Stacks add-on
Sidekick
Sidekick is a set it and forget it style tool, allowing you to add dynamic content to your pages that can be conditionally shown to your visitors based on your preferences.
Once published Sidekick handles your dynamic content, making changes based on URL parameters, current date, time of day, and more. Below we'll not only look at the settings for the main Sidekick tool, and its child items, we'll also explore using Sidekick in our tutorial walk-thru video.
Tutorials
Getting aquatinted with your new Sidekick
Below we look at what each of the settings within the Sidekick tool does. This is good reference in case you get stuck when building pages, as well as to get an idea of what controls exist before you purchase it.
Above we offer a getting started and walk-thru video to get you up and running using Sidekick. We encourage you to watch through that video before getting started or purchasing Sidekick.
Below we have a more in-depth look at what each of the individual settings within Sidekick do and how you use them.
Parent Tool
The main Parent tool for Sidekick acts as both a hub for its child items, as well as a control center so-to-speak for some of its settings.
Timezone
YOUR TIMEZONE
Here we set the timezone for the page. This timezone will be used when calculating time and date based triggers. This is usually the timezone that you're located in, but could also be for example the timezone of a store or business whose website you're building is located.
Insertions
CURRENT YEAR INSERTION
Enabling this feature allows you to insert the current year dynamically within your page's content. We simply add the class name sk-year to the element on our page where we want to dynamically insert the current year.
As an example, if we've enabled this feature in Sidekick, we could add the class name above to a Header or Text tool and the contents of that tool will be replaced with the current year.
Likewise if we want the year inline within content we could apply the class name to a <span> tag like so:
© Copyright 2006-<span class="sk-year">0000</span> Elixir Graphics
In the example above the <span class="sk-year">0000</span> would allow Sidekick to replace the text inside of the <span> with the current year.
CURRENT DAY INSERTION
Enabling this feature allows you to insert the current day dynamically within your page's content. We simply add the class name sk-day to the element on our page where we want to dynamically insert the current year.
As an example, if we've enabled this feature in Sidekick, we could add the class name above to a Header or Text tool and the contents of that tool will be replaced with the current day of the week.
Likewise if we want the day of the week inline within content we could apply the class name to a <span> tag like so:
Happy <span class="sk-day">day</span> visitor!
In the example above the <span class="sk-day"></span> would allow Sidekick to replace the text inside of the <span> with the current day of the week.
Additionally we are able to localize the text for each of the seven days of the week. You could use this to put the days in your own language or even abbreviate them if you like.
CURRENT MONTH INSERTION
Enabling this feature allows you to insert the current month dynamically within your page's content. We simply add the class name sk-month to the element on our page where we want to dynamically insert the current year.
As an example, if we've enabled this feature in Sidekick, we could add the class name above to a Header or Text tool and the contents of that tool will be replaced with the current month of the year.
Likewise if we want the current month inline within content we could apply the class name to a <span> tag like so:
Happy <span class="sk-month">month</span> visitor!
In the example above the <span class="sk-month"></span> would allow Sidekick to replace the text inside of the <span> with the current month.
Additionally we are able to localize the text for each of the month. You could use this to put the months in your own language or even abbreviate them if you like.
LAST PUBLISHED INSERTION
Enabling this feature allows you to insert the date that the current page was last pubslished on. This let's your visitors, and perhaps even yourself, know just how up to date the current page, and its information might be.
This page was last published on <span class="sk-last-published"></span>
In the example above the <span class="sk-last-published"></span> would allow Sidekick to replace the text inside of the <span> with date of the last publishing of the page.
Additionally we are able to choose the date format style for the Last Published date as well.
PHP Information
PHP INFO
Emabling this checkbox adds a bit of instructional text regarding PHP based pages. The text it adds to the Edit Mode window is as follows:
Sidekick will set your page's filename extension to .php for this page. If you've previously published your page with a .html page extension you'll need to login to your server via your FTP client and delete that .html file once you've published your page with Sidekick present.
Child Items
The child items for Sidekick provide a lot of the conditional based elements found in this tool.
You can add new child items by clicking the [+] at the bottom of the parent tool. These items can then be dragged and dropped elsewhere on your page.
Below we'll look at each of the child items and their individual tool settings:
URL Parameter Child Item
The URL Parameter child item allows us to add content to a page only when a variable, and its appropriate value, is found in the URL. This is often seen like so:
https://myuniquesite.com/?id=value
https://anawesomesite.net/?name=Theodore
URL PARAMETER
Here you'll enter the Variable as well as the associated Value that you want Sidekick to be on the lookout for. When the URL contains the Variable and that Variable is set to your chosen Value then the content within this child item will be added to the page.
FALLBACK CONTENT
When enabled you'll be given a drop zone in Edit Mode for your Fallback Content. Fallback Content is added to the page in the event that the Variable and your associated Value are not found within the URL. Fallback Content is completely optional.
Date Child Item
This child item adds content to your page only that appears before or after a specific date, or during a range of dates.
SHOW
This drop down allows you to choose whether the content in this child item will be shown before, or after a specific date, or during a date range.
MONTH, DAY, YEAR
These three fields allow you to set your month, day and year for your date triggers. You'll be given start and end date fields for a date range.
Note the triggers begin and end at midnight of the date that is chosen. Keep this in mind when setting your dates.
FALLBACK CONTENT
When enabled you'll be given a drop zone in Edit Mode for your Fallback Content. Fallback Content is added to the page in the event that the date conditional is not met.
Day of Week Child Item
This child item adds content to your page on a specific day or the week, or select multiple days of the week.
MODE
Here you'll choose wether you want your content to be added on one day or multiples.
When a Single day is selected you'll receive a drop down letting you choose which day you want to trigger the content on. When Multiple is selected you'll get 7 checkboxes allowing you to mix-and-match the days you wish to add your content to the page.
FALLBACK CONTENT
When enabled you'll be given a drop zone in Edit Mode for your Fallback Content. Fallback Content is added to the page in the event that the current day of the week does not match one or more of your selected days of the week.
Time Child Item
This child item adds content to your page during a specified period of time each day.
START & END
Choose your start and end time for your content here. Time is set using the 24 hours clock.
FALLBACK CONTENT
When enabled you'll be given a drop zone in Edit Mode for your Fallback Content. Fallback Content is added to the page in the event that the current time does not fall within your time range above.
Clock Child Item
This child item adds new content insertion options to Sidekick's parent tool. The allows you to insert the current time, in a constantly updating clock format, right into your content! Choose a specific timezone, or let the clock take on the visitor's time. You can choose a 12- or 24hour clock, turn AM / PM on or off as well as include seconds.
Add multiple Clock child items to Sidekick and you're able to include multiple clock inserts for multiple time zones.
Please watch the tutorial video to see how these clock inserts work.
As an example you can insert a Clock using your unique ID like so: <span id="your-unique-clock-id"></span>
This would allow Sidekick to replace the text inside of the <span> with constantly updating clock from this child item.
UNIQUE ID
This is the ID which you'll use for inserting your clock into your content. IDs can only be used ONCE per page.
APPLY CUSTOM TIMEZONE Allows you to choose the timezone for the clock insert for this child item. Disabling this feature will show the visitor's current time.
INCLUDE SECONDS Let's you add a seconds counter to your clock.
12-HOUR CLOCK Choose whether you'd like you clock for this child item to be shown as a 12- or 24-hour clock. AM/PM is automatically disabled for 24-hour clock display.
REMOVE AM / PM Allows you to remove the AM / PM from the 12-hour clock.
Operating System Child Item
This child item adds content to your page if visitor's operating system matches your chosen OS.
SHOW ON
This drop down contains a list of operating systems that Sidekick can detect. If the visitor is using the selected OS then your content will be added to the page.
Something to note regarding iPad detection: Apple currently defaults iPadOS to identify itself as macOS in the Safari settings within the iPads Settings app. This is found in the "Request Desktop Website" section. This means iPad visitors will most times be identified as macOS to Sidekick, as most people are unlikely to turn this setting off on their iPad.
FALLBACK CONTENT
When enabled you'll be given a drop zone in Edit Mode for your Fallback Content. Fallback Content is added to the page in the event that the visitor's OS does not match the OS that you've chosen in the SHOW ON setting above.
Random Content Child Item
This child item adds allows you to add up to 10 different zones to your project. When the page loads Sidekick will choose one of the drop zones to add to your page.
ITEMS
Allows you to specify how many items you'd like to provide Sidekick to choose from. The minimum is 2 and the maxiumum is 10.