[archived] jcb_columnize_body

Etz Haim · 2005-05-27 07:54:18

I’ve already mailed jimb with my modifications and I’m waiting for him to release it. If for some reason he can’t, and there’s consent, I will release it myself.

davidm · 2005-05-27 09:16:16

OK, thanks for the input :-)

Great !

jimb · 2005-05-29 05:15:26

Sorry, I really apologize for the delay. It’s the end of the semester at school, and on top of that I’ve had client work piling up. (I’m not complaining though.)

Etz- please feel free to release the plugin if you would like to. I incorporated your changes, and started to add some mroe sophistocated columnizing code, but work on that has been stalled due to being so busy. In another weekish I hope to finish it up and make it available.

Thanks for the interest everyone, and sorry about the delay. Feel free to hassle me via email if it happens again.

davidm · 2005-06-01 12:39:56

I noticed this plugin was not added to textpattern.org, so if you don’t have time to do it, I will…
It’d be to bad to miss this one !

marco · 2005-06-01 13:22:16

Jim, this is a very, very nice plugin.

There is a wonderful script, written by John Weir of smokinggun.com, that produces a multi-column layout, allowing horizontal scrolling of those columns. The script is released under GPL and is extensively used on the International Herald Tribune site.

Here’s the link to the script and example.

I am wondering if some of the wizards out there might be able to make this into a TP Plugin or further enhance your plugin into a multi-column, scrollable version, something that works like the axamples above.

Last edited by marco (2005-06-04 02:56:15)

davidm · 2005-06-03 07:02:00

There is a glitch in the help, just thought I would report this :
<blockquote>The divs output by this plugin are assigned the class “columnized” by default. If you would like to be able to define styles for the divs individually, set the attribute classes=“uniform”. This will cause them to be be assigned a class of “column1”, “column2”, etc.</blockquote>

…would rather be “The divs output by this plugin are assigned the class “column1, column2” by default. If you would like to be able to define a single style for the divs, set the attribute classes=“uniform”. This will cause them to be be assigned a class of “columnized”.

I also guess it could be nice to add examples in the help, as well as a sample CSS

While I am there, here’s my css, those columns are inside a parent div with a width of 470px (of course, adapt this to your need… just make just your calculations fit ;-) :

<code>.column1 {float: left; width: 225px; padding: 5px;}</code>
<code>.column2 {margin-left: 250px; width: 225px; padding: 5px;}</code>

<p>I had to use the margin-left and float:left instead of the simpler float:right I would normally have used for column2 because otherwise it does not work (since you have to place column2 before column1 if you do that, and the plugin will increment the colum number, not decrement…). Hope it helps beginners here :)</p>

<em>Edit : one question, would it be hard to be able to modify the plugin so that we can define a spliting point in the text ? or have a length before spliting option ?</em>

Last edited by davidm (2005-06-03 09:40:33)

steventer · 2005-06-03 09:52:34

There is a wonderful script, written by Johgn Weir of smokinggun.com, that produces a multi-column layout, allowing horizontal, scrolling of those columns. The script is released under GPL and is extensively used on the International Herald Tribune site

I would really like to this as a plugin… this is very, very nice and excellent for multi-page articles...

jimb · 2005-06-04 00:46:04

Okay, here is my plan:

I can integrate the Smoking Gun script into a new plugin. My question is this: if I do, will anyoen still be interested in the original server-side version? By using Javascript it is possible to do a much better job of columnizing since it is then possible to get the actual height of each paragraph or other element and use this information to make much more accurate columnizing decisions.

In any event, version .3 of the jcb_columnize will be available tonight.

As a side note-I checked out the International Herald Tribune site, and when I disabled Javascript in Firefox, the article text was no longer viewable at all. Not good.

Last edited by jimb (2005-06-04 00:50:19)

marco · 2005-06-04 02:55:24

I think different people will have different preferences, so some will want a server-side, some a client-side solution.

I’ve been reading the IHT site for three years and during all this time they had the multi-column (and clippings) feature on, so it does not seem to be a problem for their readers or they would have removed it by now (if Javascript disabling was an issue).

In any case, at least the users who know how to disable JS would also know how to enable it and most people using a browser would know how to do a Google search for “enable Javascript” instructions, if the site puts up a message to that effect.

What I like about IHT is that even though they paid for the work, they allowed the author to release the code publicly. And many thanks to the author too.

steventer · 2005-06-04 08:11:31

Jim

I appreciate the work you’ve done on the plugin, but the IHT site has been one of my favourites for a long time now. It lloks good, works well, and I don’t think that many people have js disabled in their browsers. As Marco said, those who have it turned off are prob not newbies, and will know how to turn it on.

So: I, for one, would really appreciate the javascript version of the plugin… :)

Steve

jimb · 2005-06-04 09:14:32

Version 0.3 of jcb_columnize is available. This included Etz’s code and a few other options.

davidm: It would be really easy to add a feature such as you suggest. Can you be a little more specific about how you would like it to operate?

I will start working on a javascript version based on the Smoking Gun code right away.

steventer · 2005-06-04 10:14:37

I will start working on a javascript version based on the Smoking Gun code right away.

That’s fantastic! Thanks!

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#25 2005-05-27 07:54:18

Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body

#26 2005-05-27 09:16:16

Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body

#27 2005-05-29 05:15:26

Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body

#28 2005-06-01 12:39:56

Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body

#29 2005-06-01 13:22:16

Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body

#30 2005-06-03 07:02:00

Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body

#31 2005-06-03 09:52:34

Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body

#32 2005-06-04 00:46:04

Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body

#33 2005-06-04 02:55:24

Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body

#34 2005-06-04 08:11:31

Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body

#35 2005-06-04 09:14:32

Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body

#36 2005-06-04 10:14:37

Re: [archived] jcb_columnize_body

Board footer