Extension: MD Dulee Noted. A non-editable note field type to add instructions to weblogs

I’m not sure there’s an available hook to be able to add this type of field to the custom category fields

Ryan, have you had a chance to check? I am using Category custom fields extensively in some projects and it would really help the editors to have some help statement into the Category dialog box. If it is possible, I may finance the additional development.

I actually just came upon a need for this myself only yesterday. I’ve never really used the category custom fields before, but the second I went in to use them I realized they do not have any instructions - so at least an MD Dulee Noted field at the top could help things out.

The main problem I see is that even if there IS a hook, MDDN uses the existing instruction textarea for a field - and there simply isn’t one here to use. I’m not clear where the instructions would be stored.

Well…at the minimum, your MDDN custom category field could display a text area for us to enter instructions. When displayed in the Category editing window, it could then have a different style than the others and be not editable.

Does that textarea require a new, separate, MDDN table to be created then? If there is no instruction field already there to populate and I have to manually make a textarea appear - I’m just wondering where I’m actually storing the data that you would enter there. I’d have to either make a new table or add a column to the existing exp_category_fields table, or something similarly crazy.

Maybe the thing to do is put in a feature request for Custom Category Field Instructions?

I cannot help you about this, Ryan. ‘Not a EE extension developer or even expert programmer. I am on the user interface/consulting side of this business. Let me know when you had time to evaluate this further. Thanks!

I hear you on that. I looked at the category custom fields table and there is just nowhere to put this information. Unfortunately it’s structured differently than the regular custom fields table.

I agree that this area could use instructions as well as other custom field types, but I don’t think it’s possible at this point.

Oh well. I added a feature request. Thanks for checking!

No problem. I added my $0.02 to the FR as well.

Ryan, I see myself repeating a lot of instructions from Weblog to Weblog.

Would it be possible to add a server-side include command into the field? That would allow me to write/edit these instructions into an include file to call wherever I need it.

Not sure. I don’t know if the EE CP would allow PHP code to execute in the instruction field (if you’re talking about a PHP include or require statement)

The instruction field will accept an iframe. That is solving my problem.

That combination is actually very powerful: you can build a complete set of publishing instructions in HTML and just show the appropriate page for that weblog into the iframe. A time saving too: only one place to edit the content; much easier to re-use for other clients.

That’s a very interesting tip - I’d like to add that as an available option on the MD Dulee Noted docs page (as well as the page at devot:ee). Are you putting all the instructions for a site into one HTML file and then only showing certain parts, or are you making multiple HTML files and keeping them in a directory?

In my case, it would be a full instruction “web site” with multiple files.

Did you know that the instruction field can also accept a flash object?

Here is what I succesfully tried today: For another client I had produced a classic “paper” instruction manual with InDesign. It included a hyperlinked TOC and was delivered as a PDF. This afternoon, I uploaded it as a private document to the Scribd/iPaper web site. (Scribd converts a document to an iPaper format that can then be embedded (as Flash) into a web page (same concept as FlashPaper).)

Results: - A print-quality manual that you can easily print. - That you can also view and navigate into the instruction field. - For each weblog, you can edit the embedded code to start with the appropriate page. - A more flexible design approach and simplified graphic production that makes the full process much faster. With InDesign, you can build hyperlinks and buttons for a full interactive experience.

Michel, that is really an interesting solution. Thanks for sharing that tip, and the photo.