Dynamic Blocks - Revision history

Tom: /* Dynamic Block API */

2012-03-18T22:45:25Z

‎Dynamic Block API

LWC: /* Dynamic Block API */ Fixed spelling

2010-01-24T15:42:31Z

‎Dynamic Block API: Fixed spelling

Dirk: added yet another category

2009-09-05T19:19:26Z

added yet another category

Dirk: Fixed typos and formatting

2009-05-29T14:05:42Z

Fixed typos and formatting

Dirk: added second category

2009-05-14T14:01:27Z

added second category

Dirk: Added category

2009-05-09T07:47:38Z

Added category

Dirk: fixed links

2009-05-08T18:16:55Z

fixed links

Trinity at 00:34, 22 November 2005

2005-11-22T00:34:29Z

Trinity at 00:33, 22 November 2005

2005-11-22T00:33:22Z

New page

Dynamic Block Plugin API in Geeklog 1.4

<p>The dynamic block plugin API is a new feature of Geeklog 1.4. This new API function alows plugin
developers to create left and right blocks in Geeklog on the fly without adding a block to the blocks table.
This is acomplished by inserting the block data directly into the aray of blocks that is created from a SQL
call to the blocks table before it is used to create what is displayed. What follows is an description of the
API call and its use in a plugin..</p>

<h3>Dynamic Block API</h3>

<p>This section will describe and document how to enable your plugin to use the Geeklog dynamic block API.
This will be a usefull feature of plugin functionality for many developers and it has been designed to be easy to integrate
into your plugin. We have done our best to make this straight forward </p>

<p><b>NOTE:</b> You will need to be using Geeklog version 1.4 or later to successfully use the Dynamic Block API. This
plugin API is only avaliable in Geeklog 1.4 and is not present in previous versions of Geeklog.</p>

<p>There is only one plugin function that is requiered to support dynamic blocks in a plugin.
The example function that is included in this explanation are very complete.
You should only need to edit them for your plugin name name. The following table summarizes the functions:</p>

<div align="center">
<table cellPadding="2" width="100%" border="1"
style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111"
cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<th vAlign="top" width="4%"> </th>
<th vAlign="top" width="31%">Function</th>
<th vAlign="top" width="95%">Description of Function</th>

</tr>
<tr>
<td class="codeheader" vAlign="top" width="5%" align="center"><font
size="2">1</font></td>
<td class="codeheader" vAlign="top" width="10%"><font
size="2">plugin_getBlocks_<plugin name></font></td>
<td class="code" vAlign="top" width="85%"><font size="2">This
function expects two parameters: side and topic
. This function is called when a left and right blocks are created with COM_showBlocks in lib-common.php.
It is up to the plugin to make sure that
the requesting user has sufficient permissions to veiw any blocks that are returned
. It should return an aray of block data containing the dynamicaly generated blocks
that you wish the user to see.</font></td>
</tr>

</table>
</div>

<h3>Function Details and Examples</h3>

<p>Examples provided here have been provided from an initial example created by the
developer of the Dynamic Block API for a plugin curently in development</p>

<p>This function expects two parameters: side and topic
. This function is called when a left and right blocks are created with COM_showBlocks in lib-common.php.
It is up to the plugin to make sure that the requesting user has sufficient permissions to veiw any blocks that are returned
. It should return an aray of block data containing the dynamicaly generated blocks
that you wish the user to see.<p>

<div style="white-space:pre; border: solid; border-color: black;
border-width: 1; background-color: #DDDDDD; padding: 6px 6px 6px 6px;
font-size: x-small">
/**
* Returns blocks for this plugin that should appear when COM_showBlocks is run
*
* NOTE: this MUST return the label/value pairs in the following format
* $items[] = array('label1' => 'value', 'label2' => 'value')
* Basic avaliable lables are..
* name Name of block (BLOCK_ID)
* type Must always be set 'dynamic' unless you use advanced API labels
* Advanced API means you set all fields that COM_showBlocks
* expects to see from the blocks table. All labels are column names
* title Title of block
* blockorder Block order number
* content Body of the block (the html output)
* help Optional url to a help page
*
* You must only return left or right blocks based on $side and
* you must also do your own security checks. Everything you send
* will show up on a page load
*
*
*
*/
function plugin_getBlocks_glcommerce($side, $topic='' )
{
global $_CONF, $_USER, $HTTP_SERVER_VARS, $REQUEST_URI, $sess, $db;
// only show on a page in the plugin's dir
If (in_string('glcommerce', $REQUEST_URI))
{
// generate left blocks
if ($side=='left')
{

$display1 = glc_makemenu();
$display2 = glc_latestprod();

$items[] = array('name' => 'glcommerce_1',
'type' => 'dynamic',
'onleft' => 1,
'title' => 'Shop Menu',
'blockorder' => 1,
'content' => $display1,
'help' => '/glcommerce/help.html');

$items[] = array('name' => 'glcommerce_2',
'type' => 'dynamic',
'onleft' => 1,
'title' => 'Latest Products ',
'blockorder' => 1,
'content' => $display2,
'help' => '/glcommerce/help.html');

} else {
// else generate right blocks
$display3 = glc_featuredprod()'
$display4 = glc_minicart();

$items[] = array('name' => 'glcommerce_3',
'type' => 'dynamic',
'onleft' => 0,
'title' => 'Featured Stuff',
'blockorder' => 1,
'content' => $display3,
'help' => '/glcommerce/help.html');

$items[] = array('name' => 'glcommerce_4',
'type' => 'dynamic',
'onleft' => 0,
'title' => 'My Cart',
'blockorder' => 1,
'content' => $display4,
'help' => '/glcommerce/help.html');

}

}
return $items;
}

</div>

<h3>Function PLG_getBlocks() for refrence</h3>

<div style="white-space:pre; border: solid; border-color: black;
border-width: 1; background-color: #DDDDDD; padding: 6px 6px 6px 6px;
font-size: x-small">

/**
* gets Geeklog blocks from plugin's
*
* Returns data for blocks on a given side and, potentially, for
* a given topic.
*
* @param string $side Side to get blocks for (right or left for now)
* @param string $topic Only get blocks for this topic
* @return array of block data
*
*/
function PLG_getBlocks( $side, $topic='')
{
global $_PLUGINS;

$ret = array();
foreach ($_PLUGINS as $pi_name)
{
$function = 'plugin_getBlocks_' . $pi_name;
if (function_exists($function))
{
$items = $function($side, $topic='');
if (is_array ($items))
{
$ret = array_merge ($ret, $items);
}
}
}

// future code to do a lib-custom function
/*
if (function_exists('CUSTOM_getBlocks')) {
$cust_items .= CUSTOM_getBlocks($side, $topic='');
if (is_array ($cust_items)) {
$ret = array_merge ($ret, $cust_items)
}
}
*/
return $ret;
}

</div>

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 size="2">plugin_getBlocks_&lt;plugin name&gt;</font></td>
 	  <td class="code" valign="top" width="85%"><font size="2">This
-function expects two parameters:  side and topic. This function is called when a left and right blocks are created with COM_showBlocks in lib-common.php. It is up to the plugin to make sure that the requesting user has sufficient permissions to veiw any blocks that are returned. It should return an array of block data containing the dynamically generated blocks that you wish the user to see.</font></td>
+function expects two parameters:  side and topic. This function is called when a left and right blocks are created with COM_showBlocks in lib-common.php. It is up to the plugin to make sure that the requesting user has sufficient permissions to view any blocks that are returned. It should return an array of block data containing the dynamically generated blocks that you wish the user to see.</font></td>
      </tr>
    </table>
 </div>
 === Function Details and Examples ===

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:19, 5 September 2009
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−	[[Category:Development]] [[Category:Plugin Development]]	+	[[Category:Development]] [[Category:Plugin Development]] [[Category:Blocks]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:01, 14 May 2009
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−	[[Category:Development]]	+	[[Category:Development]] [[Category:Plugin Development]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:47, 9 May 2009
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	[[Geeklog Documentation\|Main Table of Contents]]<br/>		[[Geeklog Documentation\|Main Table of Contents]]<br/>
	[[Complete Table of Contents]]		[[Complete Table of Contents]]
		+
		+
		+	[[Category:Development]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:16, 8 May 2009
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−	[[~~Geeklog_1.3x_Documentation~~\|Main ~~TOC~~]]<br/>	+	[[Geeklog Documentation\|Main Table of Contents]]<br/>
−	[[Complete ~~TOC~~]]	+	[[Complete Table of Contents]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Dynamic Block Plugin API in Geeklog 1.4
+== Dynamic Block Plugin API in Geeklog 1.4 ==
-<h3>Dynamic Block API</h3>
+This section will describe and document how to enable your plugin to use the Geeklog dynamic block API. This will be a useful feature of plugin functionality for many developers and it has been designed to be easy to integrate into your plugin. We have done our best to make this straightforward.
-<p>This section will describe and document how to enable your plugin to use the Geeklog dynamic block API.
+<b>NOTE:</b> You will need to be using Geeklog version 1.4 or later to successfully use the Dynamic Block API. This plugin API is only available in Geeklog 1.4 and is not present in previous versions of Geeklog.
-<p><b>NOTE:</b> You will need to be using Geeklog version 1.4 or later to successfully use the Dynamic Block API. This
+There is only one plugin function that is required to support dynamic blocks in a plugin. The example function that is included in this explanation are very complete. You should only need to edit them for your plugin name name. The following table summarizes the functions:
 <div align="center">
-   <table cellPadding="2" width="100%" border="1"
+   <table cellpadding="2" width="100%" border="1"
 style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111"
 cellspacing="0">
@@ Line 33: / Line 23: @@
      </tr>
      <tr>
-	  <td class="codeheader" vAlign="top" width="5%" align="center"><font
+	  <td class="codeheader" valign="top" width="5%" align="center"><font
 size="2">1</font></td>
-	  <td class="codeheader" vAlign="top" width="10%"><font
+	  <td class="codeheader" valign="top" width="10%"><font
 size="2">plugin_getBlocks_&lt;plugin name&gt;</font></td>
-	  <td class="code" vAlign="top" width="85%"><font size="2">This
+	  <td class="code" valign="top" width="85%"><font size="2">This
-function expects two parameters:  side and topic
+function expects two parameters:  side and topic. This function is called when a left and right blocks are created with COM_showBlocks in lib-common.php. It is up to the plugin to make sure that the requesting user has sufficient permissions to veiw any blocks that are returned. It should return an array of block data containing the dynamically generated blocks that you wish the user to see.</font></td>
      </tr>
    </table>
 </div>
-<p>Examples provided here have been provided from an initial example created by the
+=== Function Details and Examples ===
-<p>This function expects two parameters:  side and topic
+Examples provided here have been provided from an initial example created by the developer of the Dynamic Block API for a plugin currently in development
-. This function is called when a left and right blocks are created with COM_showBlocks in lib-common.php.
-It is up to the plugin to make sure that the requesting user has sufficient permissions to veiw any blocks that are returned
+This function expects two parameters:  side and topic. This function is called when a left and right blocks are created with COM_showBlocks in lib-common.php. It is up to the plugin to make sure that the requesting user has sufficient permissions to view any blocks that are returned. It should return an array of block data containing the dynamically generated blocks that you wish the user to see.
@@ Line 64: / Line 44: @@
 border-width: 1; background-color: #DDDDDD; padding: 6px 6px 6px 6px;
 font-size: x-small">
 /**
 * Returns blocks for this plugin that should appear when COM_showBlocks is run
@@ Line 69: / Line 50: @@
 * NOTE: this MUST return the label/value pairs in the following format
 * &#36;items[] = array('label1' => 'value', 'label2' => 'value')
-* Basic avaliable lables are..
+* Basic available labels are..
 *   name     Name of block (BLOCK_ID)
 *   type       Must always be set 'dynamic' unless you use advanced API labels
@@ Line 141: / Line 122: @@
     return &#36;items;
 &#125;
-<h3>Function PLG_getBlocks() for refrence</h3>
+=== Function PLG_getBlocks() for reference ===
 <div style="white-space:pre; border: solid; border-color: black;
 border-width: 1; background-color: #DDDDDD; padding: 6px 6px 6px 6px;
 font-size: x-small">
+<pre>
 /**
 * gets Geeklog blocks from plugin's
@@ Line 190: / Line 172: @@
      return &#36;ret;
 &#125;
+</pre>
 </div>

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:34, 22 November 2005
Line 192:		Line 192:

	</div>		</div>
		+
		+
		+	[[Geeklog_1.3x_Documentation\|Main TOC]]<br/>
		+	[[Complete TOC]]