GT-NextGEn Based Blocks Hack from Montego Scripts

Posted on Thursday, October 20, 2005 @ 21:49:55 CDT in Code Hacks
by Raven

montego writes:  
This useful "hack" makes use of the GoogleTap (GT-NextGEn 0.4beta) hack from http://www.gt-nextgen.com and applies it to block files as well. No more modifying actual block code. Simply create a file in the GoogleTap directory with the right naming convention and with the right $urlin/$urlout and .htaccess file re-write statements, and you can GT blocks very easily and only those that matter to you. Get it from Montego Scripts here: GTBlocks Hack Features:
  • After installing GT-NextGEn 0.4, and this hack, you can simply write new GoogleTap files for blocks and .htaccess rewrite rules rather than having to modify block code directly.
  • Uses a very simple hack to the mainfile.php script in the render_blocks function. It will look for a GTB-* file corresponding to the block being rendered.
  • NOTE: Is not intended to work with RSS feeds as these need to remain in the link structure from the providing site as well as content blocks are not supported because you have control over the links directly and therefore, do not need them to be GoogleTap'd.
  • Simply place new PHP scripts in the GoogleTap directory with the following naming convention:

    GTB->

    For example, for the block of Old Articles, it would have this name:

    GTB-block-Old_Articles.php

    You can simply look at the file names in your blocks directory or also within table nuke_blocks.
  • Simply place your urlin/out statements in the appropriate GTB-* file and ensure that the rewrite statements already in GT will cover rewriting the URLs. Add rewrite rules as needed.
  • Two sample GTB-* files are provided in the GoogleTap directory in this download, one for the basic nuke block-Old_Articles.php and the other for Raven's popular block-ForumsCollapsing.php block found at http://ravenphpscripts.com.
It is my intent to continue to write GTB-* files for the core nuke blocks as well as some additional popular blocks, but feel free to create your own and give back to the community by adding the statements in a new Topic post in the Forums and/or give to me to place within the downloads at Montego Scripts. Regards, montego