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leelo
07-03-2007, 10:55 AM
OK i'm close to purchase but i need more info on what the newsletter allows me to do.

Can i custom code the header sent out ? I don't want my menus attached as they are all javascript anyway and will be non functional.

Can i, instead of having the gazette do all the work for me, have hand created stories in the left side boxes instead of recent topics etc ? We write newsletters based on the last month of the website and i'd prefer to human write than just a series of links. Each topic would be in its own box.

I see there is a statistics box in the newsletter you send out on the right hand side, can i also have a most popular thread of the month box there and does that module exist ?

As i said in earlier posts, i'm still not 100% clear what the mod can do as the documentation in the wilki doesn't really cover it for me.

Looking to your response.

The Geek
07-03-2007, 05:13 PM
Hey there.

You can tweak any of the templates GAZ uses. It uses its own templates instead of vB's for that very reason. The ones that come with GAZ have no javascript in them :)

There are text blocks that let you enter whatever text you want and to place them wherever you want (as many times as you want). Therefore you can have GAZ generate newsletters with modules that contain things like recent threads, then edit the modules to insert whatever text you want to customize it.

HTHs!

leelo
07-03-2007, 05:17 PM
ok so if i had the following :-

Lead in story one
some text

Lead in story two
some text

Lead in Story 3
some text

can i have them in each separate box ? And if so is that going to be complex for me to add them ?

And regards the side boxes, is there one that displays the most active threads since the last update ?

The Geek
07-03-2007, 05:29 PM
Hi Leelo,

That is correct. Each newsletter and issue has a module set. That module set contains a group of user placed modules. THere you can add the text or info block however you need to and they will generate the content as you want.

The only hesitation I have is that if all of your issues use the same module set and you ever rebuild the data, it will rebuild your old newsletters with the current text in them.

Yes, you can specify to pull from the most active threads since last update :)

leelo
07-04-2007, 06:12 AM
Mmmm i'n not sure i'm following you with the rebuild thing. Does that mean if i need to rebuild i'll loose all my data ?

The Geek
07-04-2007, 08:30 AM
GAZ makes a cache of each newsletter so that it can be browsed later on down the road.

You can always choose to rebuild the layouts (i.e. you tweak any templates GAZ uses) or rebuild the data (which also rebuilds the layouts). If you rebuild the data, GAZ will rereun the data generation section of the module which means that it will regenerate your text. If all the issues are using the same modules, then they will all get the same text.

Hope that helps to clarify :)

leelo
07-04-2007, 06:06 PM
Oh thats a worry. Surely doesn't the data get kept in the database ?

The Geek
07-04-2007, 07:08 PM
Yup. My point is that if you rebuild the data, the data will be regenerated :)

leelo
07-04-2007, 10:19 PM
so this would be bad then ? Im not quite getting this. Are you saying that if i use one of the modules to insert regular newsletter content that if i rebuild it at a later date my entire back issues of newsletters will look the same as the new one ? I.e. the same data etc ? If so that has me very worried, why on earth would the code allow that ?

The Geek
07-04-2007, 11:40 PM
No, its not bad.

THere are 2 modules that allow you to insert text into them. They do not 'pull' data from the database, the text is either entered into the issue, newsletter or the module itself. Therefore if you rebuild the data, the text that resides in the module will be used as there is no other data to 'pull' from. You can easily accomplish what youre after by having a module inherit the issue text. However that will only be good for 1 block of data.

Saying that, it would be easy enough to create a module that persisted the text. There just isnt one availible right now.

leelo
07-05-2007, 07:19 AM
Ok let me see if i understand you correctly. If i use one block for all my newsletter text, using an issue (whats an issue ?) then rebuilding data wouldn't replace my old newsletters with the new one right ?

The Geek
07-05-2007, 09:03 PM
Correct.

An issue is what gets sent out to your subscribers. Issues are generated by newsletters (think of a newsletter that is a factory sending out your issues).

HTHs