BTW, I'm using Managing News v1.2.

Is there a way to place blocks for advertising banners on a site using the Managing News Drupal distribution?

Comments

danoprey’s picture

danoprey commented

I'm sure you could easily paste some code in to Profiles > Managing News > Themes > custom > jake > page.header.inc

Gryphon’s picture

Gryphon commented

I'm not really a "coder", so I'm not sure how to do that. I'm trying to use these "solutions" to keep from having to code. But thanks for the suggestion.

Will White’s picture

Will White commented
Status: Active » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

Gryphon, I think you'll have to deal with HTML markup in order to achieve this. I'm not sure where your banners are coming from, but most of the time, putting ads a site requires copying & pasting HTML. If this is not the case for you, please describe what you'd like to do in more detail. Thanks!

danoprey’s picture

danoprey commented

I haven't used them before but I'm sure there are plenty of modules that can be install which enable you to add a block with your configured code in to any of Managing News' regions.

Take a look at Google Adsense for Drupal.

Gryphon’s picture

Gryphon commented

The original page.header.inc file is this:
============================================================

#<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="<?php print $language->language ?>" lang="<?php print $language->language ?>" dir="<?php print $language->dir ?>">

<head>
<?php print $head ?>
<?php print $styles ?>
<?php print $scripts ?>
<title><?php print $head_title ?></title>
</head>

<body <?php print drupal_attributes($attr) ?>>

<?php if (!empty($admin)) print $admin ?>

<?php if ($header): ?><div id="header" class='clear-block'><?php print $header; ?></div><?php endif; ?>

<div id='branding' class='clear-block'>
  <?php if ($admin_link): ?><div class="admin-link"><?php print $admin_link; ?></div><?php endif; ?>
  <?php if ($site_name): ?><h1 class='site-name'><?php print $site_name ?></h1><?php endif; ?>
  <?php if ($site_slogan): ?><div class='site-slogan'><?php print $site_slogan ?></div><?php endif; ?>
  <div class="help-link"><?php if ($help_link) print $help_link; ?></div>

  <?php if (isset($primary_links)) : ?>
    <?php print theme('links', $primary_links, array('class' => 'links primary-links')) ?>
  <?php endif; ?>
</div>

==============================================

And I want to put 468x60 ad spot on the site. The code provided by the ad server is this:

===============================================

<SCRIPT type="text/javascript" LANGUAGE="javascript" src="http://www.qksz.net/1e-jeur"> </SCRIPT>

===============================================

Do I just add that to the bottom of the page.header.inc file?

Can I add modules to the site even though I used the Managing News installation profile? If so, will adding the Ad module allow me to put ads on the site and specify their location on the page?

Thanks to all responding.

Happy Holidays!

danoprey’s picture

danoprey commented

Yes, most modules (all except a few that cause conflicts) that are compatible with Drupal 6.x should be compatible with Managing News, so yes, you could add the Ad module and put the block wherever you want it on your page. You could also just add a custom block and paste your ad code in there.

Pasting the code straight in to page.header.inc would mean it appeared on every page. It might require a little coding to do though, as the parts of your header 'float' next to each other to align.

A custom block with your code or a premade Ad module is probably the best way for a non-coder.

Gryphon’s picture

Gryphon commented
Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Active

Thanks. I figured out how to directly post the ads into the page.footer.inc and page.header.inc files. But I don't like modifying the theme's files like that. And, as you said, they appear on every page. Fortunately this is just a test site right now that I'm using to play around with Managing News, so I can "tinker" with it as I want.

Here's the link to the site in case anyone's interested in what I've done so far and any suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

http://tmi360.com

BTW, I know the site is slow right now. I'm about to change hosting companies because of the poor performance and worthless tech support. I don't recommend Netfirms for anyone who wants to run a Drupal based site. While it's an install option from the control panel, they are clueless about Drupal beyond that basic, automated install.

Another question, are there alternate themes available for a Managing News based site?

As for using the Ads module, I'm a little confused as to how I would specify where the ads are to appear and how to create a "custom block". Perhaps the Ad module handles all that once installed? I have been under the impression that theme has to have ad spots defined as they are in the Open Publish installation. Is that an invalid assumption?

Thanks to all in the Drupal and in particular the Managing News community who have responded or will respond in helping me with this. You folks have been wonderful in providing info and tolerating my lack of knowledge and coding expertise.

Happy Holidays.

Will White’s picture

Will White commented
Status: Active » Fixed

Hi Gryphon,
You site looks good. Glad to your using Managing News.

Another question, are there alternate themes available for a Managing News based site?

Unfortunately, there are not any custom themes that I know of that work with Managing News. I think the best place to start is to override the default "Jake" theme with a custom theme and make adjustment there.

Your assumption about blocks in Drupal is correct. Blocks can be placed in "regions" that are provided by the theme. The Jake theme that ships with Managing News offers several regions that you can use, or you can add more by again, creating a custom theme that overrides Jake.

There is more documentation about blocks, regions, and overriding themes in the Drupal book.

Cheers,
Will

Gryphon’s picture

Gryphon commented
Status: Fixed » Active

Will,

Thanks for your feedback/info.

I'm FAR from being ready/able to create a theme.

Where in the Jake theme do I find these usable regions?

If I install the Ad module, will it be obvious how to place the ads in those regions?

I guess my real question is where I can see the defined regions in the Jake theme and then how can I put stuff in them without messing up the rest of the site layout?

Thanks again.

Cheers,

Gryphon

Will White’s picture

Will White commented

Hi Gryphon,
I'm not sure about the Ad module as I've never used it myself. You can administer the blocks on you site by going to http://yoursite.com/admin/build/block. This page will list the available regions and allow you to place blocks into them.

Will

Gryphon’s picture

Gryphon commented

Awesome! Thanks.

It seems that Managing News sorta hides some of the guts of Drupal admin stuff (if I'm looking in the right place) and I didn't know how to get to all the other "admin" stuff.

Thanks SO much.

Gryphon

danoprey’s picture

danoprey commented

The admin UI in MN is horrible, you'll want to download something like Admin Module and unzip it in to your sites/all/modules folder (create if you don't have one) then enable it by going to http://tmi360.com/admin/build/modules.

It gives you a nice little pop out menu on the left which makes it really easy to get around.

Managing News has several regions built in, probably enough for your needs:
Palette
Page tools
Page title
Left sidebar
Right sidebar
Content
Header

As Will White said, there are no other themes for MN at the moment. I might release one at some point soon!

Cruth’s picture

Cruth commented
Issue tags: +blocks

Normally, with all other installations of drupal, there are blocks one can activate or deactivate.

You then just add ad code / scripts ( or other content ) to the blocks.

Managing News is first version of drupal I have seen so stripped down. I have gone through the admin sections, and I am a bit lost.

And, I do not even see forums or comment sections to ask for help. The online help / documentation is minimal.

Might be wrong, but this might be a backburner project for Phase two technology.

mailking’s picture

mailking commented

+1