Applying the Page Picker+

The Page Picker allows you to create custom lists of pages by picking them from the sitemap. This is convenient when you are trying to create lists that can not be created with the autonav block or the pagelist block. An extra benefit is that the list does not change as you move pages around in the sitemap or add new ones, something that does happen with the autonav block and the pagelist block.

The Page Picker+ offers you some extra advantages over the Page Picker block. In addition to all the options of the Page Picker, you can create nested lists and add an RSS feed. the benefit of nested lists is that, for example, you can create navigation menus with dropdowns.

Examples of types of content you can create:

• Footer legal navigation : 'sitemap | contact | disclaimer | FAQ'
• A list of pages with short description and read-more link
• A gallery (thumbnails + title and description)
• A static navigation bar with, or without dropdowns
• A vertical navigation list in your sidebar

Page Picker Options explained

The following options are available on the Page Picker form:

1. Title : select an optional title to display
2. Title format : select the format of the title from a list of html tags : h1 - h6, span, strong, div and p.
3. Optional CSS classes : add one or more CSS classes to the Page Picker allowing you to apply custom CSS without having to create a new template. Seperate each css class with a space like this : 'page-list simple-list'.
4. Pagination (checkbox) : use pagination to limit the number of results per page.
5. Results per page : provide the maximum number of results to display per page (only when the pagination-option is enabled).
6. Link text : Provide an optional text to display for link buttons instead of the title of the page. So if you enter 'Read more' then 'Read more' will be used instead of the name of the page.
7. Css Classes : enter one or more optional css classes. Separate each one with a space. These css classes will be put on the wrapper.
8. Page thumbnails : check this box to display thumbnails for each page. Remember to set the thumbnail attribute of those pages to an image or no thumbnail will be shown.
9. Publishing date : check this box to show the publishing date for each page.
10. Page descriptions : check this box to show page descriptions for each page. Make sure these pages have a description or they won't show up.
11. Page descriptions length : this field is disabled if the page descriptions box is unchecked. You can enter a number to truncate the page descriptions to a desired length.
12. Pages : use the 'Add a Page' button to select pages from the sitemap. You can re-order them by means of the up and down buttons next to the page name.
13. RSS feed : create an RSS feed for the selected pages.

Templates

The Page Picker ships with a number of different templates for different scenarios. The default template (view.php) supports all the options available in the form. The other templates do not support all the options because this would defeat the purpose of those templates. You would probably not want a title and pagination in your navigation bar for instance. If you do want this, you can simply enable those options in the template, using the default template (view.php) as an example.

The Page Picker+ is fully compatible with all the templates of the Autonav and Pagelist block. Meaning you can copy + paste these templates in a new template and use it for this block. In theory you should also be able to use the templates offered on the Marketplace for the Autonav and Pagelist blocks.