Xaraya Dynamic Data Mini-How To by Skribe

Xaraya Dynamic Data Mini-HOWTO
Skribe

Version 0.1. 4th June, 2003

1. Introduction
1.1 Why this HOWTO?
This HOWTO is designed to be used with Xaraya Beta (v .90x) and may be of only limited help with other versions. It aims to teach admins how to set-up basic dynamic data objects.

1.2 Assumptions
Xaraya is very extremely configurable thanks to dynamic data so at this stage it would be impossible to list every possible combination. Therefore, to give you a basic familiarity with how dynamic data works I have assumed that you have a default version of the latest Xaraya core Beta (version .903 at the time of this writing), that you have chosen the Community Site (with all options enabled) install and that you have enabled the Articles, Categories and Comments modules. It is also assumed that you have created a Main Menu and listed the modules in it.

1.3 Copyright
(c) 2003 skribe Parts are (c) 2003 mikespub

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

2. Adding a picture to user info
This is a tutorial created by Mikespub to show what dydnamic data can do. It is basically setting up a dynamic data structure so that users can add a picture of themselves to their user info.

2.1 Enabling the dynamic data hook
The first thing you have to do is enable the dynamic data hook for the roles module. To do this:

1. Go to Admin->Modules->ConfigureHooks.
2. Click on Dynamic Data
3. Activate the check box for roles (it should be down the bottom)
4. Save changes.

2.2 Setting up the dynamic data object
Now we need to create the dynamic data object that will hold the picture information for roles. To do this:

1. Go to Admin->DynamicData->ViewObjects
2. Click on View Properties for the Roles module.
3. In Label type “My Picture”.
4. In Property Type select “Image”.
5. In status select “Display Only”. This will stop it showing in the membership list but will still make it visible in the user info.
6. Click Update Properties.

This will take you back to a similar-looking screen with your new dynamic data object being shown.

2.3 Adding a picture to your user info.
The first thing you’ll need is a picture that is accessible via the web. Once you have that organised you need to add it to your user info. To do this:

1. Go to Main Menu->Modules->Roles.
2. Click on “Your Basic Details”.
3. Add the URL of your picture to the ‘My Picture” field.
4. Click Submit.

2.4 Viewing your picture.
There are two ways to do this. Once you’ve added your picture’s URL you can click on the ‘show’ link next to it in “Your Basic Details”. Or you can click on the info link next to your name in the membership list.

3. Adding scores to Reviews.
One of the things I missed not having in Xaraya’s reviews was a rating or scoring system. Ratings didn’t work how I wanted them to so I used dynamic data to create my own. Here’s how I did it.

3.1 Setting up the scores Dynamic data object
Just like the My Picture object in roles we start by enabling the dynamic data hook for articles (see 2.1 above for details). Then we need to create the object. To do this:

1. Go to Admin->Articles->ModifyConfig
2. Click on Reviews
3. Down at the bottom of the page there should be Dynamic Data Fields. Click on Modify.
4. In Label write “Score”. BTW naming your label ‘ratings’ would cause a clash with an existing label (from the ratings module) and it wouldn’t work. That’s why I’ve chosen score.
5. In Property Type select “Dropdown List”
6. In Validation write “1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10”. There should be no spaces between the comma and the next number. This will give us a dropdown list from 1 to 10 – our score for the review.
7. Click on Update Properties.

3.2 Displaying the score.
The dynamic data object is all set so now we need to modify the review templates to show the score. If you haven’t overriden your reviews template in your theme all you have to do is change the following two files:

modules/articles/xartemplates/user-summary-reviews.xd
modules/articles/xartemplates/user-display-reviews.xd

I simply replaced the #$rating# tag with #$score# in mine. Here’s how:

In user-summary-reviews.xd I replaced:

[code]

– rating : #$rating#

with

– Score : #$score#

In user-display-reviews.xd I replaced:

Rating: #$rating#

with

Score: #$score#

An alternative way to show the score is through the following:

[/code]

At this stage you can leave the name set as $properties for most dynamic data displays. Module refers to the module that we’re associating the dynamic data with – in this case articles.

Itemtype can be found by going to Admin->DynamicData->ViewObjects.

In this case the itemtype for reviews was “3”. Unless you’ve altered/created pubtypes yours should be too. You’ll also notice on the page that you get by going to Admin->DynamicData->ViewObjects that the table shows the listing of dynamic data objects and that the label and name for reviews is articles_3. The ‘_3’ refers to the itemtype but it’s also mentioned on that page under the very appropriately named heading itemtype.

Itemid in this case is set at $aid which is the article id.

When we’re outputing the data we want to show the relevant property so we include the $properties[‘score’]. Score is the name of the label that we used for this dynamic data.

If you’ve overriden the reviews template in your themes you’ll need to alter all those templates as well. This should allow your scores to be shown.

3.3 Scores in Reviews
Now when you write a review you should have a dropdown list of scores available. Just write your review, select the relevant score and you’re away. The score should show up when you read the review.

That’s it.