Wishlist
Taking Phil up on his quest for useful library-oriented features in Drupal, let's try listing functionality we'd like to see. Here's some to start with:
-Integration of an OPAC (a la Scriblio - http://about.scriblio.net/) and/or metasearch into Drupal
-Integration of RefWorks into Drupal
-Integration of CONTENTdm into Drupal. UPEI is leading the way on integrating Fedora into Drupal (http://drupalib.interoperating.info/node/76).
-"Featured books/videos/games/music" tool (easy for staff to use, useful for users)
-Subject guide tool (easy for staff to use, useful for users)
-Module to pull together events/workshop calendar (Events module) and end-user signup/cancellation
-Installation profile (http://drupal.org/node/159730) so simple library website, with FAQs, what's new, info about library, obvious roles (if such things exist), etc. The NeemTree Library 2.0 (http://drupalib.interoperating.info/node/78) is breaking ground on this one.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Featured Node
I was looking over the list trying to see what I could come up with (not yet having access to an OPAC, RefWorks or CONTENTdm). So I dove into a "Featured books/videos/games/music" tool and wrote this little 5.x module that let's you select any content type on your installation and add nodes from that type to a Featured List block.
It's very simple. In the settings menu, select the content type to use and give the block a title. A collapsible menu appears at the bottom of nodes of the selected content type. To add to the Feature list, check the Featured? box on the node you want and set the weight to position it. Put the Featured Node block in whatever region you want and viola! To take a node off the list, just uncheck the Featured? box.
You can download it at
http://gilavalleyweb.com/drupal/featured_node.zip
It's a first stab, so there's lots of room for improvement: creating lists for multiple content types, a version based on taxonomy terms instead of node type. The module code itself can be easily changed to use all content types. I set it as a single, selectable type to avoid clutter.
A note: the module currently works with only a mySQL database.
Please let me know of any bugs you find or improvements you'd like to see.
Not seeing the menu at the bottom of the node
Hi Phil,
I'm just testing your module. I'm using Drupal 5.3. I have installed it, set the 'Available content types' to FAQ (a cck content type I've set up). However, when I create a new FAQ, I don't see the menu. I am doing this as the admin user. Any suggestions?
From what you've described and what I've seen, the module looks good so far. I've been using an SQL snippet in a block to do the same thing, as can bee seen at the PKP website (http://pkp.sfu.ca/). In our case, we use a taxonomy called "Featured" that has "Yes" and "No" values, which applies to each node, just as you have done with the "Featured" attribute. The thumbnail that displays in the block is an attachment on the featured node.
In your module, can you define more than one block, for example, if you wanted featured content of one type on the left and the block for another type on the right?
Mark
A better solution
Hey Mark,
If you're logged in as user 1, you should see it when creating your selected content type (the form's collapsed by default). Try setting Access Control for authenticated user to 'administer featured nodes'. I've plugged it into a couple test sites I'm working on (all 5.3) and didn't see any problems. Let me know if it's still not working for you.
The biggest problem with it is you can only use one content type and one block. I figured a better solution using taxonomy and the views module. Just assign taxonomy terms - 'Featured Books, Featured Music, etc. Then create block list views filtering on those terms. No need to set content types and it's as flexible as you want.
Phil
"Featured X" using views - nice
The views option works nicely. One thing that would be awesome for both this method and the checkbox in "Featured settings" is a listing off all the nodes that are currently "featured", so you could remove the featured status from them all (or from a subset of them) in one place. I am thinking of the sort of listing that you get for comments or content, with a checkbox on the left and the node title on the right.
Ok... I'm a moron
I just noticed that... no... you don't get the featured menu when you create a node. You only get it editing existing nodes. So you have to create it, then go back and edit it to add to the featured list. Bad bad bad.
I'll add it into the creation form as well.
Phil
Check out fixes in module development
Check out
http://drupalib.interoperating.info/node/85
Phil
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