PHPCow Help

I have installed CNN Template, now would like to continue to get the rest in gear.

Talk to me like I am stupid because with phpcow I am.

Thanks.

Ok, well, if I remember right you were able to get your navigation and articles in last time you installed your site correct? I'd start there, throw those up, then I'll help you get your custom blocks made so you can have each article category appear in your designated area.

I put in the Nav bar items, tho the ones within the phpcow I did not know the URL because I do not have things set up yet.

Looking Good Raven!

Ok, So lets start making your "blocks" which will hold all your articles and you can use them to display wherever you want.

In you Cowadmin go down to "Block Management"--> Single Block

The first dropdown in there is for "General Settings":
Use this to pic the size and style of the block But also note that you will see "Category" and "Author" choices to use to filter each article if you want to do it that way. (Not sure how you're wanting your articles to appear, by category etc)

So set that by..for ex. category and the dropdown should display all the navigation categories you've already installed

Then keep customizing your block with the dropdowns after it-->"Block Header Settings", ""Article Title Settings", Article Description Settings", "Full Article Link", "Article Title Prefix", and "Article Photo Settings"

After going through all those on the bottom you can preview what you've set everything to. If you like it, give it a name to call when you're ready to insert it into your template and click "Save"

Then go to your template where you want to insert the block-->
Put your cursor on the area you want that block inserted and then in the editor top left corner click the "F" or functions button and a popup will show you all the possible functions you can insert.

Scroll down to "Block" and under that you will see "showSingle Block" in the dropdown next to it, find the name you just gave the block you made and highlight that-->

Then to the far right you will see "Insert function" click that and it will insert it into your template where you had your cursor. Click "SAVE" on the bottom f the template there and it should be done.

Most important I think. After you get each one inserted and working right...always go nto your cowadmin and under the "Templating Manager" click "template backup"...this way if things ever start messing up, you'll always have a backup of a version that DID work.

I hope this helps...let me know if you get stuck!

I think have the blocks set up right. I did the back of the template before I start. I have gotten to the F key I click on it and I see the block. I think I set everything up the way you said. Though things look bad in the site now. So I must of done something wrong. Now what? I tried to get the backup back and it didn't work.

Ironically, I suddenly can't get my backup working either Raven so you're not alone there. I have all my files listed in my backup, but I can't pull them at all in my template manager which is very odd!

I'll go look at you site quick and see what I can help with.

Ok, just went tooling around your admin Raven...you seem to have the blocks setup ok but the problem is that you have them all pulling "Any" category or article...and no articles in there to pull!

Try throwing in some articles and see if they start pulling. Also you may want to consider setting each block for a specific category otherwise, all those blocks will pull the same articles.

I tried putting up an article and nothing came up. When it came to a pull down menu of catagories there was nothing in there to choose from. Did you fix any of my messes. Thanks.

I didn't do anything in there but look...didn't want to ruin anything you had going. I feel you're frustration today though. Very odd that suddenly I can't get anything to work in my admin either!!!!

Its been like that for me since I bought the darn thing. I want to shoot it and put it out of my misery.