="rssIcon">
			<a href="<?php echo $rssUrl?>" target="_blank"><img src="<?php echo $uh->getBlockTypeAssetsURL($bt)?>/rss.png" width="14" height="14" /></a></div>
	<link href="<?php echo $rssUrl?>" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="<?php echo $controller->rssTitle?>" />
	<?php  
} 
?></div>
<?php  } ?>

Concrete5.3 (Update: 24th April 2009)

Due to changes in the file API, the template above doesn’t work with the latest version of Concrete5 anymore. This template generates a thumbnail on the fly to, and works with Concrete 5.3:

<?php 
defined('C5_EXECUTE') or die(_("Access Denied."));
$textHelper = Loader::helper("text"); 
$imgHelper = Loader::helper('image'); 
// now that we're in the specialized content file for this block type, 
// we'll include this block type's class, and pass the block to it, and get
// the content
 
if (count($cArray) > 0) { ?>
<div class="ccm-page-list">
 
<?php 
for ($i = 0; $i < count($cArray); $i++ ) {
	$cobj = $cArray[$i]; 
	$title = $cobj->getCollectionName(); ?>
<h3><a href="<?php echo $nh->getLinkToCollection($cobj)?>"><?php echo $title?></a></h3>
<div class="ccm-page-list-description">
	<?php if($cobj->getAttribute('thumbnail')): ?>
<div class="ccm-page-list-thumbnail">
		<img src="<?php echo $imgHelper->getThumbnail($cobj->getAttribute('thumbnail'), 75, 75)->src ?>" alt="<?php echo $title ?>"/></div>
 
<?php endif; ?>
	<?php 
	if(!$controller->truncateSummaries){
		echo $cobj->getCollectionDescription();
	}else{
		echo $textHelper->shortText($cobj->getCollectionDescription(),$controller->truncateChars);
	}
	?></div>
<?php   } 
if(!$previewMode && $controller->rss) { 
		$btID = $b->getBlockTypeID();
		$bt = BlockType::getByID($btID);
		$uh = Loader::helper('concrete/urls');
		$rssUrl = $controller->getRssUrl($b);
		?>
<div class="rssIcon">
			<a href="<?php echo $rssUrl?>" target="_blank"><img src="<?php echo $uh->getBlockTypeAssetsURL($bt)?>/rss.png" width="14" height="14" /></a></div>
	<link href="<?php echo $rssUrl?>" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="<?php echo $controller->rssTitle?>" />
	<?php  
} 
?></div>
<?php  } ?>

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30 Comments

The code in this tutorial doesn’t work with 5.3 anymore because of some API changes. I’ll update it as soon as possible. Until then, this might help:

http://www.concrete5.org/community/forums/usage/thumbnails_in_5_3

Hey, this is an awesome addition to the page list block, just what I was looking for. One question though, is there any way to force a square thumbnail to be generated instead of a proportionate one?

Hey Peter,

as far as I know, there’s not easy “out of the box” solution to this. As a matter of fact we just talked about a similar issue at work today.

We ended up creating our thumbnails using Photoshop due to a simple reason – we never knew which part of the picture the important one is, without looking at it. Otherwise I would have built it already..

But it’s not a difficult thing to add another “thumbnail” method that also crops the picture by removing an equal part from the left and right or from the top and bottom…

I’ll try to keep my ears open about this function, I’ll try to post it once I found one or once someone wrote one..

[…] know anything about “Custom Templates”, you should probably read this article first: http://www.codeblog.ch/2009/03/concrete5-templates/. In short: Concrete5 allows you to style any block using templates in case you need to change the […]

I can’t get this to work on 5.3 despite following your instructions to the letter. Is there an update I’ve spent a lot of time on this?

On page 2 there’s a note which shows you the code which I’ve tested with 5.3. If this doens’t work for you – please explain what doesn’t work for you.

Hello Remo

I am trying to add an extra thumbnail to the listings page. I have searched just about everywhere possible with no result. Unfortunately I am limited by my PHP knowledge. Could you help a brother out and point me in the right direction:)

Many regard

The tutorial has all the information you need. Just add a new page attribute and duplicate the code which fetches and prints the Attribute.

The new code could look like this:

<?php if($cobj->getAttribute('thumbnail_2')): ?>
  <div class="ccm-page-list-thumbnail_2">
    <img src="<?php echo $imgHelper->getThumbnail($cobj->getAttribute('thumbnail_2'), 75, 75)->src ?>" alt="&lt;?php echo $title ?>"/>
  </div>
<?php endif; ?>

That’s it!

Remo that worked like a charm, you make it seem so easy. Thanks for your help:)

I’m having a minor problem with this Fix.
I’ve followed the tutorial.

From the point;

“After we created the template, we have to navigate back to the page where we added our page list block:”

I selected “set custom template” which is now called “custom template” in Concrete 5.3.3 and all i get is only one thumbnail which was chosen after selecting a custom field. I’m using the thumbnail.php code found above on;
Concrete5.3 (Update: 24th April 2009)

Can someone please help me. I’m under pressure here.

Regards

It’s a bit hard to help you with so little information.

You must select a picture/thumbnail for each page using “properties”. Otherwise it won’t be able to show you anything else but a text.

Just open all the sub pages for which you don’t see a thumbnail and edit them, hit properties, custom fields and add select a thumbnail/file.

[…] If you haven’t worked with custom template you should probably read this tutorial first: http://www.codeblog.ch/2009/03/concrete5-templates/. […]

Do you know what code you need to include other custom attributes that are text/selectors etc as we need to be able to filter by attribute. We are developing an accommodation site that needs to filter by accommodation location for example and we need the page-list to determine this when showing the list.

Cheers

I’d have to look that up as well. But try this, it should give you a couple of information:

print_r($cobj->getAttribute(‘your_attribute’));

How can you add a thumbnail using the “getAttribute” to display a thumbnail in the BLOG Add On.

The following piece of code worked before for Blog 1.5.1

setAttributethe(‘thumbnail’)): ?>

<a href="”><img src="getThumbnail($blog_post->getAttribute(‘thumbnail’), 125, 94)->src ?>” class=”left bordered” alt=”getCollectionName() ?>”/>

With the upgrade (Version 1.2.3) this approach doesn’t work.

Please, do you have any ideas as to what I can change?

There were some changes in the Concrete5 API, but I don’t see why this should be blog related. But since the Blog addon isn’t free, I can’t help you with it, you should ask the authors of the package for help.

But you did see that I’ve posted different examples on how to output a thumbnail, depending on your c5 version?

Hi, the thumbnails are working like a charm for me.

I am thinking of linking the thumbnails and remove the titles!

How can I do it?

surround the img-tag by the a-tag and remove h3-tag afterwards.

Hi Remo its me again 🙂 sorry!

I am just wondering why only 10 page list thumbnail are shown.
Have you seen this issue before?
Here is the link of the template I am using: http://www.concrete5.org/download_file/-/20658/

oafreelancer.com

Hi,

I used this code but keep getting this error when I try to publish it.

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare class ImageHelper in /var/www/html/bimag/concrete/helpers/image.php on line 20

I looked it up in the forums and they said define the imagehelper as siteimagehelper but I don’t see this in the code. So I’m kind of confused. I was also trying to display the images inline with the text via css but this did not work either. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This errors message means that you’ve included it twice! Just remove one of it and it should work.

Hi Remo,

You were right and that fixed it. If I can bug you one more time. Is it possible to get the thumbnail to appear inline with the text?

Kind of, the problem is that the field from where you pull the text doesn’t have an image in it. How should the template know where to place the picture? You could insert a placeholder in the description (image-placeholder) and replace that with the picture. Not a super nice solution but it would work.

Hey!

I`ve spent a lot of time trying to force it to work – but with no success…
I created custom attributes for file./image – but getAttribute seems to ignore it.
Checking attribute status gives an error…
The whole output looks like:
“Fatal error: Call to a member function outputThumbnail() on a non-object in /****/public_html/blocks/page_list/templates/miniatury.php on line 21”

I checked also getThumbnail method – also no success. My attribute is still not taken… Is there another change in API for version 5.4.1???
Please help!

I’d start by making sure there’s an object in the variable, try to put this code in the template and see what it prints:

print_r($cobj->getAttribute('thumbnail'));

but make sure you change the word thumbnail according to the handle of your attribute.

hey there, has this tutorial been updated? I see a note from Remo above that some things broke with the C5 update.

Which comment do you mean? I don’t have any information about problems with this template..

Hi
I read all what is written here, and I try many time to do that, but I failed.

Please tel me how code should lok like, wit all changes.

Thank you
Regards
Boki

Hi Boki
it was my intention not to publish the complete code as the base template often changes and usually causes a lot more requests.
If my instructions aren’t clear, I’d like to improve them. Can you please post the code you have so far? I might be able to see the issue and update my instructions accordingly.
Thanks,
Remo

hi Remo,

That worked perfectly thanks.
Jan

CodeBlog.ch

30 Comments

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