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Blogs and cross-categorizing

1 Jul 26, 2006 22:34    

Quotes from: http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=8171

personman wrote:

2. Category pages - This is not built in. The software has no sense of categories that span multiple blogs. Categories are considered to be contained within blogs. I'm sure you could hire a programmer to add this feature, but it's not built in.

Nate wrote:

I believe if you turn cross-posting on then any category you create would be available to every blog on your site (I could be wrong, though). I'm not sure if there are other undesirable consequences to turning cross-posting on, however.

I hadn't found an answer in the FAQ under http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=5610 or other category, blog, or cross posting posts in the forum.

USING conf/_admin.php:

 - 2 if you want to be able to cross-post among multiple blogs/categories

The way Category results display across Blogs is fine, though how those results show in a certain Blog template(blog stub file) is peculiar. But, since there is no generic "Category Page" in b2evo, I will have to consider using the All Blogs as a master Category Section. I wonder if it's possible to point all category links to display in the All Blogs stub page.

My main question right now is, how do I limit Blog stub files to show ONLY the posts from the current Blog regardless of enabling cross posting? When I select a specific Blog, I want to see the posts in that Blog only. When I select a Category, I want to see ALL the posts in the Category across ALL the Blogs (though not in the context of a specific Blog).

I saw in the multiblogs.php file that you can restrict results to specific Categories. Can display results be restricted to a certain Blog, regardless of Categories (even with cross posting enabled)? This is relevant, because if cross posting isn't enabled, you CAN'T cross categorize posts across Blogs in the backoffice/admin.

hope someone can help soon...thanks

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2 Jul 26, 2006 23:28

The quote from Nate above isn't accurate. Turning on "cross posting across blogs" allows you to put a post in any category in any blog (cross posting) but doesn't make categories available inside any blog. Here's how it works:

A post has, in addition to lots of other details, a main category and (if chosen and enabled) sub-categories. Sub-categories can be in the blog the main cat is in or, if enabled, in a different blog from the blog your main category is in. The thing is that posts don't have blogs: they have categories. Categories are assigned to blogs, so when you visit a blog you actually visit all the categories in that blog.

Now to your question regarding stub files. I don't know as I don't use stubs that way, but I think I can venture a safe guess. Your stub file should have the following bit in it that shows something you can do: 

# This is the array if categories to restrict the linkblog to (non recursive)
# Example: $linkblog_catsel = array( 4, 6, 7 );
$linkblog_catsel = array( );


If I understand correctly this means you can use a comma-seperated list of categories (or sub-categories) that each stub will show. What you would have to do is list in each blog's stub the category and sub-category numbers for that blog.

So cats 1 - 8 are in blog 2 with cats 3 - 8 as subcats of 1 and 2. Cats 9 - 25 are in blog 3 with cats 12 - 25 as subcats of 9 and 10 and 11. You have cross posting across blogs enabled and post in main cat 1 and subcats 5 and 20. You want this post to show up ONLY in blog 2, so in your stub you include "array(1, 2);". Over in blog 's stub you include "array(1, 2);", which means this particular post will only show up in blog 2. The drawback, or thing you need to think about, is that if you post ONLY in subcats the post will never show up in any blog other than blog #1 - the aggregator blog.

Here's hoping this is both correct and helpful!

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3 Jul 27, 2006 01:02

Lots to consider in developing the structure of the website I am working on. Based more accurately on the way b2evo functions, I am finding I will need to start from scratch with organizing the info flow through the section/categories. I need it to be as flexible as possible, though depend on how b2evo organizes content as defining characteristic. I don't want to manipulate the system; I want to utilize it's potential.

Will be posting again soon, I'm sure. Thanks for your description of how the categories and subcategories work.

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