News module

This module facilitates comprehensive news management, offering features for article creation, category organization, and customizable display templates. It enables scheduled publishing, media integration, and user-friendly content editing for seamless news dissemination.

Template files

News display is controlled by two primary templates located in the active theme's directory: news-category.phtml and news-post.phtml.

Category template

The category template must be named news-category.phtml and located under your current theme's directory.

Available variables:

• $category: The current category entity
• $posts: An array of post entities within the category

This template renders news categories and their associated post listings. Here's an example:

<h1><?= $category->getName(); ?></h1> 
<div class="py-3">
   <?= $category->getDescription(); ?>
</div>

<?php if (empty($posts)): ?>
<div class="row">
   <?php foreach ($posts as $post): ?>
   <div class="col-lg-4">
       <h4><?= $post->getName(); ?></h4>
       <div class="py-3 px-2">
          <?= $post->getIntro(); ?>
       </div>
       <p><a class="btn btn-primary" href="<?= $post->getUrl(); ?>">View full</a></p>
   </div>
   <?php endforeach; ?>
</div>
<?php else: ?>
<p>Sorry, no news at the moment</p>
<?php endif; ?>

The category entity is called $category and has the following methods:

$category->getDescription(); // Returns description of current category
$category->getName(); // Returns name of currenct category
$category->getUrl(); // Returns URL of current category

Pagination can be included via built-in widget. Learn more here.

<nav>
    <?php $this->loadPartial('pagination'); ?>
</nav>

Post template

The post template must be named news-post.phtml and located under your current theme's directory.

This template renders individual news posts.

Basic example:

<article>
   <h1><?= $post->getName(); ?></h1>
   <?= $post->getFull(); ?>
</article>

<p>Views: <?= $post->getViewCount(); ?></p>

Post template with image gallery

Sometimes your post might require a dedicated image gallery. Luckily, this feature comes right out of the box.

Basic example:

<article>
   <h1><?= $post->getName(); ?></h1>
   <?= $post->getFull(); ?>
</article>

<?php if ($post->hasGallery()): ?>
<div class="row my-3">
    <?php foreach ($post->getGallery() as $item): ?>
    <div class="col-lg-4">
       <img src="<?= $item->getImageUrl('500x500'); ?>" class="img-fluid" alt="<?=$post->getName(); ?>" />
    </div>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>

<p>Views: <?= $post->getViewCount(); ?></p>

URL Generation

Categories

To generate a URL for a category by its ID (assuming the category ID is 1), use:

<a href="<?= $cms->createUrl(1, 'News (Categories)'); ?>">View category</a>

Posts

To generate a URL for a post by its ID (assuming the post ID is 1), use:

<a href="<?= $cms->createUrl(1, 'News (Posts)'); ?>">View post</a>

Available methods

Each post entity has the following methods:

$post->getName(); // Returns name of current post
$post->getTitle(); // Returns title of current post
$post->getIntro(); // Returns post's introduction text
$post->getFull(); // Returns post's full text
$post->getUrl(); // Returns post full URL
$post->hasCover(); // Returns true, if post has a cover image
$post->hasGallery(); // Returns true, if post has at least one gallery image uploaded
$post->getGallery(); // Returns an array of gallery entities
$post->getImageUrl('500x500'); // Returns full URL to cover image
$post->getViewCount(); // Returns view count
$post->getCategoryName(); // Returns category name, if available
$post->hasGallery(); // True, if there's at least one uploaded gallery image

To display a time, you can use the following methods:

$post->getTimeBag()->getPostFormat(); // Returns formatted time for post's template
$post->getTimeBag()->getListFormat(); // Returns formatted time for category's template

Global methods

You'd have a global $news object available across all your templates. It has the following methods:

$news->getSequential($postId); // Returns previous and next post entities
$news->getAllByCategoryId($categoryId, $limit); // Returns posts within a category
$news->getRecent($limit, $categoryId = null); // Returns recent posts
$news->getRandom($limit, $categoryId = null); // Returns random post entity