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Become a Panels Rockstar

Become a Panels Rockstar. Audience Survey. Have you tried Panels? Are you a …. Themer / Designer? Developer / Code Junkie? Information Architect?. Audience Survey. Are you most familiar with… Drupal 4.7 Drupal 5.x Drupal 6.x Drupal 7.x Shhhh…..I’m developing Drupal 8.x

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Become a Panels Rockstar

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  1. Become a Panels Rockstar

  2. Audience Survey • Have you tried Panels? • Are you a …. • Themer / Designer? • Developer / Code Junkie? • Information Architect?

  3. Audience Survey • Are you most familiar with… • Drupal 4.7 • Drupal 5.x • Drupal 6.x • Drupal 7.x • Shhhh…..I’m developing Drupal 8.x • Have you used the Context Module?

  4. What are Panels? • Panels are a flexible way to display various content with specific access controls simultaneously.

  5. What Panels are NOT • A replacement for all your content types. • A way to make freeform HTML pages. • As easy as making grilled cheese.

  6. Should I use Panels? It depends. • How big is your site going to be? • How important are any two different pieces of data to a certain user or persona? • What content is needed and when? • The context of information matters!

  7. Why not just use the Context module? • Reactions aren’t always so simple. • Can work together, but not in/as a Panel. • Realllllly big sites can be quite complex. • Large quantities of Context reactions might be hard to manage. • Stressed about working with multiple layouts? • What if I want to re-use data about the page I’m currently on?

  8. Ok…I’m semi-convinced…what do I need to get started?

  9. What modules do I need? Provided by Chaos Tool Suite

  10. Novice

  11. Lets get to know the Panels interfaces.

  12. Panel Nodes • Great way to learn how to use Panels. • Customizable layouts. • Can add/remove blocks/forms/content as you please. • Limited access to more complex information, such as views. • Not a solution for ALL content.

  13. What are the components of a Panel? • Panels contain regions • Regions contain Panes • Panes contain everything else

  14. What’s a Region? • Regions are the building blocks of a Panel. • Can be identified using custom classes and id’s. • Contain Panes

  15. What’s a Pane? • Panes are the meat of a Panel • Any content added to the panel is treated as a Pane • Can customize display with Stylizer or custom CSS

  16. Lets build it already

  17. First, we need… • A situation which requires two chunks of content to be scanned by the user quickly. • Lets try an “Employment Info” page. • Why should I work here? • What benefits are included?

  18. intermediate

  19. Page Manager What’s a Page? • Nacho-momma’s standard HTML page • A URL which can: • Respond with a specific HTTP status code • Display custom content • Help administrators manage the site • Control who has access to it • Pull content from different sources for later display

  20. What is a Variant? • A deviation from the norm. • A way to make one page act like several • An opportunity to provide different levels of access to content • A way to take some complexity OUT of your site!

  21. Selection Criteria • Allows the site to filter pages and variants on a myriad of attributes. • Can be customized to meet specific needs. • Can use criteria from contexts given to the page.

  22. Why would I usea Selection rule? • Without them, the page will take over all potential instances of content. • Sometimes different types of visitors need different content.

  23. What is a context? • Related information to the subject at-hand. • Information that can be re-purposed throughout the site. • Additional information the user wants!

  24. Can contexts be inherited? • In short no. • If a Context is added to a Page a “Panel Node” cannot inherit it. • It can be used to include specific content. • Contexts can be passed to Views.

  25. pro

  26. Using Views as Contexts • Bring content into the page without loading everything. • Use exposed views operators how you please. • Give the user control to specific parts of the view.

  27. Custom Access Rules • Allows for complex access rules to be re-used and re-purposed throughout pages and panels. • Exportable!

  28. Custom Layouts • Use Panels layouts as Views row formatters. • Exportable!

  29. Why not build custom layouts with the layout manager? • We like clean output. • Hard to extend into 960.gs and other structural frameworks • Some themes provide these • Extra step talking to the database • Less control over CSS

  30. Hard Coded Layout Plugins • When built-in layouts just don’t do it. • Only one line of code required to tell Panels where to look • plugins[layouts][] = <foldername> • Where should I look for sample code? • Check out the Zen theme. • Adaptive Themes (AT) Panels??

  31. Your very first layout plugin • Layouts/ • My_layout/ • My_layout.inc : Plugin file • My_layout.css : Common CSS for this layout • My_layout.tpl.php : Output template • Admin.css : Optional Admin CSS file • Admin.tpl.php : Optional Admin template

  32. My_Layout.inc • Contains the array of information regarding your layout for Panels • Name: Layout Name • Category: Groups layouts together • Template: User-facing .tpl template • CSS: User-facing .css file • Admin Template: Admin-facing .tpl • Admin CSS: Admin-specialized .css • Regions: Array of regions in template

  33. My_Layout.inc $plugins[‘my_layout’] = array( ‘name’ => t(‘My Layout’), ‘category’ => t(‘My Layouts’), ‘template’ => ‘my_layout.tpl.php’, ‘css’ => ‘my_layout.css’, ‘admin template’ => ‘admin.tpl.php’, ‘admin css’ => ‘admin.css’, // note: ‘regions’ is ‘content’ in Drupal 6 ‘regions’ => array( ‘top’ => t(‘Top Region’), ‘left’ => t(‘Left Region’), ), );

  34. Template.tpl.php How should I structure it? • Are you using a grid system? • What code is required? • Drupal 6 <?php print $content[‘region-name’];?> • Drupal 7 • <?php print $regions[‘region-name’]; ?> Caveats: • Will be used for any user if no admin template exists.

  35. Admin.tpl.php • How should I structure it? • Who can access it? • This is only visible to administrators. • Why use it? • Sometimes you/your client needs complex displays that aren’t very easy to edit/add content to. • This makes it a breeze for admins to experience your panel structure exactly as is required!

  36. My_Layout.css • Contains the CSS for your end-user panel/regions • Caveats: • Try not to get too jazzy. You might find this template is useful elsewhere and want to do different things with it. • Admins and end-users alike will encounter this CSS file—and it may be a bug. • Focus on structural CSS, not visual.

  37. Admin.css • Contains the CSS for your admin panel/regions • Caveats: • Has to work alongside your user-facing CSS. • Useful for overriding a few things that might be only in your user CSS.

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