Paint layouts design basics

(Andrew Kendall) #1

Hi all, I am just starting out with MySource so I apologise if these two questions are a little bit basic.


What I am trying to do is setup a paint layout that applies only to bodycopy divs. I can make the layout work with the whole body area but I only want the layout to apply to individual divs, and when I only apply the paint layout to a div then it doesnt work at all.



I am also trying to setup a design which has a main body area and a secondary area on the right side of the page, with the menu being on the left. I cannot work out how to have two areas of contents. If I have two body desing areas then the content is just duplicated. I can get it to work by using css but my end users wont understand this. Am I missing something?



Thanks in advance

(James Hurst) #2

Hi,

[quote]

What I am trying to do is setup a paint layout that applies only to bodycopy divs. I can make the layout work with the whole body area but I only want the layout to apply to individual divs, and when I only apply the paint layout to a div

then it doesnt work at all.

[/quote]



Paint layouts are for painting different asset types. But whilst Bodycopy Divs are technically assets, they're considered 'dependent' assets, and can't be painted directly. They don't have a URL, for instance. You need to create the layout for your main asset type, which actually itself involves creating further Bodycopy Divs to define the layout… make sense?


[quote]

I am also trying to setup a design which has a main body area and a secondary area on the right side of the page, with the menu being on the left. I cannot work out how to have two areas of contents. If I have two body desing areas then the content is just duplicated. I can get it to work by using css but my end users wont understand this. Am I missing something?

[/quote]



The main body design area is for showing the content of the currently viewed asset. To show secondary content other than navigation, you have choices.



[list=1]

  • Add a 'Nested Content' design area to your parse file, and then 'customise' this for your site or different parts of your site, to nest in any other asset content. Use this if you want your content to change depending on site location.
    [*]Make the entire area your 'main' body area, and use a Paint Layout to nest content. Use this if you want the content to be the same but the way it looks to vary based on asset type.


    In either case, if you want your secondary content to be contextual, you can nest an Asset Listing, which dynamically shows content depending on where you are in the site (look at Dynamic Root Nodes). This listing could look up or down the tree, and only show certain asset types, or assets linked in certain ways etc.

    James.