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[ON HOLD] Article Arrangement on Category Page

 
 


Silvatti
User

Oct 19, 2006, 5:54 PM

Post #1 of 6 (1519 views)
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[ON HOLD] Article Arrangement on Category Page Can't Post
 
I understand AM 2.0 has just been released! Congratulations, and a big thanks to all of you for all your hard work! :D

I want to present what was to me the last real major issue I needed to resolve to make sure AM could suit my needs! If AM 2 has the inherent capability/flexibility to resolve this matter more simply, let me know! :D


Visually, I'm aiming to design the category index page to look this way:



Quadrant 1: Hard-coded navigational Links to category pages created by Article Manager. (See this forum thread. for reasons why. =)
Quadrant 2: Links to "Full article" type entries only.
Quadrant 3: "Summary Article" type entries only -- used for welcome message and category-specific updates.
Quadrant 4: "Link" and "Uploaded File" entries only.

In short, the goal is trying to get Article Manager to separate its articles on a page by article type. I've attached a sample /index template to demonstrate how I've been doing this so far. Lines 54 and 82 should be of particular interest: These are PHP includes for quadrants 2 and 4 of the page, respectively. What this means is I've been having to create "Articles & Essays" and "Further Resources" subcategories for each topical category I'm wanting to create (effectively tripling the size of my drop-down menu when selecting a category through the Article Creation interface).

Here's an image of what my Category editor arrangement ends up looking like...




As it stands now, I need only publish a Summary article to the actual category to make an update to that category's index page (Say, the Arts & Entertainment category)... No problem. But suppose I have an essay I wish to publish in Arts & Entertainment (and have a link to it automatically appear in quadrant 2): I would need to create and publish to a separate and hidden subcategory "Articles and Essays", and use a PHP include to make the headlines appear in Quadrant 2; likewise, for External links and uploaded files, I must publish to a separate "Further Resources" subcategory, mark that as "hidden" (so as not to appear in the category listings), and use another PHP include to make its headlines appear in quadrant 4.

Purely in terms of functionality, this setup works, but is extremely cumbersome. As I integrate Article Manager into my site, I've now created about 30% of the categories my site needs to have, yet already I have about 105 Categories with about 20 Essays. As I introduce other Trusted editors to the system, I can see much confusion developing over WHICH "Articles & Essays" or "Further Resources" category to publish new articles.

For an alternative solution, I'm looking to use a spare art_field as a drop-down box, which will classify each Article according to its unique entry type (Essay, Commentary, Linked Resource, Uploaded audio, Uploaded presentation, etc). Users will simply publish to the topical category, and I could use a specially crafted search query/includes to call these entries to appear in their appropriate "quadrants" on the page. So in quadrant 1, I would use a search query include to locate and display all articles dubbed "Essay" in that custom art_field, for this particular category, with X many results.... Likewise, for quadrant 4, I would use a search query include to locate and display all articles dubbed either "uploaded_audio", "linked_resource", etc in that custom art_field for this particular category, with X many results...

The end effect is that no matter what type of input, all the user has to do is specify by a spare Art_field drop-down box what type of entry this is, and not have to know just which "subcategory" under Arts & Entertainment he needs to find to publish in the correct location.

So I suppose after all this my question would be.. how would I construct such a search query/include to place on my index templates?


(This post was edited by Silvatti on Oct 26, 2006, 1:54 PM)
Attachments: Sample_Template.html (4.35 KB)


ChetW
Staff


Oct 21, 2006, 8:33 AM

Post #2 of 6 (1481 views)
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Re: [Silvatti] [OPEN] Article Arrangement on Category Page [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Silvatti,

Thanks for the post!

I have read through your post and am going ot do some testing with Article Manager2 and see wht kind of a solution I can come up with for you! Once I have a better idea of how this may work I will post an updated message. :)

In the meantine if you have any other questions please feel free to ask!
Cheers,
Chet Woodside - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com

[hr][i][url "http://www.interactivetools.com/consulting/"][b]Hire me![/b][/url]
Save time by getting our experts to help with your project. Template changes, advanced features, full integration, whatever you need. Whether you need one hour or fifty, get it done fast with [url "http://www.interactivetools.com/consulting/"][b]Priority Consulting[/b][/url].[/i]


Silvatti
User

Oct 21, 2006, 12:58 PM

Post #3 of 6 (1474 views)
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Re: [ChetW] [OPEN] Article Arrangement on Category Page [In reply to] Can't Post
Thanks!
I'm looking forward to whatever you might find! :D


Silvatti
User

Oct 23, 2006, 2:51 PM

Post #4 of 6 (1425 views)
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Re: [ChetW] [OPEN] Article Arrangement on Category Page [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi, Chet...

Any Luck? =]


ChetW
Staff


Oct 24, 2006, 11:00 AM

Post #5 of 6 (1416 views)
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Re: [Silvatti] [OPEN] Article Arrangement on Category Page [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Silvatti,

Thanks for the post and your patience!

I have spent time looking into this for you and I do believe we will be able to set-up this quadrant style layout for you! I'm thinking the best way to approach this is to first get your category selection navigation working, then we can move on to setting up quadrants 2,3 and 4. Quadrants 2 and 4 will be powered by a combination of publish rules and templateif's and give you a great idea of the flexibility that publish rules ad templateif's give you. :)

Setting up Quadrant 1:

Quadrant 1 will display your homepage link and breadcrumb navigation as one continous section that will look like this:

Home --> Cat_1 --> Subcat_1

The code to generate this kind of a breadcrumb will look similar to this:

Code
<a href="$published.globalIndex.url$">$my.homepageName$</a>&nbsp;>&nbsp;<!--#include virtual="$published.categoryBreadcrumb.webpath$" --><br/>


Add the above code to quadrant 1 of your "globalIndex.html" and "categoryIndex.html" template files. Next we will set-up the category navigation to show both subcategories of "Subcat_1" and any child categories that they may have. The result will look similar to this:
  • "Sub category_1" inside of "Subcat_1"
    • "Child category_a" of "Sub category_1"
    • "Child categroy_b" of "Sub category_1"
  • "Sub category_2" inside of "Subcat_1"
    • "Child category_a" of "Sub category_2"
    • "Child category_b" of "Sub category_2"


To generate this kind of menu first add the following code to quadrant 1 of both the "globalIndex.html" and "categoryIndex.html" template files:

Code
<!-- INCLUDE CATEGORY LIST --> 
<!--#include virtual="$published.globalMenu.webpath$" -->


Your code for quadrant 1 will now look similar to this:

Code
<div id="quadrant_1"> 
<a href="$published.globalIndex.url$">$my.homepageName$</a>&nbsp;>&nbsp;<!--#include virtual="$published.categoryBreadcrumb.webpath$" --><br/> 
<!-- INCLUDE CATEGORY LIST --> 
<!--#include virtual="$published.globalMenu.webpath$" --> 
</div>


Next we will need to edit a few publish rules, inside your Article Manager 2 admin, navigate to "admin --> publishing".

1. Select the "Category Menus" publish rule, under advanced options set the following:

--> Set "Menu Format" to 'Custom'.

--> Set "Show level(s)of subcategories from root (always visible)" to "0".

--> Set "Show level(s)of subcategories below selected category to "2".

--> Set "Show above selected category" to "parents only".

--> Set "selected category" to "Hide".

When you are finished save the changes, next select your "Global Menu" publish rule set the advanced options to:

--> Set "Menu Format" to 'Custom'.

--> Set "Show level(s)of subcategories from root (always visible)" to "2".

--> Set "Show level(s)of subcategories below selected category to "1".

--> Set "Show above selected category" to "parents only".

--> Set "selected category" to "Hide".

When you are finished editing the "Global Menu" publish rule save your changes. Next re-publish both your "Global Menu" and your "Category Menus" publish rules, to do this simply check-off each publish rules then select "go" from the bottom left hand side of the "publishing screen".

Give this a try Silvatti and if you have any questions please feel free to ask! Once we have the category navigation working for you we can move on to getting quadrants 2,3 and 4 running. :)
Cheers,
Chet Woodside - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com

[hr][i][url "http://www.interactivetools.com/consulting/"][b]Hire me![/b][/url]
Save time by getting our experts to help with your project. Template changes, advanced features, full integration, whatever you need. Whether you need one hour or fifty, get it done fast with [url "http://www.interactivetools.com/consulting/"][b]Priority Consulting[/b][/url].[/i]


Silvatti
User

Oct 26, 2006, 1:54 PM

Post #6 of 6 (1355 views)
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Re: [ChetW] [OPEN] Article Arrangement on Category Page [In reply to] Can't Post
Wow!

Thanks, Chet!

I'm going to try this out as soon as possible. I'm just now beginning to move out of this apartment, so it may be a while, but I will return to this matter soon!

Thanks again!!!