Hello there! I'm in the process of utilizing omeka to produce a decent sized site and am running into an issue that I was hoping you all would be able to help explain something to me. My current plan is involving heavily modifying a current theme (deco) and adding in a bunch of html5 and landing pages in between the content. For each genra of images I am hoping to create a separate landing page with its own functionality(In addition to omeka's). What I am currently having a hard time understanding is how I will go about adding sub directory indexes to the site. If I add - /themes/mytheme/subdirectory/index.php and then input the path in my browser I get a 404. So I suppose that this is a problem with either .htaccess or something more complicated in the framework that I will need to modify. My question is what would you recommend? Forgive my ignorance, I have programmed but this is my first php website, let alone one of this magnitude.
The missing ingredient is the underlying Zend Framework routing system. Basically, the URL is parsed to find the controller and view, which line up with the theme's directory structure. So, when Omeka sees a URL like:
/items/show/1
it gets routed through the Items Controller, and the show action within it, which passes the relevant data to a view in the theme that matches the controller and action in the directory structure:
/items
show.php
In a nutshell, adding new files and directories in the theme won't work, because they won't align with a controller.
Depending on the details, you might need to start with the existing structures, and branch to include different files for the different kinds of display.
Thank you Patrick I had a fear that I was bumping up against the framework. So from what I am reading now, if I want to create a new view (@ /department/)I will create a plugin that has the view of the page itself. For the use of a department system that holds specific collections would you see any other way to format this?
I'm not sure what the best approach might be. Could you tell more about what you are trying to achieve?
Totally I'm sorry for being a bit vague, So my goal is this. I am working to create a archive for a gallery. The gallery has 3 departments, and in those three departments there will be many unique collections(artists). I would like to create a separate page that I will call Department(s) that will mostly contain some dynamic content and fixed links to specific collections. I have toyed with the concept of writing everything into the collections/browse but have found this a bit unruly to try and manage. So where I am thinking I will be going.
Create new plugin (departments)
--have it pull code from 3 separate tables in my database
I would like to have an editable region on the top of each department where I can feature specific exhibitions either by using a built in function or creating a new one of my own, and use tiny mce to update these areas.
My other thought has been to try and adapt the simple-pages plugin to my needs by adding some more features. This I don't believe I have the knowledge to complete though, as it currently doesn't seem to play nice with complicated code.
Thanks! That sounds like a reasonable plan so far. it sounds like you'd need a model for the department info, views for the public show and admin add/show/edit, and a controller to stitch them together. Depending on what you are thinking for how to connect up the departments and the collections, there might be another linkage table between the departments and the collection. What are the 3 tables you see needing to pull data from?
For what you mention about featuring specific content, that sounds like when the plugin does queries for the records it needs, it could just use the existing featured flag.
That thought about adapting simple pages is indeed tempting, especially if you want to make pretty urls that contain the department name. But it might indeed be more straightforward to build up what you need, then look at SP for examples of how to do things like add tiny mce and just follow that pattern.
Thanks so much for taking your time to post a response. I guess I wasn't thinking at the time of writing that last post as I will not be directly talking to my database for my departments. I would most likely be pulling hyperlinks and thumbnails based on tags. Your post gives me a lot to think about. I will be working on this project over the next several months so I look forward to seeing you around, I'd love to show off to ya what I've got soon, still to early for alpha testers :) .