Show/Hide sideboxes based on page

[JeffD]

Not sure if anyone has written anything along these lines and a search didn't seem to turn up anything...

My company has a need to have a contribution that permits selectively showing/hiding sideboxes based on the particular page ZC is rendering. Perhaps, by programatically selecting a different layout based on the page requested. I was considering writing such a contrib but don't want to re-invent the wheel if it has already been done...

Anyone have any info on such a contrib?

Thank you very much!

Jeff

[kuroi]

A straightforward way of achieving this is to use page-based stylesheets to determine which pages do or do not display certain sideboxes. For example, if you only wanted the shopping cart to appear on the contact_us page (deliberately silly example) then you would set the shopping cart sidebox to be on in Admin but include the following in your stylesheet

#shoppingcart {display:none}

You would then create a css file called contact_us.css that contains only the line

shoppingcart {display:block}

[patski]

That is very clever - often wondered about how to do it but never bothered to investigate - thanks for the tip!

[JeffD]

Thank you kuroi for your suggestion!! I will have to play with this a while to see if it will do the trick but other than efficiency (due to the fact that the sidboxes are still being processed) it is still a very clever way!

Again, thanks!

Jeff

[whiteboxer]

I was just forwarded this thread because I have a similar situation. How would this technique work with specific product pages? More specifically, the cart generates a list of numbers to determine the product pages (at least in the URL window). How would I attach the css file for a product category, for example, books?

[JeffD]

Take a look at the top of common/tpl_main_page.php where you can specify a list of comma delimited page names to hide sideboxes on. This may be a better solution than css for your purpose.

Jeff

[joyjoy]

How do I hide the Reviews sidebox when on a product page? Thank you!

[joyjoy]

Nevermind.

Found the answer in FAQ.