Template ideas

[Capper]

I need to do a couple template edits to customize my site, but don't see where to make the proper adjustments. I am using the free template (1109)

1. How can I change the width of the right side panel (where the Most Popular, Most Commented, etc are)? I want to make that 125 pixels wide so i can replace those boxes with ads, and make everything centered within that box, and hopefully make the main body section wider by the same amount (to make everything fit correctly). I see where these are located in the template, but don't know CSS well enough to figure out how to make the changes.

2. Is it possible to make adverts show up in the boxes like the "Most Commented", "Most Popular", and "Most Emailed".

3. Is it possible to make the "Headline" article not rotate, and to remove the "back", "forward", and "pause" icons? I don't mind the ticker, but want to get rid of the rotation in the headline box.

4. Is it possible to create a page for listing the authors instead of the "Featured Author" box?

5. I replaced the page background, and on the index page it worked perfectly, but on all the other pages, it causes issues with the category section at the bottom of the page.

6. Categories- I have "Reviews" and then all my reviews set up as sub categories, is there a better way to do this so that there isn't a "No content" under reviews when you switch to the category view? Also, is there a way to remove certain categories from the RSS list, as they are just external links to the forums, etc?

[Micha]

1. Find your layout.css file (location of file depends on what theme you use for default – templates/css/layout.css, for red theme – red_theme/layout.css)
You need to edit one ID and one class.
ID:
#dynamic_box_right

You need to change width property from 170px to 125px.
Next add text-align: center; property, to align everything in that column to center.

Class:
.content_holder

You need to change width property from 626px to 671px.

That should give you wider content area and right column with 125px width.

2. Go to your templates/content/headlines.tpl template and remove div with player class:

<div class="player">
<a href="#" onclick='rotating_headlines.prev(); return false;' ><img src="{ROOT}templates/img/player_back.gif" border="0" id="back" alt="back" /></a>
<a href="#" onclick='rotating_headlines.pause(); return false;' id="pauza" ><img src="{ROOT}templates/img/player_pause.gif" border="0" id="pause" alt="pause" /></a>
<a href="#" onclick='rotating_headlines.next(); return false;'><img src="{ROOT}templates/img/player_forward.gif" border="0" id="forward" alt="forward" /></a>
</div>

3. I don’t think it’s possible without some PHP customizations, really can’t help you there.

[Capper]

Misha,
Thank you very much for your time and help. It is greatly appreciated


I've got a few residual issues with the index template, hopefully I can get some input on how to address them


1. Is there a way to put some sort of divider between the two columns of news articles? I read the other thread pertaining to this, but do not understand how to address this issue. I'd just like to keep the two columns from merging.


2. The right column doesn't fit to the top of the page, there is a space above the ads, if you refresh a few times it finally goes to the top.....is there a way to make that go to the top automatically?

3. How can I make the ticker and headline box look better? both are off center and have gaps around them.

4. I'd like to add slashdot to the article tools, where can I do this?

If anyone has any other suggestions, I'm all ears.

[Capper]

One more thing........sorry..

does anyone know how to make changes to the Author page?


I'd like to change "Short bio" to just "Bio", have the Authors real name show up at the top, instead of their user name, and remove that redundant bar at the top with the "author Info:" in it.

[andy77]

Edit /templates.show_author_info.tpl to change those, and change "Short bio" to "Bio" in language file.

[Capper]

Thanks for your help, worked perfectly.

[Micha]

1. Is there a way to put some sort of divider between the two columns of news articles? I read the other thread pertaining to this, but do not understand how to address this issue. I'd just like to keep the two columns from merging.

I've explained this here http://www.vivvo.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1101.
Really don't know what more could I say.


2. The right column doesn't fit to the top of the page, there is a space above the ads, if you refresh a few times it finally goes to the top.....is there a way to make that go to the top automatically?

Hmmm, I'm not quite sure on what gap do you mean, on your home page I see flash banner with whitespace on him, the rest of pages looks ok to me.

3. How can I make the ticker and headline box look better? both are off center and have gaps around them.

I suggest that you modify them using CSS.

I think that you can find them in your style.css file.

For ticker:

#ticker ID (should start somewhere from line 194)

For headline box:

classes and Id's starting from /************************ Headlines **********************/ comment.

4. I'd like to add slashdot to the article tools, where can I do this?

Go to your templates/article_tools_email_print.tpl .
You can add slashdot there.

[Capper]

Honestly, sometimes you guys just don't add the stuff people unfamiliar with editing Vivvo need.

I've explained this here http://www.vivvo.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1101.
Really don't know what more could I say.

how do you add right padding? An example would be killer, no one is asking you to do the work, but when you explain stuff, take into account some of us are end users and not coders or programmers.....and we purchased the CMS so we wouldn't have to pay someone an obscene amount of money to make what could be simple edits.

Hmmm, I'm not quite sure on what gap do you mean, on your home page I see flash banner with whitespace on him, the rest of pages looks ok to me.

There is a large gap above the top add on the right side.

It looks to me that Vivvo targets the developers and not the end user.....which is fine. But as i said, some of us are trying to run a site, and want a news publishing program that gives us the ability to worry about content and make fairly easy customizations

[Micha]

An example would be killer, no one is asking you to do the work

Did you read entire post?
http://www.vivvo.net/forums/showpost.php?p=3982&postcount=6

This pretty much looks to me like an example.

how do you add right padding?

No offense, but I'm not here to teach people CSS, all I'm doing is trying to help you out, but you seem to scream at me for no reason :confused:

You can learn how to add right padding here:

http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp

There is a large gap above the top add on the right side.


Again, I can't see on what LARGE gap you are talking about.

Please look at the attached screenshot.

[andy77]

how do you add right padding? An example would be killer, no one is asking you to do the work, but when you explain stuff, take into account some of us are end users and not coders or programmers.....

If you don't know what is padding and how to write for example "padding-left: 10px" in CSS, then I highly recommend getting some help from a designer to help you set things up.


and we purchased the CMS so we wouldn't have to pay someone an obscene amount of money to make what could be simple edits.

If they are simple edits - why don't you do them? :)

I'm not sure wat exactly are you trying to get? You want to purchase a CMS that can setup your site with a blink of your eye? Vivvo works great, and of you do not want to use it out of the box, you do have some fine choices:
- learn html/css yourself
- hire freelance designer
- pay Vivvo team for customization

Ever heard of "total cost of ownership" phrase?

Running a professional website doesn't get down to: "I purchased a $195 CMS and I want everything to work the way I imagined it to work and blend in seamlessly without spending a single dime".

[Capper]

you know......I guess Vivvo isn't for us, or anyone who isn't a coder or who doesn't have time to spend making endless adjustments.

When I say simple edits, I mean maybe explaining something like "open this specific file" and put this code exactly here", maybe with someone using the code tags found in the wizziwig editor. They handle things this way for a lot of programs, including VBulletin, and it makes things simple, and cuts down on redundant questions from people like me, who have to focus on content.......... We'll be asking for a refund and moving to another program

[boccio]

Vivvo isn't for us, or anyone who isn't a coder or who doesn't have time to spend making endless adjustments.
Around 80% of our users are not programmers or designers.

When I say simple edits, I mean maybe explaining something like "open this specific file" and put this code exactly here"
You asked for help on this thread, and @Micha gave you several examples that just needed cut/paste procedure...nothing more, nothing less. I just reviewed this complete thread, and made sure myself. I don't know what more he could do, except paste the code himself on your server.

[Maky70]

Take it easy, Capper :p

Most if not all Vivvo users have been through the CMS dilemma and had tried & tested a bunch of other good and poor products on the Web before they decided on buying Vivvo CMS. I assure you that none of other CMS tools offer total solution. We spent a lot of bucks on Joomla, ExpressionEngine, PHPCow, SD, AL, etc., and other add-ons and templates for some free CMS tools, and none of them offered what we were looking for, out-of-the-box! You still have to spend weeks & months until you get what you're looking for.

The latest Joomla 1.5 RC2 release was a big disappointment for many ppl for many reasons, not to mention the difficulty of customizing Joomla, Drupal, Xoops.... imagine yourself searching over 1 million posts on their support forums to get your answer, yet there's no guarantee that the suggested solution is going to work for you! Bitrix, EE and several Perl-based CMS products still require strong knowledge & experience in HTML/PHP/Perl coding to get what you want!

On the other side, don't expect to get everything explained when buying a template for other CMS products such as Joomla or WordPress or even vBulletin. You need to pay for special customization or start on your own pace... these things assume that you have good knowledge with HTML/CSS and/or PHP/ASP coding. All user guides that come with 99% of templates out there offer you simple installation instructions and basic hints to kick off your site. Earlier this year, I bought customized templates for vB and WordPress from major vendors, and none of them explains how to change the color of the header/footer for example, or how to add an extra column on the right or left! I had to dig into 1000s of posts on vB.org and WP forums to learn how to do this or change that.

Unless you want to pay $3000+ on other big names CMS tools, not to mention the customization and consulting charges which could easily reach more than the product's cost itself, I advise you to relax a bit and wait for the 4.0 release soon and build your future website from there. Vivvo team are also working on some cool templates & plug-ins for 4.0 which should shortly follow the 4.0 release, and will make your website looks similar to - or maybe better than other major news & media sites out there ;)

[Capper]

First of all, I see where misha thought I was "Screaming" at her/him, which I wasn't.... I was asking for clarification, some of the issues were answered, some weren't and I elaborated on those in the thread, and when necessary a support ticket.

From the demo, Vivvo look s to be very polished, and has a few nifty little features. However, the actual usage is a far different matter, and to honest not nearly as pleasant.

For those of you defending Vivvo so strongly, thats fine, I'm not trying to make enemies or fight with you, regardless of what you might think. We've tested 4 different CMS programs, and to be frank, Vivvo is both the most expensive, and by far the hardest to work with......its not horrible, but its not the best either. As to 80% of your users not having coding experience, I and my staff have some, but its not our forte by a long shot.......and when asking for clarification of wanting input, the last thing you want to see is a smarmy, rude, or worthless response.....sadly I see as many of these here as I see people trying to help. I also see far more threads and questions go unanswered than I do resolved. My observations after testing Vivvo for 30 days...

ArticleLive NX- Very nice, and polished program, with excellent support and features........problems with it is its template system....which they know about and are trying to fix. Good support forums and response times on ticket system. Excellent Editor (Mainly because they built it)....$289

Article Manager- Good program, a little less polished than ArticleLive, Editor isn't as user friendly, poor templating system. Strange features like pagination poorly configured (Theirs cuts off articles after 5 paragraphs). Support forums well manned by staff, questions answered quickly and efficiently, but not very active membership...$349 or $40 a month

PHPCOW- By far the most polished program, user friendly and extremely easy to customize. Poor customer service. The same Editor as ArticleLive NX, and templates are created within the editor, or you can choose from several professionally made templates they offer for free. No support forums mean no exchanging ideas or getting help.....$100

Vivvo- A lot of potential, and some incredible features (Drag and drop features are very nice). Upgrade to be released soon that promises several fixes. Lower server load than PHPCOW or ArticleLive NX. Editor is flawed and buggy, Templates cost $70 and come with poor instructions. Coding is a big plus, as you can add or remove features you don't want or need. Support forums are not very active, or in all honesty very helpful.......$395 (corrected)

Joomla, Mambo, etc- We tinkered with the open source options to see what a fee solution was like........and it wasn't nearly as user friendly as any of those listed above. for someone just starting out, or who has the time to dedicate to building a site....it might be worth a look, but it shouldn't be a first option.

Again, I didn't come here to pick a fight, i came here to testa CMS......and asked a lot of questions I think most any casual user would probably ask. some were answered really well, some not so much. I apologize if anyone was offended (Misha), it wasn't my intention, and i think you read something into a post somewhere, as I thanked you for all your time and responses.

[Maky70]

Vivvo 4.0 supersedes all those mentioned tools in many ways. ArticleLive users had requested several improvements and some important features since years, but we have been hearing "it's on our list for future" & "it's planned for the next version" from the development team since 2004 :confused: I don't think they are going to change or fix their sophisticated templates system unless they develop a new product from scratch, since the core system of AL is tightly integrated with its templates structure.

Despite its popularity, PHPCow has serious bugs and shortcomings and the guys at PHPCow hadn't released any update or fixes since last year! I've recently visited their website and checked the product testimonials page, but surprisingly found several sites are now running non-PHPCow scripts :eek:

Finally, you cannot compare Vivvo to Article Manager; they are different products with different directions. AM is a multi-purpose article publishing engine while Vivvo is a total News & Media publishing CMS tool. Using AM for News/Media publishing requires extensive knowledge in HTML/CSS and to learn their unique templates engine's language, and whatever you try you'll won't get several important functions for your news-based site, such as Most Popular, Most Commented, Related Articles, comments, Article rating, Polls, etc. It's still far away from being a total CMS solution!

[Alex]

We've tested 4 different CMS programs, and to be frank, Vivvo is both the most expensive, and by far the hardest to work with......

From the price list I see in your post, Vivvo is almost the cheapest... Only phpCow costs less. You put Vivvo price of $399 which is two domain license, and compared it to other products with single domain license. Our single domain license is $195. Therefore your remark about Vivvo being most expensive is absolutely wrong...

[Capper]

oh, excuse me....$395 + $69.00 for a template....for a total of $464.00.

[Capper]

Vivvo 4.0 supersedes all those mentioned tools in many ways. ArticleLive users had requested several improvements and some important features since years, but we have been hearing "it's on our list for future" & "it's planned for the next version" from the development team since 2004 :confused: I don't think they are going to change or fix their sophisticated templates system unless they develop a new product from scratch, since the core system of AL is tightly integrated with its templates structure.

Despite its popularity, PHPCow has serious bugs and shortcomings and the guys at PHPCow hadn't released any update or fixes since last year! I've recently visited their website and checked the product testimonials page, but surprisingly found several sites are now running non-PHPCow scripts :eek:

Finally, you cannot compare Vivvo to Article Manager; they are different products with different directions. AM is a multi-purpose article publishing engine while Vivvo is a total News & Media publishing CMS tool. Using AM for News/Media publishing requires extensive knowledge in HTML/CSS and to learn their unique templates engine's language, and whatever you try you'll won't get several important functions for your news-based site, such as Most Popular, Most Commented, Related Articles, comments, Article rating, Polls, etc. It's still far away from being a total CMS solution!

I agree that vivvo does some things very well.....but there are some problems, and features that are extremely important missing. first, Most Popular, Most emailed, etc aren't a huge deal to most. I think the "Related articles" feature is awesome.....but features like pagination are much more important. I also think the Editor is by far the worst of the bunch......I mean its terrible. I think the support here is meh, but I've tried tempering that with the fact I'm in the US, which means a huge time difference. i also think the ticket system is pretty bad. Also, we had nothing but problems with the templates during our testing.....both the free one and the one we purchased (which we had to stop using).

ArticleLive NX, I agree mostly with what you say, but during our testing it performed excellent. I'm not a huge fan of Devedit's Editor, but it works much better than Vivvo's. If you can live with one of their templates, you're fine.....but unless you want to spend an inordinate amount of time customizing, the template system just won't work. I'll also say the support team is fantastic in that they will write a script to transfer your content to their system for you....something I haven't even seen mentioned anywhere else.

As to PHPCOW, as i said, their support is bad.....but again, temper that with a language and time difference (they are in Spain). I've never really had issues with bugginess, but server load is a problem. I'll also say their template system is outstanding, and extremely easy. They are also preparing an upgrade to their system, including a new editor (either Devedit or Cute Editor), and various changes to make it more efficient. I was told to expect the upgrade in a month or so, but before the end of the year.

As to Article Manager, thats not exactly true, as its listed as a CMS and News Publishing program. also, their staff, the most helpful of all the programs we tested, will tell you they will work with you to make it whatever you need it to be. I don't expect that level of support from everyone, but its a nice feeling. On the negative side, their program just doesn't have the feel of the other three.

I'd love to try V4.0, and see how it improves before moving on, but theres that 30 day guarantee issue in the way, and to be honest, I'm not impressed enough by what I see right now to write off $460+.

[Alex]

oh, excuse me....$395 + $69.00 for a template....for a total of $464.00.
You could pay even $2000, but that doesn't mean that license costs that much. Do you happen to know the difference? Go over to any of mentioned vendors, purchase two licenses (not one) and a template, and then lets discuss who is the most expensive one.

I just have one very interesting point to mention on this thread:

Vivvo- I agree that vivvo does some things very well.....but there are some problems, and features that are extremely important missing. I also think the Editor is by far the worst of the bunch......I mean its terrible. I think the support here is meh, but I've tried tempering that with the fact I'm in the US, which means a huge time difference. i also think the ticket system is pretty bad. Also, we had nothing but problems with the templates during our testing....

My whole point was simply that Vivvo is the best CMS I've come across out of the four i've tried. i'll also say the support is outstanding
Believe it or not people, this comes from the mouth of the same man :D

[Capper]

Look when it was posted!!!! That was posted 3 days after we purchased Vivvo.....soon after, the fluff wore off........support tickets with no replies, or blank replies........problems with one template so bad we had to stop using it, problems with an editor so buggy we've asked about spending $149 more to switch to a different one...I found it funny how this weekend, the staff came by the forums, posted in the "Pre-Sales" forum, and nowhere else, even though there were posts and questions everywhere.....but thats typical...Every email gets answered promptly before you send them your money.

Then theres the other issues, like the date and time which has never worked right....we bring it up....sorry we can't fix that. My error log is full of "Open Search errors". The VBulletin integration won't work, we send in examples of problems and explain exactly what we see....sorry we don't understand....So you search for help in the forums.....and find about 90% of the questions here go unanswered......and before you think I'm alone, let me reassure you I've gotten several PMs from people with similar experiences who are leaving and going elsewhere.

Then, you'd think that since we couldn't use the template we bought, that after we explained what had happened, they would refund the template money.....we haven't used that template since 2 days after no help on support tickets (and don't think the instructions that come with the template are going to help)....nope never once offered to refund our money on the template......then, I guess i misread, and Vivvo is the only program we looked at that doesn't offer a refund policy or trial period......

"Unfortunately, we do not issue refund, especially not under circumstances like this:
http://www.vivvo.net/forums/showthread.php?p=4875#post4875

Besides, we do not have 30-day refund policy."

Sad that about the only time they do respond here....its to post something like this.......Looks like we have no choice but to hope V4.0 is a lot better, but judging by the demo, and by the comments in the forum, it doesn't look like too many people are real excited.

I'm disappointed, I had hoped this to be a good experience. I ask a lot of questions, make a lot of suggestions, and tried to bring activity to the forums.....hoping that we'd see better explanations, which would cut down on repeating questions..... but all I seem to see is flaming from a couple fanbois, and a staff that in the end doesn't really care about anything but taking your money.

[Mark]

We always try our best and there are five staff members working on client support every weekday. We strive for perfection, but are also aware of our occasional shortcomings. Still, we do believe that we offer the best value-for-money CMS solution on the market, and unlike our competitors we have an active program of development, with three release in 2007. Our testimonial forum provides a good evidence of how satisfied or dissatisfied our clients are. We do not delete unfavorable posts, which is pretty obvious even to the casual observer of our forum. However, we do not tolerate offensive language, name-calling, flaming, and similar unreasonable behaviors on this forum. Similarly, we try to go beyond our usual terms of support in many cases, but some view this as a license to get all their custom work done by our support team. This is not only unreasonable but also unethical, and we will not entertain such requests. We are constantly trying to improve our software and make an enterprise-quality software accessible to everyone. Your assistance and patience is highly appreciated.

[Capper]

See, this is what gets me sometimes.....You guys sound excellent, and I've tried to be understanding about issues, but we get tickets back with nothing in them, tickets back saying you don't understand (when we explain things perfectly, and even cut and paste error messages).

I've also tried like hell to be patient for V4.0, and if we were just starting out, that'd be no problem, but as an established website, we don't have that luxury.

Trust me, i'm not trying to be a problem! When I ask for clarification on something, its not like I'm the only one with that question, believe me i search before posting. I see several questions about the same thing, and most could be taken care of with a sticky, or a well written guide explaining things.

A perfect example is the "add to favorites" issue not working in Firefox. I asked for a little clarification, because I didn't see anywhere where the exact file is listed.....the code is perfect, and well explained.....but theres no explanation of exactly what js file needs to be altered, and if you don't know, then you're out of luck

No one is "Flaming", and I don't see abusive or foul language....but still i get negative rep points for sharing my opinion and experiences. For the record, I have spent way too much time making suggestions and offering insight here.

Comments like "If the edits are so easy, why don't you do them" aren't helpful, and in fact rude........when you spend more time making smart comments, or posting stuff that doesn't help, then actually taking the time to help....whats the sense.

Look....I understand there are no customizations....but fixing things like articles not displaying by date instead of by creation are not to me customization.....to me customization is something like a question about making a template look different.....things like the Front page not working correctly, the comments being a mess, errors from search, features not working....thats not customization.

I think the "How to" forums should be organized, and cleaned up to include stuff asked repeatedly, like the Date/time not working, and how to fix it, how to put articles listed by date/time, how to fix the scripts to work in FF and IE, etc.

I would love for this to be a positive experience, and to work together.....but I think you guys need to reevaluate what you consider customization and what you consider problems.

[Sarah]

Well I am not interested in this debate but would like to add something here

.... you cannot compare Vivvo to Article Manager; they are different products with different directions...... It's still far away from being a total CMS solution!

Could not agree more. what was a perfect article publishing solution several years back is no longer true. we had to select another product to redevelop our sites and republish all articles and news, we decided later to go with expressionengine coz it suited our requirements. we had difficult time maintaining our news based sites with Article manager as this dated script could not offer better site management or new features. also it became pain in the neck to find good Perl developers and Article manager was no longer the right choice for developing modern news web sites

As to PHPCOW, as i said, their support is bad.....but again, temper that with a language and time difference (they are in Spain). I've never really had issues with bugginess, but server load is a problem. I'll also say their template system is outstanding, and extremely easy.

phpcow 2 was shortlisted on our list of news publishing cms products, but we later decided to drop it after the lots of negative user feedbacks on the net. I also did not like many things on all web sites using phpcow 2. what u get in Joomla or expressionengine is far better than phpcow

Sad that about the only time they do respond here....its to post something like this.......Looks like we have no choice but to hope V4.0 is a lot better, but judging by the demo, and by the comments in the forum, it doesn't look like too many people are real excited.

that's weird... Vivvo 4 sounds great with the new features. honestly i could not find a similar product with its price range, and we are very excited to try 4.0 soon and buy it if we find that it suits our requirements. the bug tracker forum is a great decision to share and fix the software bugs

For those of you defending Vivvo so strongly, thats fine, I'm not trying to make enemies or fight with you, regardless of what you might think. We've tested 4 different CMS programs, and to be frank, Vivvo is both the most expensive, and by far the hardest to work with......its not horrible, but its not the best either. As to 80% of your users not having coding experience, I and my staff have some, but its not our forte by a long shot.......and when asking for clarification of wanting input, the last thing you want to see is a smarmy, rude, or worthless response.....sadly I see as many of these here as I see people trying to help. I also see far more threads and questions go unanswered than I do resolved. My observations after testing Vivvo for 30 days...

I do not understand how could the live demo be convincing for users to buy a product but the real example is different! I see many Vivvo users on this forum are happy with the product and proud of their Vivvo sites

I'm disappointed, I had hoped this to be a good experience. I ask a lot of questions, make a lot of suggestions, and tried to bring activity to the forums.....hoping that we'd see better explanations, which would cut down on repeating questions..... but all I seem to see is flaming from a couple fanbois, and a staff that in the end doesn't really care about anything but taking your money.

I think this is rude and against your posting etiquette's thread here
http://vivvo.net/forums/showthread.php?p=5121#post5121

if u have problems or did not like the product for whatever reason I suggest to contact the sales team by phone and try to solve this issue in a professional manner. posting such statements on public forums really hurt Vivvo lovers as well as potential clients. I praise this forum moderators for their patience about such posts

I personally see version 4 very promising and would like to see blogging feature integrated in future releases, and news alerts option beside packing several free templates with the product like phpcow.
________________________________________________
http://www.electronichouse.com

[Capper]

well, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and yours is just as important as mine.....but how can you assume I haven't been in contact with the staff to rectify problems, and this was posted after the fact?

My experience with the different editors is much different than yours, but as I said we all have different wants and needs......

As to the issue, its solved as much as it probably ever will be, and I think both we and the Vivvo staff have moved on to workking together on a few other things.

[Alex]

I personally see version 4 very promising and would like to see blogging feature integrated in future releases, and news alerts option beside packing several free templates with the product like phpcow.

Blogging feature is on our to-do list, probably for late November, as well as news alerts. As for free templates - we shall have them, as we do for 3.5 version.