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Frequently Asked Questions v2 |
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Error returns in AA are not consistent, there is a general, low priority, task to clean up the code as we work on it.
In general use the $err array to return errors.
Some specific examples follow, please add others here.
Each of the functions: insert_fnc_xxx sets for example
$err[image.....1] => "Wrong type of file"
The only required parameter to view.php3 script is number of view to show. This parameter is given by vid url variable. All remaining parameters are optional.
Each optional view parameter begins with cmd[x], where x is view number in which the parameter should be used. This is needed because of possibility to include more than view to one shtml page. That's why we need to specify, for which view the command should work.
It is impossible to specify more than one cmd for one view. If you
want to use cmd[]=d for the view, you can't use it with
combination with cmd[]=c, for example.
Above is still true, even after CVS snapshot 20031109,
since when you can also use this syntax: vid=x&cmd[x][]=c-1-<something>&cmd[x][]=c-2-<something>.
Note the extra [].
However, you can use more settings (set[x]) per view. Just seperate settings with a comma, like: set[23]=from-10,to-20.
After the cmd[x]= is always character, which specify which command is used - how modify the view. The c command modifies conditions, for example. The values after command character are user parameters and its meaning is different for each command. The parameters are separated by '-' character. If you need to use a hyphen '-' in a parameter, use 2 hyphens '--' instead. Description of parameters is in following table of examples.
| Parameter example | Description |
| vid=4 | id of displayed view |
| cmd[23]=v-25 | show view id 25 in place of view id 23 |
| cmd[23]=i-24-7464647 | view number 23 has to display item 7464647 in format defined in view 24 |
| cmd[23]=x-24-1589 | The same as i, but there you can use both - short_id or long item id (as the last parameter) |
| cmd[23]=x-24-1589-1545-1612 | Display all three specified items. You can use as many ids as you want (the same works also for 'i' and 'o' cmd). This behavior is used for related fields, where related fields are displayed by{view.php3?vid=33&cmd[33]=x-33-{@relation.......1:-}}. |
| cmd[23]=x-24-url | keyword url means, that item id is taken from url parameter 'x=...' |
| cmd[23]=o-24-1589 | The same as x, but the number of item display (countHit) is not increased (as opposite to 'x' or 'i') |
| cmd[23]=c-1-ICT | display view no 23 in place of view no 23 (that's normal), but change value for condition 1 to "ICT" |
| cmd[23]=c-1-ICT-2-%22Jane%20Smith%22 |
the same as above, but there are redefined two conditions.
All three conditions could be redefined, notice how "Jane Smith"
requires urlencoded double quotes %22 or the search won't work, and the
space turned urlencoded to %20 otherwise it would be interepreted as
Jane OR Smith Since CVS snapshot 20031109 you can also use this syntax: cmd[23][]=c-1-ICT&cmd[23][]=c-2-%22Jane%20Smith%22 You do need to use this e.g. when you want to specify the first condition in your .shtml file, while second one comes from the URL |
| cmd[23]=d-headline........-LIKE-Profit-source.........1-=-Ecn-publish_date....-m:>-86400 | displays view no 23 and redefines the conditions. The conditions are in format field-operator-value. For list of possible operators see search caption. The operators could be with its modifiers, too. The unlimited number of conditions should be there specified. The speciefied conditions allways replaces all conditions specified in view definition (through admin interface). There are three diferences from cmd[]-c command - 1)operators and fields are specified, 2) default view conditions are ingnored, 3) there can be unlimitted number of conditions. The example would show items in which the headline contains 'Profit' and source field is 'Ecn' and the item is newer that one day. |
| cmd[23]=d-headline.......1,category........-RLIKE-Enviro | You can use more than one field in one condition. Example displays items where headline.......1 OR category........ begins with Enviro |
| set[23]=listlen-20 | setings to modify view behavior (can be combined with cmd) - sets maximal number of viewed items in view 23 to 20 - there can be more settings - comma separated |
| set[23]=sort-headline.......1 | set item order (use 'sort-headline.......1-' for descending sort order |
| set[23]=from-10 | - displays items from 10-th (in view 23) - it can be combined with listlen, to, ... parameters (set[23]=listlen-20,from-5) |
| set[23]=to-15 | - displays items to 15-th (in view 23) - usefull if combined with from parameter (set[23]=from-2,to-9) |
| set[23]=page-2-3 | - displays second page from 3 (in view 23) - it didvides all matching items into 3 pages and displays the second one. If you do not specify the second parameter (3 in our example), the page will be listlen items long. |
| set[23]=random-1 set[23]=random-number.........1 |
selects item(s) to show randomly. If you use the 'random-1' parameter, any item in Active bin is displayed. If You use field_id instead of '1', then the content of field specified by field_id is used as probability to show the item. Let's have two items. The parameter looks like 'random-number.........1'. The first item has the number.........1 filled with number 10, the second with 50. Then the second item will be displayed 5x more offten than the first one. The 'weight numbers' and 'number of displayed items' are unlimited. This feature is very good for banners. |
| set[23]=banner-2-38 set[23]=banner-2-38-number.........1 set[23]=banner-2-38-norandom |
by this parameter you are able to display any view (38 in or case) inserted just after the second (2) item in view (number 23). The item shown in inserted view (38) is selected randomly, possibly with weight specified in weight field (number.........1) - just like in random parameter described above. If you do not want use random item (banner), use 'norandom' keyword in place of 'weight field' (good for displaying nested newsbox). See also banner parameter for slice.php3. The example of included banner is on http://ecn.cz. |
| set[23]=noitem-Not%20found | - redefines the 'Not item found' message in view. |
| set[23]=slice_id-79a69a0ad73c81ac332b0e8c4c3cea93 | - redefines the slice from which the items will be displayed. |
| set[23]=slices-79a69a0ad73c81ac332b0e8c4c3cea93-45639a0ad73c81ac332b0e8c4c3cea44 | - display items from specified two or more slices. |
| als[alias] | user alias definition - you can define your own aliases in
url (for both - slice.php3 and view.php3). Aliases names MUST!!! be 8
characters long. Don't forgot, that the alias value have to be
urlencoded. Example: als[MY_ALIAS]=Summary%20Page (or maybe better: als%5BMY_ALIAS%5D=Summary%20Page) defines alias _#MY_ALIAS. If used in formatstring ('Admin - Design Index' for example), it prints 'Summary Page' |
| nocache=1 | URL parameter for pagerefresh - the view is not taken from cache (- no matter if the view is allready cached or not). Cache is updated. |
The slice.php3 is the main script used to display items from database. The alternative for this script is view.php3. The main ussage of slice.php3 script is to include it into some .shtml file by the SSI include command - like:
<!--#includevirtual="/aaa/slice.php3?slice_id=a91256ed53287912d74495d781076bd6"-->
<!--#includevirtual="/aaa/slice.php3?slice_id=a91256ed53287912d74495d781076bd6&listlen=10&no_scr=1"-->
The slice.php3 is there from the beginning of ActionApps, so some of the parameters are quite old. Such parameters are still implemented, but in many cases it is better to use newer - more powerfull substitution for the parametr. That's why the list is prioritized from the most common parameters (which should be used) to the old parameters (which use is deprecated).
The only way, how to display data from slices, where 'Reading Password' is set. See: http://apc-aa.sourceforge.net/faq/#slice_pwd| Parameter | Required | Description |
| slice_id | Yes | id of displayed slice |
| conds[] | No | very usefull for complex conditions - see How to setup the searchform? for conds parameter setting (it can be used as url parameter too - not only form Forms, as described in search section) Example:conds[0][category........]=Environment&conds[1][category.......1]=Waste |
| defaultCondsOperator | No | replaces LIKE for conds with not specified operator - simplified syntax of conds[] uses LIKE operator as default - you can change it by this operator to RLIKE for example (RLIKE is better in many cases - at least it is much faster from database point of view) Example: defaultCondsOperator=RLIKE&conds[0][category........]=Environment |
| neverAllItems | No | if set, don't show anything when everything would be shown (if no conds[] are set) - good for search pages, where on the top (or bottom) is searchform - normaly, for the first time (when you did not send the searchform), all items are shown - if you want to have there only blank page intead, use this parameter |
| sort[] | No | see conds[] - very usefull for complex sorting Example:sort[0][pub_date........]=d&sort[1][headline........]=a (a ...ascending order; d ... descending order) |
| x | No | the same as sh_itm, but short_id is used instead (implemented for shorter item url (see 1767 alias)) |
| iview | No | changes the design of index item listing to the design defined in specified view. The view should be of 'Item listing' type. Example: iview=49 - listing of items generated by slice.php3 will use format-strings as defined in view No. 49 |
| fview | No | changes the design of fulltext to the design defined in specified view. The view should be of 'Fulltext view' type. Example: fview=48 - the item displayed by the slice.php3 script will use format-strings as defined in view No. 48 |
| dview | No | uses specified view for discussions instead of the one specified on 'Slice Admin' -> 'Design - Fulltext' page. (good for testing new discussion view, ...) Example: dview=18 - view 18 is used as tepmlate for discussion design in this slice |
| listlen | No | change number of listed items in compact view Example: listlen=10 |
| slice_pwd | No | Example: slice_pwd=VerySecret |
| no_scr | No | if true, no page scroller is displayed Example: no_scr=1 |
| group_n | No | displayes only the n-th group (in listings where items are grouped by some field (category, for example)) - good for display all the items of last magazine issue Example: ( group_n=1 ) |
| slicetext | No | displays just the text instead of any output - can be used for hiding the output of slice.php3 Example: slicetext=%20 |
| highlight | No | when true, shows only highlighted items in compact view Example: highlight=1 |
| als[alias] | No | user alias definition - you can define your own aliases in url (for both - slice.php3 and view.php3). Aliases names MUST!!! be 8 characters long. Don't forgot, that the alias value have to be urlencoded. Example: als[MY_ALIAS]=Summary%20Page (or maybe better: als%5BMY_ALIAS%5D=Summary%20Page) defines alias _#MY_ALIAS. If used in formatstring ('Admin - Design Index' for example), it prints 'Summary Page' |
| inc | No | for dispalying another file instead of slice data (for example some static html file) Example: inc=/contact.html |
| items[id] | No | array of items to show one after one as fulltext (ids are the long ones - see sh_itm, but there is special 'x' character before each index). Example: items[x5462876e8ab29ac95462876e8ab29ac9]=1&items[x65ac876e8a555b29543ea76e8ab29a34]=1 (doesn't matter which value is given to element (1 or 'on' or ...) - good for display of the form, where you select which item to show) |
| hidefulltext=1 | No | if you add this parameter to url, the fulltext is not shown when you go to page, where the specific item should be displayed. The discussions under the fulltext are not hidden. It is usefull, if you want to show discussions for the item on separate page. On the other hand, probably better results You can get by using fview parameter. |
| banner=2-38 | No | by this parameter you are able to display any view (38 in or case) inserted just after the second (2) item in view (number 23). The item shown in inserted view (38) is selected randomly, possibly with weight specified in weight field (number.........1) - just like in random parameter described above. If you do not want use random item (banner), use 'norandom' keyword in place of 'weight field' (good for displaying nested newsbox). See also banner parameter for view.php3. The example of included banner is on http://ecn.cz. Example: banner=2-38 or banner=2-38-number.........1 or banner=2-38-norandom |
| nocache=1 | No | URL parameter for page refresh - the items are not taken from cache (- no matter if allready cached or not). Cache is updated. |
| searchlog | No | if you add searchlog parameter to the slice.php3 script on some search page, all searches (by conds[]) are logged into database table searchlog. There are logged not only the conds[] parameters, but also the time, which database spent on the query. The access to the log is for superadministrators only, right now. You will find it on 'AA' -> 'Misc - ' page in AA admin interface (or you can look into searchlog table in the database). |
| scr_url=script_name | No | scr_url parameter is answer to problem mentioned in apc-aa-general mailinglist (apc-aa-general mailinglist). If you try to include the slice.php3 into your php3 script by calling include("http://www.sitename.org/apc-aa/slice.php3...");, the page scroller do not work, becouse the called script (slice.php3) do not know from which script it was called. But the scroller should know it - scroller should point to the same page - to the calling one. By scr_url parameter you can define the name of calling script. Example: include("http://www.sitename.org/apc-aa/slice.php3?...&scr_url=%2Fscripts%2Findex.php"); ('%2F' stands for ' / ' character). |
| sh_itm | No | id of item to show - if specified, selected item is shown in full text Example: index.shtml?sh_itm=01ac1b10fae13c0a61c5292ba72d70b1 |
| restrict | No | field id used with "res_val" and "exact" for restricted output (display only items with "restrict" field = "res_val" Example:restrict=category........&res_val=Environment&exact=1 |
| res_val | No | see restrict |
| exact | No | if set, restrict field must match res_val exactly (=) otherwise substring is sufficient (LIKE '%res_val%') |
| order | No | order field id - if other than publish date add minus sign for descending order Example: order=headline........- |
| timeorder | No | if rev - reverse publish date order (less priority than "order") Example: timeorder=rev |
| scr_go | No | sets page scroller to specified page Example: scr_go=2 |
| encap | Yes for not encapsulated | determines wheather this file is SSI included to .shtml file (<--#include virtual="... ) or called directly as slice.php3 Example:encap=false |
| cat_id | No | select only items in category with id cat_id Deprecated - better to use restrict and res_val parameters - or even better conds[] parameter |
| cat_name | No | select only items in category with name cat_name as substring Deprecated - better to use restrict and res_val parameters - or even better conds[] parameter |
| srch | No | true if this script have to show search results Not supported from AA v1.5 |
This FAQ interface was developed by Jason at Commons.ca
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ActionApps is a free software content management system initiated by
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