For example; mylinks module has 4 categories, is it possible to display a block of (recent links or top links) for each individual category? Currently recent mylinks blocks will display everything from each category. This can be confusing and separate block for each category would help to separate subject matter.

Thanks for any ideas or hacks

Richard

Richard:

Since blocks need to be registered into XOOPS when installing the module, it might be very difficult to do this completely dynamic. On the other hand, if you know the categories from the start, it should be a somewhat easy hack. You just need to build the blocks files, the templates, and modify the retrieval of data, so that each block retrieves not all the links, but only those links WHERE category = name, or something like that.

Cheers.

Thanks Horacio for picking up my question ...

It does answer the question, but not solve the problem. As you point out the blocks process needs to be pre-defined on installation and cannot be retrospective

Back to the drawing board ...

Richard

I'm quite interested in a solution too.

This one is important due to the fact that almost every website is not divided/navigated by functionality!

In most cases the navigation is by subjects - which leads us to a scenario that requires the ability to have pages/sections that will include blocks of the same subject from all the modules in the system

Lets say for example that we deal with a community site (a real community - not a virtual one) which has 3 main areas:
1. youth
2. families
3. ages of 60 plus

Each of those has it's presence in all kinds of moduls in the system (category in the forums, in the news module, etc' )

I must say that I use XOOPS for a few years years now and like it a lot, but this issue is a real problem for me.
I'll be glad to hear how other ppl's solved this issue....

I know the new newbb deals with custum moduls and that solves the forum's issue, but the problem is much more basic !!! ... How can a cms manage content not by subjects

here's a brain storming thought ... A search function that has predetermined search strings consisting of keywords.

Specified keywords are searched and returned when any specific page loads.

Thus a user loads a page about 'How to grow tulips' the pre-search module has been programmed to search onload for keywords 'how to grow' The keywords maybe automatically extracted from the page title, or manually inputed by admin on setup.

So, on pageload, a keyword search is done and returns a list of pages with relavance to 'How to grow' The clickable list is displayed in block. "Similar pages on this subject"

Maybe the XOOPS core could start using a keyword field for all pages to assist the pre-search module. And maybe these keywords could also be written on a page basis to a meta-tag KEYWORD_DESCRIPTION.

This concept opens up possibilities for linking all global content.

Ideas?

Richard

Quote:
Yes it is possible to hack the mylinks module to create a new block when a new category is created. It can also be hacked to only show links from that category.

HOWEVER - and this is important - I cannot off the top of my head guarantee that they will still be there after a module update, as it may look at the xoops_version.php file and do some fiddling... It will be rather tricky, at best.

Mithrandir, carnuke, All...

The problem lies much deeper to my opinion:
The fact that you return the subject to be a module issue is the wrong thing in all this.

Being a web project manager for since 1996 tought me a few things, one of them is not to treat a project in the eyes of functionality.

A few thoughts/points about it all
- CMS is all about managing content!
- Content is being managed by subject, not by functionality (modules).

- Only us (webmasters, projects managers, web developers etc'...) worship the technology behind the content, the end user + the customers (if it's a commercial site) looks at the content and on the way it's managed, as the goal.

- XOOPS (though it's an amasing system), basic concept is functionality and not "by subject" and it won't be changes even with modules like AMS / WFsections / soapbox nad so..

- As one that need/use cms's for 9 years now, I see the need (almost always) as this:

-- subjuct one
- articles
- news
- photos (gallery or so..)
- forum
- all others

-- subjuct two
- articles
- news
- photos (gallery or so..)
- forum
- all other.......

"System-wide-category" or things like that, lies in the core, not in the module level and might be a thing to think of when going to the next version of XOOPS ....
one more thing is keeping the system (and the modules with it) more orgenised (ie: link images at the images sub dir ... soapbox images @ images/soapbox ... and so on ....)

Don't get me wrong, XOOPS is the best of it's kind and I saw them all, but it lakes a few things that can make it close to perfect and is "something to think of" ...

Kind of funny to answere to myself, but a thought that deserve a new massage has cross my (tired) mind...

something to ease the need of the "cross system categories" or to look @ it differently, might be a way (core/system wide support) for each module to have "category based blocks" more easily .... that way there will be no problems to do things like "category portal" which can be simple modules which will include all the relevant blocks from other modules (but by category, not by functionality)....

Quote:
Try to see at it from other side (not opposite, but different)
Each site dedicated to some theme, and if you can't define it, or it's a "mix of unmixamble things" - it's bad planned site. Site "about all near..." is really "site about nothing". In your example I (personally) will hate idea to aggregate into target audience so different categories as your suggested
From my POV - each site have one topic, categories and modules offer only different view on it and|or some of it's sides... If you want strict topic separation on site - maybe it's time to think about separation site into network of sites?!
Not a best, but still usable example (I think) - my own project E-City (some free services, which I miss as widely offered and create for me and others), oriented to (rather wide) target - old, power, great "grey" netizens - from first minutes of idea was (is and will be) separated to different sites in one net (thanks to subsite module): one service (one type of users) - one site
And I haven't "module problem" this way - each visiter can be interested in all site, which part is more needed can be defined only by user's mind, but user have all in hands - all what hecan want to use-read-improve - and nothing more... useless... what I must separate into separate cross-site topics.
All site offtipics are topics on other net's sites and user know it and can jump, if you he wants
I.e user does not truncate incoming information by default (s you suggested), he can add additional channels, when and if it will be needed.

Fufff, hope I wrote my thinkings in redable and usable form. I not - sorry, "My mothetongue is not English, but C++"

Quote:

Sites network is one thing
Site divided to categories is another thing

I don't see any conflicts here (there's a need for both for different things)
but XOOPS is a mighty cms and can easiliy handle very big sites, so sites network is not always welcome/needed ...

Let me present you a scenario:

you have a community site, in your community you have 3 group ages, you want your groups to have all their unique content directly, without looking/searching after it, so the easy way to do it can be : taking Chappy's singlepage module making 3 instances of it with 3 different names, taking the "themechanger" module, linking each "singlepage module" from a block in the front page (that way you have the front page, but also 3 group portals) ... and now comes the part that XOOPS can't do .... in each "group portal" you embed category blocks - like all the links for the 60+ group, all/latest articles for the 60+ group, and so on...

I think it can be a functionality thing in the core (I.E. to search by category or so, but that is not going well with the way XOOPS is built right now)

I can give you some more examples of this need, but a regional community is very clear, I read a lot of requests like this, but though the features asked were the same, the ppl's who asked about it defineed it a bit differently ("group portals" ..... "another index page" ... "Top/Recent Block for a Category" and so on ... )