So it took quite a while to figure out that the mast-col position will not show unless sidebar-1 or sidebar-2 is selected. It is not explained anywhere about this in the documentation (at least not that I could find).
This (to me) seems to lack functionality to what is otherwise a very good template. In my case, (I always use the content left layout) I have a couple of short pages and only want to have mast-col showing. Needless to say when I did that and did not have a sidebar-1 or 2 selected on those pages nothing showed at all. I was so confused and frustrated and ready to pull my hair out because it took quite a bit of time to figure out why.
As luck would have it, I managed to duplicate and hack the mainbody-content-left file (code below, which I'm no expert so I don't know how correct it is) to make it work but not everyone can do this. For me it is important that no matter what I have selected (mast-col, sidebar-1, sidebar-2, etc.) and in whichever way I want it to show - it should show, it should work the way I want it to, it should not be dependent on having a sidebar-1 or 2 in use also.
<?php
/**
* @package T3 Blank
* @copyright Copyright (C) 2005 - 2012 Open Source Matters, Inc. All rights reserved.
* @license GNU General Public License version 2 or later; see LICENSE.txt
*/
defined('_JEXEC') or die;
?>
<?php
/**
* Mainbody 3 columns, content in left, mast-col on top of 2 sidebars: content - sidebar1 - sidebar2 - mast-col-2 on bottom
*/
// positions configuration
$mastcol = 'mast-col';
$sidebar1 = 'sidebar-1';
$sidebar2 = 'sidebar-2';
$mastcol2 = 'mast-col-2';
$mastcol = $this->countModules($mastcol) ? $mastcol : false;
$sidebar1 = $this->countModules($sidebar1) ? $sidebar1 : false;
$sidebar2 = $this->countModules($sidebar2) ? $sidebar2 : false;
$mastcol2 = $this->countModules($mastcol2) ? $mastcol2 : false;
if ($sidebar1 && $sidebar2) {
$this->loadBlock('mainbody/ourfile-two-sidebar-right', array('sidebar1' => $sidebar1, 'sidebar2' => $sidebar2, 'mastcol' => $mastcol, 'mastcol2' => $mastcol2));
} elseif ($mastcol && ($sidebar1 || $sidebar2)) {
$this->loadBlock('mainbody/ourfile-two-sidebar-right', array('sidebar1' => $sidebar1, 'sidebar2' => $sidebar2, 'mastcol' => $mastcol, 'mastcol2' => $mastcol2));
} elseif ($sidebar1 || $sidebar2) {
$this->loadBlock('mainbody/ourfile-two-sidebar-right', array('sidebar1' => $sidebar1, 'sidebar2' => $sidebar2, 'mastcol' => $mastcol, 'mastcol2' => $mastcol2));
} else {
$this->loadBlock('mainbody/ourfile-two-sidebar-right', array('sidebar' => $sidebar1 ? $sidebar1 : $sidebar2, 'mastcol' => $mastcol, 'mastcol2' => $mastcol2));
}
?>
Thoughts or comments?
krumz