OK - Time for Ed's Question of the Week.

I've been tring to find some documentation on the FG TagCloud plugin, but other than your article on the subject, not having much luck.

Is it possible when using TG in List Mode to have the Business Directory Category as a primary list that would expand to reveal Sub-Categories for a particular Category when clicked? 

Thanks,
Ed

Hi Ed,

Currently, this is not possible with tag cloud due to the fact that the tag cloud accepts one Xmod filtered URL parameter.

As an example, cat= would return all categories assigned to the form you specified in the tag cloud form code.

If you have also created a XMod filtered parameter named scat, what many users do is create a second tag cloud form using scat= as the passed parameter in the second tag cloud form code. Then on their side navigation, they have a categories section and below it a sub categories section of the listview page (or wherever on your site you want to place them).

As I have mentioned, in previous discussions with you, if creating categories and sub categories makes it into Xmod 6, I am sure Tony, from FatGeorge, would implement a revised tag cloud to accommodate the change.

I did have the opportunity to view one of my client's creative navigation code for Business Directory that takes some manual page creation but looked really sharp.

He had created filtered pages of every Xmod category and sub category (yes, I understand this would be a large undertaking for a massive category/sub category list) and used one of the DNN tree view navigation modules that are available. The DNN module that he used rendered the category/sub category tree navigation based on the hard coded DNN portal pages for each category. Unfortunately, I can't remember which module he used.

Another module to explore may be the ASH_XModSearch module. I have not tested or used it, but it may be a solution for you. The developers name is Mauro Miotello.

Buck

I considered using some sort of tree module or Mitch Seller's Collapsible Text/HTML module, but as you said, a large number of categories/sub-categories could make that solution less than desirable. I will look into the one you suggested.

On a slightly different topic but not that far astray, how difficult would it be to have the Category and Sub-Category drop-down lists sorted alphabetically? That would make it a lot easier to be able to enter them in any order, but still have some structure to the displayed drop-down.

Thanks,
Ed

Any comment on my question re sorting of category/subcategory lists when displayed on the input form?

Ed

 Hi Ed,

Are you referring to the lists on the entry from?

If so, the dropdown lists would need to be manually setup alpha.

There is no attribute , in Xmod select and select1, for dropdown sorting.

See:

http://dnndev.com/help/xmod/Content/Form_Controls/_select_.htm

and

http://dnndev.com/help/xmod/Content/Form_Controls/_select1_.htm

Buck

Yes, I was referring to the Select statements on the Input Form. Your current method for creating and managing categories/subcategories is problematic for lists that might include numerous entries in those fields. Maybe in a future revision to the program you could consider putting categories and subcategories in a table and using a query to populate the Selects. That would seem to be a more manageable solution and one that would allow the lists to be sorted, but you may have already considered that and rejected it for valid reasons.

Ed

Buck, The more I struggle with adding Categories and Sub-categories, the more I think there must be a better way. In looking at your Advanced Search form, I see you have already implemented something similar to my suggestion above. ie - populating the select statements with a query.

Would it be feasable to do the following:

1. Create a Categories Form with two fields (Category and Sub-Category)
2. Fill the form with all categories and corresponding sub-categories necessary. Category fields would have to be duplicated for each sub-cat, but I could work with that. Data could be entered in any order and appended to as necessary.
3. On the BD6.1 Sub Categories Form, when prompted for a Category, populate the select statement by querying the Categories Form with a Select "distinct" on the Category field sorted by Category.
4. Then through some onchange Ajax magic to avoid postback, populate the Sub-Category select with a query to Categories WHERE Category = Category from first select sorted by Sub-Category.

Something like that is what I was getting to in my last post and would sure make creating Categories and Sub-Categories much easier, particularly where the BD6.1 Sub-Category Form is used. 

Just a thought,

Ed

 Hi Ed,

In fact, I had a conversation earlier today with Kelly Ford, developer of Xmod, regarding this subject.

I am strongly suggesting either:

1. That the categories form that is built into XMod gets an overhaul in XMod 6 that would allow the creation of categories and sub categories that is based on a particular Xmod form instance. Currently, the Manage Categories form that is built into XMod 5.5 is IMHO unusable because it applies the categories to every Xmod application that you have on your portal instance and also does not map sub categories to a parent category.

2. I have corresponded with Tony, from FatGeorge, to examine the possibility of Tony creating a user control that I can incorporate into DNN Professor apps that would perform this operation.

For everybody that would like this feature incorporated into the next version of Xmod, it will help to get it implemented if you start a forum post at the DNNdev forums at:

http://dnndev.com/Forums/tabid/215/afv/topicsview/aff/13/Default.aspx

Buck

Thanks for the reply Buck.

Since there's no telling when XMod 6 will be out and after that, assuming sub-categories are incorporated, BD would have to be modified to work with it and I'd have to purchase another upgrade of XMod, so I'll drop the subject. Hard coding categories and sub-categories into the form as well as modifying associated arrays seems pretty time consuming and since you were already doing something similar to my suggestion with the Advanced Search, I thought maybe there was an easy way to make the change.

I purchased BD for a new project, but this category thing may force me to reconsider and look at other alternatives. The documentation was there and had I not been so eager to get started, I would have realized the problems this method would cause, so this is not a dis of your program. For many applications this would not be an issue and I'm sure another project will come along where BD will be more suitable. 

Regards,
Ed