By jason342 on

I’ve actually managed to utilize and figure out the taxonomy tool (was a headache but worth it), so my question now is, say I have all this lovely categories/tags, so what options are there for me to present to my visitors so they can click on the category and tags they would like to read more about?

Can my taxonomy categories be displayed in a block, if so, how?

Can my taxonomy categories be applied to a “Page” where all the categories are listed systematically? If so, how?

Thanks

⋅ Categories: Drupal 4.7.x

Comments

sun’s picture

sun
Primary language German
Location Karlsruhe
commented

Use Taxonomy Menu (http://drupal.org/project/taxonomy_menu) and Taxonomy DHTML (http://drupal.org/project/taxonomy_dhtml).

More on popular taxonomy modules: http://drupal.org/node/47623

Daniel F. Kudwien
unleashed mind

Daniel 'sun' Kudwien
makers99

jason342’s picture

jason342 commented

Can I not do it with Drupal core modules, 4.7.3?

elfur’s picture

elfur commented

well you can create a menu item for each of the terms in your taxonomy, which then lists all nodes filed in that category. Aside from that, you need additional modules to do the rest.

HTH
/elfur.is

jason342’s picture

jason342 commented

well you can create a menu item for each of the terms in your taxonomy, which then lists all nodes filed in that category.

How do I do that, can you explain please?

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

See http://drupal.org/node/86975 for some solutions.

drawk’s picture

drawk commented

Your best bet is to use the modules that were recommended. If for some reason you really do want to stick with core, you can do something like:

  $tree = taxonomy_get_tree(5);

  foreach ($tree as $term) {
    $url = "/[vocab]/".$term->name;
    print '<a href="'.$url.'">'.ucwords($term->name).'</a>';
    print "<br />";
    print "<p>" . $term->description . "</p>"; /* optional for description under term */
  }
?>

Replace [vocab] with the actual name of the taxonomy vocabulary that you want to extract the terms from. Replace the "5" in taxonomy_get_tree(5) with the vocabulary ID. To find the ID, you can look at the status bar while hovering your mouse over the "edit vocabulary" link in admin>>categories

You can plug that into your page edit area, and make sure to set the filter to PHP code. The code above is totally untested and off the cuff, so expect to have to tweak it a bit.

But really the best bet is to use the contrib modules designed for exactly this sort of thing. Any reason why you want to insist on sticking with core?

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jason342’s picture

jason342 commented

drawk, the reason I don't want to use modules is because modules don't have demo's so I have no idea what they do or looks like.

Me being a newbie will take a long time to install modules just to find out I didn't like it in the first place, then I have to uninstall, then I might break it, then I have to back up and restore, etc…. All that just because I wanted to see if the module was right for me or not, nightmare!

Even if I use a test site I’d still have to go through the nightmare of installing and etc..

I’m trying to do things the simplest way and avoid the hard way, even if they are great.

The modules really need a demo so we could make our minds up. I don't mind spending hours and hours installing something if I know that it's definitely right for me.

drawk’s picture

drawk commented

I’m trying to do things the simplest way and avoid the hard way, even if they are great.

Ok. My concern is just that you are unwittingly doing things the hard way through that approach. Manual PHP coding is fine when there is no clear alternative, or when there isn't something available to accomplish the task that wouldn't be overkill for a given situation. But the whole point of contrib modules is that they reduce the amount of effort to accomplish common (and sometimes not so common) tasks, and do so in a standardized way.

Core is just that. Core. It's the engine, and maybe some of the chassis. But you'll want a steering wheel, headlights, gearshift, pedals and brakes. Forgive the poor analogy.

There is a school of thought that even taxonomy, blogging functions, forums, etc.. shouldn't be in core at all.

If installing modules is taking hours and hours -- and I say this without any intention of snideness -- then that is what we should be working on. It shouldn't take more than minutes to install, play with the settings, and test a module. For a great number of tasks, external modules are where the bulk of the functionality lies. This is by design. Core is a framework, and as such, is meant to be extended.

Even the most basic, simple, single-user blog sites will often make use of several contrib modules. For anything more complex than the most basic of basic sites, they are a given.

I'm worried that you might be taking the wrong approach, and causing yourself a whole lot of complications in the process, and depending on a whole lot of support that leads you in the wrong direction (ie. a reliance on code hacks rather than well developed code already written to solve the very problems you are wrestling with).

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jason342’s picture

jason342 commented

Thanks drawk, great reply.

Ok, and you are right, I've started looking at the modules, but they don't make sense to me, very little explanation to what they do.

Being new to CMS as a whole, I have no idea just how easy and difficult it all meant to be, so I am basically accepting everything drupal is throwing at me.

So are there any ‘essential’ modules that a drupal site should have but it’s not part of the core?

Going along with your analogy (great analogy by the way), steering wheel, headlights, gearshift and pedals are very essential, but the leather seats and car radio are not that essential.

Basically, are there any ‘steering wheel‘ modules out there that I should be looking into?

Ofcourse, a car radio may be essential to me but not to you and vice versa, but we both agree that a steering wheel, headlights, gearshift and pedals are very essential.

So I guess my question is: is there a list of ‘essential’ modules that is widely used and recommended by most users, something like the ‘top ten recommended’ or ‘top ten downloaded modules’?

Because being a newbie looking at an overwhelming list of modules (which are without demos and very little detail of what it does) they all look essential and non-essential to me at the same time.

Thanks.

drawk’s picture

drawk commented

I hear ya. It can be a bit overwhelming when you are looking at page after page of modules.

It does depend a certain amount on the type of site that you are building. Based on previous responses to some of your forum posts, Views seems to be the one most often recommended to you. Views is an interesting case -- it is considered essential by many, but it isn't always clear exactly what it does until you've used it. I avoided it for awhile even though I kept hearing things like "you don't know you need it until you've got it". The simplest way to put it would be that it allows you to pull up information of your choosing, and display that information in a way of your choosing. Without the need for PHP and manual SQL database queries.

CCK is another of the biggies. It allows you to create custom node types, and make them as simple or as complex as you like. It integrates cleanly with Views, and the pair of them combined open up a whole new world of flexibility within Drupal ... and can save you an extraordinary amount of development time. Actually, a lightweight version of CCK has become a part of core for the next release of Drupal.

A great place to start is with the Lullabot podcast #17: Essential Modules. http://www.lullabot.com/audiocast/drupal_podcast_no_17_essential_modules

They discuss the essentials, explain exactly what each one does and possible use cases for each. You can even find a list of them at the above URL. I don't know if you've checked out any of the podcasts yet, but if not, I would really recommend finding some time to kick up your feet and take a few of them in.

Also check out Nick Lewis' 10 Drupal Modules You Can't Live Without: http://www.nicklewis.org/node/766
(aka. 10 Drupal Modules That Will Kill You In Your Sleep If You Don't Install Them Now. Haha) Don't feel that you need to rush out and install all 10, though. For your case, it seems like Views + CCK will take care of a lot of tricky spots you've been running into.

And keep asking questions :) I'll be interested in checking out what you're building when you are ready to post a URL!

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www.whatwoulddrupaldo.org

jason342’s picture

jason342 commented

Thanks for the recommendations, great post again!

I haven’t the faintest idea what CCK and Views do visually, but I assume they both help with article management, right? so I may just look into them.

Also, do you recommend a module where I don’t have to go to Url Aliases to change, for example, node/543 to a Clean Url, instead it does it automatically according what the title of the page is.

And, where I’m allowed to choose to puts them in a folder and the folders show up in the url, i.e Drupal.org/themes/box_gray?

Lastly, the one thing that really worries me about installing modules is I’ve been reading post after post that installing modules will slow down your Drupal site overall, a slow site is very unattractive.

I notice Drupal.org is also very slow compared to other sites I visit that have three times as traffic as Drupal.org but yet they are not as slow as Drupal.org. I’m wondering if modules being installed has anything to do with it, and that the theory of modules slowing down drupal sites may be true.

I assume drupal.org has many modules installed, it is the mothership after all.

Thanks

goosey’s picture

goosey commented

Also, do you recommend a module where I don’t have to go to Url Aliases to change, for example, node/543 to a Clean Url, instead it does it automatically according what the title of the page is.

You need pathauto.... works very nicely. =-)

patchak’s picture

patchak commented

Hey there, I was wondering how to create a simple TOC but with views??? Is that possible?
Thanks

drawk’s picture

drawk commented

Probably not in the way that you mean. Views needs to join with a node, and because taxonomy terms aren't nodes, you won't be able to just create a list with Views.

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