lxsparks wrote:

[u]My questions[/u]
1) Does this seem a better way of organising the site?
2) Can the list of categories be given greater presence as this will be my main way of organising the site - rather then actual 'blogs' - effectively I'm reversing the current lay out.
3) Can I remove categories, archiving the posts (retaining the category title), so old 'shows' can still be looked at without having a host of old show categories being listed (especially on the bloggers admin pages)?
4) Is it possible to move existing posts from one blog to another and re-categorising them - so the existing posts match the new set up?

Matthew

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for your lengthy post. Your blog together with this post give a nice showcase to employ B2evo' s full potential.

1) Is there an answer to this question?
2) Yes, I think you can choose from three ideas in 2.3;:

* Put the categoties in the header and the bloglist in the sidebar * put them both in the sidebar and the Category list above the blogroll * Put the Category list somewhere and do without the Blogroll [/list:o] 3) You have full control over the Categories apart from duplicate names. You should (do whatever you like, but this is a somewhat stronger recommendation) have an archives Category and / or Blog. That way you can place complete performances in the dungeon. 4) It is possible to use one category across multiple blogs. This is called "cross posting". You can set category options like this by editing your conf/_admin.php file. The same parameter allows 4 options:
* only post in one category in one blog * post in multiple categories in one blog * post in multiple categories in multiple blogs * move categories from one blog to a different blog [/list:u] Do visit this topic again. I am sure other forum visitors have ideas on this topic. You' d better start with a test version, to see if it works out the way you want before you go live. Good luck

Thanks Afwas.

1) I don't know! :lol: That's why I was testing public opinion - however after your later comments I think for me it's the way to go.
2) Interesting...I shall tinker with the options later on.
3) Brilliant idea - I shall do it.
4) It's amazing how adaptable the system is once you know which tiny variable to change. :) I changed conf/_admin.php file and got exactly what I needed. The ability to move a category from blog to blog really works for my needs.

Thanks again. Now to sort out my skins..

Matthew

I came to the forum today with the same question -- how to share my (very lengthy) list of categories amongst blogs. Afwas's response above is great food for thought and experimentation, but in my case I really do need to have the four (and possibly more) blogs on my site share the very same list of categories that I (as publisher) control. A search on a category ought to return any entries in that category from all blogs on the site.

So, how hard would it be for me to attempt some mods that:

1. ensure category_name uniqueness (just a db constraint should handle it? how to trap a unique violation in php, though?)

2. revise the php so that cat_blog_id is ignored (i.e., select all) when displaying the categories for selection when blogging

3. revise the search-on-category php so that blog_id is ignored (if it is not already a straight search on cat_name)

4. remove the Categories tab from blog admin (i.e., just handle category list maintenance on the back end) so that bloggers can choose only from the provided list for the whole site)

5. (added 11 min's later) mod the display of an aggregated-blog page if one is used

the above seem like I might be able to knock out the mods in a day, but one thing I've not yet grokked about b2evo is what is the URL name about? can any blog posting to the same category use the same URL name, and if not why not?

or am i reinventing the wheel and this sort of mod is already done by someone?

if not, anyone interested in collaborating?

kazar