Miscellaneous

In this section you will be introduced to the other core modules in the “Miscellaneous” section. The list of frontend modules can also be extended by (third-party) extensions.

Article list

With the frontend module “article list” you can output a list of all articles of a column.

Skip elements: Here you define how many elements are to be skipped.

Column: Here you can select the column whose articles you want to list.

Set a reference page: Here you can assign an individual source or target page to the module.

Individual template: Here you can overwrite the standard mod_articlelist template.

HTML OutputThe
frontend module generates the following HTML code:

<!-- indexer::stop -->
<div class="mod_articlelist block">

<ul>
    <li><a href="…#article-01" title="…">…</a></li>
    <li><a href="…#article-02" title="…">…</a></li>
    <li><a href="…#article-03" title="…">…</a></li>
</ul>

</div>
<!-- indexer::continue -->

Random image

The frontend module “Random Image” adds a random image from a certain selection of images to the website. You can select single images or complete folders as source. Existing metadata are evaluated.

Source files: Here you can select multiple files or folders. The images contained in a folder are automatically included in the selection.

Image size: Here you can define the dimensions of the image and the scaling mode.

Large View/New Window: If this option is selected, the image will open in its original size when clicked. This option is not available for linked images.

Show caption: If you select this option, the corresponding caption from the metadata is displayed if available. Otherwise an automatic caption is generated from the file name.

Individual template: Here you can overwrite the standard mod_randomImage template.

HTML Output The front-end module generates the following HTML code:

<!-- indexer::stop -->
<div class="mod_randomImage block">

    <figure class="image_container">
        <a href="…" title="…" data-lightbox="8e0a5c">
            <img src="…" alt="" itemprop="image">
        </a>
    </figure>

</div>
<!-- indexer::continue -->

Custom HTML code

The frontend module “Custom HTML code” adds arbitrary HTML code to the web page.

HTML code: Here you can enter the HTML code. Please note that only those HTML tags can be used that you have enabled in the backend settings under “Allowed HTML tags”.

The module has no enclosing HTML markup.

Individual template: Here you can overwrite the standard mod_html template.

RSS reader

With the frontend module “RSS Reader” you can subscribe to any RSS feed and insert it into your website, e.g. to integrate the news feed of contao.org.

Open the module administration in the backend and select the module “RSS reader”.

Feed URLs: Here you can enter one or more RSS feed URLs.

Total number of posts: Here you define how many posts are displayed.

Elements per page: If you enter a value greater than 0, Contao will automatically spread the posts over multiple pages - given there are enough elements.

Skip elements: Here you can specify that a certain number of posts are skipped from the most recent post of the RSSS feed.

Cache expiration time: Here you can specify how long a RSS feed is stored in the local cache before a new request is made.

Feed-Template: Here you select the feed template.

HTML Output Using the rss_default template, the front-end module generates the following HTML code:

<!-- indexer::stop -->
<div class="mod_rssReader block">

    <div class="rss_default_header">
        <h1><a href="…" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">…</a></h1>
        <div class="description">…</div>
    </div>

    <div class="rss_default first even">
        <h2><a href="…" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">…</a></h2>
        <div class="description"><p>…</p></div>
    </div>
    <div class="rss_default odd">
        <h2><a href="…" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">…</a></h2>
        <div class="description"><p>…</p></div>
    </div>
    <div class="rss_default last even">
        <h2><a href="…" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">…</a></h2>
        <div class="description"><p>…</p></div>
     </div>

</div>
<!-- indexer::continue -->

Using the rss_items_only template, the frontend module generates the following HTML code:

<!-- indexer::stop -->
<div class="mod_rssReader block">

    <div class="rss_items_only first even">
        <h2><a href="#" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">#</a></h2>
        <div class="description"><p>…</p></div>
    </div>
    <div class="rss_items_only odd">
        <h2><a href="#" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">#</a></h2>
        <div class="description"><p>…</p></div>
    </div>
    <div class="rss_items_only last even">
        <h2><a href="#" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">#</a></h2>
        <div class="description"><p>…</p></div>
    </div>

</div>
<!-- indexer::continue -->

Root page dependent modules

An existing module can be selected for each starting point. The module “Root page dependent modules” can then be be inserted in the layout at the desired position to output the various contents.

Helpful to avoid several page layouts, which were needed so far for several start pages (e.g. different languages).

Custom Template

The module “Custom template” offers the possibility to select a template and to define individual placeholders which can be used.

Template data: Specification of one or more key/value pairs.

Module template: Here you can overwrite the default template mod_template.

HTML output
The default template generates the following HTML code:

<dl>
  <dt>Key</dt>
  <dd>Value</dd>
</dl>

See the the Custom Template content element description for an example on how to use the data in the template.