I'm creating a new Classifieds section on my N3 site. After seccessfully doing one on my N2 (view tip here) then migrating it over to N3 it didn't go over so well so I'm starting from scatch. I'm hoping for a little N3 creating insite to help finish up.
Is it possible to control the layout columns on a forum "searched" page like we can on our regular pages?
Here is the page I'm trying to have a 2 column layout on: https://community.surfoutlook.com/group/classifieds-for-surfers/forum/topics?tz=&q=accessories
When i'm finished I'll be happy to share the steps I went through to create a Classifieds section on N3.
Replies
No you can't choose the layout but you can do it with some code, normally the search page will take on the column layout of the forum itself . I can take a look and write some code for you.
That would be awesome!
There is one other way to do this and that is to use an RSS Content block on a Custom Page and link to it instead of my link to a search result page.
On the N2 sites the search results page via Forums has its own RSS feed but not on N3. On N3 the RSS icon show up in the bottom left corner but it's a site wide feed.
If I could get the RSS feed from that N3 search results page, problem solved. Another problem is, even with the site wide RSS feed the pictures don't show up so I'm affriad a particular RSS would do the same. 😕
I done many classifieds variations and I tend to favour the blogs to do them as you have that nice main lead image to make use of and also you can control the main image size in the list page easier.
I can also give you some code to change the wording from forum to All Classifeds ( can be changed easy enough to what you want ) and also the Add Discussion etc etc.
By the way did you want just the search page in two columns or all the forum list ? I will do some examples on my site so you can see how it looks first.
I'd like to have an extra column like the one highlighted in the pic above if that's possible.
In otherwords I'm looking to have columns in the group-forum search results page (link here) to look similar to this page.
For that second link I was able to find a free serice to turn the search result page into an RSS feed and work nicely but it doesn't give thumbnails which is a bummer.
I'd stoked to get your code on changing the wording to All Classifieds and Add Discussion. (can that be for just a particular group-forum?)
I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around creating a Classifieds using blog. If you have any links for an example, I'd love to view it.
Thanks!
Ok will get some demos done for you including a blog version. Yes the wording change can be just for a particular group forum. By the way you don't have to use groups to create the classifieds, you can do it just with normal forums and blogs if you wanted to. I have done a photos page version as well but if they want to post just a text ad then the forum or blogs work best for that as the photos one does require a photo.
Lastly I created one using an events page as this allowed for posts to go up for a set period of time, it was an interesting project to see if also could be used for a type of auction page as well.
Will let you know when I have done them and ready to check out on my site.
Thanks Bizz, I'm looking forward to viewing them.
I'm looking at your suggestion of using the regular forum. The con with that is all the other forums are mingled in showing over the top of the discussions while the Group forum is more focus based. Also, you can't add in the block elements to add html, rss, etc. Same goes for the blogs. ...unless I'm mission something... which wouldn't be surprising 😕.
However I did notice that in the regular forums each page has it's own rss feed vs the forums in the groups. Not sure why. It did in the old N2 sites. Some programmer at Ning got lazy I guess.
You can have more than one forum instance, as many as you like. So you could have one for just normal discussions then another for something else etc and they will all show as seperate tabs in the nav menu. The difference between 3.0 and 2.0 is this as in 2.0 you could only have one forum. With 3.0 you can have multiple instances of just about every page like blogs, photos etc.
You can add html blocks etc into a normal forum page, all you do is choose the add content on the page then from the option box just choose the html option and add what you need into it.
The reason you do not have rss in groups comes down to privacy of the groups but there are ways around it if the group is public. I don't think I have ever used an rss feed on any of my sites as didn't find any use of it as all the content is already on the site so would just use categories to filter etc.
I know JFarrow uses lot's off rss feeds and he is the man to talk to about those.
Thanks for the mention Bizz Happy to help Scott Bishop
Yes.. as Bizz said, only those pages which are set to public will generate a RSS feed
Thanks JFarrow. Yes, everything is/had been open to public. The search results pages from the Group forums has the rss icon in the bottom corner but it's only for site wide rss not for the particular page.
After reading the last tip above from Bizz I am now changing up my stratagy and going with the regular forum. I now see her point about not even needing the rss.
Okay so I'm at a loss and I know your good with RSS.
How do you get the RSS feed from a searched photos page? It's right there on my N2 site but I'm not seeing it on my N3.
Example; I'm trying to create of Photos page with the search results of particular Tags and/or Titles. In this case it's a location, Mission Beach - https://community.surfoutlook.com/photo?tz=&q=mission+beach
Everything on my site is open to the public.
Thanks!
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