Create the community frontpage you always wanted just with drag&drop! This plugin & template set let’s you create a beautiful frontpage in the style of magazine or newspaper websites. You can display content from all your IPS apps: Core (Clubs, Calendar), Forums, Pages, Gallery, Downloads, Blogs. That’s 9 block types in total! But there is more: You choose the look of each block from 6 different layouts! Mix and match however you like! Feature a single article, show your recent clubs, albums, blog entries … It’s totally up to you. And instead of the dull stock block listings, SuperBlocks are appealing and engaging by showing images and teaser texts from the items of your feeds.
What’s needed:
- Pages application
- You should be familiar with setting up Pages blocks
How does it work:
The SuperBlocks plugin provides templates for regular Pages custom feed blocks. So you get the full power of Pages custom blocks with all their settings and filters. And you use the blocks like any Pages block. You just assign a SuperBlocks template at the end to create a more stylish look for the block.
The SuperBlocks templates can be used in the main content area of any community page, which supports drag&drop slots. It doesn’t work in the sidebar and is not meant for pages with multiple content columns (e.g. a 3-column Pages page). You can create entire Page Builder pages with SuperBlocks or place individual blocks anywhere on your site. SuperBlocks in the main content area work with or without a sidebar next to them.
The layouts are chosen through the number of items you pick (or have) in your feed block. A value of “1” creates one big featured entry. “2” puts two entries next to each other with the first highlighed. “3“ puts three entries in a row. “4” features the first entry and shows the other three entries as a list. “5” uses a two by three grid. “6” features one entry, shows images for two more entries and shows the rest as text only in another row. Higher values than six will be ignored. On mobile the number of entries is reduced to save bandwidth and screen space.
SuperBlocks are of course responsive and by default the templates will try to balance the use of hi-res and low-res images. You can fine-tune this in the plugin settings in accordance with your app image settings and the pages you are creating using SuperBlocks. The templates with more entries are also automatically reduced to fewer entries on mobile devices.
What’s included:
-
Pages block templates in 6 different styles for each of the following feed types:
- Pages: Record Feed
-
Forum:
- Topic Feed
- Post Feed
- Calendar: Upcoming Events
- Clubs: Club Feed
- Download: Files Feed
- Blog: Entry Feed
-
Gallery:
- Image Feed
- Album Feed
-
A settings plugin with these features
- Show block titles on desktop
- Show block titles on tablets
- Show block titles on phones
- Key color
- Secondary color
- Badge overlay color
- Image settings per app to influence quality and page loading
Preview
Installation & Usage Instructions
Creating SuperBlocks
- In your ACP go to Pages > Blocks
- Create a new block from one of the following types: Pages: Record Feed, Forum: Topic Feed, Forum: Post Feed, Calendar: Upcoming Events, System: Clubs, Download: Files Feed, Blog: Entry Feed, Gallery: Image Feed, Gallery: Album Feed.
- Change filters and feed ordering the way you like it. Pick a number between 1 and 6 for the number of items in the feed. (Higher numbers will be ignored.)
- In the block settings open the last tab labelled Content.
- Pick the available SuperBlocks template in the Template select box. Now save the block.
- Repeat these steps to create as many SuperBlocks as you want.
Adding SuperBlocks to your site
- You can add SuperBlocks to any page that support drag&drop widgets. If you want to create an empty page first, go to Pages > Pages and click Add Page. Create a new page using the options Page Builder and Single Column.
- Now go to the front end and open the sidebar widget manager by clicking the Manage Blocks button on the side of the screen.
- Select the Custom Blocks widget from the Pages section and drag it to one of the content column hot spots. (SuperBlocks will not work in the sidebar and they are not recommended for pages with multiple columns. But you can place other blocks in the sidebar if you want.)
- After the widget was added, click Edit to select the SuperBlock you created previously in the ACP. Repeat this step until all your SuperBlocks were added to the page.
Changing Settings
- To change the appearance of your SuperBlocks, go to System > Plugins and click Edit on the SuperBlocks Settings Plugin.
- You can control the colors used for horizontal bars and the category badge as well as the visibility of the widget title bars.
- You can also control the image use of the widgets per app. You can either choose if thumbnails or hi-res images should be used or how many images should be used (if the resolution
- can’t be changed). The number of images also depends on the block layout you choose through picking the number of items in the feed.