Panels 3.2 tutorial guide

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Submitted by dorien on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 13:03

This post is obsolete now that an updated version of the ebook is available. Describing Panels 3 in detail.

Hi!

Panels has done it. It's reached a stable version. The road was paved with many UI changes, but we've finally arrived!

I'm celebrating this with an update on how you can use the panels-tutorials from my ebook with the latest version. A sort of conversion guide if you will...

Installing panels

Many remains the same. You need to Panels package and Ctools. Enable what you need, most importantly panels, views panes and ctools.

Accessing the panel admin page

The new admin page is located at /admin/build/pages

Creating the panel

  • For the profile panel: node/% is now an already predefined panel page. You don't need to create it. Just press enable next to 'node_view' on the page-admin page.
  • For the welcome page: create a new page (bottom of the page-admin page).

Configuring the panel page

  • Variant is the new name for the old context. Add a variant of the panel page for each content type you want to make a panel page for. For instance: profile. Add a feature: selection rule, this will allow us to define a content type for the panel. Click continue, continue... Go through the entire sequence of screens. You will see all the 'old' screens from the book appearing. Once the panel is created, you can access them all from the left menu.
  • The left menu shows all of the items that used to be on the top menu.
  • To add content to a panel pane. Click the little wheel on the top right of the pane whilst you are at the content section of your panel pane. Clicking the wheel will also allow you to change the style of the panel (rounded corners etc.).

Exept from some major layout differences, most things are actually back to normal with Panels 3.2. I just focused on some things that do differ, but by looking around at your screen, you will be able to find everything I talk about in the ebook.

Some tips:

  • I had to re-add my contexts after I updated panels 2 to panels 3
  • First install ctools if you plan on updating Panels 2->3
  • I needed to re-add the views panel pane's to the content of the panel page for them to work after upgrading from Panels 2 -> 3

Related Questions

Comments

1. Man !!! to the total noob

Submitted by Argos on Tue, 11/17/2009 - 09:25.

Man !!! to the total noob this is gibberish. have no idea what you are talking about, and how to solve the problem...

2. Actually, it's 'woman'

Submitted by dorien on Tue, 11/17/2009 - 09:36.

Actually, it's 'woman' :-)

Where is it not working for you? I need some details in order to help you out.

3. Hey dorien, the "Man" was

Submitted by Argos on Tue, 11/17/2009 - 18:00.

Hey dorien, the "Man" was just a figure of speech, i didn't mean to imply....

any ways, i'm confused about the "Configuring the panel page" instructions. i don't even know where to begin, where to look for it and why and if i really need it.

4. I have question on the new

Submitted by safeday on Sun, 11/22/2009 - 16:38.

I have question on the new panel,

When setting Panel Settings

You list argument input from context-node (the argument is the URL will determine which profile to view.

With Panels 3, I see the From Content -

But do not see what to select after, There is Node with a listing of node types.

Can anyone help

Thanks

5. Hello there! To start off,

Submitted by osirisioux on Thu, 12/03/2009 - 21:26.

Hello there! To start off, I'd like to say that up until this point I'm loving the book... It's exactly what I needed! I've had a few hiccups where I've read the instructions, tried to follow them, got tied up, but once I went back and re-read them, I had an "aha" moment and figured it out.

Unfortunately, setting up Panels under the new release is not one of those moments! :-)

I feel like there are some pieces missing in the directions and I'm having a hard time synthesizing what's in the book and in this tutorial. So, I'll take you through my process and hopefully you can help me fill in the blanks or correct where I'm going wrong.

Step 1:
Create panel page. The book says the path to use is admin/panels/panel-page, I understand this has changed to /admin/build/pages. So far so good.

On /admin/build/pages, I click "enable" next to "System node_view Node template /node/%node."

Now, the tutorial says "For the welcome page: create a new page (bottom of the page-admin page)."

I'm not sure what the welcome page is... And my first question is, should I be creating a welcome page before proceeding?

If I do create a new page, it doesn't give me the layout page as described in the book. However, if I click on "Edit" next to "node_view," it allows me to Add a new variant... The tutorial says that variant is the new name for context, so I click on this. Since this seems to resemble what the book describes, I follow this course...

Under "Add Variant" I give it the title "profile."

I'm assuming that since step #4 in the book is moot due to the fact that node/% is already a pre-defined panel page, I skip it.

I name it "profile," and since the tutorial says "Add a feature: selection rule," I do this. When I click continue I get "Selection rules." Am I supposed to do anything here? How do we "define a content type for the panel?" What is the correct selection? The tutorial says "continue, continue, continue" without saying what should be done on this screen, so I just leave it as is and click Continue...

I get the "Choose layout" screen. This matches what's in the book and is familiar. I select "Two column stacked” and click “continue.”

I’m now at “Panel Content.”

I’m not sure what the “advanced settings” referred to in step 5 of the book are, so again I figure I should just keep going…

Step 6 says define a context, so I select “contexts” from the left side.

There’s already an argument here:

Argument 1

Node being viewed
Keyword: %node
%node:uid --> Author UID
%node:nid --> Node ID
%node:vid --> Node revision ID
%node:title --> Node title
%node:type --> Node type

Does this cover what comes after Step 6 in the book?

The book says, “If we navigate to our profile now it will be blank.” It is, but actually doesn’t seem to take on the panel layout either.

The tutorial says “To add content to a panel pane, click the little wheel on the top right of the pane whilst you are at the content section of your panel pane.” I see a little gear in the top left of each pane, I’m assuming that is the same thing. I’m also assuming that this is the equivalent to “the little plus sign” described in step 1 of 4.3.2?

From the little menu that comes up, I click “Add Content.”

The closest thing I can find to “Node Context -> Node Content” is to click on “Existing node.”

But at this point it’s really not matching up with the book.

Sorry if I seem like a complete idiot, but like I said, I’m having trouble synthesizing the book and the new tutorial… I think what would be helpful is a fresh “step-by-step” going through the process assuming that the person doing the process is a complete noob (like me!).

Thanks again for doing all this and for the book, which looks like it has the potential to help me do exactly what I want to do! I just need to get over this hurdle.

Thank you for your time!

6. Step 1: Create panel page.

Submitted by dorien on Wed, 12/09/2009 - 11:34.

Step 1:
Create panel page. The book says the path to use is admin/panels/panel-page, I understand this has changed to /admin/build/pages. So far so good.

On /admin/build/pages, I click "enable" next to "System node_view Node template /node/%node."

Now, the tutorial says "For the welcome page: create a new page (bottom of the page-admin page)."
--> this is for creating the front page (when you get to that part of the ebook)

I'm not sure what the welcome page is... And my first question is, should I be creating a welcome page before proceeding?
--> not necessarily

If I do create a new page, it doesn't give me the layout page as described in the book. However, if I click on "Edit" next to "node_view," it allows me to Add a new variant... The tutorial says that variant is the new name for context, so I click on this. Since this seems to resemble what the book describes, I follow this course...

Under "Add Variant" I give it the title "profile."

I'm assuming that since step #4 in the book is moot due to the fact that node/% is already a pre-defined panel page, I skip it.

I name it "profile," and since the tutorial says "Add a feature: selection rule," I do this. When I click continue I get "Selection rules." Am I supposed to do anything here? How do we "define a content type for the panel?" What is the correct selection? The tutorial says "continue, continue, continue" without saying what should be done on this screen, so I just leave it as is and click Continue...
--> you just need to add a context/argument for the variant: content viewed of of type profile.

I get the "Choose layout" screen. This matches what's in the book and is familiar. I select "Two column stacked” and click “continue.”

I’m now at “Panel Content.”

I’m not sure what the “advanced settings” referred to in step 5 of the book are, so again I figure I should just keep going…
--> :-)

Step 6 says define a context, so I select “contexts” from the left side.

There’s already an argument here:

Argument 1

Node being viewed
Keyword: %node
%node:uid --> Author UID
%node:nid --> Node ID
%node:vid --> Node revision ID
%node:title --> Node title
%node:type --> Node type
--> this is logical, comes with the system view. Here you can add node author context later on, when you need to supply arguments to the view.

Does this cover what comes after Step 6 in the book?

The book says, “If we navigate to our profile now it will be blank.” It is, but actually doesn’t seem to take on the panel layout either.

The tutorial says “To add content to a panel pane, click the little wheel on the top right of the pane whilst you are at the content section of your panel pane.” I see a little gear in the top left of each pane, I’m assuming that is the same thing. I’m also assuming that this is the equivalent to “the little plus sign” described in step 1 of 4.3.2?

From the little menu that comes up, I click “Add Content.”

The closest thing I can find to “Node Context -> Node Content” is to click on “Existing node.”

But at this point it’s really not matching up with the book.

Sorry if I seem like a complete idiot, but like I said, I’m having trouble synthesizing the book and the new tutorial… I think what would be helpful is a fresh “step-by-step” going through the process assuming that the person doing the process is a complete noob (like me!).

Thanks again for doing all this and for the book, which looks like it has the potential to help me do exactly what I want to do! I just need to get over this hurdle.

--> if you hold on a little longer, I will have complete notes for you, that will be clear.

Thank you for your time!