Creating a Blog Categories Module
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- AdventureBear
- Jr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 28
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Hi, couple of questions for my site that I've pieced together over the past few years
www.steelcityendurance.com
I noticed on this site (rocketthemes), the blog tab has a module on the right with blog categories. I have a few questions about this...
Is the blog created by only using section & category labels? (ie section blog, category jooma)
And is the moduule created by hand or is this done automatically? (ie if I create a new category, would it automatically be added?)
Finally, how is each category created as a category blog layout in an invisible menu item, then linked to the blog category module seen on the right side of the page?
One more...if I want one article to appear in two places (ie...a testing section and a cycling section), how can I do that?
Currently I'm using the FJ related component which solves only the last issue (one articel in more than one place).
My end goal is to have a nice looking blog page like a simple wordpress site would create...but I want to retain all the functionality and great looks that I currently have on the joomla site.
Thanks for any tips.
Update: I just stumbled upon the rocktabs module in my template...am reading about that now. Although I think i'm still left with the issue of one article in more than one place.
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- Ben Lee
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 4193
- Thanks: 42
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The best way to go for blog layouts is to use Joomla's blog categories or sections. From here you create the menu items and can link to them accordingly. You mentioned the hidden menu items which can be used if you need them to be and works well, but sometimes it's easy to have an overview page and a menu listed somewhere like the footer where it's out of the main area, but still a menu with the blog categories listed.
Currently Joomla does not have the ability to assign an article to more than one category. I would suggest just copying the article over to the other categories that you need it instead of installing an entire extension just to accomplish this.
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- AdventureBear
- Jr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 28
- Thanks: 0
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Thanks Ben, I have played for awhile trying to get my brain to write content in the section/category structure (drawers/folders), etc...but for some reason I find it limiting. If others cann work with it, more power to them, but as it is it results in my not writing content. With FJ related working I simply feel more creative...
So if you'll all bear with me a little bit, I am curious about this next question:
-I created a footer menu to experiment with. It displays the category & section blog layouts as I wanted with the fj related. It appears that if I want to use FJ related, I'll need to write a template over-ride. I may now be asking a question beyond the limits of this forum topic, but...how do I create a template override for the akiraka template for the FJ related component so that it looks just like the section/category blogs?
here is what I have tried:
created a new folder in the templates/akiraka/html directory called com_fjrelated
copied the blog.php & similar files from the category directory of the akiraka/html directory. Yes, unsophsitcated I know, but I don't know where to start so it was a first stab to no avail.
Any direction or assistance I can get is much appreciated! FWIW, my memmbership here has expired, but will gladly renew if required to get the needed support.
if this question is now in the wrong forum, please advise.
Thank you in advance!
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- AdventureBear
- Jr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 28
- Thanks: 0
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I should add that I'm not unwilling to stick with the traditional section/category layout as it seems there are a lot of time consuming modifications I may need to make. I'm just exploring the possibilities.
I've tried to read up on the roktabs module and I'm not quite sure I understand it. Is it a replacement or additional module for having a display with rotating content on the front page? I'm not sure if it will help solve my current desires.
Here's an example of my conundrum...I coach triathletes & cyclists and want to be able to blog about topics that may not be formal "Training Articles" (which would clearly go into a "training article" section)
So I have section "blog", category "cycling". Then if I have musings about time trialing vs. moutain biking vs. criterium racing (3 different types of bike racing), I am out of "drawers & folders" to organize the information. I would like these to show up as both "cycling" articles as well as "mountain biking" articles if someone searches the site for mountain biking items.
I will keep experimenting for now...FJ related can always be turned off as I experiment with proper section/category menus since FJ related relies only on the keywords, not the actual section/category selections.
Thanks for following along...
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- Ben Lee
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 4193
- Thanks: 42
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OK, seems like the issue is organization and just a matter of finding that magic combination or sections and categories.
If you're a little creative, you can do quite a bit with Joomla and what's already offered. Maybe you could use a "Cycling" Section, then have the Categories that you mentioned under it. Doing this, you could have a blog view showing the whole section of "Cycling" and all the articles located in all those sub-categories, then have sub-blog views of each individual category if you want to further filter it...
With this setup, you can then use the "Latest News" module that is in Joomla's core and choose the section id's for it to show. Let's say you have one huge group of sections that you want to all have articles listed for, but your sections are split up. Use "Latest News" and set it to show a large listing of all articles in all the sections you want...maybe have it show 25 article titles with links to them.
I will give the warning about trying to show articles in various categories that a user sees the article somewhere, then wants to go back...then they find 3 of them in all different places and they can't remember what blog listing they really enjoyed reading.
As for search, the core Joomla search function should work fine if you have the right sections and categories.
If you have style questions pertaining to a particular template, it is best if you post in that templates forum as much of that information is already there and that's where we provide template specific support.
Consider other core options, then if you're still needing the style class help and other template issues to be solved, then renew and check that templates forum.
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- AdventureBear
- Jr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 28
- Thanks: 0
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Ben, thanks so much for your help. I think that I will try your suggestions...it won't hurt and it may actually help me organize my thoughts better anyway.
Quick question...right now I have section "blog", categories "cycling", "running", etc....
I have a menu item "blog". I can't get the menu page (section blog format) to display using the parameters such as intro/leading/columns...it uses the default 1 intro, 2 column, 4 links, etc. no matter what I try. I'm wondinering if this is because I have a menu item named blog as well as a section named blog?
I am using ArtioSEF as well.
Again thanks for the help...I see joomla sites that are so much more robust than wordpress sites and I really want this to work.
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- Ben Lee
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 4193
- Thanks: 42
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First, I really argue against any SEF or SEO components. I've seen very very little done that actually improves SEO and far more that hurts it. Getting rid of any SEF stuff and just using Joomla's core feature there will solve a ton problems and will be better in the long run.
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/09/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls.html
Here's Google telling you they don't want to see sites with SEF components!
Next, the blog layout should work and if you're changing settings and not seeing any changes, you might need to clear your cache, in your browser and in your Joomla backend. You can delete the cache there and the site will start fresh with the settings you entered.
The section name and menu name of blog shouldn't matter at all, but the artioSEF may be causing an issue and linking somewhere else instead of the page you think it's showing. Again, I hate these things and have only seen problems.
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