can some one give me a basic code design for this?
i have looked at the docs.. and i'm really lost.

all i want to do is pull the article topics in a list style with hyper links.
but i want this for the sidebar.
example would be like http://modelcrowd.com
Breaking News section.. but that part is a random topic listing...

this is what i got so far, but im a long way off.
[code]

[/code]

this only print the article topic when i click on a article in the side bar.

'
Lastest News

[list]

[/list]

'
this is my sidebar..

Of course that does not work as that prints the current arctile's title. As far as I understand you want the latest news, there is a function for that:
http://www.zenphoto.org/documentation/plugins/zenpage/_plugins---zenpage-template-functions.php.html#functionprintLatestNews

I would like to print only the topic nothing else in a list style format.

1. the test
2. the test1
3. the test2
4. the test3
5. the test4

Then use one of these and make your own loop:
http://www.zenphoto.org/documentation/plugins/zenpage/_plugins---zenpage-template-functions.php.html#functiongetLatestNews
http://www.zenphoto.org/documentation/plugins/zenpage/_plugins---zenpage-functions.php.html#functiongetNewsArticles

Question is it always see the manual? or can i ever get a little bit of help?
every post i see is see the manual never does any one give a tad bit of help with the coding? even in the irc channel the same thing.

A great supporting community is where every one give help including some special coding.

I feel the lack of support or the help here is one thing really holding zenphoto back.
I have talk to several people who uses ZP and they all say the same thing I do...

So, why not help people understand more and get a bigger suport community going??

my 2 cents.

p.s. Don't be mad.. just step up to the plate....
Q

Opinions are always welcome. I am sorry if you feel that way but we are really a very small team and do not forget we are volunteers working in our spare time. We really don't have the resources to post solutions for everyone's concrete problems. I really can't agree that we are not giving enough help and support. We clearly provide a lot of help on this forum you will notice by looking around.

The functions above do exactly what you asked about. printLatestNews() prints a list of all latest articles and can be setup to only print the titles. Also getNewsArticles() for example returns an array of all news articles that you can print using a foreach loop for example. Of course you should know what a foreach loop is but that is quite basic PHP knowledge. You will surely understand that this is not the place to teach about these general PHP things.

That said please don't expect that we are doing your work for free. If you want special things to be done you need to either learn a little more or get someone to do it for you.