News Box Manager v3.0.0 [Support Thread]

[lat9]

I've just submitted v3.0.4 of News Box Manager, v3 to the Zen Cart moderators for review; I'll post back here when it's available for download.

[lat9]

I've just submitted v3.0.4 of News Box Manager, v3 to the Zen Cart moderators for review; I'll post back here when it's available for download.

... and it is (https://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=2264). Thanks to @owen26 for identifying the issue and helping to validate the solution!

[owen26]

This plugin is working exactly as I want, it seems like the perfect blog tool I have been looking for.

The instructions on the GitHub page have really been useful. I really like the layout of the "All Articles" page, and particularly the Display Mode > "Listing" style as seen on lat9's own web site.

If I had a wish list for the future of this plugin, it would be:

Request #1: Add a "sort by subject" option to the All Articles page. As the list of articles added to this page grows, sorting by subject would be useful. So, let's say my store and blog is about automotive parts, I could sort the All Articles page list by Ford, Chevy, GMC, etc.

Request #2: Add an image to the All Articles list. While it is easy to add an image to the news article itself with basic HTML, an image added to the All Articles list would add some visual appeal and reference for readers. <ALT> text tags for the image would be friendly to search engines. I'm not sure if other modern tags like <picture> or <figure> offer any benefits with search engines.

Request #3: Integration of text content with Zen Cart's search engine. I know this is a whole other tangled scenario unto itself, but content is content, and it would be nice for site visitors to be able to easily search article listings, not just store products.

Thanks again so much for this plugin!

[lat9]

This plugin is working exactly as I want, it seems like the perfect blog tool I have been looking for.

The instructions on the GitHub page have really been useful. I really like the layout of the "All Articles" page, and particularly the Display Mode > "Listing" style as seen on lat9's own web site.

If I had a wish list for the future of this plugin, it would be:

Request #1: Add a "sort by subject" option to the All Articles page. As the list of articles added to this page grows, sorting by subject would be useful. So, let's say my store and blog is about automotive parts, I could sort the All Articles page list by Ford, Chevy, GMC, etc.

Request #2: Add an image to the All Articles list. While it is easy to add an image to the news article itself with basic HTML, an image added to the All Articles list would add some visual appeal and reference for readers. <ALT> text tags for the image would be friendly to search engines. I'm not sure if other modern tags like <picture> or <figure> offer any benefits with search engines.

Request #3: Integration of text content with Zen Cart's search engine. I know this is a whole other tangled scenario unto itself, but content is content, and it would be nice for site visitors to be able to easily search article listings, not just store products.

Thanks again so much for this plugin!

... and thank you for the kind words! I've opened change-requests on News Box Manager's GitHub repository to track your requests.

[Nick1973]

Cindy, this was resolved as I'd installed a previous version. See: https://www.zen-cart.com/showthread....63#post1370063 I installed an earlier version in error and now have it working on your latest version 3 which can be downloaded from Git Hub.

Here's a few questions for you though:The module has the ability to create categories. How would I display the category name of the news post on the news article page please?

There are four custom categories already created in the module, how would I add more than four?

Is it possible for you to add auto posting to social media platforms such as facebook, twitter, linkedin etc in the future?

And lastly, ideally the module needs structured data. I think you are onto this already though.

I noted another person had asked about CEON Seo Urls with this module. It would be good to have something already available to link in with CEON SEO URL's.

[lat9]

Cindy, this was resolved as I'd installed a previous version. See: https://www.zen-cart.com/showthread....63#post1370063 I installed an earlier version in error and now have it working on your latest version 3 which can be downloaded from Git Hub.

Here's a few questions for you though:The module has the ability to create categories. How would I display the category name of the news post on the news article page please?

There are four custom categories already created in the module, how would I add more than four?

Is it possible for you to add auto posting to social media platforms such as facebook, twitter, linkedin etc in the future?

And lastly, ideally the module needs structured data. I think you are onto this already though.

I noted another person had asked about CEON Seo Urls with this module. It would be good to have something already available to link in with CEON SEO URL's.

Nick, for the first request, create a file named /includes/modules/pages/article/header_php_add_news_category.php containing:

<?php
// -----
// Pre-pend the news-category name to the article title.
//
$news_content_type = $news_box_query->fields['news_content_type'];
switch ($news_content_type) {
    case '1':
    case '2':
    case '3':
    case '4':
        $news_box_name_define = "BOX_NEWS_NAME_TYPE" . $news_content_type;
        $news_type_name = (defined($news_box_name_define)) ? constant($news_box_name_define) : "Unknown [$news_content_type]";
        break;
    default:
        $news_type_name = "Unknown [$news_content_type]";
        break;
}
$news_title = $news_type_name . ': ' . $news_title;

2. Expanding the number of categories is doable, but there are a bunch of places that use a switch control (similar to the above) to process a specific news type. That said, it's not for the faint of heart.

3. Auto-posting to various social media spots. Not likely in the near future, but I've created a GitHub issue to track (https://github.com/lat9/news_box_manager_v3/issues/19).

4. Adding structured data. Again, not likely in the near future, but this (https://github.com/lat9/news_box_manager_v3/issues/18) GitHub issue's there to track any subsequent change.

5. Adding integration with Ceon URI Mapping v5, also not likely in the near future. I'd suggest a request to that plugin to incorporate as I'm not particularly familiar with its operations.

[Nick1973]

Nick, for the first request, create a file named /includes/modules/pages/article/header_php_add_news_category.php containing:

<?php
// -----
// Pre-pend the news-category name to the article title.
//
$news_content_type = $news_box_query->fields['news_content_type'];
switch ($news_content_type) {
    case '1':
    case '2':
    case '3':
    case '4':
        $news_box_name_define = "BOX_NEWS_NAME_TYPE" . $news_content_type;
        $news_type_name = (defined($news_box_name_define)) ? constant($news_box_name_define) : "Unknown [$news_content_type]";
        break;
    default:
        $news_type_name = "Unknown [$news_content_type]";
        break;
}
$news_title = $news_type_name . ': ' . $news_title;

2. Expanding the number of categories is doable, but there are a bunch of places that use a switch control (similar to the above) to process a specific news type. That said, it's not for the faint of heart.

3. Auto-posting to various social media spots. Not likely in the near future, but I've created a GitHub issue to track (https://github.com/lat9/news_box_manager_v3/issues/19).

4. Adding structured data. Again, not likely in the near future, but this (https://github.com/lat9/news_box_manager_v3/issues/18) GitHub issue's there to track any subsequent change.

5. Adding integration with Ceon URI Mapping v5, also not likely in the near future. I'd suggest a request to that plugin to incorporate as I'm not particularly familiar with its operations.

Hi Cindy I have just put your code on my site to display the category name (

News Type)

but it doesn't do anything. Also I have just noticed, with or without your code, the title is the same for every article when you click on the article from https://venturedesignandprint.co.uk/...e=all_articles or from the homepage.

[lat9]

Hi Cindy I have just put your code on my site to display the category name (

News Type)

but it doesn't do anything. Also I have just noticed, with or without your code, the title is the same for every article when you click on the article from https://venturedesignandprint.co.uk/...e=all_articles or from the homepage.

Nick, I can't explain either of these two issues. I've applied the code that I posted to my local version of my website with no issue. Ditto on the $news_title not following an article's title.

[Nick1973]

Nick, I can't explain either of these two issues. I've applied the code that I posted to my local version of my website with no issue. Ditto on the $news_title not following an article's title.

hi cindy still getting the same even on a clean install. The news title isn't following the articles title. See my site https://venturedesignandprint.co.uk

you will see test 1 and test 2. When i click on test 2 it has the title for test 1. That is from a clean module installation as well. I will try on a squeaky clean 1.5.6c install tomorrow as well. Was this designed for any particular version of php?

[Nick1973]

Cindy do you have the version of the module you are installing please? Just in case something is different.