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Recipe Site - Article Manager ??

 
 


craigwalsh
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Jul 15, 2004, 4:13 PM

Post #1 of 9 (5419 views)
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Recipe Site - Article Manager ?? Can't Post
We are trying to create a searchable website containing recipes. We have tried various recipe packages, but most create HTML pages that are fairly unattractive (yes, I know we can fix them up) --- and I haven't managed to find on that will create a searchable recipe website.

We use Article Manager for other things, and it is searchable and not unattractive. Has anyone used Article Manager to create a recipe website? If so, I'd appreciate the URL so I could have a look and see what can be done.

Thanks for your help.
Craig W. Walsh
Lucies Farm Ltd.
Home of Scottish | Kobe Beef and Kurobuta Pork
[url]www.luciesfarm.com[/url]
[url]www.hmdp.net[/url]


Donna
Staff / Moderator


Jul 15, 2004, 4:26 PM

Post #2 of 9 (5417 views)
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Re: [craigwalsh] Recipe Site - Article Manager ?? [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Craig,

I don't know of any specific recipe sites using Article Manager, however there is this site, featured in our product video, that is somewhat related: http://www.buitenhuis.nl/

I hope this helps a bit. :)

Donna

--
support@interactivetools.com


craigwalsh
User

Jul 15, 2004, 4:49 PM

Post #3 of 9 (5415 views)
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Re: [Donna] Recipe Site - Article Manager ?? [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi, Donna ---

Well, it certainly made me hungry and gave me an idea of what a final product could look like. Thanks for that.

The advantage to the various recipe software packages out there is that you don't need to enter standard ingredients more than once (sugar, flour, etc.) --- and when you enter a recipe, you just select from the standard ingredients, and only enter new ones. These recipe pacakges then export the recipes into HTML pages. But the pages are nasty looking (an example: http://www.luciesfarm.com/recipes/R8.htm ) and the exported recipes are also not searchable. So if, for example, you have some leftover truffles in the fridge and want to find something to prepare using these truffles, you can't search for "truffles."

It's the search facility in Article Manager that made me wonder if it could be used to handle recipes. I suppose I could create the HTML with, for example, the Now You're Cooking software, and then cut-and-paste on a recipe-by-recipe basis.

I guess I was hoping for something like The Sugar Club recipe site, or my favourite --- Lunch at Noon. Check out, particularly, the Lunch at Noon site when you're a bit hungry. The food is so pretty it's painful.

Any inspiration?

Thanks!
Craig W. Walsh
Lucies Farm Ltd.
Home of Scottish | Kobe Beef and Kurobuta Pork
[url]www.luciesfarm.com[/url]
[url]www.hmdp.net[/url]


Donna
Staff / Moderator


Jul 15, 2004, 5:13 PM

Post #4 of 9 (5412 views)
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Re: [craigwalsh] Recipe Site - Article Manager ?? [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Craig,

You're right -- now I'm hungry. Oh, if only I could cook... (I'm a standard computer geek: I live on things that come in boxes and bags.)

While it might not be a perfect match, since Article Manager wasn't designed with recipes in mind, you could definitely use the spare article fields to make it a little easier on yourself. For example, you could use one field for the ingredients (although it wouldn't auto-populate), another for the instructions, and maybe a third for the descriptive text that most of these recipes have at the beginning. This would give you some flexibility in laying out the page.

One other thing you might consider is, rather than using Article Manager, you could simply use the existing recipe software you have and use Search Engine to search your recipes. The searching wouldn't be quite as details as Article Manager, since you wouldn't be able to search specific fields, but Search Engine is a pretty spiffy product in it's own right. :)

I hope this helps! Now I'm off to raid the kitchen and see what sorts of yummy things we have to satiate me today... after looking at all those food sites, this could be tricky. :)

Donna

--
support@interactivetools.com


craigwalsh
User

Jul 16, 2004, 5:50 PM

Post #5 of 9 (5399 views)
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Re: [Donna] Recipe Site - Article Manager ?? [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi, Donna ---

I hope there weren't too many Hostess Twinkies in the office fridge. That's what we always seem to find lurking in ours.

Search Engine might be a perfect solution. But I'd also like to look at your suggestion about using spare article fields. In our current site, www.poico.com, we have some recipes and also "regular" articles. Is it possible to combine the two? In other words, can we use the spare article fields, but only on certain articles? (In this case, it would be the recipes-pretending-to-be-articles, as opposed to the article-articles.

Thanks, Donna.

Craig
Craig W. Walsh
Lucies Farm Ltd.
Home of Scottish | Kobe Beef and Kurobuta Pork
[url]www.luciesfarm.com[/url]
[url]www.hmdp.net[/url]


Donna
Staff / Moderator


Jul 17, 2004, 11:03 AM

Post #6 of 9 (5393 views)
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Re: [craigwalsh] Recipe Site - Article Manager ?? [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Craig,

No Twinkies, although I did load up on a muffin or too...

Anyhoo, as for spare fields, it's possible to use different templates for different categories. So, you could have some categories that use some article fields, and other categories that use others. The categories wouldn't display any article fields that you didn't "tell" it to (via the templates.)

All of the article fields would still show up in the back end Article Editor, but even if you filled out data in the wrong one, it wouldn't display.

So, if you kept your recipes-pretending-to-be-articles in one category, and your article-articles in another... you'd be set, with two sets of templates. :)

I hope this helps. :)

Donna

--
support@interactivetools.com


craigwalsh
User

Jul 17, 2004, 11:30 AM

Post #7 of 9 (5390 views)
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Re: [Donna] Recipe Site - Article Manager ?? [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi, Donna ---

Thanks for your message. I've gone back and have again looked at the manual, but when I get to "category breadcrumbs" you can hear it wooooshing right over my head.

I can see in "Setup Options" that there are numerous article fields (i.e art_field2, art_field3, etc.) and I can see that I can decide if each field is text, WYSIWYG, pull-down, etc.). And I can see that in the "Category Editor" I can specify which template the category presumably uses (all of my categories are currently set to the default, article/default.html).

What I can't see, however, is how I can associate art_field2, art_field3, etc. with a new template.

Or am I completely missing the picture? Wink

Thanks, Donna, for your help. I'm off to raid the cupboard for some category breadcrumbs. I love them in a fish batter...!

Regards,

Craig
Craig W. Walsh
Lucies Farm Ltd.
Home of Scottish | Kobe Beef and Kurobuta Pork
[url]www.luciesfarm.com[/url]
[url]www.hmdp.net[/url]


Donna
Staff / Moderator


Jul 17, 2004, 12:25 PM

Post #8 of 9 (5387 views)
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Re: [craigwalsh] Recipe Site - Article Manager ?? [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Craig,

Good idea, but not quite the way you would go about this. :)

These changes would actually be made in the actual templates themselves. So, you would need to make a copy of your index/default.html and articles/default.html. For my exmaple, I'll call it "category.html".

Then, in category.html, change the placeholders. For example, instead of $art_content$, you might be using $art_field5$ in that category.

Now, go into the Category Editor and modify the categories that you want to use this template. Under "Advanced Options" scroll down to "Templates". In the dropdown menus, you'll see your new templates available as options. Choose the new templates, hit save, and republish your files.

Take a look at this tutorial for more details:

http://www.interactivetools.com/products/articlemanager/tutorials_artman_unique_template.html

I hope this helps! Let me know if you're still stuck. :)

Donna

--
support@interactivetools.com


craigwalsh
User

Sep 3, 2004, 3:32 PM

Post #9 of 9 (5115 views)
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Re: [Donna] Recipe Site - Article Manager ?? [In reply to] Can't Post
A quick update. We've played around with this and believe we have something that works --- at least for us.

We're using Living Cookbook software to create the recipe and its nutritional analysis, and then export in HTML format. We then cut-and-paste this into Article Manager. We're pleased with the results: it's fully searchable, which is what we wanted. Now we're getting ready to add the customary mouth-watering photographs of these dishes.

Our recipe site (bear in mind it's a work-in-progress) is at http://www.luciesfarm.com/artman/publish/index.shtml

Thanks for your help.

Craig
Craig W. Walsh
Lucies Farm Ltd.
Home of Scottish | Kobe Beef and Kurobuta Pork
[url]www.luciesfarm.com[/url]
[url]www.hmdp.net[/url]