Hi, I am using the latest version, 6.x-1.0-rc6 and am trying (of so desperately) to create a text-only display. Having spent the better part of today, I turn for expert help.

Basically I have very simple content, just a title and a body. I have made three nodes of a content type called 'Recent Announcements'. I also created a View of this, also with title and body (and called my instance "pressrelease"). I am able to create the dynamic display block and currently I have both up at: http://ringleaderfilms.com

As you can see, they don't change. I know they CAN, I see the demos on ddblock.myalbums.biz all work. So my questions:

Should the display be set to "Default" or "Cycleblock"? What is the difference?

What sort of container should I use? (I tried "li")

Since I am just text, I don't need to set any of the image attributes, correct?

Using the Views-based DD Block, I have an option to choose which node of the content type "pressrelease" I would like to display. Why? Aren't we going to cycle through them?

Again, what type of container for views content?

Are there any type of transitions that do not work with text? Does Fade work okay? Any special problems on Firefox for Mac?

Thanks for any help you might be able to send my way.

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#3 Picture 3.jpg180.15 KBmcfilms
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ppblaauw’s picture

Version: 6.x-1.x-dev » 6.x-1.0-rc6
Status: Active » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

In the dynamic display block configuration page you need to set cycleblock as the display method. (default show the view you use)
If you use advanced settings you need to set div.slide as content container.

If you dont use advanced settings it depend on the view display you use. If you use a list view this probably is li.

When you make a ddblock instance of the view you don't have an option content type.
If you make a ddblock instance of the content type you have. (see this howto why?)

See also the howto: How to create the Recent comments effect(The recent comments view is a list item view)

Hope this helps you further, please let me know.

mcfilms’s picture

Thank you for trying to help me. I did look at that tutorial (several times haha). But it it based on DynamicDisplaying an internal block. I am trying to use Views for my block. Is there a text-only views tutorial?

In views the closest I could get to a "List View" is style: HTML list, and Row style: Fields. I cannot use unformatted? This view puts a bullet in front of the headline (And appears to not show said headline in the DD block.)

Also, should views be set up to show 1 or 3 items (It's currently one but how does it get the next item?)

"Exposed Form in Block" is currently set to the default of "No" but this looks tempting. Is this useful in any way?

I still get no Dynamic display. But again, thanks for trying to help.

mcfilms’s picture

FileSize
180.15 KB

A quick follow up... I went back over the documentation on the site. I deleted all previous attempts. I meticulously re-created my view to match what was done in the tutorial at:
http://ddblock.myalbums.biz/node/771

In firebug I can see the CSS is changing

As a side note, there is also a bug in that the region size is determined by the image size. So if you don't set the image size to your text area size, it will get cropped.

ppblaauw’s picture

Information:

The dynamic display block module uses BLOCKS to display the content dynamic.
The recent comments view has a block display to show recent comments in a block.
This is the same as you need. (that is why I referred you to this tutorial)

Steps

You need to make a block display of your view: recent announcement.
Give access to this recent announcement block in the settings page of ddblock
Make an ddblock instance of this recent announcement block.
Configure the block
Place the block in a region.

You need more then 1 node for the slideshow to work.

Hope this helps you further. Please let me know.

mcfilms’s picture

Status: Closed (fixed) » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

ppblaauw - (real quick -- beecause I notice you JUST answered.)

I have done all those things -- View created as a block, instance created, block configured and placed in a region.

Did you look at that link? It has the upper right-hand block inserted by DD. It is just not changing.

ppblaauw’s picture

Yes, I looked at the site. You don't use the advanced settings so you have to set the content container to the view rows, but this is not possible because you only have views-row-# views-row-odd/even but no general class for the rows. If you would set the content container to e.g. views-row-odd only these rows would cycle.

Give it a try and you will see.

You could also try the advanced settings, then your content container would be div.slide.

Give this also a try.

Still here if you have more questions and will follow the changes on the site.

mcfilms’s picture

I would like to style that section and have the title link to a full page view. Also, the view rows of that display might be conflicting with the poster's. So maybe advanced is the way to go. Changes are:
Still Cycleblock
Content container: div.slide
same size for text and images 318 high 217 wide

Do I need to add a div.slide to my CSS or is this created on the fly?

ppblaauw’s picture

The div.slide is already there in the CSS of the ddblock themes.

I don't see any changes yet

mcfilms’s picture

I flushed the cache and I am using "custom" but I have left the field "Custom template" blank. I also have "Use Imagecache presets" unchecked. Now it's blank.

Do I need to do anything to configure the ddblock themes?

(Thanks Again!)

Do I need to put ddblock-cycle-block-content.tpl.php in my theme folder!?!

mcfilms’s picture

I am going to go ahead and document how my problem was solved thanks to the help of the module developer, Philip (thanks again).

First, my issue was specific to getting some text-only Views created nodes to cycle. The view was of a type "Node" with the Style set to unformatted and the Row Style set to fields. Using FIELDS presents a certain challenge because you need to find the class for them. Additionally, Views adds classes as a pre-process function. (If your glazing over here, stick with me.)

Go into template.php and add the following:

/**
* Display the simple view of rows one after another
*/
function [###TEMPLATE###]_preprocess_views_view_unformatted(&$vars) {
 $view     = $vars['view'];
 $rows     = $vars['rows'];

 $vars['classes'] = array();
 // Set up striping values.
 foreach ($rows as $id => $row) {
   $vars['classes'][$id] = 'views-row views-row-' . ($id + 1);
   $vars['classes'][$id] .= ' views-row-' . ($id % 2 ? 'even' : 'odd');
   if ($id == 0) {
     $vars['classes'][$id] .= ' views-row-first';
   }
 }
 $vars['classes'][$id] .= ' views-row-last';
}

Where [###TEMPLATE###] is the name of your theme.

In the Dynamic Display block settings, you need to have Display Method set to "Cycleblock", Advanced settings off and the Container field is set to: ".views-row" Note that there is a leading DOT in that.

That should do it. I am still exploring how to style that block and the fields inside. But it should get you some beautiful transitions between your Views generated text blocks.

ppblaauw’s picture

Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Fixed

set status to fixed

jhofer’s picture

I am having the exact same issue that you had getting a views block to show up on my site http://www.revivethesanjoaquin.org

I tried including the code snippet in template.php with all of the settings exactly as you mentioned... no luck. No part of the block is even showing up... it is enabled in the blocks admin screen and supposed to be showing up on the left column.

why is this so difficult? the recent comments block in the example site seemed so easy to set up - I don't understand why a views list (in my case of taxonomy terms) is so difficult. Is it because they are taxonomy terms and not nodes that are listed? If so is there a way to scroll through views with tax terms?

ppblaauw’s picture

@jhofer

I don't see any ddblock functionality at the link you send of your Internet site.
Can you enable the ddblock instance of the block, so I can help you better?

Did you succefully setup the recent comments block?

It's not that much different from the recent comments block.
Depending on the used tag for the slide item by the view you need to set the content container in the ddblock module.

jhofer’s picture

Sorry, I've enabled the DD block on the bottom right called "Recent stories". However nothing shows up.

I have tried the recent comments box - I have it enabled but it also doesn't show on the bottom left column.

settings:
Cycleblock
not advanced settings (also tried advanced settings)
overflow hidden
content container: li (also tried div.slide)
showing on every page

I've tried everything...

http://www.revivethesanjoaquin.org

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.

mcfilms’s picture

Just a quick follow-up. This is more of a related issue. I noticed the text looked really jagged or blocky in IE. If anyone is having issues with text-only sideshows looking bad on MSIE, there is a solution.

See:
http://www.kevinleary.net/jquery-fadein-fadeout-problems-in-internet-exp...

ppblaauw’s picture

Thanks for adding this to solve IE fading issues.

jacobson’s picture

Flushing the Theme Registry cache after making this change to the template.php file is necessary to get Drupal to see the change.

Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Closed (fixed)