Thanks for the feedback

Cheers
Paul

Just as a note regarding external links in zentools2

www.joomlabamboo.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&view=topic&catid=684&id=115186&Itemid=215

Cheers

@Paul for this request.

Is that showing a single item from a category and then the number of items from that category?

I think that may require a new type of content source perhaps. One where the module grabs the first image from each folder and then links to all of the images via a lightbox perhaps?

Is that what you are thinking?

Or does this refer to Joomla content and other sources?

Thanks!

Thanks Anthony for asking about this request!

The specific use case I had in mind for this request would use "Joomla categories" as the ZT2 content source, with "item count" referencing the number of items in each of the selected categories, and with links pointing to one item in each of the selected categories (maybe the first item by alphabetical, id, order, oldest, newest, etc.).

Here's a ZT2 page on a WIP site that would be a good fit for that use case as described above: http://nearmiddlefar.com/galleries.html

Note: The ZT2 module on that page is now using "Content" for the link type on the image and title settings, and I am planning to add entries in .htaccess to redirect those URLs to the ones I want (it's working that way now for "Birds", I will hopefully get the others added soon).

I hope that helps. No worries if the use case I described is too limited, or breaks the behavior you have in mind for different content sources.Thanks again for asking, and for your consideration.

Thanks Paul - yes sure can add that this week to zt2 v1.1 for the category option.

Cheers

Awesome, thanks very much Anthony!

Cheers - should be useful

Here's another idea - would it be possible/feasible to add a new content source "Joomla module", and give ZT2 the ability to read in parameters for the selected module (maybe within some specified/documented limits) and then dynamically populate those parameters in the ZT2 item layout?

If that is possible/feasible, I think it could open up a lot of new potential for ZT2 to render content sourced either from other extensions or from new types of modules that sitebuilders could create on their own.

Here's another idea: Add an option in the ZT2 Theme tab, so that if the website uses a JB template, LESS variables can be used for custom CSS as opposed to adding them manually.

From a UI standpoint, maybe there could be a new option for the user to "Choose a JB Template" and if that is selected, for each of the custom CSS fields there is another field where a LESS variable can be added (@primary, @secondary, darken(@primary, 10%), etc).

Hi Antony,

to me in personal it would be very helpful to have a category/item structure for selecting content. Similar as it is with k2 tools:



As you can see I often have to use same named item/category titles. At the moment it's a little tricky to select the right ones.

Maybe this would be a good option for other users too.

Thanks!
Christian

Hi Christian,
Yes thats a good idea. Not sure it will get into v1.1 but will add it to the v1.2 milestone.
Thanks

@Paul - sounds great but I don't think it would be possible to do it this way. Better minds than mine might be able to find away to do this.

Im currently building out the Hikashop content source and it's a little tricky. I can imagine though adding an option to pull in content from a database table and allow the user to assign fields but I think that may be a little way off. I think widgetkit might allow that.

Re the template - What I would like to be able to do is allow the template to pull in the necessary data and get the zentools css compiled into the template.css. But your idea is good because we could just use the variables less file from a given theme to load for that instance of the template / module.

Thanks!

Thanks Anthony, and understood - ideas are always the easy part

I can see how the idea for adding 'Joomla module' as a content source would be really tough to support - especially if the source extension is using multiple related database tables.

I wonder - if an extension developer wanted create an integration with ZT2 such that the content managed by their extension could be used as a new ZT2 content source (and using fields + parameters from their extension for item layout), would there be a relatively straightforward way to implement that without hacking ZT2 core code?

Or stated more simply, would it be feasible to be able to specify custom content sources and fields/parameters for custom item layouts, which could be taken as inputs for ZT2 to render?

If that is a possibility, I would be interested to learn more about how to do that - maybe I could help make that happen.

Also, I am happy to hear you are thinking about ways to improve the integration between ZGF4 and ZT2 - I think there is lots of potential there!

Hey Paul,

Yes I've just spent this morning fleshing out a plugin system for Zentools. So basically each content source is added as a plugin that can be easily enabled or disabled and of course installable.

So creating a content source would mean just creating the plugin and then adding the relevant data. Zentools will do the rest

Not sure when this will come out but it will be soon.

It means that I can decouple the core Zentools2 framework and release it as a standalone module and then content sources and layouts can be added on an ad hoc basis.
Thanks!

Wow, I think that is a really big step - well done, Anthony!

I will look forward to giving this new feature a try, when it's ready.

Bigger minds, indeed...

Hah well it was actually Anderson's idea years ago - it's just taken me this long to see the wisdom in it ))

Hi Anthony seems like great solution to a number of points on the tracker. Developers could then code their own plugins for specific applications, and feed back to jb. Let me know when you have hatched a plan and we will put some aside to take a look.
Cheers Ian

For sure Ian

I'll create a branch for you to test once I get the layouts ported across

Hi there,

1) Compliments - finally had time to test Zentools2 and it is really great!

2) We would love to see the option to mix content sources e.g. k2 categories, articles and pictures.
User case: Our clients often "store" general information in a category description you want to display on an aggregate site with a module like Zentools. At the same time, you want to have e.g. the latest articles from a category. Or you need the category picture and the item list and so on.

3) Would love to have more social sharing options especially for businesses like LinkedIn.

Thanks a lot and have a great week

Hi,

1. Thanks for dropping in and giving your feedback.

2. Yes I had wanted to be able to mix sources but that proved a little problematic. I have added it back to the list to see if we can do it a few versions down the track.

But in your example that's more like a new kind of layout for category displays.

eg be able to show cat image, cat description plus a list of content items from that category. Is that right?

3. Linkedin is on the list as well.

Thanks