If you intend to use the .tpl option for these blocks, you will need to make some changes.
Just a refresher. To use the .tpl option:
1. a. All skins:
Set the block to use .tpl in the Admin->Blocks->Options for that block.
1. b. A single skin:
In the skins variables.php add:
$blocks["BLOCK"]["tpl"] = 1;
where BLOCK is the name of the block.
In 2.0 would look something like this:
<!-- START BLOCK : recentblock -->
<span class="text">{recenttitle} by {recentauthor} ({recentrating})<br> {recentsummary}<br><br></span>
<!-- END BLOCK : recentblock -->
This is an example from the eFiction skin. This is also how the block would look in 1.1 using the same method.
In 3.0, I set it up so that these blocks use the storyblock.php include. Why? So there's only one place to make changes when changes need to be made. This also lets you use all of the variables you can use in the storyblock in any of these other blocks.
Therefore, in the example above, {recenttitle} becomes {title}, {recentauthor} becomes {author}, etc.
Here's the recent block from the CSSZen skin included with the download.
<!-- START BLOCK : recentblock -->
<div class="recentbox">
<div class="title">{title} by {author} {roundrobin} [{reviews} - {numreviews}] {new} </div>
<div class="content"><span class="label">Summary: </span>{featuredstory}{summary}<br />
<span class="label">Rated:</span> {rating} {score}<br />
<span class="label">Categories:</span> {category} <br />
<span class="label">Characters: </span> {characters}<br />
{classifications}
<span class="label">Series:</span> {serieslinks}<br />
<span class="label">Chapters: </span> {numchapters} {toc}<br />
<span class="label">Completed:</span> {completed}
<span class="label">Word count:</span> {wordcount} <span class="label">Read Count:</span> {count}
<span class="label"> Published: </span>{published} <span class="label">Updated:</span> {updated} </div>
</div>
<!-- END BLOCK : recentblock -->
For the featured block use "featuredblock" instead of "recentblock" and for the random block use "randomblock". Anything you can include in the storyblock in listings.tpl can be used in these blocks as well.
Notice you can include a lot more information in the block now.
Again, these changes affect the recent, random, and featured blocks.
