Learn about the OpenACS templating system.
Learn about subsites and site-map administration.
The OpenACS templating system allows you to give your site a +consistent look and feel. It also promotes code maintainability in +the presentation layer, by allowing presentation components to be +reused across multiple pages. If you need to change the layout for +some reason, then you only need to make that change in one +location, instead of across many files.
In this problem set you will familiarise yourself with the +templating system in openacs. This will be achieved through +customising an existing edit-this-page application template.
Before proceeding, it is strongly advised to read the templating +documentation on your OpenACS installation +(http://localhost:8000/doc/acs-templating). The documentation lists +the special tags available for ADP files.
+Create a subsite called pset3.
A subsite is simply a directory or subdirectory mounted at the +end of your domain name. This can be done in one of two places:
http://localhost:8000/admin/site-map
or the subsite admin form on the main site, which is available +when you login to your OpenACS installation.
Checkout ETP from CVS:
+cd ~/openacs/packages + cvs -d:pserver:anonymous\@openacs.org:/cvsroot login + cvs -d:pserver:anonymous\@openacs.org:/cvsroot co edit-this-page ++
Go to the package manager at http://yoursite/acs-admin/apm. And +install the new package: edit-this-page.
Or use the "Add Application" form available on the +Main site.
Work out how to change the ETP application.
Investigate each of the available ETP templates:
Default
News
FAQ
Browse the files for each of the above ETP templates at:
+cd ~/openacs/packages/edit-this-page/templates ++
Use the article template as the basis of our new col2 +template.
+cp article-content.adp col2-content.adp + cp article-content.tcl col2-content.tcl + cp article-index.adp col2-index.adp + cp article-index.tcl col2-index.tcl ++
The template should provide us with the following ETP +layout:
The "Main Content" pane should contain the editable +content that ETP provides.
The "Header" should display the title of the page that +you set in ETP.
The "Sidebar" should display the extlinks that you add +as a content item in ETP.
Need to register your template with ETP so that it appears in +the drop-down menu that you would have seen in Exercise 3.
+cd ~/openacs/packages/edit-this-page/tcl + emacs etp-custom-init.tcl ++
Use the function etp::define_application to register your +template with ETP
Uncomment the "asc" definition
Set allow_extlinks to true, the rest should be false.
Restart your server for the changes to take effect.
Configure your ETP instance at /lab4/index to use the col2 +template.
Create external links to link to other mounted ETP +instances.
Check that your external links show up in the sidebar when you +view your ETP application using the col2 template.
This problem set was originally written by Nick Carroll in +August 2004 for the University of Sydney Course EBUS5002.
This material is copyright 2004 by Nick Carroll. It may be +copied, reused, and modified, provided credit is given to the +original author.