Introduction to Drupal 7 - Blocks management and contexts

Introduction to Drupal 7

Session 5.2

Blocks management

1Course by Init Lab (http://initlab.org)Drupalist: Kalin Chernev

Agenda

• Drupal blocks

• Regions

• Managing blocks the easy and quick way

• Managing blocks in contexts

• Case study – arranging your website blocks

2Course by Init Lab (http://initlab.org)Drupalist: Kalin Chernev

Drupal blocks

• A block is a generic term that is applied to any self-contained piece of content, menu, or code.

• They can be:

– System blocks: login block, search block, etc

– Modules blocks: latest news block, slideshow

– Custom blocks

– Programmatically build blocks (with coding)

Drupalist: Kalin Chernev Course by Init Lab (http://initlab.org) 3

Regions

• In order to place a block into a given place, you need to have a region for this

• Regions depend on the theme you’re using

• To check your theme regions, go to admin/structure/block and click on the Demonstrate block regions


Default Bartik theme regions


Managing blocks

• Managing blocks with the handles

• Using the drop-down options


Managing blocks

• From the contextual links in the front-end

• Then edit the block from the back screen


Blocks tips and tricks

• Removing block title

– The <none> short code


Blocks with configurations options

• Some blocks have configurations

– Menu blocks have list links and edit menu

– Views block have views configurations


Blocks visibility settings by Pages

• You can set whether the block will appear – only a given set of

pages– or on any pages, except

a given set of pages

• You can use <front> short code to target the home page

• We want the slideshow to be visible only on the home page for example


Blocks visibility by content types

• You can set instructions for a block to appear only when a given content type is seen

• In our case we don’t use this option, but you can use it when for example you want to show a relevant articles block only on news articles


Blocks visibility by roles

• You can also set a given block to be visible for a specific user roles only

• You can use this option for example to display a content management menu only for the Office Assistant user role

• Or you can use this settings to show content for Premium (Paying) users only, etc


Blocks visibility by users

• Very rarely used option

• It’s better to define the necessary blocks with your client preliminary and set the blocks for them

• Blocks management in the end is a pretty complex logic for a regular user


Blocks management with Context

• Another way to manage blocks is with the Context module• Advantages

– Contexts can be compiled in features– Contexts can be re-arranged with drag and drop from administrators

with the Admin module– Cleaner way to manage blocks– Clean categorization possible– More options than the default blocks management capabilities

• A bit not so advantages– You have to know what’re doing with a bit of though beforehand, or

you’re re-make contexts all the time– If you have more than 1 block in 1 region, separated in different

contexts, you don’t have control on the order of display of the blocks


http://drupal.org/project/context

http://drupal.org/project/admin

Enabling Context and Admin modules

• Enable the Context core module

• Enable also the Context UI module to be able to configure contexts with user interface

• Enable the Admin module to be able to edit contexts with and inspector and drag and drop

• Go to admin/config/user-interface/admin to place the Admin options on the bottom right (because we have the Administration toolbar enabled on the top)


Let’s create some contexts

• We want the slideshow to be displayed on the home page only

• Go to admin/structure/context and click the “Add” link to create a new context

• Place slideshow_homepage for a name of the context, always make it machine readable

• Place a tag Home page for better categorization• Select a Path condition and add <front> in the field so

that the context is valid for the home page only• From the Reactions, place the slideshow views block in

the Features region, as we have it now


Homepage slideshow context


You can now switch off the block from the blocks management screen

Create a feature for your work

• Taking only the newly created context for the home page with the block should be enough


Time for questions


Contacts

Kalin Chernev

– E: [email protected]

– T: twitter.com/kalinchernev

– U: http://shtrak.eu/kalata


mailto:[email protected]

http://shtrak.eu/kalata

Technology

Introduction to Drupal 7 - Blocks management and contexts