Table of PDFs, one per row

  • Resolved heathy65

    (@heathy65)


    4 years, 3 months ago

    I am trying to configure MLA to work as a document library, primarily for PDF documents. Previously I was using the Memphis Documents Library (mDocs) plugin, but it doesn’t seem to be current any more.

    Being very new to MLA I am struggling a bit. I have been trying to get my head around the example in the documentation “A Table-based Style and Markup Template Example” but am getting a bit lost TBH.

    What I would like to achieve is a simple table with the list of PDFs in it, one per row. I would just want the title of the document in column 1 (click on to open PDF) and a download option in column 2, I don’t want any thumbnail although a very small PDF icon would be nice).

    Any help/guidance appreciated.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • Hi, once David has replied I am happy to help with any hints and tips as I look after a web site using PDFs a lot – https://downtonparishcouncil.gov.uk/main-council/policies and other pages. This is mainly around setting meta data in the authoring package eg Word etc, converting that to PDF and then on upload having MLA extract those values for document titles etc. Must admit not got as far as setting tags from files but may explore that!

    Paul

    Plugin Author David Lingren

    (@dglingren)

    Thanks, @heathy65, for considering MLA and for your question. Thanks as well, @cuckoofairweb, for your offer of additional assistance.

    You can easily adapt the solution in this recent topic for your application:

    Fixed Column Widths

    For your application you can change the second column to a file download link with simple changes in the Arguments section of the markup template. First, change link=none to link=download. Second, add mla_disposition=attachment just below the link argument.

    By the way, you can also change the first column to open the document in a separate tab/window. Change the column content to <a href="[+filelink_url+]" target="_blank">[+title+]</a>.

    To test your templates your shortcode can be as simple as this:

    [mla_gallery mla_markup=my-markup-template mla_style=my-style-template my_gallery_title="Document Library"]

    Just change my-markup-template and my-style-template to whatever names you give your templates. Of course, you will probably want to add data selection criteria to the shortcode; let me know if you need help with that. For example, you can find information about combining search forms with [mla_gallery] in this earlier topic and the several topics it links to:

    list all pdf files

    That should give you several alternatives for your application.

    Regarding the more general topic of document libraries you may find this recent topic of interest:

    Create a DAM with this Plugin?

    I am marking this topic resolved, but please update it if you have problems or further questions regarding the above suggestions. Thank you for your interest in the plugin.

    Thread Starter heathy65

    (@heathy65)

    Thanks both, I missed these valuable replies. I will digest them and loop back as needed. Thanks again.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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