solved Stymied by Site Builder

I've just migrated my Mini network from Ning, with Paul's help (thank you!) I'm trying to get it as simple and streamlined as possible before I invite my group members in. I'm on the NingJa skin.

Among other efforts, I'm trying to move things around on the home/index page using Site Builder (and make the Activity section show everybody everybody's activity). I'm encountering two major obstacles:

First, as soon as I make Site Builder active through my ACP, my top menu disappears. Gone is the "Home Forum Images Video Profiles" navigation. Only ACP and my username remain. Is this normal? So it means the Site Builder module needs to be disabled whenever I'm not actively using it?

Secondly, when I go to the Home page (via my logo) while Site Builder is active and click on the Site Builder button and Page Config, I get a pop-up dialogue that tells me I have to create a fresh Site Builder page. If I say OK, I'm given the opportunity to create a page from scratch. That's a lot harder than dragging things around on an existing page. Is there a way for me to start with what I've got and modify instead of being forced to create from scratch?

Thanks,
Leslie
updated by @lesrinchen: 09/12/16 09:15:12PM

The way things worked before site builder is:
* a skin designer builds a set of templates in a skin that the user of the skin then modifies.
* a skin designer links all those pages together in the menu of the skin.

When you turn on Site Builder its turning on a different way of doing things.

Site builder allows you to build your own menu and structured layouts for each page.

You can use the same links that exist from the skin in the menu, but you'll need to re-add them to the menu.

So if you want to use site builder, take note of the link locations that exist in the menu that you want to keep, and add them back into the menu. Then you can drag them around where you want them to go.

--
To add the activity timeline to a location on a site builder page:
* go to the page
* setup the page layout
* add a widget to a section on the page
* choose "Item List" and select the "Timeline" from the "List Module" dropdown.
* in the "Order By" section choose "_created" and "descending" so that you get the most recent at the top.
* click SAVE CHANGES
* click VIEW CHANGES

and your timeline will appear.

Hi Leslie - I'm sure you have found them already, but if not, the SiteBuilder docs. are here - https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/documentation/site-builder/2634/what-is-site-builder
Pa


--
Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

I think I've got it, Michael. The proof will be in the doing! Will keep you posted.

And thanks, Paul. Yes, I'd read the Site Builder documentation but felt like I couldn't get to the starting line. I think/hope I've got it now. Sure to be up late again tonight!

Does this mean I have to choose one way OR the other (template editing or site builder pages) and can't go back and forth between the two? Specifically, is it necessary to turn off Site Builder before modifying existing templates using html?

I have someone trying to help me modify my User module index.tpl template (the page visitors to my private site will see when they're not logged in). And he's not having any success getting the new page to show. I wonder whether it's because we have Site Builder enabled.

This is the doc he wants:

Docs: "Altering a Modules template"
https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/documentation/development/1051/altering-a-modules-template

It shows the correct way to override a modules template.

Skins work like this, if you add a .tpl file to your skin called lesrinchen.tpl then that wants to control the URL:
yoursite.com/lesrinchen

and just adding it to your skin will make it show up. These are the .tpl files you see when you turn on a new skin, they are from .tpl files in the skin. So to change that page you can change the contents of that file OR you can over-ride that page by turning on site builder FOR THAT PAGE.

Choosing the DELETE option from the site builder menu on that page will bring back whatever was showing before.

By "....help me modify my User module index.tpl template....." It sounds to me like you are editing this file:
/modules/jrUser/templates/index.tpl

Which controls the url
your-site.com/user/

Are you sure thats the one you want? Normally that file would just be a list of users if you wanted to show that. What is the goal?

Thanks, Michael. I believe that user page is the one visitors to my Jamroom site see if they're not logged in. My site is a private meeting space for students enrolled in my art program. I set it to Private (no pages visible). So when visitors arrive, they see the screenshot below. My goal would be for them to see instead a kind of landing page for my teaching program, from which new visitors could be invited to click a link to Learn More on my main website, while enrolled students could sign in to the private site. Is that possible?

Definitely possible, think we've outlined the how-to somewhere before, looking for it.

If you have a how-to, that would be great!

There were bits and pieces all over this forum, but I didn't locate one that exactly outlines what you're asking, so have written up a howto here:

Docs: "HowTo make the site visible to members only"
https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/documentation/jamroom-admin-handbook/4357/howto-make-the-site-visible-to-members-only

Thank you so much, Michael. I appreciate your putting these special instructions together. We'll work on it in the next few days and get back to you if anything's unclear.

In the meantime, I've been trying to build a new home page (for logged in users) with Site Builder. I've got a page now that LOOKS pretty good, but isn't functioning properly yet. I'm having a helluva time getting the widgets to populate correctly.

I want to show latest Forum posts (the Forum for use by all users is on the Community profile. I've tried ordering by _created and ordering by _updated. Don't know which is appropriate for showing the thread with the most recently started or commented upon. Either way, the links to the posts don't work because they direct to individual profile forums (which don't exist) rather than to the Community Forum where the discussions actually are.

I also want to show latest images posted OR commented upon. I think I've got it now showing latest posted (ordered by _created) but that won't bring to the front an old photo that gets a new comment. Is there a way to do so? Should ordering by _updated do that?

Maybe a widget listing Latest Activity would be best to cover both these functions. But I'm not sure how to be sure I'm listing EVERYBODY's activity on all modules, rather than just activity of followed profiles. This is a tiny private group. For engagement to work, I need EVERYBODY's activity/comments/posts to appear.

Finally, the Tag Cloud widget is only displaying 9 tags, even though I've set the tag limit at 30. On the default home (index) page of the template, the Tag Cloud shows about 25 different tags I've added to images. Why are they not all showing on the Tag Cloud Widget I add in Site Builder?

I'm really hoping I'll manage to make Jamroom work for my community. And feel very supported by your responsiveness, and Paul's. But I'm getting very discouraged with how few things seem to work the way I think they're going to. I'm afraid it may be beyond my grasp.... Please help me see that's not so.

I would think this "OR" would cause the two things to fight against each other- I'd think you have to choose: order images by either the most recently added image, OR by images with the most recent comments. Or else have a separate gallery for each of those two 'ordered by' factors.
On most sites I see, gallery images are usually shown by most recent images posted, and the latest Comments posted on items (including latest comments on images) all show up in the main page Activity Feed/Timeline.


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Much better idea to throw each question into its own thread with a descriptive title about the goal otherwise things get so long and convoluted that nobody reads the thread and even those following get confused.

Topics I can see in your question:
* "How do I get Site Builder to just display Forum topics, not forum posts"
* "In Site Builder, how do I show the latest images posted OR commented on"
* "Tag cloud widget is only displaying 9 tags even though the limit is 30"

I love it when I can click the 'solved' button, this thread is past being solvable.

Thanks, Michael! I got this to work. Just had to go back to the Site Settings and turn my Privacy back to Public to make the whole thing work.

Other issues were posted to separate threads, so we can call this meandering topic "solved" now. Many thanks!