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[archived] jcb_columnize_body
Notice: This thread is archived, this plugin is no longer available.
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I saw a great site today that utilized a 2-column layout. It used JavaScript to divide the body text between two divs.
I then wrote a Textpattern plugin that does the same thing, only on the server-side. To use, just swap it in for the txp:body tag, and then write css definitions for ‘leftCol’ and ‘rightCol’ that float them to one side.
More details area available on my site.
You can grab it here.
I’d like to hear people’s reactions to this plugin- I have some other ideas such as support for multiple columns, but I want to know if there is anything else that might be useful.
Jim
Last edited by jimb (2005-05-11 17:29:46)
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Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body
Hey this is a really cool idea. Hats-off to you! I’ll test and let you know how it goes.
Edit: This works just great!! Thank you again!
Last edited by creativesplash (2005-08-09 12:26:44)
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Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body
Jamie-
I don’t have an example of my own just yet. But if you look at the site I linked to in the first post, you can see what is possible. It would work exactly the same way, only using the plugin in stead of a javascript.
But anyhow, I’ll put together an example and post back here when it’s done.
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Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body
Thanks! I already installed and have been playing with it I’ll let you know how it goes. It is looking really good though. Thanks for the contribution!
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Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body
I’m testing it out, and it outputs div id=“LeftCol”. Shouldn’t it use a class?
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Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body
jimb: It would be much better if you published your plugin not as a replacement for txp:body, but as one working with this syntax:
<jcb_columnize_body><txp:body /><jcb_columnize_body/>
This way:
- You can columnize not just article bodies, but any text at all.
- You can use it together with my etz_pg plugin.
Just change the top of your code like this:
<notextile>function jcb_columnize_body($atts, $thing) {
$body = parse($thing);
</notextile>
And voila.
Last edited by Etz Haim (2005-05-11 18:38:27)
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Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body
Etz-
Good point. I haven’t done much Textpattern work recently and it never occurred to me to surround the body tag instead of replacing it. But I will make that change for version 0.2 since I think it’s a really good idea.
Matt-
I assumed that people might want to define individual styles for the two columns. But I will also add the option to output all columns with a common class name.
Thanks for the feedback both of you. I’m also going to add the ability to create a user-set number of columns, since it’s really just simple math. I’m trying to figure out a way to set columns to be of a certain height, and then create as many as would be needed to show all the content. It’s possible to guess by counting words or characters, but I would like it to be a little smarter than that. I’d like to avoid doing too much text-crunching on such large chunks of text at display time if possible.
But anyhow, version 0.2 of the plugin will be out in the next day-ish with a few new features.
Thanks again for the input everyone.
Jim
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Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body
would this allow one to split a list of links or categories into two columns?
i’ve been waiting for that! :)
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#10 2005-05-12 04:48:23
- Mary
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- Registered: 2004-06-27
- Posts: 6,236
Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body
That’s an excellent idea. I’ve always wondered about how to do that, but figured it was probably too difficult (read: I am lazy) to try. Kudos.
Splitting a list is different, since if you split it at all, its no longer a list, but two lists. You need to use CSS to get that kind of look.
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Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body
Jim-
I meant to suggest using div class=“leftCol” and div class=“rightCol” rather than div id=“leftCol”.
But if you are working towards a user-defined number of columns, you obviously want to ditch the “left” and “right” designations entirely in favor of numbers or identical class attributes for each column.
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