Frontpage -> Seperate look/layout from rest of site

caspern · 13.04.2004, 12:47

Hi,

i want to make a goodlooking corporate site but the main problem is see is that i cannot seperate the homepage from the rest of the website.

with this i mean that i want a custom homepage, problably with other template so i can adjust the placing of content. Offcourse you will tell me that i can chose to not show the main menu on frontpage but i hope you see the problem with this, if i do this every time a editor makes a new page, he has to go to menumanager to let them main menu show on his page.

have you guys any idea how i can do this ?

visualdensity · 13.04.2004, 12:54

Errm... sorry but I don't get what you're saying. Is there an example i.e a screenshot or something to clarify?

caspern · 13.04.2004, 13:04

i was afraid of this.

let me explain myself.

first about the seperation (or did you get that part?)

a professional, corporate site (like asml.com) normally had a front, welcoming page with some higlights or something like that.

Then, when you 'enter' you get a different layout throughout the site. That is what i want. Not just a artikel on front page with mambo to simulate this effect but a different template which is also editable through the admin section. let me say a fairly extended front page component.

The problem i have with the placing of main menu is that the only way not to show the mainmenu on frontpage is to deselect 'all' in de menu module management, which mean that i have to select all pages on which the menu must be shown by hand. So when a editor adds a product to the content, he had to think of adding the main menu to that page.. very annoying method.

i hope it is a bit more clear what i mean. Now all i need i the solution

visualdensity · 13.04.2004, 13:22

Its clearer now...

From what I've seen around different forums, you have 2 methods:

1.) Use a static page as index.html if your server has index.html as the first the first default document. However, this is a very clumsy method. At least it solves your problem.

2.) Design a template with 2 different layouts. Then use scripting code ( I did this in PHP) to detect if the page is displaying the frontpage. If yes, include a different body template else, use the main body template. Something along the lines of this:

PHP Code:

  <?php 

    

    if(!$option || $option == 'com_frontpage') { 

          include ("main_layout.html.php");          

    } else {

          include ("content_layout.html.php");

    };

 
?>

Others will be able to add more ideas to this.

scotweb · 13.04.2004, 13:48

I use the 'index.html' quite a lot. Fast and easy.

d

Jason407 · 13.04.2004, 14:17

This doesn't really solve your problems, but don't forget that you can use mos_change_template like this:

Code:

index.php?mos_change_template=peeklime

to switch templates around via links.

It is cookie based, so it only effects that user. I like to do this to change the look of a site once the user is logged in.

visualdensity · 13.04.2004, 15:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason407

This doesn't really solve your problems, but don't forget that you can use mos_change_template like this:

Code:

index.php?mos_change_template=peeklime

to switch templates around via links.

It is cookie based, so it only effects that user. I like to do this to change the look of a site once the user is logged in.

However, you need the template_chooser module to be enabled for that isn't it?

This is because I tried this method without publishing the template_chooser module and it didn't work. So I had to hack it to achieve similar effect.

eyezberg · 14.04.2004, 00:50

Nope, just tested at my site, works without.

darkchild · 27.04.2004, 21:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason407

This doesn't really solve your problems, but don't forget that you can use mos_change_template like this:

Code:

index.php?mos_change_template=peeklime

to switch templates around via links.

It is cookie based, so it only effects that user. I like to do this to change the look of a site once the user is logged in.

A quick one. For example, if you wanna the template for the following link

Code:

index.php?option=content&task=blogsection&id=3&Itemid=27

would you add

Code:

index.php?mos_change_template=peeklime

to the end of the link or the beginning.

SvenErik · 27.04.2004, 22:10

I tried it on my own site, but since I use SEF, I had to add /mos_change_template,TemplateName/ at the end of the URL. If I added it after the /component/ part of the SEF URL it worked, as in

http://www.pkf107.no/component/mos_c...page/Itemid,1/ and http://www.pkf107.no/component/optio...agazin_pkf107/.