Blank Module
Now available with an integral selection of graphical backgrounds and Surrounds. This feature can be extended with an additional media package(free).
Take a look at the site media page for a selection of screenshots.
In addition to the main text area in the backend there are also several options to select a background colour and position your module accurately.
Module suffix parameter enables CSS styling option.
Includes localization for French/German as well as English.
But always have to do the same hacks to solve this:
-Module background does not support transparent background, it always ask you a color.
-At the end it appends two tags, breaking the layout. It appears it's a sepparation between html and php and content blocks. It has to be in layers I think.
For the rest is great. Thanks.
The module has now been updated with these issues in mind.
Thanks a lot...!
So I decided to code them by myself. This Blank Module is like a heaven-sent tool to someone like me who is tired of using the only available modules.
What's awesome is when I encountered a problem and emailed the developer, he responded immediately which helped me fixed the problem asap.
Highly recommended module for web designers.
Besides from the messy and verbose coding, the module parameters are not done well at all. You have to select an ID number from a finite list for each module you add, and if you don't, the IDs will clash in your code. The module suffix parameter just doesn't do anything, for some reason random tags are added to the output... it should have been called the Almost Blank Module.
The scary part is this is the best custom code module that I can find on the JED...
There are many things in life that are scary. Slightly long code isn't one of them.
You mention the module class suffix , not all templates allow this to work in all positions.
Otherwise this feature works fine. In situations where it doesn't work you can use the ID numbering.(A feature you seemed not to like)
As for the "random tags", templates often encase modules in their own code and this can give the appearance of the randomness you mention. But it doesn't come from this module.
This module may have more code than others but it also does more. It also produces standards compliant output.
Now I have to go and look at my scary credit card statements.
This module places code properly.
There are input boxes for content to go to the module position and there is also one to place content in the section of the page.
In this case I would imagine that the user has placed a javascript snippet in the section for the section.
Some scripts do indeed go in that section. Many do not.
Those scripts would go in the area for html.
Wrongly placed scripts produce the result the reviewer describes.
This not just a feature of this product or Joomla but a feature of Javascript in general.
This module offers unrivalled flexibilty in an easy to use package.
If the reviewer would care to contact me I am sure that this simple issue can be easily resolved.
Most of the code the reviewer mentions is related to the optional use of graphics. If the graphics are switched off the extra code does not get rendered. There are very few if any other modules in this section which offer optional graphics so I feel this point is unfair.
Also I would ask the reviewer to bear in mind that modern internet speeds are much higher than they were just a few years ago and that additional lines of code have no real effect on loading times of a page.
I did some tests the home page of Joolma.org, this had a total load in excess of 500k and a clean install Joomla with the default scripts installed had a total load of in excess of 250k. The code which the reviewer mentions adds approx 2k per page per module. In short it is negligible. You can check this out at test sites such as pingdom.com
In addition I would point out that when I write code I do try to make it readable. It would be very easy to write code with very short single letter id and class names.
I like to think that I write code that is well presented in the true spirit of open source, meaning that the code is readable not just available.
