Putting an edition on a page

The content element Blätterbare Ausgabe (page-flip edition) brings an edition onto any page — embedded in the text flow or as a button that opens it in a window of its own.

It needs no column of its own in tt_content: its settings live in the FlexForm field that is there anyway. In a grown installation that matters — tt_content runs into the row size limit of InnoDB at some point, and every extra column brings that day closer.

The settings

Setting	What it does
Edition	which of the built editions is shown
Appearance	embedded on the page, or a button opening its own window
Height	of the embedded viewer, 300 to 2000 pixels
Button label	the text on the button
Preview only	shows only the first pages and offers no download
Pages in the preview	at most as many as the edition allows
Button labels	text, icons only, or both — for this element
Hide here	switches single controls off for this element only

The page module shows a preview of the element with the cover of the edition, its extent, language, build date, size and the settings of this element.

Preview: what it does and what it does not

With preview only the viewer loads a shortened description of the edition and shows the first pages, without download. The remaining page images carry a random string in their names, so they cannot be reached by counting up the address.

Not a protection for gated content

The complete description file stays next to it in the same directory, and it lists every page. Whoever knows the address of the edition has the whole document. For a whitepaper that is only handed out after a registration, the preview has to be an edition of its own — that is what the add-on package builds.

Several elements, one edition

The same edition can appear on several pages, each with its own settings: one page shows it embedded and complete, another as a button, a third as a preview with three pages. The settings travel in the address of the viewer; the built edition stays untouched.