Show/Hide sideboxes based on page

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

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}

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

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

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?

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

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

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.
:no:

Could be that you've replicated my typo. The line in the contact_us.css file should be > #shoppingcart {display:block}

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..

You could add a trigger to the reviews sidebox that it only displays if there is a products_id defined ...

However ... on the product _info pages the review sidebox is showing reviews just for the given product and if there are no reviews it shows write a review ...

Is that what you are wanting?

That is exactly what I want.. :D

Look at the other sideboxes and many have a setting for when to show the sidebox, example, /includes/modules/sideboxes/featured.php uses:

// test if box should display
  $show_featured= true;

Then there is an IF statement surrounding the whole content that starts with:

  if ($show_featured == true) {

You would make something similar where the IF would test for the existance of the products_id ... if > 0 set the show to true ... if <= 0 set the show to false ...

Now it only shows the reviews sidebox when there is a products_id and that only exists when on the product _info page ...

Thank you Linda!

It was a little bit to do but now it seems to work just fine.. :D

If anyone is interested, this is what I did:
I inserted this

  $show_review= false;

  if (isset($_GET['products_id']) and zen_products_id_valid($_GET['products_id'])) {
    if (!($_GET['main_page']==FILENAME_REVIEWS)) $show_review = true;
  }
  if ($show_review == true) {

above

  $review_status = " and r.status = 1 ";

and finished it of with a

}

before```
?>

It's possible this isn't the way to do it but hey! It worked! :P

Okay...I'm totally confused (as usual :P ).

I have the Quick Order mod installed and I want to turn off all the sideboxes for this page only.

What do I need to do to accomplish this?

I did it on my 1.2.7 cart by creating an override tpl_main_page.php file in my quick_order folder, BUT the older file looks nothing like my new file and I can't figure out what I need to change.

So far, I made a copy of the tpl_main_page.php file and put it in my custom templates. But everything I've tried to 'un-comment' has caused a page error. :unsure:

Boggled:

I have the Quick Order mod installed and I want to turn off all the sideboxes for this page only.

What do I need to do to accomplish this?

...

So far, I made a copy of the tpl_main_page.php file and put it in my custom templates.

add this:$flag_disable_left = true; $flag_disable_right = true;right above this:```
$header_template = 'tpl_header.php';
$footer_template = 'tpl_footer.php';

PERFECT!! Now I can link directly from the description of my eBay auction to my Quick Order page. :smile:

DrByte you are the best! :thumbsup:

I see that this thread is from early October, at least a version or two back. In viewing the tpl_main_page.php it seems that the capability of commenting out sideboxes is built it.

However, I'm having a difficult time getting things set properly so as to not disrupt other pages. What I would like to do is turn off the sideboxes on the homepage only. Can anyone tell me what the procedure is?

Thanks so much!!

Tim

Create an over-ride file for common/tpl_main_page.php and insert the following block of code at around line 45-46> if ($this_is_home_page == true) {

$flag_disable_left = true;
$flag_disable_right = true;

}

kuroi:

Create an over-ride file for common/tpl_main_page.php and insert the following block of code at around line 45-46

That did it!! Thanks Kuroi :smile: