Homepage Redesign

Exploring ideas for implementing featured content on the home page:

1. Create block regions within content region using "Insert Block" module: http://drupal.org/project/insert_block

Good:

a) Editors will use blocks to make all home page modifications (other than text content), since the sidebar is already set up using blocks.

b) Insert Block module http://drupal.org/project/insert_block is in dev status, but appears to be stable in both 6 and 7.

Bad:

a) Block regions will have to be manually updated when new content is posted (editors can't just simply click "promote to front page" when they publish).

2. Create a page--front.tpl.php file.

Good:

a) Endless opportunity for customization.

Bad:

a) Additional code to maintain.

b) All changes requested by editors would have to be handled by web team. (Tyler suggested here may be a way to dodge this by adding pulling a view within each block).

3. Use Panels

Good:

a) It would be easy.

Bad:

a) Panels adds overhead (?)

I'm open to any thoughts on which way would be best.

I have set up a custom block.tpl.php file to display content in the appropriate homepage block region. But, I am having problems with drupal_render().

The code successfully executes drupalorg_crosssite_grid_elements(), but throws the following error message when I try drupal_render() on the array.

"Fatal error: Unsupported operand types in /var/www/dev/newsite-association.redesign.devdrupal.org/htdocs/includes/common.inc on line 2984"

 //these values will eventually be the block content.
  $left = 'left content';
  $middle = 'middle content';
  $right = 'right content';

  $content = array(
    '$sorted' => TRUE,
    'row_1' => drupalorg_crosssite_grid_elements(array(3,2,3)),
    );

  $content['row_1']['column_1']['#value'] = $left;
  $content['row_1']['column_2']['#value'] = $middle;
  $content['row_1']['column_3']['#value'] = $right;
  dsm($content); //verifies $content is an array.

  drupal_render($content); //throws the error message
 

Everything works until the last line.

The line of code the error message refers to lives here:

http://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/includes%21common.inc/function/drupal_r...

Here is the line:

 $elements += array(
    '#title' => NULL,
    '#description' => NULL,
  );(

My initial thought was that $content is not an array, like drupal_render() expects. But, using DSM shows that $content is indeed an array. Can anybody think of any other reasons why this might be happening?

That did it, thanks!

I created three views which display in each portion of the block region, respectively. Editors will use a taxonomy to display any page, book, or blog within any region of this home page block. The views pull the first 200 characters and the title of each piece of content. If multiple nodes are classified to be placed in the block (through the taxonomy), then views prefers the newest content.

Everything is working now. More testing tomorrow.

I changed the formatting of the titles to be h3, and added support for displaying images in the columns. It looks like this is ready to go live. I'm going to gather the text and image to be used in the content region from marketing/comm staff.

Dev site is working 100% and we are ready to test on staging.

The new region which displays the 3 columns beneath the homepage content is created through a file called block-block-36.tpl.php. this block needs to be displayed in the "content" region. When the new block is created on the live site, the file name will have to be changed to accurately represent the block ID number.

There are two rows with three columns, created through drupalorg_crosssite_grid_elements(). The top row creates titles which should remain static. Each column in the second row pulls data from a different source to display its content.

1. Create a block called "Homepage Block" and display it in the Content region. Configure to display only on <front>. Do not define any content within this block. But, you will need to use the block ID number in the name of the block-block-x.tpl.php file.

2. The leftmost column pulls data from a block called "Featured Project Region." Create a new block with this title and replace the ID number in the function call on line 10 to match.

3. Copy/paste this code into the new "Featured Project Region" block.

<a href = "https://association.drupal.org/drupalcon/scholarships">DrupalCon Scholarships</a><br/>
<img src = "http://drupal.org/files/druplicon.small_.png">

4. The rightmost column pulls data from a block called "Events List." Create a new block with this title and replace the ID number in the function call on line 13 to match.

5. Copy/paste this code into the new "Events List" block.

<a href = "http://munich2012.drupal.org/">Munich 2012</a>
<a href = "http://saopaulo2012.drupal.org/">Sao Paulo 2012</a>
<a href = "http://portland2013.drupal.org/">Portland 2013</a>

6. The center column pulls data from a view called "homepage_center". Create a new view with this title and no changes should be necessary to the code.

7. The new view "homepage_center" will need some configuration:

Basic Settings
Style: HTML list
Items to Display: 5

Fields:
Node: Title

Sort Criteria:
Node: Post Date desc (descending order to display newest news items first)

Filters:
Node: Promoted to Front Page yes
Node: Published yes

8. All other changes to the homepage (image, new text) can be done by editing the node manually.

9. Finally, upload the attached file into the Bluecheese theme folder. Rename the file to "block-block-x.tpl.php" where x is the appropriate block ID number (see step 1).

Here's the code from view -> export.

The new ADO homepage is live and approved by marketing staff. This phase of the project is considered finished by our project manager.

However, marketing staff is now interested in adding Facebook and Twitter buttions, which should be easy to set up in the right sidebar block region, or maybe in the footer. I directed them to jredding to schedule developer time. Should we start a new issue queue or leave this one open?