Adding Pages Content Within Standard Blocks

[Como]

Hi.

Is there a simple method to add Blocks/Pages using standard theme blocks, with header, title, border and background colours so that they match other elements on my sight? Of course, I can do this using HTML/CSS, but this seems like overkill and a lot of unnecessary work (and is not a practical solution for other admins who nothing about HTML and CSS).

It seems like I am missing something.

[opentype]

19 minutes ago, Como said:

Blocks/Pages

Which one? Those are completely different concepts. 

For pages, you can choose to add core functions like header and sidebar.

For blocks, it will depend on the type. The default feed blocks which pull in content from the suite will come with a headline, theme boxes and so on. For manual blocks, you might need to add those elements manually, as someone might not want them there and it would be a bad idea if IPS forces those elements on every block. 

 

[Como]

Hi @opentype

Thanks for the response. I do not mean the page header (and footer) or sidebar. I mean if I create a page (or create block for page), the content should be placed within blocks like content on the rest of the site.

I can add some CSS to target the blocks, but it means having to create the page (or block) content using HTML if I would like to add a block header. When really, I'd like any admin to be able to create a page with a header (with title) to the content they create. For example, these forum category and block headers ('Invision Community' and 'Community Hive'):

Yes, admins could use the text editor, but this means no header for the created content. I would like to have some consistency in how all website content is presented to viewers without the need to create pages using HTML.

Further, I should be able to change the appearance of these pages when I change theme settings, just like with all suite blocks. I suppose I could target the first paragraph (title) using CSS. (Better, create a text editor button to allow for the adding of heading tags and use those create block header; I suppose this is possible - yes?) But this means that Admins will need HTML enabled. I wished to avoid this if possible.

Hopefully I am missing something or there is some useful app available.

[opentype]

It’s still not really clear what type of block you mean. Can you give an example? 

There is no block setting to apply certain styles or elements (like a header). 

But you also do not need to target anything with custom CSS. You would just use IPS’ CSS classes and everything would be styled according to the theme(s) automatically. For example:

<div class="ipsBox ipsPadding">
  <h3 class="ipsWidget_title">Widget Headline</h3>
  Widget content
</div>

That would create a typical widget with a background and border and a widget headline. 

[Como]

@opentype

HTML? As I explained, I wish for others to be able to create pages and edit them without having to work with HTML.

Or, as I suspect, you mean something else. I'll look at widgets in the Guide, but it might be beyond my abilities. If there is a away to avoid team members having to work with HTML, I'll certainly give it a go.

Thanks.

[opentype]

It’s not possible in 4.x. Maybe in 5. 

I don’t know the specifics of your use-case, but you could also consider creating a Pages database and let your admins add records there. In this case, adding new “pages” (which are then records) is as simple as filling out a form and all the styling would be set up in the Pages database templates. It would require a similar structure for all those pages though. 

[Como]

Hmm. The section, 'Sidebar and Widgets', in the Guide is missing. There is another section which provides some basic information about included widgets, but nothing about creating them.

Just now, opentype said:

It’s not possible in 4.x. Maybe in 5. 

I don’t know the specifics of your use-case, but you could also consider creating a Pages database and let your admins add records there. In this case, adding new “pages” (which are then records) is as simple as filling out a form and all the styling would be set up in the Pages database templates. It would require a similar structure for all those pages though. 

Thank you for the additional suggestions. I'll take a look at that.

[Marc Stridgen]

14 hours ago, Como said:

Hmm. The section, 'Sidebar and Widgets', in the Guide is missing. There is another section which provides some basic information about included widgets, but nothing about creating them.

Please could you point out which guide here?

[Como]

Hi @Marc Stridgen

Other sections are missing too. I had assumed that this is because the content had never been developed and the menu items are just placeholders.

Anyway:

https://invisioncommunity.com/4guides/welcome/about-invision-community-r7/

Sidebar & Widgets from the side-menu:

[Marc Stridgen]

I will take a look at that and probably get it removed. It is indeed something that just never had anything added to.