I need to create blocks of text an area on the page. There may be any number of blocks and need to be added by editors.
So far I have tried to create HTML templates and have them inserted via TinyMCE. This is dreadful though due to the fact that any style formatting completely messes up or removes the style class attributes from the DIV layers defined in the template.
I've then moved on to creating a Macro with parameters which is less than ideal and I'm also getting "No macro content available
for WYSIWYG editing" message in the RTE so its non editable past the point of adding it to the RTE.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how it may be possible to allow editors to add n... number of predefined content which is then editable.
Whilst DNN was a complete bane and Umbraco is so sweet in so many other ways, it was a lot easier to set up things like this. I'm sure I must be missing something as Umbraco for me has wiped the floor in every other way with DNN.
You have a page in your site that and you want editors to be able to add multiple blocks of conten?
You could do this by defining your block of content as a document type, with a rich text property. Make sure that the page you want to have this content displayed on allows this doc type as a child.
Editors can then create these blocks of content by right clicking on the appropriate page and then creating the new document type.
You will need to right a small XSLT macro to display all of the children appropriatly on your page.
Does this sound like it might be what you need? if not let me know and we can sort out a better solution.
Correct on all counts. Very late last night I ended up implementing the same as your suggestion using the CWS starter kit news articles as an example.
The only difference is that I used a user control as I prefer to access the XML via API due to being so rubbish at XSLT.
This does achieve the same end result but looks pretty clunky to the end user (editor), especially if the navigation extends beyond a 2 tier level. It will get very confusing when there is a mixture of special documents types and 3rd level pages documents. I know they are all essentially document types so as a developer it makes sense but from a user perspective it will not.
I love Umbraco as a CMS, it absolutely rocks but I think conceptually this kinds of facility needs to be implemented in a different way if editors of complicated sites are going to jump on board. Using the method above, its just way to clunky for your average content editor and DNN despite its many failings really does have this kind of thing nailed.
After i posted my coment i rememberd this package Looks like it might do what you need, I have never used ti but looks like the user will be able to just click add new item and if you define this to be a rich text editor it should do the trick and be a better end user experience.
Editor driven text blocks
I'm chasing my tail on this.
Scenario:
I need to create blocks of text an area on the page. There may be any number of blocks and need to be added by editors.
So far I have tried to create HTML templates and have them inserted via TinyMCE. This is dreadful though due to the fact that any style formatting completely messes up or removes the style class attributes from the DIV layers defined in the template.
I've then moved on to creating a Macro with parameters which is less than ideal and I'm also getting "No macro content available for WYSIWYG editing" message in the RTE so its non editable past the point of adding it to the RTE.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how it may be possible to allow editors to add n... number of predefined content which is then editable.
Whilst DNN was a complete bane and Umbraco is so sweet in so many other ways, it was a lot easier to set up things like this. I'm sure I must be missing something as Umbraco for me has wiped the floor in every other way with DNN.
Thanks.
Hi there,
I just want to clarify your situation.
You have a page in your site that and you want editors to be able to add multiple blocks of conten?
You could do this by defining your block of content as a document type, with a rich text property. Make sure that the page you want to have this content displayed on allows this doc type as a child.
Editors can then create these blocks of content by right clicking on the appropriate page and then creating the new document type.
You will need to right a small XSLT macro to display all of the children appropriatly on your page.
Does this sound like it might be what you need? if not let me know and we can sort out a better solution.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Correct on all counts. Very late last night I ended up implementing the same as your suggestion using the CWS starter kit news articles as an example.
The only difference is that I used a user control as I prefer to access the XML via API due to being so rubbish at XSLT.
This does achieve the same end result but looks pretty clunky to the end user (editor), especially if the navigation extends beyond a 2 tier level. It will get very confusing when there is a mixture of special documents types and 3rd level pages documents. I know they are all essentially document types so as a developer it makes sense but from a user perspective it will not.
I love Umbraco as a CMS, it absolutely rocks but I think conceptually this kinds of facility needs to be implemented in a different way if editors of complicated sites are going to jump on board. Using the method above, its just way to clunky for your average content editor and DNN despite its many failings really does have this kind of thing nailed.
Hey there,
Have you thought about trying this package.
http://our.umbraco.org/projects/backoffice-extensions/repeatable-custom-content
After i posted my coment i rememberd this package Looks like it might do what you need, I have never used ti but looks like the user will be able to just click add new item and if you define this to be a rich text editor it should do the trick and be a better end user experience.
L
Thanks for the info - I believe this is for re-usable but "fixed" content. I'll delve a little further though.
Cheers.
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