By brandondrury on

I've been reading the handbook and experimenting close to 30 hours this weekend trying to learn Drupal fast.

Anyway, here's my problem:

I think I'm doing something fundamentally wrong when setting up my category system.

I'd like for my content to have something like this (explained in great detail below) at the top:

"Home » Configuration and customization » End user guide"

(assuming you are using the following URL)
http://drupal.org/node/6264

When I set up my categories, everything seams like a random mess. If I could display Top Level >> Second Level >> Third Level>> Fourth Level (etc) then I think that would let me know that I was on the right track and make it easier to understand the science of categories.

I've tried searching, but I'm too ignorant of the terminology to know where to begin.

Brandon

Comments

Brigadier’s picture

Brigadier commented

I'm a beginner with drupal as well, but I don't think the
"Home » Configuration and customization » End user guide"
at the top of that page is done with taxonomy. I think that comes from the book module.

The terminology can be confusing and you should be able to do something similar with categories (aka taxonomy), but I don't know how easy it is.

If you're doing it in php, maybe something like this might help
http://drupaldocs.org/api/head/function/taxonomy_link

brandondrury’s picture

brandondrury commented

Well, it seams that what I'm looking for are called "breadcrumbs".

Obviously, whoever chose to use breadcrumbs had no concern for what newbies would be searching for.

Brandon

dman’s picture

dman commented

I first saw the term "breadcrumbs" used in this context in print back in 1996. We'd been using it casually in the industry for a while before that. (That was Lynx/Mosaic days folks)

I think Hotwired/Webmonkey and The Web Developers Virtual Library threw the word about a bit when describing "Yahoo-style" navigation, and it's been pretty much a part of the web design lexicon since then.

Granted, it's not a term you are likely to come up with on your own (it's also known as 'navigation trail', 'ancestry' etc) but once folk hear it, it sticks in the mind really clearly.

Whoever chose the word knew exactly what they were doing - it is what it is.

.. I do sympathize a bit with the whole terminology quagmire you may find yourself in - We may need a glossary, with pictures somewhere in the 'concepts' section of the handbook.

.dan.

.dan. is the New Zealand Drupal Developer working on Government Web Standards

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

I think Brigadier is right because the handbooks on drupal.org are done using the book module, which gives the right breadcrumbs.

Currently, the only way you can do it automatically with taxonomy is by implementing Jeremy Epstein's suggestions on www.greenash.net.au

The menu module also gives proper breadcrumbs (but, please download and use menu on the fly module, which is useful despite its shortcomings) and you can manually link menu items to your taxonomy terms

brandondrury’s picture

brandondrury commented

I went here: http://www.greenash.net.au/posts/thoughts/basic_breadcrumbs_and_taxonomy

and it gave me tremendous insight as to how this thing works. It's possible that I missed it, but I think think the topic of modules should have been covered much earlier in the handbook.

While I saw the Book module while tinkering, I had no reason (in my brain) to assume that this would give me breadcrumbs. When I saw Book, I thought it some sort of specialized think just like the Move Review module on the site.