Hiding brochure pages in the menu bar

[NutriPod]

Hello all,

First post and already asking for help...I'll explain from the beginning and then maybe you can point out where I've gone wrong!

I want to be able to add a variety of article pages to my site, to add them all as fragments to one brochure page would make the page way to long and unweildy and not very user friendly. So it was suggested to me to have one brochure page called 'articles' or similar, then create an individual brochure page for each article, hide those pages in the menu, and then create links on the 'official' article page to each hidden brochure page containing the text. Hope you're following me there.

So, I've done all that, and followed (and rechecked) all the instructions in the Advanced User Guide to set up the true/false variable....and nothing happens, I can still see all the brochure pages in the menu...what went wrong? The site is based on the 'Best Seller' theme if that makes any difference and is in V9.

Any help and suggestions most appreciated.

Thanks

Jenny

[Duncan Rounding]

You can have these 'articles' as products. Use a simplified layout and then you can place them all in one section.

[animal dreams]

You don't need to create actual products unless you want use something like related products, but as Duncan suggests using sections/sub-sections allows you to create an heirarchical structure with automated linking.

Much easier than hidden pages and hard-coded links.

[NormanRouxel]

Welcome, Jenny

What you're trying sounds fine and should work.

Create a Brochure variable of type "Tue/False" called HideBrochurePage with a default value of false.

Then in layout Vertical Brochure Page List replace the line:

<actinic:variable name="BrochurePageLink" />

With:

<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22HideBrochurePage%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20false"><actinic:variable name="BrochurePageLink" /></actinic:block>

You should now be able to hide the pages at will.

You can hand-code links into other brochure fragments like this:

!!<
<a href="HiddenPage.html">Hidden Page</a>
>!!

There's one quirk. Actinic won't find these pages on Preview (preview filenames are prefixed with "P_") so we need to add a bit of JavaScript trickery to our links to fix this:

!!<
<a href="HiddenPage.html" onclick="this.href=this.href.replace(/PreviewHTML\//,'PreviewHTML/P_');">Hidden Page</a>
>!!

[NutriPod]

Thanks Duncan & Alan for your suggestion, I may very well have a look at that if I can't get the original plan to work right!

Norman, is the problem with the preview view why my original bit of block code didn't work then do you think? Where does the bit of code go to sort out the preview problem?

Thanks!

[NormanRouxel]

Jenny,

Norman, is the problem with the preview view why my original bit of block code didn't work then do you think?

No. Your original problem was that you could still see all the pages in the menu and nothing to do with getting links to them working on Preview. This implies that your True/False variable or Condition is wrong. As you didn't post any code I've no idea what you've actually done.

I tested my code (#4 above) and it works fine.

Where does the bit of code go to sort out the preview problem?

On your visible "Articles" brochure page, in a Fragment / Fragment Details / General Tab / Text. I posted a complete link. Use that as the basis for your own ones.

[NutriPod]

Ok, sorry, I'm with you now on the links, read that slightly wrong the first time.

Must be doing something daft though as having set up the block as you advised I can still see the pages in the menu.

(Apologies for typo on your name, now edited and corrected!)

[NormanRouxel]

having set up the block as you advised I can still see the pages in the menu

Perhaps you've put the code into the wrong place, or the Variable you're using isn't working as expected.

For diagnostic purposes temporarily put the Variable somewhere you can see its value. In in layout Vertical Brochure Page List:

Hide:<actinic:variable name="HideBrochurePage" /><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22HideBrochurePage%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20false"><actinic:variable name="BrochurePageLink" /></actinic:block>

If you don't see "Hide:0" or "Hide:1" you're in the wrong layout. If the value is always the same you're using the variable wrongly.

[NormanRouxel]

Here's a screenshot of my variable. It would help if you can post screenshots and code snippets.

[NutriPod]

I'm thinking I'm maybe in the wrong layout - I'm looking at the layout of a Brochure Page (as per AUG instructions), whereas you are referring to layout Brochure Page List...

[NutriPod]

Here's a screenshot of my variable. It would help if you can post screenshots and code snippets.

Mine looks exactly like that.

[NutriPod]

I've done it!! Many thanks for your help...and for bearing with me!!