[Resolved] Nesting Toolset functionality in body of hand coded pages.

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[gaianH]

Hello I'm in kind of a bind.

I'm trying to overhaul my website but part of that has involved hand coding a great deal of the sites functionality. Things such as a nav bar, and the display body and whatnot are kind of uniquely developed.

If you browse: hidden link
You can see the header/nav bar. The idea here is that it acts as a dashboard that would be included in all pages and sub domain pages, below it is a window for the page content. When you click on the Login/Register (or subsequently the User) dropdown, it expends/hides the dashboard adjusting the body position to display the body content in full.

Currently it's its own hand coded page with all the includes and styles and stuff coded in. My next step is in somehow integrating layouts and wordpress into it. On my subdomains I query the WP database manually and create the page based on those queries. However, with the database installed directly to my main domain and my design built around using toolset layouts for the corporate page bodies and content how would I go about integrating this?

Do I need to make my own theme and build all this custom stuff into it?

Should I just query the database manually and code the pages by hand so I don't need to wrestle with making a theme? How would I go about utilizing layouts in the body if that's the case?

My nav dashboard uses PHP and JS commands to populate and control it. Would I be able to create a theme and somehow push commands to it (my nav dash) through the posts/pages that I make in the WP dashboard?
-The expand/hide sliding is a JS function.
-Adding the links to the nav bar is a php command I put in the header to allow for easy nav links based on the page.
-Populating the dash with the corporate menu, login menu, user links, and other future interfaces is another php command which I can set on a page by page basis.
-Auto showing the dash as you can see in the genomestudios 2018 page, done with JS.

You can see on this subdomain (which is all custom coded) that I've set the links reflective of the page: hidden link

Ultimately I'm having a hard time finding out how to move forward. I aim to display a lot of media content posts and have a fair number of custom page layouts for project info (with multiple projects dictated by post types), blogs, contact. But it appears to me that it would be easier to manually create all my pages and simply query wordpress for the content...
However when it comes to text heavy posts and information pages it'd be great to utilize layouts to break apart the content.

Any advice or guidance would be GREATLY appreciated.

[Beda]

I navigated your Websites, and I notice that you already use Toolset successfully:
hidden link
The entire site is built with Toolset Layouts and other Toolset components.

Hence I assume you are already quite familiar with this Plugin.

It seems you use a WordPress Multisite Install, if you speak of "subdomains"?
Or are they not built with WordPress as CMS, like the site shared above?

In any case, Toolset cannot be used on a Multisite in terms of sharing it's contents.

You need to:
1. activate Toolset either network wide, or on each sub install,
2. each install will need it's Views, Types, Layouts etc.

You could create them once and use Module Manager to export from one site to another, so you do not need to recreate the same designs.

But you can not use Toolset's contents in a network on all sites, if they are made in one site only.

That said, this is what is possible with the GUI, and what is suggested by us.

Eventually you could achieve your gaol with custom code, but WordPress stores each sub-site's data in a separate place.
Only Users for example, are shared.
Posts are not, and that is where most of Toolset happens, in the posts and meta tables.

This means, that even if you call a certain layout or a View, or simply just a post, with a Custom Database Query so to apply it somewhere, this is:
1. expensive in terms of performance,
2. it's not something we could provide Support for.

You would need to write your own queries and grab the right data from the right database.
You would eventually spare some time in the HTML design, since that could be done with the Layout Plugin, but you still need to call the contents manually, unless you design each sub site in the WP Admin with the Plugins.
As said, we offer the Module manager, this is very helpful to design things once, and then apply them to several sites by importing the created Toolset contest and designs.

About integrating Layouts, in any WordPress Theme that uses the_content() Toolset Layouts will replace exactly that part of the Code.
But, if you are willing to integrate it with manual PHP (it's not a complex code), then you can also style the rest of your template, by just adding the_ddlayout() to the Template you want to design with Toolset Layouts.
This function supports as well a Layout Slug (Slug of the Layout), so you can call specific Layouts if you want.

This is usually done in a WordPress theme, since WordPress needs a theme to run.
I can offer you this simple educational Theme which is integrated with Toolset Layouts, you can use it however you like, it is a great Theme to understand WordPress Theme coding in general and Toolset's Integration in particular:
hidden link

It will show exactly how you can integrate or call Toolset contents in your PHP code.

If you require specific help on how to replicate the design of the two subsites you shared, with Toolset, I can help with this in a ticket for each issue.

Please let me know if I missed anything, and do not hesitate to open tickets for single issue you eventually stumble upon using Toolset.

[gaianH]

Hello Beda,

You are correct in assuming that I know, to some extent how to operate toolset and it's features.

Currently my site configuration is as such:
I have Genome Studios, it has WP installed and is registered with Toolset. It has settings made to allow for queries and user access from *.genomestudios.ca

On my subdomains, I include the accesses to the WP which allow me to query post data, user data, etc. from outside of the WP Theme. The reason for this is that I usually need only specific post content on my subdomains and otherwise just need persistent useraccess.

What this means is that I only have one WP database, which serves as my main site and is accessible on all child sites.

Where I struggle is that with my current site I'm forced into certain things. I cannot put in my own menu. I can't include scripts that I need for some or all of my pages, various menu's and interfaces can only be manipulated with check boxes in the settings, and I can't make pages that have complicated custom functionality.

What I am hoping to have is my own custom site/theme that I control and manage (include my scripts and custom site functionality, and then have it so that I can call layout and views myself to inject the content into the body of the page so that I can have all the nice scaling and dynamic functioning of toolset within.

It seems to me that you're suggesting that that is what I can get with what you're saying about the_content(), the_ddlayout(), and MinimaX1.

Is that what you're saying?

[Beda]

More or less yes.

I am not suggesting to use one database for a Multisite, even less I am suggesting to create your queries to get that Data and then populate programmatically your sub sites.
I do not suggest it because it requires a lot of custom programming and it may be performance expensive.

But yes, you can create your own theme (you can use Minimax as a base) and in this theme of course you can put any new code you wish.
If you know how to get Views from a main site to display on a subsite programmatically, there is nothing that I object in doing it.
It's just not the supported or intended way to do that.

In the Theme I suggested you will, as a programmer, probably think "those are too many comments" (In my code, in the theme).
This is just to make sure, the Theme fulfills it's educational purpose.

The code comments can help you to understand how the things work behind the scenes, or why certain code has to be in place, what you can alter and what not.

I must point out again that Toolset is not built to be used as a cross-site tool, and the supporters here could not give assistance on such setups, as our plugin is intended to be used on a single site basis, practically as any other plugin or theme as well.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you need further informations.

[gaianH]

Thanks!