Creating Custom Exhibit Templates for external items

I would like to create a few exhibit templates that allow embedding of items outside of the Omeka archive.

For example, I'm imagining 2 templates built for embedding YouTube video (one in which the video has text wrapping around it and one in which the video stands alone. Also, one in which multiple external images could be brought into a version of the image-gallery-top template and another in which a single external image could be set inside wrapped text.

So my question is this: What is the easier way to accomplish this; by adding fields to the existing templates or by creating new templates?

My concern with new templates is that I would have to modify the Exhibit Builder admin theme to allows users to choose the template. On the other hand, having an additional template might be better for allowing easy updates of the plug-in.

I'm curious what you all think and if you can point me to any resources.

Best -- Erin

Hi Erin,

Really interesting idea. It would definitely be easier to create new templates, since the current templates rely exclusively on the helpers for Omeka items.

You don't have to modify the Exhibit Builder admin theme to allow users to choose the template; Any new layouts you add to the 'exhibit_layouts' directory will show up as a choice automatically. You also wouldn't necessarily have to modifiy the admin theme to accept different kinds of data. With the YouTube example, you could make a layout that has just text fields, but uses those text fields differently. So, your first text field could take the embed HTML for a YouTube video (or the URL to the video), then you could use that data to display the video. The second text field could be for the text you want wrapped around that video.

There are issues with this, namely the TinyMCE editor that's turned on by default for textareas.

Right now, Exhibit Builder stores either an Item ID or a Text Field. You could do just about anything with that text field. For example, you could simply put a URL (the path to an image on Flickr, for example)in a text field for a layout, then add this to your layout's layout.php file:

<img src="<?php echo exhibit_text(1); ?>" />

This may not be ideal, but it might be a good start. For these examples, how would you like to enter/save the data? What kind of data or resources outside of your Omeka installation would you like to use in exhibits, and how would you like to add those in the interface? It could be we could add some upgrades to Exhibit Builder to better serve yours (and others) needs.

Let me know if this helps,
Jeremy

Thanks Jeremy. I was kind of moving in this direction, but the only thing that threw me was that TinyMCE editor and the default text box dimensions.

I deactivated the TinyMCE editor in plugin.php, but it defaulted to HTML entry rather than what I expected - something similar to the item entry fields. Is there a way to make a text entry box with no editor that will strip out HTML unless the "Use HTML" box is checked? That would be ideal.

Is there a way to resize the text entry area so that it can be made clear that a given field is for a URL, while the other is for the text?

Is it possible to modify the exhibit_builder_layout_form_item() function to achieve this? Possibly by creating a duplicate function with a new name and some modifications (fewer rows, different classes, etc.)?

In an ideal world, exhibit items would be added in a manner similar to WordPress media, with a choice to add from the whole Library or from a URL, but I'm sure that is not a realistic near-term goal.

To answer the question of why (a good one), we are trying to address some issues that arise from our student and teacher users. They don't always make great judgments about what kind of materials belong in a digital archive, and often will add things for use in their exhibit which are restricted by copyright, are not related to the site theme (Cleveland history), or are just completely ridiculous (one person added MS clip art). We still want to give them some freedom in constructing their exhibits, but don't want them adding unnecessary clutter. Thus, embeddable media templates seemed like a good option. they do what they want in their exhibit space without compromising/burdening the site owners.

Aside from this and the Contributor issue (addressed in the next release), the only other feature I would like to see in Exhibit Builder(and will soon be amateurishly pursuing) is a template that is well suited for audio display. Right now, it's kind of buggy.

But I am generally pleased with the plug-in. It does what it needs to do.

Thanks again for the thorough and thoughtful reply. -- Erin

Is there a way to resize the text entry area so that it can be made clear that a given field is for a URL, while the other is for the text?

Is it possible to modify the exhibit_builder_layout_form_item() function to achieve this? Possibly by creating a duplicate function with a new name and some modifications (fewer rows, different classes, etc.)?

This should be possible, and I think could be a pretty useful addition to the plugin.

I deactivated the TinyMCE editor in plugin.php, but it defaulted to HTML entry rather than what I expected - something similar to the item entry fields. Is there a way to make a text entry box with no editor that will strip out HTML unless the "Use HTML" box is checked? That would be ideal.

Sounds like something we forgot to implement. There should be a way to do this I think. I'll look at this more closely and get back to you.