Adding older content to menu

timster -- le 17 mar. 2005
Yacs fan!

adding a Previous Stories Box

Hello Bernard,

I tried adding into my template.php file a box in the right hand menu that would output the titles of the older stories that had run off the page and used this code:

// Previous stories
echo Skin::build_box('Previous stories', 'include_once 'articles/articles.php';
$items = Articles::list_by_date(16, 36);
$context['text'] .= Skin::build_list($items, 'decorated');', 'extra');

which I gleaned from the sites scripts>articles>articles.php page... but it didn't work.

Any advice?

Bernard Paques

Timster: The issue you are talking about has been addressed through semi-automatic updates. If your ISP had opened network connections between your server and this one, you would just have to click on 4 to 5 links and buttons to update your server against this one ::)

To achieve same results manually I highly recommend to use Total Commander, which is a cheap shareware from Mister Ghisler.

This two-pane tool for Windows let you compare directory trees and archive files very easily.

Actually I have paid my licence years ago and use it on a daily basis for all kind of things, including the selected upload from my development workstation to this production server.

If you download two different versions of the YACS archive, use Total Commander to open each in its own pane (TC has a built-in unzipper). Then use the command Command | Synchronize Dirs... On the next page check 'by content' and 'ignore date'. Click on the Compare button and voila a list of changed files. On each updated file, you may right-click and ask Total Commander to list content differences (like diff would do). 8)

It's a must, I told you...

Now the real difficult point. When you modify a file that has the keyword '@reference' in the top phpDoc comment, you are taking the risk that your change will be overwritten on the next YACS update... :P

YACS provides extension mechanisms (such as skins, hooks and overlays) that are aiming to let you some room for private developments.

If these are not enough, and if you have to modify the behavior of some reference file, please let me know. I will either change the file for everybody, or introduce some hook to let you plug-in gracefully.

If you are really stuck with all changes introduced to YACS, please put your yacs directory into a zip file, and share it with me. I will check its content manually and evaluate changes one by one. But please do this only if you are lost, to preserve my own time. yinyang

timster - le 21 mar. 2005: Bernard:

Thanks very much, I'll give Total Commander a try, the price looks reasonable and I've needed this functionality a million times before.

You might consider cutting and pasting your response and turning it into a front page article for the YACS site at some point because I guess this is an issue everyone faces with a website as a living document.

Hope you had a good weekend.

Tim
Bernard - le 22 mar. 2005: Timster: Please remember that YACS basic mechanism for software updates is achieve it on-demand, through simple clicks on web pages.

Your issue comes from the fact that your server cannot communicate with www.yetanothercommunitysystem.com.

To make your situation more comfortable, maybe you could ask your ISP to change this...

Bernard Paques

Timster: Can you please check the tonight build? I have added this as a standard feature of YACS. Go to the Control Panel, then to the configuration panel for skins, and check the option to display older articles. On the main page, in the extra panel, a new box should have been added.

timster - le 18 mar. 2005: Bernard:

When you do build changes is it possible for you to identify which files have been modified since the previous build?

That way people will be alerted to which files they need to update specifically and whether or not they need to be careful of the latest update changing a file they might have customized.

Is that possible or is it a huge pain in the ass?