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David Künzler

content management (cms)

Hi,

I'm using the content/WebSites/CMS functionality to build a Web Site and I
have many questions I'll post in the dev Mailing List.

For this list my question is which OFBiz version I should use. At the moment
I use the trunk from SVN which seems to have some bugs.

Is there a more stable version? Is there a more functional version (could
also be that someone has it but didn't commit yet)?

Is anyone using the CMS to build Web Sites (not just for e-commerce)?

Thanks, David

byersa

Re: content management (cms)

David,

I doubt that there is a more stable version. I coded much of the original
CMS from David Jone's design, but Andrew Zeneski has added a lot of
enhancements with which I am still becoming familiar.

I am using CMS for sites other than e-commerce and would be glad to answer
your questions, if I can, though I struggle with it a bit, myself.

-Al

On 7/2/07, David Künzler <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> I'm using the content/WebSites/CMS functionality to build a Web Site and I
> have many questions I'll post in the dev Mailing List.
>
> For this list my question is which OFBiz version I should use. At the
> moment
> I use the trunk from SVN which seems to have some bugs.
>
> Is there a more stable version? Is there a more functional version (could
> also be that someone has it but didn't commit yet)?
>
>
>
> Is anyone using the CMS to build Web Sites (not just for e-commerce)?
>
>
>
> Thanks, David
>
>
>
>

David Künzler

RE: content management (cms)

Al,
O.K. then I'll work with what's there and try to fix some bugs.

One problem is this:

1. Content/WebSites/CMS/QuickSub-Content/Save --> Error:
The following required parameter is missing:
[createTextContent.contentTypeId]

Do you experience this error too? I fixed it for the moment by adding a
hidden field contentTypeId value="DOCUMENT" to the form.
Now I can create QuickSub-Content in the WebSite CMS, but no associations
are created. I could try to fix/extend that too but I think someone must
have done it already (or maybe I really have an old version?).

Thanks, David

-----Original Message-----
From: Al Byers [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Montag, 2. Juli 2007 17:14
To: [hidden email]; [hidden email]
Subject: Re: content management (cms)

David,

I doubt that there is a more stable version. I coded much of the original
CMS from David Jone's design, but Andrew Zeneski has added a lot of
enhancements with which I am still becoming familiar.

I am using CMS for sites other than e-commerce and would be glad to answer
your questions, if I can, though I struggle with it a bit, myself.

-Al

On 7/2/07, David Künzler <[hidden email]> wrote:

David Künzler

RE: content management (cms)

In reply to this post by byersa

Al,
is there some documentation for the ftl <@render... functions?
I read the change log, docs.ofbiz, ML but didn't find much.

My question for the moment is:
<@renderSubContentAsText contentId="10040" mapKey="news" />
==> renders the news subcontent.
BUT:
<@renderSubContent contentId="10040" mapKey="featurednews" />
==> renders the content with ID 10040.

Is this a bug or just I don't understand the functions?

Thanks, David

-----Original Message-----
From: Al Byers [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Montag, 2. Juli 2007 17:14
To: [hidden email]; [hidden email]
Subject: Re: content management (cms)

David,

I doubt that there is a more stable version. I coded much of the original
CMS from David Jone's design, but Andrew Zeneski has added a lot of
enhancements with which I am still becoming familiar.

I am using CMS for sites other than e-commerce and would be glad to answer
your questions, if I can, though I struggle with it a bit, myself.

-Al

On 7/2/07, David Künzler <[hidden email]> wrote:

David Künzler

RE: content management (cms)

In reply to this post by byersa

Al, everyone,
another thing that looks strange to me is that <@limitedSubContent ... takes
an argument subContent which is used as the "contentAssoc TO" and returns
the "contentAssoc FROM". This indicates that "contentAssoc TO" is the
subcontent but then I get back the "parent content" and from the name of the
<@limitedSubContent ... function I'd expect to get subcontents.

I know there was an issue with content/subcontent direction. Is this still a
problem?

Thanks, David

-----Original Message-----
From: Al Byers [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Montag, 2. Juli 2007 17:14
To: [hidden email]; [hidden email]
Subject: Re: content management (cms)

David,

I doubt that there is a more stable version. I coded much of the original
CMS from David Jone's design, but Andrew Zeneski has added a lot of
enhancements with which I am still becoming familiar.

I am using CMS for sites other than e-commerce and would be glad to answer
your questions, if I can, though I struggle with it a bit, myself.

-Al

On 7/2/07, David Künzler <[hidden email]> wrote:

David Künzler

How to render subcontent / OFBiz News Component?

In reply to this post by byersa

Hi,
By writing this mail I was able to find a solution (see end of message).
Nonetheless I submit the mail to help anyone who has the same problem or
want to comment/propose a better solution.

I built a web site as a hierarchy of Content and ContentAssociations.
Here is a sample content structure (where dr: means DataResource of the
Content):

my web site publish point
-> [ContentAssocTo] page 1 (dr:screens.xml#page)
-> [ContentAssocTo] page 2 (dr: screens.xml#page)
-> [ContentAssocTo] page 3 (dr: screens.xml#page)
-> -> [ContentAssocTo] left column content (dr:leftcolumn.ftl)
-> -> [ContentAssocTo] right column content (dr: rightcolumn.ftl)
-> -> -> [ContentAssocTo] product featuring (dr: product_featuring.ftl)
-> -> -> [ContentAssocTo] news 1 (dr:news.ftl)
-> -> -> [ContentAssocTo] news 2 (dr:news.ftl)
-> -> -> [ContentAssocTo] news 3 (dr:news.ftl)

My problem was how to implement the rightcolumn.ftl (which is included in
the page 3).

1. The product featuring is easy (there is only one featuring subcontent):
<@renderSubContentAsText mapKey="featuredproduct" contentId=contentId />
and this seems to work too (but deprecated?):
<@renderSubContentCache mapKey="featuredproduct" contentId=contentId />
or like this: ${thisContent.subcontent.featuredproduct }

2. But for the news it's not so easy. They are associated with the same
mapKey and a sequence for the sort order:
rightcolumn -> [ConentAssocTo:mapKey=news;sequence=1] -> news 1
rightcolumn -> [ConentAssocTo:mapKey=news;sequence=2] -> news 2
rightcolumn -> [ConentAssocTo:mapKey=news;sequence=3] -> news 3

How can I render news 1 first, then news 2, then news 3, ...?
-> Is there a <@render... ftl function that can do that?
-> I could loop over thisContent.subcontent_all but then I can't filter by
mapKey="news" and I can't sort by ContentAssoc.sequence.
-> I also tried <@loopSubContentCache ... and <@limitedSubContent ... with
no success.

- The WORKING SOLUTION for now is this rightcolumn.ftl *):
...
<#-- // GET THE SORTED LIST OF NEWS // -->
<#assign newsList
= delegator.findByAnd("ContentAssoc",
Static["org.ofbiz.base.util.UtilMisc"].toMap("contentId", contentId,
"mapKey", "news"),
Static["org.ofbiz.base.util.UtilMisc"].toList("sequenceNum"))
/>
<#-- // LOOP NEWS LIST AND RENDER NEWS // -->
<#list newsList as currentNews >
<@renderSubContent subContentId=currentNews.contentIdTo />
<br /><br />
</#list>
...

comments:
- I don't like to have this code in the .ftl so I'll create a FreeMarker
Macro or Include or a Service and/or create a Screen for this output and
call the data preparation code in an action.
- If I have more time I'll create a more or less generic News component that
you can use in your OFBiz based web site.
- If someone already has something similar please let me know.

*)
- take care about contentId and context.contentId not necessarily being the
same.
- instead of findByAnd() you may use findByAndCache()

-David
________________________________________
From: Al Byers [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Montag, 2. Juli 2007 17:14
To: [hidden email]; [hidden email]
Subject: Re: content management (cms)

David,

I doubt that there is a more stable version. I coded much of the original
CMS from David Jone's design, but Andrew Zeneski has added a lot of
enhancements with which I am still becoming familiar.

I am using CMS for sites other than e-commerce and would be glad to answer
your questions, if I can, though I struggle with it a bit, myself.

-Al
On 7/2/07, David Künzler <[hidden email]> wrote:
Hi,

I'm using the content/WebSites/CMS functionality to build a Web Site and I
have many questions I'll post in the dev Mailing List.

For this list my question is which OFBiz version I should use. At the moment

I use the trunk from SVN which seems to have some bugs.

Is there a more stable version? Is there a more functional version (could
also be that someone has it but didn't commit yet)?

Is anyone using the CMS to build Web Sites (not just for e-commerce)?

Thanks, David

byersa

Re: content management (cms)

In reply to this post by David Künzler

Yes, there are definitely some issues there. When I originally coded it, I
had the meaning of the two ContentAssoc.contentId/To fields reversed from
what it is now and I may not have been consistent. The logic that David
Jones came up with is that you take the parent contentId and a mapKey and
you go "to" the subcontent. It would not make sense the other way around,
since you don't need the mapKey to go to a parent. So contentId is for the
parent and contentIdTo is for the child.

If you are like me, you probably didn't know what mapKey was for :0) It is
basically so that a contentId can identify the subcontent that goes on a
page and the various mapKeys (eg. MAIN, SUMMARY, HEADER, FOOTER, etc.)
identify where they go on a page.

I don't think the current documentation will help you much. I was swamped
yesterday, but I will try to put together a list of where current examples
are. I just did a site where the CMS was used to manage content for various
pages. I think that code should go back into the project, but I need to talk
to the client to make sure it is ok and then figure out in what form it
should go in.

-Al

On 7/3/07, David Künzler <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> Al, everyone,
> another thing that looks strange to me is that <@limitedSubContent ...
> takes
> an argument subContent which is used as the "contentAssoc TO" and returns
> the "contentAssoc FROM". This indicates that "contentAssoc TO" is the
> subcontent but then I get back the "parent content" and from the name of
> the
> <@limitedSubContent ... function I'd expect to get subcontents.
>
> I know there was an issue with content/subcontent direction. Is this still
> a
> problem?
>
> Thanks, David
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Al Byers [mailto:[hidden email]]
> Sent: Montag, 2. Juli 2007 17:14
> To: [hidden email]; [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: content management (cms)
>
> David,
>
> I doubt that there is a more stable version. I coded much of the original
> CMS from David Jone's design, but Andrew Zeneski has added a lot of
> enhancements with which I am still becoming familiar.
>
> I am using CMS for sites other than e-commerce and would be glad to answer
> your questions, if I can, though I struggle with it a bit, myself.
>
> -Al
>
> On 7/2/07, David Künzler <[hidden email]> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm using the content/WebSites/CMS functionality to build a Web Site and
> I
> > have many questions I'll post in the dev Mailing List.
> >
> > For this list my question is which OFBiz version I should use. At the
> > moment
> > I use the trunk from SVN which seems to have some bugs.
> >
> > Is there a more stable version? Is there a more functional version
> (could
> > also be that someone has it but didn't commit yet)?
> >
> >
> >
> > Is anyone using the CMS to build Web Sites (not just for e-commerce)?
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks, David
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>

David Künzler

RE: content management (cms)

The mapKey/ContentAssoc usage is clear to me. I use it for the content
structure of my web site:

my web site publish point
- [ContentAssocTo] page 1
- [ContentAssocTo] page n
- - [ContentAssocTo] left column content
- - [ContentAssocTo] right column content
- - - [ContentAssocTo] product featuring
- - - [ContentAssocTo] news 1
- - - [ContentAssocTo] news 2
- - - [ContentAssocTo] news 3
...

There is another issue with the web site content tree in CMS:
It shows all types of association, not just SUB_CONTENT, SUBSITE and maybe
PUBLISH_LINK (is there btw. a convention which to use?).

The problem is that you can create ContentAssoc circles and the tree
renderer loops forever.
For example one may want to state that the content in page 1 is related to
the content in page 2 and creates an association of type RELATED_CONTENT
from page 1 to page 2.

-David

-----Original Message-----
From: Al Byers [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Dienstag, 3. Juli 2007 19:30
To: [hidden email]; [hidden email]
Subject: Re: content management (cms)

Yes, there are definitely some issues there. When I originally coded it, I
had the meaning of the two ContentAssoc.contentId/To fields reversed from
what it is now and I may not have been consistent. The logic that David
Jones came up with is that you take the parent contentId and a mapKey and
you go "to" the subcontent. It would not make sense the other way around,
since you don't need the mapKey to go to a parent. So contentId is for the
parent and contentIdTo is for the child.

If you are like me, you probably didn't know what mapKey was for :0) It is
basically so that a contentId can identify the subcontent that goes on a
page and the various mapKeys (eg. MAIN, SUMMARY, HEADER, FOOTER, etc.)
identify where they go on a page.

I don't think the current documentation will help you much. I was swamped
yesterday, but I will try to put together a list of where current examples
are. I just did a site where the CMS was used to manage content for various
pages. I think that code should go back into the project, but I need to talk
to the client to make sure it is ok and then figure out in what form it
should go in.

-Al

On 7/3/07, David Künzler <[hidden email]> wrote:

byersa

Re: content management (cms)

David,

The CMS is not nearly the same quality as other parts of OFBiz, so don't
make the mistake of giving it the benefit of doubt.

Regarding the ContentAssoc entity, the current usage tends to have things
called "publish points" and there is a ContentType to go along with that.
That Content entity is just a place holder. Content that links to it would
use PUBLISH_LINK. The content that links to it would typically be a whole
page and it might have subcontent within it and that subcontent would be
linked to the main page content by a SUB_CONTENT contentAssocTypeId. And
usually, you would have a single site contentId which is referenced in the
WebSiteContent entity, which links to the WebSite entity. Then you would
have sub-publish points/sites under that and they would be linked with the
SUBSITE value.

-Al

On 7/3/07, David Künzler <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> The mapKey/ContentAssoc usage is clear to me. I use it for the content
> structure of my web site:
>
> my web site publish point
> - [ContentAssocTo] page 1
> - [ContentAssocTo] page n
> - - [ContentAssocTo] left column content
> - - [ContentAssocTo] right column content
> - - - [ContentAssocTo] product featuring
> - - - [ContentAssocTo] news 1
> - - - [ContentAssocTo] news 2
> - - - [ContentAssocTo] news 3
> ...
>
> There is another issue with the web site content tree in CMS:
> It shows all types of association, not just SUB_CONTENT, SUBSITE and maybe
> PUBLISH_LINK (is there btw. a convention which to use?).
>
> The problem is that you can create ContentAssoc circles and the tree
> renderer loops forever.
> For example one may want to state that the content in page 1 is related to
> the content in page 2 and creates an association of type RELATED_CONTENT
> from page 1 to page 2.
>
> -David
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Al Byers [mailto:[hidden email]]
> Sent: Dienstag, 3. Juli 2007 19:30
> To: [hidden email]; [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: content management (cms)
>
> Yes, there are definitely some issues there. When I originally coded it, I
> had the meaning of the two ContentAssoc.contentId/To fields reversed from
> what it is now and I may not have been consistent. The logic that David
> Jones came up with is that you take the parent contentId and a mapKey and
> you go "to" the subcontent. It would not make sense the other way around,
> since you don't need the mapKey to go to a parent. So contentId is for the
> parent and contentIdTo is for the child.
>
> If you are like me, you probably didn't know what mapKey was for :0) It is
> basically so that a contentId can identify the subcontent that goes on a
> page and the various mapKeys (eg. MAIN, SUMMARY, HEADER, FOOTER, etc.)
> identify where they go on a page.
>
> I don't think the current documentation will help you much. I was swamped
> yesterday, but I will try to put together a list of where current examples
> are. I just did a site where the CMS was used to manage content for
> various
> pages. I think that code should go back into the project, but I need to
> talk
> to the client to make sure it is ok and then figure out in what form it
> should go in.
>
> -Al
>
> On 7/3/07, David Künzler <[hidden email]> wrote:
> >
> > Al, everyone,
> > another thing that looks strange to me is that <@limitedSubContent ...
> > takes
> > an argument subContent which is used as the "contentAssoc TO" and
> returns
> > the "contentAssoc FROM". This indicates that "contentAssoc TO" is the
> > subcontent but then I get back the "parent content" and from the name of
> > the
> > <@limitedSubContent ... function I'd expect to get subcontents.
> >
> > I know there was an issue with content/subcontent direction. Is this
> still
> > a
> > problem?
> >
> > Thanks, David
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Al Byers [mailto:[hidden email]]
> > Sent: Montag, 2. Juli 2007 17:14
> > To: [hidden email]; [hidden email]
> > Subject: Re: content management (cms)
> >
> > David,
> >
> > I doubt that there is a more stable version. I coded much of the
> original
> > CMS from David Jone's design, but Andrew Zeneski has added a lot of
> > enhancements with which I am still becoming familiar.
> >
> > I am using CMS for sites other than e-commerce and would be glad to
> answer
> > your questions, if I can, though I struggle with it a bit, myself.
> >
> > -Al
> >
> > On 7/2/07, David Künzler <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I'm using the content/WebSites/CMS functionality to build a Web Site
> and
> > I
> > > have many questions I'll post in the dev Mailing List.
> > >
> > > For this list my question is which OFBiz version I should use. At the
> > > moment
> > > I use the trunk from SVN which seems to have some bugs.
> > >
> > > Is there a more stable version? Is there a more functional version
> > (could
> > > also be that someone has it but didn't commit yet)?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Is anyone using the CMS to build Web Sites (not just for e-commerce)?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Thanks, David
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>

David Künzler

RE: content management (cms)

O.K. I now understand how the ContentAssoc Types are meant to be used.
To be shure I resume:

my_web_site [WebSite]
- [WebSiteContentTo] my_web_site [Content;Type:WEB_SITE_PUB_PT]
- - [ContentAssocTo;Type:PUBLISH_LINK] my_page_1 [Content;Type:PAGE_NODE]
- - - [ContentAssocTo;Type:PUBLISH_LINK] my_page_1.1
[Content;Type:PAGE_NODE] ***)
- - [ContentAssocTo;Type:PUBLISH_LINK] my_page_n [Content;Type:PAGE_NODE]
- - [ContentAssocTo;Type:PUBLISH_LINK] doc_for_download.pdf
[Content;Type:DOCUMENT] *)
- - - [ContentAssocTo;Type:SUB_CONTENT] my_link_list
[Content;Type:CONTENT_LIST]
- - - - [ContentAssocTo;Type:SUB_CONTENT] my_first_link
[Content;Type:MY_LINK]
- - - - [ContentAssocTo;Type:SUB_CONTENT] my_second_link
[Content;Type:MY_LINK] **)
- - - [ContentAssocTo;Type:SUB_CONTENT] my_news_list
[Content;Type:CONTENT_LIST]
- - - - [ContentAssocTo;Type:SUB_CONTENT] my_first_news [Content;Type:NEWS]
**)
- - - - [ContentAssocTo;Type:SUB_CONTENT] my_second_news [Content;Type:NEWS]

*) is this the exception in your statement: "The content that links to it
would typically be a whole page"? ... because it could also be a DOCUMENT
for example.

**) one would define more content types, some generic and some project
specific?

***) I can link a subpage directly to a parent page (if I want my pages
organized in a tree) or I could link all pages directly to the publish
point. Why do I need the SUBSITE ContentAssoc?

And some more Questions:
- Is the ContentOwner somehow used/relied on in the CMS?

Thanks, David

-----Original Message-----
From: Al Byers [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Mittwoch, 4. Juli 2007 01:50
To: [hidden email]; [hidden email]
Subject: Re: content management (cms)

David,

The CMS is not nearly the same quality as other parts of OFBiz, so don't
make the mistake of giving it the benefit of doubt.

Regarding the ContentAssoc entity, the current usage tends to have things
called "publish points" and there is a ContentType to go along with that.
That Content entity is just a place holder. Content that links to it would
use PUBLISH_LINK. The content that links to it would typically be a whole
page and it might have subcontent within it and that subcontent would be
linked to the main page content by a SUB_CONTENT contentAssocTypeId. And
usually, you would have a single site contentId which is referenced in the
WebSiteContent entity, which links to the WebSite entity. Then you would
have sub-publish points/sites under that and they would be linked with the
SUBSITE value.

-Al

On 7/3/07, David Künzler <[hidden email]> wrote: