This hands-on tutorial will teach Drupal developers across the experience spectrum how to use Attachment displays to make a quantum leap in View functionality and added-value to users.
This book starts by introducing Attachment Views as reader activities. Here, we create a single Attachment View and take a closer look at giving each page an interactive feel. It also shows you how to create a View containing an Attachment View. Later, using practical examples, you will learn how to develop a 3-view composite display using two and three custom content types. You will also develop a composite display using multiple Attachment Views; to provide a control panel of sorts from which you can view the various content types. Finally, we will put the home page together making use of Views, blocks, a flash slide show, and other pieces.
Chapter 1, Something Old, Something New, contrasts the capabilities of a standard Drupal website to what will be achieved in the book, and in so doing, the rationale for the book is presented.
Chapter 2, Attachment Views—A New Beginning, introduces Attachment Views as reader activities. Each View created would be able to stand alone, but will then have a single Attachment View created to give each page an interactive feel.
Chapter 3, Interactive Page Regions, continues with single Attachment Views. In addition to creating another view and Attachment View, a small module will be created to provide the e-mail functionality needed for contact.
Chapter 4, Additional Displays, helps the reader to create a view with an Attachment View, a Block display, and an additional Page display.
Chapter 5, Bios, will have the reader develop another 3-view composite display, using two custom content types.
Chapter 6, Prior Jobs, will take the reader through another 3-view composite display, using two content types: jobs and bios, and the templates necessary to format it, with one of the attachment views being purely for display. The page will display prior jobs for the reader to select from, and once selected, a separate part of the page will display the job info and the appropriate bio.
Chapter 7, A Different About-Us, we will develop a 3-view composite display using three custom content types. On most websites, this is a static, fairly uninspired page. Here, we will create a composite page so that the bios and prior jobs will be shown and selectable in addition to the company information that will be in a separate piece of content. Cascading View templates will be used for formatting the overall view.
Chapter 8, Control Panel, develops a composite display using multiple Attachment Views, to provide a control panel of sorts from which management can view the various content types.
Chapter 9, Front (Home) Page, puts together the home page; making use of Views, blocks, and other pieces.
Chapter 10, Punch List, addresses the final tasks, such as defining roles, users and permissions, site configuration items, and more.
Appendix A, Add-On Modules, contains information about a few modules that were used in the site and not in the book.
Appendix B, Custom Content Types, presents introductory information regarding the creation of a content type followed by information about each type that was created for the site.
This guide is aimed at Drupal developers of any level, who have not yet explored this functionality.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: "We can include other contexts through the use of the include directive."
A block of code is set as follows:
<?php if ($admin_links): ?> <div class="views-admin-links views-hide"> <?php print $admin_links; ?> </div> <?php endif; ?>
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
<?php if ($admin_links): ?>
<div class="views-admin-links views-hide">
<?php print $admin_links; ?>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen".
Note
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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Downloading the example code for the book
Visit http://www.packtpub.com/files/code/0806_Code.zip to directly download the example code.
The downloadable files contain instructions on how to use them.
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