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 (i.e., a user 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.

Tip: For detailed information on user modules, see Tiki Essentials.

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>

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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