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#1 2006-11-30 16:41:45

lozmatic
Member
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2006-08-27
Posts: 259
Website

More usable custom fields

Hi,

I use 8 out of the 10 custom fields to hold extra content for each page. My layout is quite complex (think of a newspaper front page) and the extra fields allow me to keep code separated content.

The first thing I find annoying is that I need to click on a link to make the fields appear. It would be great if I could set this to happen as a default.

The other annoying thing is that these fields can only hold limited amountd of text. What I am after are textareas rather than input fields.

I hope this makes sense!

Cheers,

Loz

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#2 2006-11-30 17:27:32

colak
Admin
From: Cyprus
Registered: 2004-11-20
Posts: 9,090
Website GitHub Mastodon Twitter

Re: More usable custom fields

lozmatic wrote:

The first thing I find annoying is that I need to click on a link to make the fields appear. It would be great if I could set this to happen as a default.

I think that there’s a plugin which can help you on this one…

The other annoying thing is that these fields can only hold limited amountd of text.

There is a hack explained somewhere in this forum on how to make the fields hold more text.

What I am after are textareas rather than input fields.

Custom fields are not included in the search as – according to the developers – they slow down the site. So you have to be careful what text to include in there as it will not be returned in the search results.


Yiannis
——————————
NeMe | hblack.art | EMAP | A Sea change | Toolkit of Care
I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.

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#3 2006-11-30 18:14:10

masa
Member
From: Asturias, Spain
Registered: 2005-11-25
Posts: 1,091

Re: More usable custom fields

lozmatic wrote:

The first thing I find annoying is that I need to click on a link to make the fields appear. It would be great if I could set this to happen as a default.

Alternatively to the plug-in solution you can edit the file textpattern / include / txp_article.php, line 348:

'<div id="advanced" style="display:none;">',

to read…

'<div id="advanced" style="display:block;">',

…instead – in any case make a backup first.

Cheers Martin

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#4 2009-09-14 03:45:26

bici
Member
From: vancouver
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 2,091
Website Mastodon

Re: More usable custom fields

Hi. I too wonder about having additional Textareas as opposed to custome fields which are limited to 255chars
as i found out here

I am sure it has been brought up but my search failed to find possible threads on having additional text fields to Title, Body & Excerpt and what the constraints to having them is.

Is it a technological / code issue as to why TxP cannot have “true” additional custom fields…. searchable and as textareas? Just curious.

PS one the benefits of having such fields is that one can css style these automatically and the editors would just have to enter content. It would also make for more precise placement and styling of images. …..


…. texted postive

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#5 2009-09-14 10:23:07

masa
Member
From: Asturias, Spain
Registered: 2005-11-25
Posts: 1,091

Re: More usable custom fields

bici wrote:

Is it a technological / code issue as to why TxP cannot have “true” additional custom fields…. searchable and as textareas? Just curious.

The reasons are perhaps more historical.

Gerhard is updating his glz_custom_fields plugin and it looks like textareas might make it into one of the next versions. The very next is going to be a compatibility update for 4.2.0 as far as I understand.

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#6 2009-09-14 10:32:30

masa
Member
From: Asturias, Spain
Registered: 2005-11-25
Posts: 1,091

Re: More usable custom fields

Also, if you’re adventurous, there is a hack to convert a custom field to a second excerpt field

It’s old, and the line numbers probably won’t match, but the basic instructions still apply.

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#7 2009-09-14 14:37:05

bici
Member
From: vancouver
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 2,091
Website Mastodon

Re: More usable custom fields

Thanks Masa.

I will take a look or await for Gerhard’s updated glz_custom_fields plugin

I am less keen to try older plugins that may or may not bork my system going forth.

If it’s just a historical reason there may be a reasonable chance that addition text fields may appear in future releases. This would make TxP even better.


…. texted postive

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