How to add sidebars [#1131118]

Hi,
I've tested Nodestream and I find it very well done. I'm thinking about using it on a coming website, but I don't understand all the logic of the architecture of nodestream.
For example I'm not sure how to add a sidebar with custom menus and custom views. It seems to be possible by adding a pane in the Aside beta region, but i'm not sure it's the best solution, is it ? Is there another solution ?
Another question : the project seems to work a lot with panels, so I think it is not compatible with the context and context layout modules ?
Thanks for your answer.

Comments

Comment #1

fabsor commented 19 April 2011 at 20:18

Hi!

If you want to add your own menus and other blocks, The best way to go is to clone the page or the variant you want to add the block to in panels (under pages) and then add the stuff you want to have in there. This means that you can add whatever you want in for instance the Aside beta region in your own variant, and you won't have to worry about breaking anything in the NodeStream core.

Say that you want to add a custom block to the side collumn on the article node pages. The way to go is to:
* Go to admin/build/pages
* Select the Node Template (It's called node/%node).
* Clone the Article variant.
* Add whatever custom blocks and views you want.
* Disable the original article variant.

The same method applies to adding stuff to the taxonomy term pages (just do the same for taxonomy/term/%) or the site template.

Since we are using panels and panels everywhere you don't really need the context module. Panel pages can have contexts and selection rules which basicly can do anything you would want to do with the context module. It's better to try to work with panels directly instead of trying to use a system that does the same thing here.

I hope this clarifies some of your questions!

Comment #2

Daidy commented 19 April 2011 at 20:30

Yes it has clarified these points, thanks a lot ! And in the meanwhile I've read your great article which explain very clearly the philosophy of Nodestream and has also clarified some things : http://nodeone.se/blogg/nodestream-a-platform-distribution
I like this "middle way approach" !