Mambo Structure/Navigation 101

[reikimaster]

Ok. In response to a post I just saw, here's a beginner's guide to Mambo's navigation structure. Devs feel free to come in a slap me silly if I use the wrong terminology someplace, but if I can explain this to my wife so she understands it and can manage her own small Mambo site, then it's gotta be useful to others...

SECTIONS, CATEGORIES, CONTENT ITEMS

there.... done... oh... you need more? Ok..

SECTIONS are containers. They hold CATEGORIES.
CATEGORIES are containers inside each section. You can have many CATEGORIES within a SECTION.
CATEGORIES contain CONTENT ITEMS.
CONTENT ITEMS are the meat and potatoes of your web site. CONTENT ITEMS are your CONTENT!

When you create a new SECTION or a new CATEGORY you can type in a description. A long one. This then becomes kind of like the Home page for the Section or Category you've created.You can use this area for describing what's IN the section or CATEGORY or whatever else you would consider important for people to see when they first enter this area of your web site.

In a case where you've created a new SECTION, this SECTION home page would have a listing at the bottom showing all of the CATEGORIES within that SECTION.

If you've created a new CATEGORY, then at the bottom of this CATEGORY Home page you would see a listing of ITEMS within the category.

General rule of thumb (and this may change as Mambo develops):
You can't publish an empty SECTION and you can't publish an empty CATEGORY. In other words you have to have at least one ITEM published inside a category in order for that whole tree (section - category - item) to show up in a menu.

Look at this:

SECTION = SHAPES
CATEGORIES withing the SHAPES SECTION
Circles
Squares
Ovals
CONTENT ITEMS within Circles CATEGORY
Blue Circles
Red Circles
Green Circles
CONTENT ITEMS within the Squares CATEGORY
Blue Squares
Red Squares
Green Squares

Your Navigation structure is starting to look like this:

SHAPES
 -Circles
     -Blue Circles
     -Red Circles
     -Green Circles
 -Squares
     -Blue Squares
     -Red Squares
     -Green Squares

Now you have to add your SHAPES SECTION to the Main Menu. Use the Menu Manager for this. Create a NEW menu item by clicking on the NEW icon. Tell it to be a Content Section.
Publish it!
Preview it. Click on your new SHAPES entry on your main menu.

GASP! MY OVALS CATEGORY DOESN'T SHOW UP!!!
Your Ovals category won't show on a menu until you publish at least one ITEM within it (why show blank categories?)
Rest assured that once you finally write that article on Blue Ovals, that Ovals category will show up when you click on SHAPES (a section entry) on your menu.

SOMETIMES my wife still gets ticked off when she's making changes to her web site. "Why doesn't this do what I want?" She wants to just have a page (an ITEM) with a direct link from the Main Menu. You STILL have to assign that item to a category within a section.

Now in 4.5.1B4 I can create a menu entry that points directly to a content item in any category. I can create a new menu that only appears on certain pages. The menu system is getting more and more flexible. WONDERfully so. I can't wait to tell her to do it differently.

It makes my life interesting.

Bottom line:
This is not HARD, but you won't grasp the MENU until you can grasp the STRUCTURE. So take a few minutes and plan out how you want to use this container-ized structure to organize your content.

Mambo's structure is adaptable to many types of web site designs, but it may not be exactly what you're looking for. If you just have a few static pages, this may not be your cup of tea. ( can you say overkill? )If you're used to creating web sites just with HTML (like I was) then you have to learn a few things about organization maybe. Not that your organizational skills are in question here. Just that you may have to think about how to fit all your stuff neatly into a Mambo site. If your site isn't adaptable then move along and find something that works for ya. But don't whine and moan that Mambo "won't do <this> or won't do <that>" because in all likelyhood it WILL do those things but you haven't found out HOW. And forcing it... well that's like trying to bribe a possum into diggin a post hole. Ain't gonna happen.

[MasterChief]

> Devs feel free to come in a slap me silly

Quite the opposite. Can we hav your permission to use this in the manuals

I like it It goes quite along the lines of something I wrote for all4mambo.com:
http://www.all4mambo.com/index.php?o...ask=view&id=17

One thing I'd point out in your menu (or did I miss it?) is that you can create menu items directly to a category, hence bypass the content altogether. That is useful when you have only one category in your section and want to reduce the amount of clicking necessary.

Cheers

[MasterChief]

> can create menu items directly to a category

Next version is going to comlpetely revamp this while area.

[reikimaster]

Originally Posted by eddieajau

> Devs feel free to come in a slap me silly

Quite the opposite. Can we hav your permission to use this in the manuals

hahaha.... granted.... provided you keep the part about the possum, you're free to edit as necessary...

[eric_brissette]

I'm still learning Mambo, and for me, the whole site structure thing is the largest hurdle because it's all very Mambo specific. A logical site strcture, layout, and organization is also very important to me.

Now, you say that Sections and Categories are not for displaying content, just for organizational purposes.

Well.. lets pretend for a moment that your site is more than a big index of links with content at the end of the link trail. I'm considering building a University website on Mambo.. and having Section breadcrumbs (pathway links) and navigation point to a big list of all Categories within a Section is not ideal. Likewise, having a Category breadcrumb point to just a huge list of Content items also is not ideal (for my uses, anyway)

For example, When I click on the Prospective Students breadcrumb (or menu item), I want that to bring me to the main Prospective Students page.. a content page, not just a list of all Categories that fall under Prospective Students.

Please respond and tell me either
1. what I am misunderstanding,
2. how to do what I am explaining, or
3. that mambo is not designed to work this way

I'm not 100% sure I understand your question Eric, but I think what you're asking is if you have a page (content item) that is for Prospective Students, how to create a menu item that goes directly to it without going through SECTION and CATEGORY. Is this correct?

Perhaps in a case like this, you would be better to create a typed content page within your menu. Go to your menu manager, and add new. In the list you should find typed item. When you select that, you get a page that lets you put in your Prospective Student's information.

OTOH, I could see where Prospective Student could be a CATEGORY, with content items built in: Campus, Sports, Rooming, Teachers, Associations, etc.

If you don't have a SECTION to go over the Prospective Student Category, you can create a Prospective Student section, then within that section have only one category named Prospective Students. When you build your menu, you send the visitor directly to the category.

HTH

[eric_brissette]

Originally Posted by vavroom

you can create a Prospective Student section, then within that section have only one category named Prospective Students. When you build your menu, you send the visitor directly to the category.

HTH

This is what I had in mind.. but again, even though Prospective Students is a category with many other items under it, it also has content itself, which will probably be static in nature.

When a student is at Home > Prospective Students > Financial Aid in the pathway, I want them to be able to click Prospective Students and return to the main Prospective Students page, to see that content, not just a link index of all Prospective Studetns related pages.

It seems to me that this could be accomplished by having the Prospective Students main page content be on the Prospective Students Category item in Mambo.

Is this a Mambo no-no?

[reikimaster]

If I'm understanding you correctly then, no...it's not a no-no. And it kinda goes with what I said in my original post (and it appears I made too strong a statement about this not being content. If you choose for it to be content then it would be content... I may edit the original post as it seems I've made a biased statement there based on how I used the structure and menu system myself):

When you create a new SECTION or a new CATEGORY you can type in a description. A long one. You can use this area for describing what's IN the section or CATEGORY but it's not where you type in your content.

In this way, clicking on the link that points to either the root page of a section or the root page of a category results in the display of .... well... kinda like a home page for that section or category. In the case where we're talking about a section, then you'd have this page with description, text, pictures, whatever and then a listing below that of whatever categories are inside that section.

In the case that we're talking about a category you'd get the same effect except that the listing would be actual articles within the category.

Is this making sense?

** edit ** ok I've edited the original post. If you don't mind re-reading the part about creating a new section and/or category, please let me know if that makes more sense.

[reikimaster]

and yes, I realize there are other options within teh menu structure, and that 4.5.1B4 adds more options, but this was my first atempt at a "101" type explanation.

[eric_brissette]

Yes, that makes perfect sense to me... thanks for clearing that up

[Dainis]

Sorry to raise the dead here, maybe I'm overtired (which I am), but I have a fairly simple content structure to implement.

I understand the idea behind sections, categories, and items.

I've read:
With this in mind, examine our content and category list:

About the fan club
Club founders
Club members
Other Information

About Bozo
History
Toys
Incarnations - Who played Bozo, what does he look like

Discussion Forum
No categories

Links
Other fan sites (personal sites)
Official sites
Commercial sites (Bozo products)

at http://www.all4mambo.com/index.php?o...1&limitstart=2,

and I've read the detailed instructions provided by ReikiMaster, but all I want to do is make a 2-tiered structure. Man, I'm pulling my hair out making sections, categories, and items. Whoah! I figured I'd just make a bunch of sample sections to see how the Mambo structure works. Sorry, but right now, I'm lost.

Maybe someone can help me do this.

My structure looks like this:

Home
Content content

Heading Level 1 (AAAAA)
Body Text: Content Content
1.x Title x
Content content
1.y Title y
Content content
1.z Title z
Content content

Heading Level 1 (BBBBB)
Body Text: Content Content
1.x Title x
Content content
1.y Title y
Content content
1.z Title z
Content content

Heading Level 1 (CCCCC)
etc.

Heading Level 1 (DDDDD)

I don't know if I'm making this plain, but I read that I could make a category title appear in the menu...I can't get that to work. So, for the above example, I made AAAAA into a category, not a section. I assumed that I could add my x,y,z items into the category and then list the category heading in the menu. I can only get the item title to appear in the menu, which is making me bonkers. :-?

I'm running 4.5 Stable-1.0.8 [Boon]

So, here are some questions: It looks to me like, if you make a section, then the title of the category in that section appears in the menu. If you make a category, then the title of the item appears in the menu. Is that true?

I'm a newbie, and I'd love to Mambo! Can someone help me dance?

Sincerely,
Dainis

Originally Posted by Dainis

I'm a newbie, and I'd love to Mambo! Can someone help me dance?

Tcha tcha cha! Ooops, wrong dance

What I would do, if I were you and I understand your request properly...

Create one section, call it what you want. Then create your categories (AAA, BBB, CCC, DDD). Create content items for those categories.

Publish the content items. Publish your categories. Don't publish the section.

Go to the menu manager, create new links. Select "content category", and you should be able to pick your AAA, BBB, CCC, DDD to create your menu.

If a particular category is not showing up in the menu selection, it is likely because it either doesn't have any content (hence can't be published), is not published, or is already used in a menu somewhere.

HTH

[Dainis]

Thanx El Supreme Vavroom, I'm still goofing around with getting my Table of Contents to work in Mambo. It took me about 3 hrs to do my first install and re-format the graphics for my new site. Now, I've spent 3 full days trying to understand how the structure-system works in Mambo. Still hauling my butt up that loynin' koyv!

Thank you very much on the tip about using things in the "structure" that are not published. No idea that was possible.

I'm just going to put my whole TOC here for everyones' review. Might make this a longer post, but hey, nothing like a real example. I'm pretty Mamboozled right now, so plz bear with me.

***************************************
2 Home --> Einleitung.
For folks who visit my dev site: I like how "Einleitung" appears as a "submenu item" of home. It would be very cool, if both of the stories that appear on home, if the links to the full, expanded stories would appear as "submenu items" of home. The way I have it now is that "Einleitung B" and "Können Sie das Sprachniveaus..." appear as partially expanded stories, and it would be neat if those titles could appear as "submenu items" of home. Get it?

I'm probably losing everyone here, plz bear with me, as the questions below are a bit more clear. At least I think they are :-)

3 Sprach-Niveau.
3.1 through 3.5 should be visible when one clicks on Sprach-Niveau. Each would feature a short intro text, and then one would be able to expand that text to read the whole item/text.

3.1 Sprach-Niveau Tabelle.
3.2 Sprach-Niveau Fragen und Antworten.
When you click on 3.2, the subheadings below should again all appear (in their shortened versions, like the expandable stories on the home page). If one wants to read the whole thing, one clicks to do so.

3.2.1 Ist ein Native Speaker schon eine Garantie für qualitativ hochwertige Übersetzungen?
3.2.2 Welche Kriterien sind für qualitätiv hochwertige Übersetzungen notwendig?.
3.2.3 Wer ist am besten qualifiziert, um englische Texte auf ihr Sprachniveau zu überprüfen?
3.2.4 Wie beurteilen englischsprachige Leser Ihre Übersetzungen?.

3.3 Sprachqualitäts-Check.

3.4 Übersetzer-Qualifikation und Sprach-Niveau Tabelle.

3.5 Terminologie Verbesserung – für Deutsch Experte.

4 Aktuelle Angebote.

When you click on 4 (Aktuelle Angebote), the subheadings below should all appear in their shortened versions -- that's the "pattern" I want to establish for my users. If they want to read the whole thing, then they click to do so.

4.1 Gratis-Sprachqualitäts-Check.
4.2 Kennenlernen Aktion: "Getting to know you"
4.3 English Lunch.
4.4 Proofing/Korrektur
4.5 Englisch in der EDV..
4.6 Einzel- und Gruppen-Coaching.

5 Beispiele..
Same as above

5.1 Hotel A..
5.2 Power Company.
5.3 Hotel B..
5.4 Theater
5.5 Pickle Company.

6 Preise..
This is just a table, so I'll make a typed content menu item for this.

7 Glossar..
Also OK as typed content menu item for now.

8 Firmen-Info..
This should be able to show one or more stories that expand. For now, just one.

8.1 Geschäftsleitung.
The content should appear, there will be one "story" or "item," and that will be expandable with the additional text.

8.1.1. Ausbildung.
This is the additional info that will come in.

9 Impressum.. 25
I can make this into a typed menu item.

The "desired structure" can also be seen at, visit if you want a good laugh at a confoozed noobie mamboozler:
http://liquidenglish.dainis.net/liqu...d=21&Itemid=42
Which is where you can see a few of my attempts at getting the above structure to work.
***************************************

So, here's the "short-question" version of all of this: How do I get my categories to behave like the Home page? I created an unpublshed section called "The Whole LiquidEnglish Site", and I created categories for all of my heading level 1 content in that unpublished section. I then placed a good amount of content into the categories as "items" within those categories.

Mambo lists the items in a category in a what I'll call a "search-results-type list of title headings"

Now, what I want, is to input the content in such a way that the items appear the way they do on the home page, but I want to do that on menu items other than Home (for example: Aktuelle Angebote, which is one of my heading level 1's)

There, whew...

I realize that this post is pretty involved and most likely requires a high level of expertise to answer. I'm grateful for the tool Mambo, and I do hope to make it work for me and my business. When I read about some of the possibilities, I get totally thrilled, for example, I want members to be able to comment on any of my items. Also, I'd like to install a forum with a voting section, but the votes will be on a scale of 1-10, not 1-5 (so I hope that works).

At any rate, now I'm really rambling...I feel like I'm close, so I'm risking a detailed post, so that if anyone is prepared to dig into my issue, all of the necessary info can be available.

Peace folks, I'm off to pull my hair out...or maybe I'll pull my dog's hair out...but I don't have a dog...ahh, but my neighbor has a cat...hmm... ;-)

--Dainis

[Dainis]

Here's a shorter version of my above post, there are some scraps in the above post that won't appear here, but I figured I could make things more concise...

Click here:
http://liquidenglish.dainis.net/liqu...tpage&Itemid=1

There are two stories on the home page that are presented in their shortened formats. I'd like the rest of my site to function in that way (click on a menu item and see a similar looking page with different content).

For example:
4 Aktuelle Angebote
You get a description of "Aktuelle Angebote," and you get the shortened version of all of the items/stories below presented on one page, just like on the home page.

4.1 Gratis-Sprachqualitäts-Check.
4.2 Kennenlernen Aktion: "Getting to know you"
4.3 English Lunch.
4.4 Proofing/Korrektur
4.5 Englisch in der EDV..
4.6 Einzel- und Gruppen-Coaching.

Not like this:
http://liquidenglish.dainis.net/liqu...d=16&Itemid=35

But the way things appear on the Home Page.

Did that help? I hope I'm not perceived as bumping.

Totally mamboozled,
Dainis

[BottomFeeder]

Originally Posted by reikimaster

When you create a new SECTION or a new CATEGORY you can type in a description. A long one. This then becomes kind of like the Home page for the Section or Category you've created.

The 'Description' area of a Section or Category can't contain html stuff, can it? E.g., fully functional hyperlinks can't be defined there, can they?

I'm guessing no. And such things might be better handled via some other mechanisim anyway, but when you mentioned the Description area as a sort of Home page for the Section/Category, some random synapse (mis?)fired and made me go...'Hmmmm...., I wonder if.....?'

[BottomFeeder]

Originally Posted by eddieajau

Quite the opposite. Can we hav your permission to use this in the manuals

Certainly should be a 'sticky'.

[Dainis]

The 'Description' area of a Section or Category can't contain html stuff, can it? E.g., fully functional hyperlinks can't be defined there, can they?

I'm guessing no.

Click here:

http://liquidenglish.dainis.net/liqu...d=13&Itemid=27

That's my SS1 Cat B (Sample Section 1, Category B), and you will see HTML that I put into the description. There are 3 items in the Category, and they appear in what I call a "search-results list," but I don't know what the Mambo term is for that kind of display of items.

On a side note, I just noticed that the Category title is what appears in the menu, and the Category Name is what appears above the content, when one clicks on the menu.

A confoozled mamboozler,
(hickup),
Dainis
:cowboy:

[litbeavis]

Question,

I am hoping somebody can help me with this.

I looking to make a tree .. meaning something like this

Troubleshooting
|
- Email
- Dialup

So on and so forth.

Is there a way to click a link and have a side menu come out. I did see in the theame that was posted here .. that Demo's has this side bar .. is that a module that I don't have?

I have to add an employee handbook online and would like to have the secions in a tree and then topic of each pages like so

Employee Handbook

I. Intro
|
- Intro Content
II. WORK STANDARDS
|
- Equal Employment Opportunity 4
- Harassment on Account of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

Something along thing line .. where click on the hand book would give you you the drop downs I , II, III

Then clicking on the I, II, III would give the sub menus listing pages and content .. is this possiable"?


Thank you for your time and help

[mmx]

Originally Posted by reikimaster

SOMETIMES my wife still gets ticked off when she's making changes to her web site. "Why doesn't this do what I want?" She wants to just have a page (an ITEM) with a direct link from the Main Menu. You STILL have to assign that item to a category within a section.

Now in 4.5.1B4 I can create a menu entry that points directly to a content item in any category. I can create a new menu that only appears on certain pages. The menu system is getting more and more flexible. WONDERfully so. I can't wait to tell her to do it differently.

Another point to consider is unpublished sections or categories with published content items. The unpublished sections and categories do not appear for menu assignment but the content items do. Also, the sections, categories and items would not appear in a site map because the parent section and categories are unpublished. Thus you can create hidden areas (sections or categories) on your site for storing documents like privacy policies, conditions of use, todo lists, personal journals, and other information. However, you can still call those content items independently as you need them.

When you add user groups assignments into the picture, this means that you can have hidden areas for authors, editors, administrators, etc. (with some constraints because users in higher groups can also see those items in lower groups). Imagine the additional power you will have as better ACL is progressively implemented in the 4.3/4.6 versions.