Anyway, in my pursuit to make use of the article separator but to not have it show up under every article (as opposed to actually separating two articles), I eventually found my solution by adding the article separator as an advanced parameter at the article level (and also as a global parameter for all articles).
It involves hacking two core xml files and a template override of a php file (if there's a way to override admin files instead of hacking the core ones, please let me know because I couldn't find much info on this when I searched around).
Here's how to add the article separator as an advanced parameter:
1. Open up the article.xml file in the following directory
administrator\components\com_content\models
Under the <params group="advanced"> tag, you'll see the advanced parameters you're used to seeing (look where it says labels=).
2. Add the following code wherever you'd like the article separator parameter to appear:
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<param name="show_article_separator" type="list" default="" label="Article Separator" description="PARAMARTICLESEPARATOR">
<option value="">Use Global</option>
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>
</param>
3. Then save the file (do not change the file name).
Here's how to add the article separator as a global parameter:
1. Open up the config.xml file in the following directory
administrator\components\com_content
2. Add the following code wherever you'd like the article separator parameter to appear:
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<param name="show_article_separator" type="radio" default="1" label="Article Separator" description="PARAMARTICLESEPARATOR">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>
</param>
3. Then save the file (do not change the file name).
Here's how to modify the code that calls the article separator so that it's now controlled by the parameters you just created (and also how to save it as a template override):
1. Open up the blog_item.php file in the following directory
components\com_content\views\section\tmpl
IMPORTANT: if you're already using the blog_item.php file for another override, make sure you open up this file in your override directory and not the one above.
2. Locate the following code (at the bottom of the file):
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<span class="article_separator"> </span>
3. Replace the above code with the following:
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<?php if ($this->item->params->get('show_article_separator')) :
echo '<span class="article_separator"> </span>';
endif; ?>
4. Then save the file (do not change the file name) in the following directory
templates\[whatever your template name is]\html\com_content\section
Now if you go to your article manager and check either the global configuration there or the advanced parameters within an article, you should see the article separator as an option.
Again, if there's a way to override admin files instead of hacking the core ones, please let me know.
Thanks,
Arthur