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

[kuroi]

The common/tpl_main_page.php approach allows you to turn off whole columns based on some fairly precise criteria. The code you need is already embedded as comments in the header ready to be enabled. If you want to turn off individual sideboxes based on category, then you could wrap similar conditional php statements around the code in the relevant includes/modules/sideboxes files.

If you're not so confident about coding, then much easier (though as Jeff rightly observes, less efficient) would be to create stylesheets with names such as c_aa.css for a category with ID aa, c_aa_bb.css for subcatory bb or category aa and p_cc.css for a product with ID cc. You can find out your category and product IDs by going to Admin > Categories/Products

[misty]

Quote:
#shoppingcart {display:none}

You would then create a css file called contact_us.css that contains only the line
Quote:
shoppingcart {display:block}

Tested, first part of kuroi's suggestion works fine, second part re creating
contact_us.css with relevant command, does not for me.

[kuroi]

Could be that you've replicated my typo. The line in the contact_us.css file should be

#shoppingcart {display:block}

[Svanis]

Hey guys!

This thread feels a bit overkill when it comes to me.

What I wan't is for the reviews sidebox to appear only on the product info page just like tell a friend and manufacturer info.

All help is appreciated..