The following tutorial explains in detail how to add pages to Fancy Flash CMS template using XML:

I have taken a Music Band CMS template as an example for this tutorial.

First Step: Adding a page with one content block.

1. Open “/data/pages.xml” file. This file contains all information about the pages you have under your flash cms template. Each page is defined by the following tags:

<page></page>

2. Add the following code anywhere after the closing page tag:

</page>

Here’s the code to add:

<page name="MyPage" mainmenu="1" footermenu="0">
	<subpage name="" footermenu="">
	<pageheader value="MyHeader.jpg" url="" enable="1" />
	<panel position="center" value="mypage/mypage.xml" type="simple" size="1000" enable="1" />
	</subpage>
</page>
Where:
  • name=”MyPage” – The name of the button in menu;
  • mainmenu=”1″ – defines if the button is shown in main menu (=”1″) or not (=”0″);
  • footermenu=”0″ – defines if the button is shown in footer menu (=”1″) or not (=”0″);
  • subpage name=”" & footermenu=”" – those are needed to add subpages;
  • pageheader value=”MyHeader.jpg” –image or flash movie in header. Supported extensions: *.jpg, *.png, *.gif, *.swf. File should be placed under “/assets” directory. Recommended header width – 1000px;
  • url=”" – this makes a banner clickable and sends visitor to the url specified in quotation marks;
  • enable=”1″ – turning header on (=”1″) and off (=”2″);
  • position=”center” – mandatory parameter, central panel should always exist on the page;
  • value=”mypage/mypage.xml” – path to the xml content. “/mypage” folder should be created under “/data” folder;
  • type=”simple” – the type of the page. Variations: simple, news, gallery;
  • size=”1000″ – panel width. Since overall page width is 1000, all the panels should give 1000 in total width sum;
  • enable=”1″ – turning panel on (=”1″) and off (=”2″);

Please note that the source XML file for value=”mypage/mypage.xml” should be taken from “/_templates” directory, and it’s name is simple.xml.

3. Let’s open “data/references.xml” file now. This file defines the order of the pages. We are going to add our page to the very end so you’ll have to scroll to the bottom till you see the following line:

<link id="sitemap" type="sitemap" address="/sitemap" title="Sitemap" />

Right before it add the following code:

<link id="7.0.0" type="" address="/mypage" title="My Page" />
Where:
  • link id=”7.0.0″ – position of the page according to the template: =“Page_Number.SubPage_Number.Gallery_SubCategory”. It should be related to the nearby pages values. As far as the last page before had an id of 6.0.0, the next will be 7.0.0;
  • type=”" – is defined only in case we’re adding items;
  • address=”/mypage” – unique path to the page that will be showed in the address bar;
  • title=”My Page” – Title of the page which will be showed in browser.

All set! Now refresh the template and check your newly created page.

Second Step: Adding a news panel to a page.

Open “/data/pages.xml” file. And find the page code that we had recently added. Right before add the following code:

<panel position="left" value="mypage/mypage2.xml" type="news" size="300" enable="1" />
Where:
  • position=”left” – position of the new block, can be either left or right, as long as we have the center one;
  • value=”mypage/mypage2.xml” – path to the xml content of the block. “/mypage” folder should be created under “/data” folder;
  • size=”300″ – panel width. Since overall page width is 1000, the center panel width should be reduced to 700;
  • enable=”1″ – turning panel on (=”1″) and off (=”2″).

Please note that the source XML file for value=”mypage/mypage2.xml” should be taken from “/_templates” directory, and it’s name is news.xml

Here’s the full page code that you should have:

<page name="MyPage" mainmenu="1" footermenu="0">
<subpage name="" footermenu="">
<pageheader value="MyHeader.jpg" url="" enable="1" />
<panel position="center" value="mypage/mypage.xml" type="simple" size="1000" enable="1" />
<panel position="left" value="mypage/mypage2.xml" type="news" size="300" enable="1" />
</subpage>
</page>

Now renew the page and see the new block appear on the page:

If you have any issues with this tutorial, please post them in comments. I will be glad to help you!
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