if anyone was wondering, i threw the pics together in photoshop to reflect somewhat of what i'm looking for

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Baby I'm sorry, Wordpress was just a fling. A mistake, a huge mistake. Me and you b2, we're the real thing. Can you forgive me? ;o)

Evo-410 wrote:

1. Is there anyway the "Home" link can display ALL POSTS from the multiple blogs I have?

I'm guessing by "home link" you mean home page, and if so then "yes". Simply aggregate all blogs into whatever blog is your home page blog. Lots of exciting doors opened with that possibility, but for now "yes".

Evo-410 wrote:

2. Where do I customize the navigation, post entries, and comments?
2a. I want to know how/where to center/customize the nav and be able to move it to a different location on the page.
2b. Want to customize post comments to look like the pic below(blog comments); avatars, customize look of comment bubble, add related post, share posts, etc.
2c. Customize post like pic below (blog front page). Where/what files do I customize to be able to move the post entries on the page?

Gah! Multipart questions break blood vessels in my brain then my ears start leaking. THANKS!

Navigation is pretty much going to be a widget, so you hit "blog settings" then pick a blog then put the appropriate widget in the container that matches the part of the skin you want the navigation in. Hopefully that gets you going a bit.

Customizing comments isn't hard or easy. Not a very good answer, but accurate enough ;)

I think 2c is all about aggregation again. Not sure. All I saw in the screen shots was boobies. I'm that way I guess.

Evo-410 wrote:

3. How to add flash to the page (i want to add rotating banner) but will add to static page (pic-static front page) if i can't get the #1 question resolved.

There exists a Free HTML widget that lets you put HTML stuff into whatever container you like. Container being a section of your skin eh? I'm pretty sure putting flashy doodads will work that way, though you might actually want to plunk it directly into your skin.

Evo-410 wrote:

4. How to add recent posts/comments to a static page?

I have no idea. To me static pages, either the b2evolution version or regular .html pages, are totally obsolete. It can be done, but hey when you put 6 questions into one post you get what you get!

Evo-410 wrote:

5. How to display all categories to "Home" page from all blogs.

We're back to aggregation I think :) Or something else. Maybe a categories widget + aggregation?

Evo-410 wrote:

6. How and what files do I edit to display link categories below the nav like in my pics?

Heck I dunno. Editing files isn't always needed anymore. I'd be thinking of another "Free HTML" widget styled nicely to get extra links where you want them.

4. How to add recent posts/comments to a static page?

Check the summary.php file.

Basically you need to add the following code to get the latest posts/comments

require_once 'PATH_TO_BLOG/conf/_config.php';
require_once $inc_path.'_main.inc.php';

load_class('items/model/_itemlist.class.php');
load_class('items/model/_item.class.php');

$BlogCache = & get_Cache( 'BlogCache' );
$ItemCache = & get_Cache( 'ItemCache' );

$post_date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', time());

$SQL = 'SELECT post_ID FROM T_items__item
		WHERE post_status = "published"
		AND post_datestart < "'.$post_date.'"
		ORDER BY post_ID DESC
		LIMIT 0,20';

if( !$results = $DB->get_results($SQL) )
{
	echo 'Posts not found!';
	return;
}

for( $i=0; $i<count($results); $i++ )
{
	$ID = $results[$i]->post_ID;
	if( $Item = & $ItemCache->get_by_ID($ID) )
	{
		echo '<a href="'.$Item->get_permanent_url().'">'.$Item->title.'</a><br />';
	}
}

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I've been on travel so I didn't have much time to try the things you've suggested but will try this week. I really appreciate you answering all the questions I had but I do have some more that may be a little simpler...

Are there any limits to Free HTML? Can I include Header, Body, and Dive tags or am I limited to changing font to a different color, size, etc? Can JavaScript be added to Free HTML?

Final question, how do you aggregate all blogs? In a post would I put:

[blog x1]
[blog x2]
.
.
.
[blog xx]

???

I'm not sure why one would even want to put the <body> tag in a bit player inside a page, but anyway I'm pretty sure you actually could do it. It wouldn't add any value and would invalidate the code, but it might actually let you do it. Same with a header div. The page, depending on your skin, already has all the structural divs you need, so - again - you could maybe get away with it but what would be the point?

No you are not limited to font stuff. That sounds more like a span tag inside your post. The Free HTML widget puts bits of HTML somewhere on your page other than the actual posts section. So for example let's say you wanted to play in one of those webring things. Or maybe some sort of third-party traffic counter. They give you a chunk of code and tell you "stick this on your page". That code goes in a Free HTML widget which you place in the container of your choice. Maybe it's in the Sidebar, or maybe the Footer? Which by the by touches on javascript. Yes, javascript works in the Free HTML widget. In fact ANY html works in there, but ... wow ... adding a body tag makes no sense. Sorry, it just doesn't.

Aggregating blogs is a matter of going to your Blog settings, picking a blog, hitting the ... probably Advanced subtab, and telling it what blogs you want aggregated into the blog you're doing settings for. Then any posts you put into whatever blog will also show up in the posts list of the blog you're using to aggregate other blogs into.

Hope it helps.

EdB, thanks for the clarification. I'm new to this so please excuse some ridiculous questions I may have :>>

I'll try some of the suggestions out tonight/tomorrow and provide an update.

Yeah cool. I was thinking "this guy needs to just use it" but for some reason that advice doesn't seem to work. Best way to get to know a software though is to click stuff and see what it changed eh? So yeah give it a test drive. If you mess stuff up no problem: just wipe it out and start over :)

When stuff starts making sense you'll be like "okay now I'm getting it but I still can't seem to get {{whatever}} to work the way I'd like". That'll be a good time to ask a new question yah? Not that you won't get answers anyway - just sometimes the questions sound like "I haven't tried ... " so the answers sound a bit ... er ... rough I guess.

Have fun with it! Hope it works as you'd like!