I made a marketplace for layouts for layout designers to showcase their layouts and allow for an easy way to install new designs without having to constantly mess around with the HTML code.

The way it will work is that when you create a new marketplace layout, you enter your HTML code in the layout code box as usual. But instead of lorem ipsum text for test content, enter {CONTENTID1}, {CONTENTID2}, etc instead. What this does is that when a user finds your layout in the marketplace and wants to use it, they just have to activate it for it to automatically show up in the section they activated it for. Users that want to use your layout can then place their own text between [CONTENTID1]their text here[/CONTENTID1] tags to let the system know to replace {CONTENTID1} with their text. If a user doesn't have [CONTENTIDx] tags in their content, the system automatically places all of their text in your {CONTENTID1} placement.

For right now, easy layout activations are only available for story descriptions, forewords, and chapters but will branch out to other sections depending on demand.

For more detailed instructions on using and making layouts, go to http://www.asianfanfics.com/page/faq#layout1.

This is just the first draft of the layout marketplace and it is still under development depending on how much interest you guys have with it which is why I am not having AFFHelper make a general announcement about this just yet.

If the layout designers are interested in working with the new system and testing it out, the layout marketplace is located at http://www.asianfanfics.com/layout/view_marketplace. From there you can create a new layout or try the existing sample layout with your stories.

To test the layouts, go to your story's foreword view, then look for the link that says "change description layout" at the bottom of that page.

As a layout designer, you can either allow your layouts to be installed for free by setting the price to 0 or you can also set prices for your layouts based on karma points.

The other great thing about this is that if a layout designer wanted to make some tweaks to the layout, all stories with this layout installed will be automatically updated with the new layout. Conversely, be careful with changing your layouts if you have a large install base!

Feel free to play around with the new system and we'll see where to take it from here.