Travelling News

Mar 26, 2009

I want to put a news feature on my website, but I want it to be different. I like the scrolling news idea, but not the ticker type. I have a Javascript that will provide the functionality of the scrolling news but I need to integrate it with the News module of the CMS system. Here is what I needed to do:

• Create a Javascript file for the scroller functionality
• Create a new summary template for the News module to use
• Create a User Defined Tag that calls the Javascript file
• Modify the News module to display a Javascript array of news items
• Add a parameter to the News module call to include "summarytemplate='scroller' "
• Call the UDT on the main template

I created a Javascript file with the current script that I have. The script iterates through an array of news items scrolling through each one. I then modified the News module default page, so that it displays the Javascript array of news items. I created a new Summary Template called scroller. The scroller template only displays the Javascript array of news items. I created a User Defined Tag that calls the Javascript file. I added the UDT to the my main template, right after the News module call. I also added the parameters to the News call so that it would use the 'scroller' template instead of the 'Summary Template' See the finished product on the left.