Creating Custom Modules

When you added a poll to a module and included a menu in a module, you created a custom (albeit simple) module instead of selecting a pre-defined module. In addition to adding Tiki objects (such as polls and menus) to modules, you can use HTML or Smarty syntax as well.

• Creating Custom Modules
  • Using HTML
  • Including Smarty

Using HTML

You can add custom HTML to a module. This allows you to add widgets, application, and scripts from other sources. For example, you can add an automatic weather forecast (from www.weatherreports.com) to a Tiki module. Simply create a new module and add the HTML code:

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript1.2" src="http://weatherreports.com/jscript.html?width=125&height=125&theme=lred_no_search_box&location=Washington%2C%20DC&units=f"></script>
<div><a href="http://www.weatherreports.com/"><small>Free Weather Reports</small</a></div>

Figure: The module includes the weather report for Washington, DC.

Including Smarty

You can include Smarty syntax in your modules to do all sorts of neat things, such as displaying Tiki variables. For example, using this code:

Hello {if $user}{$user}{else}anonymous visitor{/if}!

will create a module that:

• If the user is logged in, the module will show:
  Hello the user's name!
• If the user is not logged in, the module will show:
  Hello anonymous visitor!

Warning: If you include Smarty coding in you templates, it must validate properly, or your pages will not display. Refer to this troubleshooting tip if Tiki displays a message indicating a Fatal Smarty error.

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