InnerOptics.net

Rapid Paging Block Tutorial

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 23:23:00 CDT

Basic Configuration

Here's a short tutorial on how it get the Concrete5 Rapid Ajax Paging block up and running.

1) Add the Rapid Paging block to your page (the page that has the link on it, not the page that will be opened), into an area that is outside of the region that you'll be replacing.

2) Just keep all the default settings. It should say "Based on link: Class Name" and next to it, have the words "ajaxLink" in that field. It also should have "Main" as the area name. This is the area that will be shown in the popup. The "Page Load Target Selector" field should be a css selector path to the element on the page that you want to replace. Setting that element to #body would cause the contents of the <div id="body"> <div> tag to be replaced.

3) Create another page (anywhere on your site), and put some content in the "Main" area. This is the page that will be loaded. In this example, my target page has a url of /my_target_page/. Exit edit mode.

4) Go back to the first page, add/edit the Content block that will have the link to the ajax target page. Select the text that you want to turn into the ajax link, and click the link icon (the chain icon circled below). Add the url of the popup page (the next image below), then click on the advanced tab, and enter the word "ajaxLink" in the Classes field (the third image below). Then click the update button of both edit-dialog windows to save your changes.

5) Take the page out of edit mode. The ajax loading should now be activated for that link.

Advanced Configuration

While this approach works well for individual links, typically you'll want to use the "CSS Selector" instead of the "CSS Class Name" setting, since this will allow you to automatically activate a bunch of links at once. For example, using the "CSS Selector" option, with "#body a", will activate all of the links within the body area.

If there are certain links within an area that you've activate that you'd like to treat as normal links, you can add the css class "ignoreAjaxLink" to that link element or to any parent containing element.

To make setup rapid paging to work across a wide range of pages regardless of the entry page, it's recommended that you add the block to the global scrapbook, and reference it from that locations so that all the pages can include the same instance. If you hardcode the block display, be sure to also hardcode the required javascript and css files within the page.

Javascript within Ajax Loaded Pages

The Rapid Paging block will attempt to execute any javascript being loaded, after loading any external javascript and css files it can detect for each block. However, some block's that rely on javascript won't work correctly when being loaded through the ajax paging. This is typically because the javascript within those blocks is initiated during the pageload event, and by the time they are loaded via ajax, the pageload event has already been fired.

If you'd like to try to customize the javascript within your other blocks to work with this package, you can hook into a event that's fired after the page has completed loading:

$(document).bind('rapid_page_load', function(e, data) {
//add your block's javascript initialization code here
});

« Back to the Concrete5 Rapid Ajax Paging Block project page

Kayaking Skookumchuck Tidal Rapids

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:46:00 CDT

A kayaker surfs the food at Skookumchuck Tidal Rapids, British Columbia

Redwoods Elk Rut Slideshow

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:54:00 CDT

If you happen to visit Redwood National Park during the early autumn you may have a chance to see the seasonal Elk Rut. Within the aptly named Elk Prairie, this impressive bull elk actively defends his harem of up to 20 cows from challengers. In order to maintain his peak position within the heard he quickly chases them off any other males who wander too close. The juvenile bull being pursued in these photos has just reach the age where it's seen as potential mating threat, and is forced away by the alpha male from his mother's protection.

CSS snippet to reduce height of concrete5 edit bar

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 16:10:00 CDT

Tried of the concrete5 edit bar taking too much screen real-estate? Then add this snippet to your CSS to shrink it's height.

Integration with ProPhoto or Image Search blocks

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 13:59:00 CDT

The File/Image Details block was designed to integrate with the ProPhoto & Image Search blocks, allowing you to click through for an enlarged version of an image that displays further details. You can set this up in one of two ways:

1) use only one instance of the File/Image Details block to serve all of your images from one page, grabbing the file id from the url's query string. This approach requires less maintenance than the second option, so I recommend going this route. Edit the file-details block, make sure the "Load with URL Query String" radio is selected, and leave "fID" for the query string variable name. Then edit your ProPhoto block, & on the interface tab check "Link images to another page on your site", and select the page where the File/Image Details block is installed.

2) If you'd rather you can also create a new instance of the File/Image Details block on its own page for each image on your site. In this case, through your dashboard->files->attribute section, you'd create a file attribute (of type "text") with a handle of proPhoto_linkURL, and then for each image edit it's properties and assign a value for that proPhoto_linkURL attribute containing a relative URL path or a cID for the enlarged image page.

Canonical URLs

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:36:00 CDT

Duplicate URLs to access the same page can hurt your SEO. Add the new canonical link tag to your header to let the search engines know which is the correct address.

Flamenco & Classical Guitar

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 16:35:00 CST

A collection my favorite flamenco and classical guitar videos, with performances by Paco De Lucia, Andre Segovia, Manolo Sanlúcar, Tomatito, Pepe Romero, & Ana Vidovic

Real-Estate Package Tutorial

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:28:00 CDT

A tutorial for the concrete5 real-estate package

Link System

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:40:00 CDT

Let your users suggest links, and display thumbnails for each.

Rapid Paging

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:03:00 CDT

Automatically make links load through AJAX, without a full page refresh

Running a Concrete5 Micro ISV

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:12:00 CDT

Sharing some of the lessons I've learned while selling and supporting packages through the concrete5 marketplace.

Custom Statistics Panels

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:12:00 CDT

The Concrete5 Traffic & Statistics package, from version 2.12, allows other package and block developers to integrate their own stats display panels directly on the stats page of the dashboard.

Just follow these steps:

1) Create a new folder than will hold you panel's files, like /packages/my_package_name/stats_panel/

2) In that folder create a view.php file and a controller.php file

3) You controller's class must be named according to your panel's directory, and must extend the ParticleTrafficPanel class. So if it's placed within a folder called /my_package_statistics/, then it should have the class named MyPackageStatisticsParticleTrafficPanel. Here's an example:

class MyPackageStatisticsParticleTrafficPanel extends ParticleTrafficPanel {
     protected $title="My Package Stats";
     public function view(){
         //optional - place any initiation logic here
     }
}

4A) Automatic installation:

Just copy your folder into the /packages/tony_stats/panels/ directory, then visit the stats settings page. It will notify you if there are any errors with your package.

4B) Programatic Installation:

To register your new panel with the traffic and stats from within another package or application, add these lines to your code (not in the panel's view or controller) to include the required libraries:

Loader::helper('stats',$packageHandle);
Loader::model('panel',$packageHandle);

…then register the panel by giving it the absolute file path to your panel's directory.

$urlHelper = Loader::helper('concrete/urls');
$packageHandle='my_package_handle';
$statsPkg = Package::getByHandle($packageHandle);
$absoluteFilePath = $urlHelper->getPackageURL($statsPkg).'/stats_panel/';
$result = self::registerPanel( $absoluteFilePath );

The $result['msg'] will contain an error message if it detects any problems with your panel.

5) Your package should now be displayed on the main stats page.

Tutorial Video

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:40:00 CDT

A video walk-through of the concrete5 image / files search block.

2012 Prophecy

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 21:44:00 CDT

Personally I believe that this date has been misinterpreted by those in the new-age spiritual movement, informed by Christian mythology, projecting their own beliefs of the end times onto Mayan culture. The Mayan's recorded time in cycles, and on 2012 one 5,000 cycle is said to finish and another will begin. No ancient Mayan artifacts refer to this as the apocolypse. There is only one damaged Mayan inscription referencing this date. It is located at the Tortuguero momument, and speaks of the descent of an unknown god.

The Mayan Kingdom eBook

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:56:00 CDT

The Maya are one of the Mesoamerican cultures of this New World. They are descendants of the Olmecs, inhabiting Southern Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Central America. At their peak around 500-1000 C.E., Mayan society was one of the most advanced the earth had known, developing a complex culture, with a precise knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, and an intricate written language.

Reader Feedback

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:59:00 CDT

Reader Feedback

If you have comments, any thoughts or criticisms about this eBook, or if you'd just like to submit a link to your own research on Mayan culture, just use the comment form below. Comments are moderated.

Comments:

References

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:46:00 CDT

Books & links about the Maya

Decline

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:14:00 CDT

The causes for the Maya's decline are numerous, but one of the central causes is that the demands they placed upon their environment grew beyond the capacity of the land. At it's peak, there were about 15 million people occupying the Mayan world. Over-population of Mayan metropolises are suspected to have gone beyond levels that the Mayan political and social networks were able to support, resulting in social unrest and revolution. Frequent skirmishes by warring clans, such as the Toltec invasion of Chichen Itza, are suspected to have forced the Mayan populace to flee their cities.

Tulum

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:53:00 CDT

By around 900 C.E., the Classical Mayan cities were in decline. Tulum peaked around 1200-1400 C.E. in the post-classic period, as an example of the smaller city-states that still remained at this point in Mayan history. It was a major trading hub, situated as a cliff top seaport, overlooking the turquoise waters of the Caribbean. A

Chichen Itza

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:24:00 CDT

Chichen Itza was first settled around 435 C.E., however, in later centuries it became subject to waves of attacks from semi-nomadic tribes from northern Mexico. This and a period of prolonged drought gradually weakened Mayan society. In the 900s, the Toltec Itza tribe conquered the city, radically changing its culture. The Mayan renaissance that followed brought with it a new militaristic ethic.