Content Parts - slackero/phpwcms GitHub Wiki

A content part ("CP") is one functional block inside an article — a text with image, an image gallery, a form, a search, a teaser list and so on. Every article is a stack of content parts; that stack is what the frontend renders into the {CONTENT} slot of the page layout. Editors add, order, group and hide the parts in the article detail view of the backend.

Full reference: Content parts documentation.

The dispatcher is include/inc_front/content.article.inc.php. It selects the visible, non-trashed rows of phpwcms_articlecontent for the current article, inside their live/kill date window and matching the visitor's login state, and orders them by acontent_sorting (the backend up/down arrows) and then by row ID. Each row is rendered by its own renderer; the dispatcher wraps it with the anchor (acontent_anchor → <a id="cpid<N>">), spacer classes (acontent_before / acontent_after), block assignment (acontent_block, default CONTENT), tab/accordion grouping (acontent_tab), pagination and the back-to-top link.

The layout template may also request content parts assigned to the SYSTEM block through its [SYSTEM] marker.

Types are identified by acontent_type, mapped to backend labels in $wcs_content_type (include/inc_lib/article.contenttype.inc.php). IDs are historical and not consecutive; unlisted IDs belong to removed types.

ID	Backend label	Reference
0	Plain text	Plain text
1	Text w/image	Text w/image
2	Images	Images
3	Link & email	Link & email
4	List	List
5	Link list	Link list
6	HTML	HTML
7	File list	File list
8	Teaser/link article	Teaser/link article
9	Multimedia	Multimedia
10	Email form generator [old]	Email form generator (old)
11	Code	Code
12	Newsletter	Newsletter
13	Search	Search
14	WYSIWYG HTML	WYSIWYG HTML
15	Article menu	Article menu
16	E-card	E-card
18	Guestbook/comment	Guestbook/comment
19	Sitemap	Sitemap
21	Ext. content	Ext. content
22	RSS feed	RSS feed
23	Form	Form
24	Contentpart alias	Contentpart alias
25	HTML5/Flash media player	HTML5/Flash media player
26	Recipe	Recipe
27	FAQ	FAQ
28	Frontend login	Frontend login
29	Images <div>	Images <div>
30	Plug-in	module content part, see below
31	Images special	Images special
32	Tabs	Tabs
33	News	News
50	Rollover images	Rollover images
51	Map	Map
52	PHP variables	PHP variables
60	Custom CP	Custom CP
89	Poll	Poll
100	List	ul-list

Notes:

• ID 30 is reserved for modules and never listed in $wcs_content_type unless at least one active module registers a content part.
• Labels 4 and 100 are both "List": ID 4 converts lines to a simple <ul> (template driven), ID 100 builds nested <ul>/<ol>/<dl> markup from ~ indent markers.
• The table is ordered by ID. The backend select lists the types alphabetically by label by default ($phpwcms['cnt_sort'] = 'a-z'); z-a reverses it, empty keeps the definition order.

A module provides its own content part by setting $_module_contentpart = true in its module.default.php. Registration happens in include/inc_lib/modules.check.inc.php. A row of type 30 stores the module name in acontent_module and renders through the module instead of a standard renderer:

• Frontend render: <module dir>/inc/cnt.article.php
• Backend dialog: <module dir>/inc/cnt.form.php
• Submitted values: <module dir>/inc/cnt.post.php

The row renders only while its module stays enabled. Module-provided types are documented with their module — see the modules reference.

Every standard content part type consists of a small set of files numbered by its ID:

File	Role
include/inc_lib/content/cnt<N>.readform.inc.php	Reads submitted dialog fields from $_POST into $content.
include/inc_lib/content/cnt<N>.sql.inc.php	Builds the UPDATE phpwcms_articlecontent … assignments.
include/inc_lib/content/cnt<N>.takeval.inc.php	Repopulates $content from the DB row when the dialog opens for editing.
include/inc_tmpl/content/cnt<N>.inc.php	Type-specific section of the backend dialog.
include/inc_tmpl/content/cnt<N>.list.inc.php	One-line summary shown in the article's content part list.
include/inc_front/content/cnt<N>.article.inc.php	The frontend renderer.

A type without one of these files falls back to the cnt0.* variants.

Where a content part supports templates, the renderer resolves them in this order: the template selected in the dialog from template/inc_cntpart/<type>/<name>.tmpl, then the shipped default from template/inc_default/<name>.tmpl, then a built-in skeleton in the renderer.

• Content parts reference — every type with backend form, rendering and storage
• Articles — adding and ordering content parts in the backend
• Concepts — how articles, structure levels and content parts fit together
• Modules reference — shipped modules and their content parts