Cascade CMS: Discussion

Use of Velocity

2011-10-12T22:03:30Z

Does anyone have an idea about my question!

Use of Velocity

2011-10-12T22:21:13Z

I posted my question earlier yesterday evening and there were no replies and I posted this comment couple minutes back as a reply to my question. But now the original question disappeared! Should I post my question again?

Use of Velocity

2011-10-13T12:34:45Z

Nishant, I suggest you check out the initial Velocity Webinar here: http://www.hannonhill.com/products/demos/cascade-velocity-webinar-v... and also check the Velocity Resources in the KB - http://www.hannonhill.com/kb/Script-Formats/#technical

Regards,
Alvin

Use of Velocity

2011-10-13T13:35:49Z

I looked through the logs. I do not see your original post. If you repost your original question, I'd be glad to comment.

Use of Velocity

2011-10-13T17:40:25Z

@Alvin Thanks for pointing me to those resources. I have already gone through those. It was about a proof of concept I was working on and was wondering if that could be achieved using Velocity or not.

@Charlie:

I posted my original question on Tuesday, Oct 11th between 5-6pm Pacific time. But anyways, I will re-post it.

Let's consider my site is structured as below in cascade server

 nishantSite
 |--- index.html
 |--- awaynav.html
 |--- tools
       |--- index.html
 |--- services
       |--- index.html
       |--- awaynav.html

I want to include the awaynav.html file in the away navigation section of each index.html file that exists at the same level. If awaynav.html file does not exists at the same level as the index.html file, then it should include the awaynav.html file from its parent folder. So to make it more clearer, from the above example the away navigation for each index.html file should include:

nishantSite/index.html includes: nishantSite/awaynav.html
nishantSite/tools/index.html includes: nishantSite/awaynav.html
nishatSite/services/index.html includes: nishantSite/services/awaynav.html

I was wondering if this is possible by using Velocity or not! If I can get the site structure through the XML then I can use the _XPathTool and some conditionals to make it work!

Just wanted to get some insight from the experts here. :)

Thank you guys, I appreciate your help.

-Nishant

Use of Velocity

2011-10-13T18:48:49Z

This is possible. We have helped create this functionality on a number of occasions.

I would suggest changing the type of asset you are using for including your navigation though. I would suggest using a structured data block or simply an HTML/XML block as the asset instead of a page. This will SIGNIFICANTLY cut down on the amount of data that is requested and rendered for creating this functionality. (If you rendering behavior is for pages, you'll be including all the pages throughout the folder structure when you are really just wanting one page. So switching to a block will allow you to request less data and filter it as needed.)

I can describe, hopefully, what I would do to create this functionality:

Create a Block (either HTML or XML or Structured) to contain your navigations. Create as many as you need and place them in the desired folders. I would continue to use the same name for each just as you have above.
Create an Index Block of "Folder Type" that uses the "Start at the current page with folder hierarchy, and also include siblings" rendering behavior -- maybe call it "nav-search" or something.

Do not select an "Index Folder". Check only "Blocks" for the "Indexed Asset Types" choice.

Make sure you select "Render XHTML/Data Definition block, XML block, and Text block XML inline" for the "Block XML" section.

Check "Regular Content" and "User Metadata" for the "Indexed Asset Content" choice.

This block will be applied to a region on one or more pages and search the relative directory of your current location as well as each directory up the folder hierarchy for any Block Assets (your wanted navigational include).
Write a Format (easier said than done) to process through that data. You will have all of the information you'll need to know which Block data you should output into the Page.

Here are some example chunks of Velocity code that should help you get over the harder humps:

To select all of the Block Assets:

#set ( $navBlocks = $_XPathTool.selectNodes($contentRoot, "//system-folder[descendants::system-page[@current]]/system-block[name='YOUR_BLOCK_NAME']") )

You will want just one of the those Blocks, the one that is in your current folder. But if there isn't one there, you'll want the Block at another level up. The best way to handle this is to sort the Blocks by the number of ancestors it has and then take the first one:

$_SortTool.addSortCriterion("count(ancestors::system-folder)","","number","descending","")
$_SortTool.sort($navBlocks)

This list may have more than one block even though it's sorted (it may even have none). So use this logic to select just the first one when there are Blocks to select:

#if ( $navBlocks.size() > 0 )
    #set ( $block = $navBlocks.get(0) )
#end

That is going to return a reference to the <system-block> XML element itself. To pull the actual HTML out for inserting into your region, you'll have two different scenarios to consider depending on what kind of Block you chose to store your navigation information in.

If you used HTML/XML:

<system-block>
    <name/>
    <block-xhtml/>
</system-block>

If you used Structured/Data Definition:

<system-block>
    <name/>
    <system-data-structure>
        <your-identifier1/>
        <your-identifier2/>
        <your-identifier3/>
    </system-data-structure>
</system-block>

That is a pretty comprehensive explanation about how you'd go about putting all those pieces together. "Teach a man to fish" kind of idea to get you going and I'd be glad you help you work through any code you put together with these ideas.

Use of Velocity

2011-10-13T19:30:48Z

While not a velocity specific answer perhaps the root solution presented in https://github.com/hannonhill/Cascade-Server-XSLT/tree/master/Rules... might be what you are looking for.

It allows assets to have rules about where they should be used.

Until Hannon Hill allows indexing by Structured Data Blocks of a particular data definition you could modify it by setting up a content type for awaynav and use a content type index block to group all the potential attachments without indexing other content. Then use the same most specific match rule pattern that is used in the example to pull the correct awaynav from the index to work with.

Use of Velocity

2011-10-13T19:45:54Z

I agree, more options for filtering on Index Blocks and Content Type Indexes would be great.

Workaround to not being able to index certain Data Definitions: Use the @definition-path attribute that is attached to each <system-data-structure> node?

Use of Velocity

2011-10-13T20:39:22Z

@Jason; @Charlie Thank you guys for giving me your opinions about it. I am an absolute beginner with Cascade Server and I need to learn about how to approach a problem more efficiently, whether to make use of Index blocks or Pages, and more.

For sure I have a lot to process from this discussion and I will take some time to put this into practice. I would like to get done with this proof of concept and then post the solution here to help the community and may be some people have comments on my solution. For that reason I am not sure whether this discussion can be closed now or not! Either way, I assure to get back once I am done.

Thank you,
Nishant