Section page links to Blog Category pages?

[z00kies]

I used barnett's hack on my relatively fresh 4.5.2.3 install, and it seems to work, pathways and all (as long as I remember to name Category Blog Menu Items the same as Category Names), but there seems to be a limitation when you use the Page Title field in the "Blog Category Hack Below" area of the Section Table Menu Item....

My example:

I have a Table Section called "Human Resources", with several categories, let's say 2 of them are "Benefits" and "Payroll". I have a drop-down menu where the parent is a Section Table Menu Item going to the "Human Resources" section. All I want on this page is a list of links to the category blogs, and with barnett's hack, that's what I get. The first child item in the drop-down is a link to a Category Blog Menu Item called "Benefits" which has links to 5 articles (content items).

On this page my pathway reads

HOME > HUMAN RESOURCES > BENEFITS (blog menu name)

(parenthetical tag was just so I knew which string was being used, since it gets confusing)

I've limited this page so I just get links to the 5 articles. I click on one of them, called "Retirement Info." and I get the article. On this page the pathway reads:

HOME > HUMAN RESOURCES > BENEFITS (category name) > Retirement Info.

The category link in the pathway has changed from the Menu Item Page Title string to the actual category object's Category Title string (set in Category Manager), independent of menus. This is slightly annoying, but not a show-stopper, as I can just make sure these two fields agree.

If I then click on the link BENEFITS (category name) in the pathway, I get the benefits category blog view again (thanks to burnett's hack), appearing just like it would if I used the menu, except the title of the page is the field "Page Title" from the "Human Resources" Section Table Menu Item (right below "Link to Blog Categories" in the "Blog Category Hack Below" section).

The problem here is that there's only one of these strings per Table Section, and I have 5 categories. So, let's say I have the string "BENEFITS" in that field, and I go through the same exercise with the "PAYROLL" category, I will get the payroll category blog view, but the title would be "BENEFITS", or whatever is in that "Page Title" field.

Sorry if this is extremely convoluted...it took me a while to figure out this behavior. My only fix right now would be to hide all titles (category blog menu item and page title in section-table) and show descriptions and use the description field in the actual category object as the title. Is there anything else people have figured out to make the pathway work with a category blog-only site? Are the pathway idiosyncracies slated to be fixed in newer versions of mambo?

I briefly considered building my whole site as static content, since in that case the pathway seems to be built only from the position in the menu, but managing all the pages in the static content manager without any hierarchy seemed too daunting.

Anyway, any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.

[lindseyacron]

I started using the hack and it is working brilliantly, though none of my users can see it yet, as I'm having to individually transfer over 200 items which were once into 6 different articles but I have everything showing as i wanted them to show, the pathway is perfectly configured and 100% accurate, my category titles are displayed as well as the item title (though I had to configure this by trial and error through the menu link... using both the category params and the blog params) overall, it's working like a charm thank you everyone for your input on this!

[Newcoma]

Hi MacCool

I try to follow your hack but i still only get

Parse error: parse error, unexpected ';', expecting T_OLD_FUNCTION or T_FUNCTION or T_VAR or '}' in /hsphere/local/home/newcoma/testblad.oeksen.dk/components/com_content/content.html.php on line 1367

even after your last post

is it possible you could attach your files

content.php
content.html.php
template_css.css
content_section.xml

if you know it works?

[MacCool]

Hello!

It looks that you have a ";" somewhere at the end where there shouldn't be one.

I attached the files

content.php
content.html.php
content_section.xml

as a zip file.

In the css file there is no relevant code for this hack, so I didn't include it.
Maybe you could attach you content.html.php so I can compare. Or you could do it yourself. Use Winmerge to see the differences.

[Martian_Kyo]

I love this thread...
it worked wonderfully for me
thanks to everyone who put their time into this hack

you just saved me hours of hack and wrecking

[elcubano]

Hello everybody !

I really need the Barnett's hack but it seems not work on my version of Mambo (4.5.2).

there's a problem when i code the .xml : in the backend, Table - Content Section disappears.
My .xml is :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<mosinstall type="menu" version="4.5.2">
<name>Table - Content Section</name>
<group>Content</group>
<author>Mambo Project</author>
<creationDate>July 2004</creationDate>
<copyright>(C) 2000 - 2005 Miro International Pty Ltd</copyright>
<license>http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU/GPL</license>
<authorEmail>admin@mamboserver.com</authorEmail>
<authorUrl>www.mamboserver.com</authorUrl>
<version>4.5.2</version>
<description>Creates a listing of Content categories for a particular section</description>
<params>
<param name="menu_image" type="imagelist" directory="/images/stories" hide_default="1" default="" label="Menu Image" description="A small image to be placed to the left or right of your menu item, images must be in images/stories/" />
<param name="page_title" type="radio" default="1" label="Section Title" description="Show/hide the section title">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="pageclass_sfx" type="text" size="20" default="" label="Page Class Suffix" description="A suffix to be applied to the css classes of the page, this allows individual page styling" />
<param name="back_button" type="list" default="" label="Back Button" description="Show/Hide a Back Button, that returns you to the previously view page">
<option value="">Use Global</option>
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="@spacer" type="spacer" default="" label="" description="" />
<param name="orderby" type="list" default="" label="Order by" description="This overrides the ordering of the items.">
<option value="">Default</option>
<option value="alpha">Title Alphabetical</option>
<option value="ralpha">Title Reverse-Alphabetical</option>
<option value="order">Ordering</option>

<param name="@spacer" type="spacer" default="" label="" description="" />
<param name="other_cat_section" type="radio" default="1" label="Category List - Section" description="Show/Hide the List of Categories in List view page">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="@spacer" type="spacer" default="" label="" description="" />
<param name="description" type="radio" default="0" label="Description" description="Show/Hide the Category Description">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="description_image" type="radio" default="0" label="Description Image" description="Show/Hide the Category Description Image">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="other_cat" type="radio" default="1" label="Category List - Category" description="Show/Hide the List of Categories in Table view page">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="empty_cat" type="radio" default="0" label="Empty Categories" description="Show/Hide empty(no items) categories">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="cat_items" type="radio" default="1" label="# Category Items" description="Show/Hide the number of items in each category">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="cat_description" type="radio" default="1" label="Category Description" description="Show/Hide the Category Description, it will appear below the Category Name">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="@spacer" type="spacer" default="" label="" description="" />
<param name="@spacer" type="spacer" default="" label="" description="" />
<param name="date_format" type="text" size="15" default="" label="Date Format" description="The format of the date displayed, using PHPs strftime Command Format - if left blank it will load the format from your language file" />
<param name="date" type="list" default="" label="Date Column" description="Show/Hide the Date column">
<option value="">Use Global</option>
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="author" type="list" default="" label="Author Column" description="Show/Hide the Author column">
<option value="">Use Global</option>
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="hits" type="list" default="" label="Hits Column" description="Show/Hide the Hits column">
<option value="">Use Global</option>
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="headings" type="radio" default="1" label="Table Headings" description="Show/Hide the Table Headings">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="navigation" type="radio" default="1" label="Navigation Bar" description="Show/Hide the Navigation bar">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="order_select" type="radio" default="1" label="Order Select" description="Show/Hide the Order Select dropdown">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="display" type="radio" default="1" label="Display Select" description="Show/Hide the Display Select dropdown">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="display_num" type="list" default="50" label="Display Number" description="Number of items to be displayed by default">
<option value="5">5</option>
<option value="10">10</option>
<option value="15">15</option>
<option value="20">20</option>
<option value="25">25</option>
<option value="30">30</option>
<option value="50">50</option>

<param name="filter" type="radio" default="1" label="Filter" description="Show/Hide the Filter ability">
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="filter_type" type="list" default="title" label="Filter Field" description="Which field shall the filter apply to">
<option value="title">Title</option>
<option value="author">Author</option>
<option value="hits">Hits</option>

</params>
</mosinstall>

The strange is that my wysiwyg editor hilights all the </params> of the Barnett's hack as a error occured in the html. I tried to remove them but it's always the same problem.

anyone can help me please ?

[MacCool]

Well, you forgot to close all the <param> which have <option>.

Example:

<param name="author" type="list" default="" label="Author Column" description="Show/Hide the Author column">
<option value="">Use Global</option>
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

<param name="hits" type="list" default="" label="Hits Column" description="Show/Hide the Hits column">
<option value="">Use Global</option>
<option value="0">Hide</option>
<option value="1">Show</option>

should be

		<param name="author" type="list" default="" label="Author Column" description="Show/Hide the Author column">
			<option value="">Use Global</option>
			<option value="0">Hide</option>
			<option value="1">Show</option>
		</param>
		<param name="hits" type="list" default="" label="Hits Column" description="Show/Hide the Hits column">
			<option value="">Use Global</option>
			<option value="0">Hide</option>
			<option value="1">Show</option>
		</param>

you need to check your whole code. You are missing 20 "</param>".
And then you can add the hack between

		<param name="filter_type" type="list" default="title" label="Filter Field" description="Which field shall the filter apply to">
			<option value="title">Title</option>
			<option value="author">Author</option>
			<option value="hits">Hits</option>
		</param>

and

	</params>
</mosinstall>

at the end.
I also added

		<param name="cat_description_image" type="radio" default="1" label="Category Image" description="Show/Hide the Category Description Image, it will appear below the Category Name">
			<option value="0">Hide</option>
			<option value="1">Show</option>
		</param>

after the "cat_description" parameter, so I can turn on and off the images as well. For this to work, the content.html.php has to be edited accordingly too.

Hope this helps!

Mac

[elcubano]

Thank you MacCool, i go to try your advice.

[after editing] : Big thank you more !! It seems working ! You're very nice MC !

PS: in the original code, there are not </param>

[MacCool]

You're welcome!

Hm, in the original code, there should be closing tags... what version are you using?

[elcubano]

the french version 4.5.2