I been rolling over these ideas in my head for a few weeks and it took me two days to make it all come together. I decided to assign a color to each topic and that color is consistent through out the whole articles module. I will go over some of that later.
On the front page you will see I changed some stuff around about how the articles are displayed. The "new" icons have (for now) two different meanings.
= Means at least one new article exist for that topic that is less than 1 week old.
= Means at least one new article exist for that topic that is less than 2 weeks old.
The front page or known as the control panel behind the public forums, will display titles from at least 3 new articles and the older ones will be pushed into their proper topics. Once an older article is pushed into a topic on the CP (Control Panel), that topic will be listed first with its appropriate "new" icon.
If you click on an article link you will of course be take to it immediately with one new feature added. I incorporated a link at the top, beside the title so that you may continue to browse that topic if you wish simply by clicking on it.
If you click on a topic link from an article you will be taken to a page that looks very similar to the image below. The new features on this page are easy to navigate pagination and of course a clear definition of what topic your browsing. If you notice in the image below there is a link beside the topic name that says "Topics" and it will take you back to the topics page where all topics are listed. The "new" icons are also implemented on this page.
If you choose to go back to where all Topics are listed you are going to see a page with a major overhaul. Like other parts the "new" icon was implemented here also along with a jquery expand / collapse script that will allow you to view the 10 latest articles per topic. The expand / collapse script was modified to use cookies so if you open one, it will remain open for the life of that cookie.
The idea here was to make the articles module much easier on the eyes and functional. I might be the only one, but believe I it is a very important part of Clan Themes and I might even dare to say that we have the best articles/news module in the business. I have a few more ideas, but if you have any suggestions please feel free to share. As with anything it is a work in progress and I am sure I will find some bugs to occupy my time. Sigh...
Floppy,
Clan Themes Staff
