How to get the blog features when one chose the empty install

Permalink
When you install concrete5 it asks if you want to install an empty site or a full example site. When you do the latter you get all kinds of nifty features for example blog page-types. Now how do you enable those when you choose the empty site? Or do I now have to make those page-types manually by myself?

 
MrKDilkington replied on at Permalink Best Answer Reply 1 Attachment
MrKDilkington
Anatomy of a page type - Blog and Blog Entry.

There are four basic templates that come with the Elemental theme.
1. Blank - blank.php
2. Full - full.php (which is default with a different name)
3. Left Sidebar - left_sidebar.php
4. Right Sidebar - right_sidebar.php

https://github.com/concrete5/concrete5-5.7.0/tree/develop/web/concre...

In the Elemental theme, there are all sorts of pages that look very different from the four basic page templates. All those variations come from custom layouts. Custom layouts allow you to split areas into columns. You can even split columns up into more columns.

There are a series of steps to make each page type.
1. add the template
- Dashboard > Pages & Themes > Page Templates
- Add Template
2. fill out its basic details
3. edit its compose form
4. set the defaults for the page templates

In concrete5 5.7, page types and page templates are separate. This allows you to create a page type and defaults for how the information will be displayed on different page templates. A page type could have a sidebar template, full template, custom template, and any other variation you could think of. A page type can also be restricted to one specific template.

When setting the page type defaults on the page templates, you will be using blocks to set the different attributes and properties on the page. The most common will be the Page Title block, Page Attribute Display block, and Composer Control block. Other blocks will be used to add comments, date navigation, page lists, etc.

I made a png of screenshots with annotations of what specifically is included in the Elemental theme Blog and Blog Entry.

http://i.imgur.com/3Nr2vNu.png?1...
Evert replied on at Permalink Reply
Thank you very much for all the effort you put in this post. It's very helpful. :-)
andrew replied on at Permalink Reply
andrew
Agreed, very helpful.
ntisithoj replied on at Permalink Reply
ntisithoj
this is great! And it should be featured somewhere. At least it should have it's own page in the How-to's or something. Thanks.


One tiny issue for me however... I follow the steps fine until I get to editing the defaults of the blog_entry_type page template. You say

When setting the page type defaults on the page templates, you will be using blocks to set the different attributes and properties on the page. The most common will be the Page Title block, Page Attribute Display block, and Composer Control block. Other blocks will be used to add comments, data navigation, page lists, etc.


I have a Page Title block and a Page Attribute Display block, but I do not have a Composer Control block, nor does my page look like your page where it states "The Content page type composer form element will output it's content here (Block ID 10)". All I have is a page in edit mode, like any other page/template.

I do see the list of internal blocks, and I see composer block there, along with
Usage Count 5
Usage Count on Active Pages 5
Internal
This is an internal block type.


but I did not add these, so i assume they were automatically added.

So, how do I manually add such a block to a template?
edbeeny replied on at Permalink Reply
edbeeny
I had this issue the other day. I posted a 'how to' last night explaining the way to setup a blog.
ntisithoj replied on at Permalink Reply
ntisithoj
link?
edbeeny replied on at Permalink Reply
edbeeny
Still waiting to be approved.
edbeeny replied on at Permalink Reply
edbeeny
MrKDilkington replied on at Permalink Reply
MrKDilkington
@ntisithoj

In your add block panel, at the bottom, there should be a Composer Control block.

After you drag the Composer Control block onto your page. The block edit mode placeholder will have the message "The Content page type composer form element will output its content here (Block ID XXX)".
ntisithoj replied on at Permalink Reply
ntisithoj
whaddya know... there it was. Thanks, I have so many of my own blocks down there is just got lost in the crowd.
SnefIT replied on at Permalink Reply
SnefIT
When I follow the instructions, I encounter some problems.

When adding a blog entry, the topics aren't loading in the composer form.

Also a typo (i think):

"You will then have to add this as an attribute. Under System & Settings -> Attributes -> Sets, under Category create a new set with..."

Shouldn't that be "under Collection create a new set..."?

SnefIT
Dushka replied on at Permalink Reply
Dushka
@MrKDilkington

Thanks for this helpful tutorial. I hope I'm not out of place here to recommend a really helpful series of videos that explain the whole process in even more detail. Though specifically designed for explaining how to set up the C5DK blog, the principles apply more broadly. The first video in the series can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDDQsY1egCE....