By sarahr on

Folks -

I described an issue in this post, and folks steered me toward the Category module as a means to accomplish my task. Basically, I need to make a block made up of a taxonomy, and its parents, that is collapsable/expandable. Please see my original post for a screenshot that illustrates this further.

Can anyone help me get started with this process, either by posting some of the steps or by directing me towards documentation that describes this process? I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Thanks.

Comments

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

The others are right. It is very easy to accomplish what you want with the category module. It will be easier to help if you could post the structure of your taxonomy vocabularies (one or two would do) with their taxonomy terms (categories) here.

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Previously user Ramdak. Feeling comfortable enough to use my real name after two years with drupal;-)

sarahr’s picture

sarahr commented

Sure, I can do that. Here's what I'm working with:

Under Administer> Categories, I have a vocabulary called "Topics." I will post the Topics vocabulary below. Essentially, I want to take this vocabulary, and use it as a navigational/browsing mechanism, and I'd further like for the "root" topics to be exapandable/collapsable.

Is this the information you're looking for?

Thanks!

--

Architecture
-- Documentation
-- Planning
Platform
-- Network
---- ASA
---- Cabling
---- Circuits
---- Configuration
---- Routers
---- Switches
-- Servers
---- xxxx Center
------ xxxx Server
------ Backup
------ Domain Controllers
------ File Servers
------ xxx Server
------ xxxx
---- xxx Center
------ xxx
------ Backups
------ xxx
------ Domain Controllers
------ File Servers
------ xxxx
------ OTW
------ SQL
-- Software
---- Sup
---- CWP
---- Host App
------ Host Setup
------ Spanish
------ Stored Procedures
---- OTW
---- xxxx
---- VPSync
-- Telephony
---- xxxxx
------ AES
------ CMS
---- xxxxx
-- Workstations
---- Hardware
------ Cables
------ Modem
------ Monitor
------ Motherboard
------ NICs
------ Peripherals
---- Software
------ Drivers
------ OS
-------- 98
-------- XP
CPE
Enterprise
-- Backups
-- Domain Controllers
-- Email
-- File Servers
-- Knowledgebase
-- Web Servers/Intranet
R&D Projects
-- xxxx
-- xxxx
-- xxxx
T&I xxxx
Testing
Other

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

With the category module, you would make 'topics' a container (equivalent to a vocabulary) and add all the stuff beneath it either as categories with sub-categories or as child containers with categories. Thus, parent terms such as Architecture, Platform, Enterprise etc would probably be better off as child containers of 'Topics'.

Some considerations to keep in mind:

1.) If you wish to tag any of your nodes with any term in this vocabulary above, that term must be a category, not a container or child-container
2.) If you create child containers, remember to enable your node types for each child container as they don't inherit the node settings of the parent container
3.) If you enable the category_menu module, the navigation menu will build automatically as you add the containers and categories. By default, the root menu is admin>>navigation, but you can create a custom menu and move the entire category hierarchy to that menu.

As for the expandable/collapsible stuff, containers and child containers are collapsed by default and expand when someone clicks on them. You can change this behaviour by going to admin/menu and setting each container to stay expanded by default. I don't know if this satisfies your requirements.

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Previously user Ramdak. Feeling comfortable enough to use my real name after two years with drupal;-)

sarahr’s picture

sarahr commented

This is terrific!
I plan to implement this today and will comment back with any issues that may come up, but this is just the kind of information I needed. One other question: do I need to disable the onboard/stock "category" functionality that is available in my admin menu at present in order for this to work?

Thanks again!

ore’s picture

ore commented

I think you need to enable taxonomy wrapper in the settings->category to get rid of the other category entry in your menu. this completely overides the old taxonomy module with the new improved version but keeps a set of duplicate data in the old taxonomy tables for other modules that use the original taxonomy tables.

sarahr’s picture

sarahr commented

Hrm.
I do not seem to have that option. I have Administer> Categories (two instances of this; one is the original taxonomy module and the other is the new, improved category.module). When I go to Administer > Settings > Categories (again, not category here, either), it just pops me to that same page I would have gotten to via the first method, where my options are "List," "Add Container," and "Containers," "Outline," and "Orphans."

Any ideas? Is there something that should have been enabled in Adminsiter > Modules that perhaps was not?

Thanks for your continued assistance.

ore’s picture

ore commented

just tack this onto your url that you are using for your site /admin/settings/category eg www.examplesite.com/admin/settings/category

and that should take you to where you can turn on the taxonomy wrapper ;-)

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

That's right. And, once you enable the taxonomy wrapper, the double 'categories' links in your admin menu will be replaced by the link to the category module.

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Previously user Ramdak. Feeling comfortable enough to use my real name after two years with drupal;-)

sarahr’s picture

sarahr commented

So far, this is working. I am creating a slew of new child containers and categories, all inside the container "Topics." I am enabling each as a menu item, and they are defaulting to be underneath the "Navigation" item . What are the steps I need to follow for "Topics" to be a. its own top-level menu item that can then b. be a block, with the child containers and categories populated beneath them?

Thanks.

newdru’s picture

newdru commented

For anybody offering suggestions here on how to do this with the category module...

I am recently trying to get a handle on the many different menuing "options" based on taxonomy and categories (and similar) available in drupal. I'm still a little fuzzy on the whole category MODULE thing... If anybody cares to clarify any of the following that'd be great:

1) Why is category being used here?
2) It almost looks like sarahr is creating a book and that the book module would be just as good?

3) And maybe to help me understand this. I've seen php block snippets which basically SQL SELECT vid/s and then spit out all the subterms in the taxonomy to creat a menu heirarachy based on the taxonomy terms. How is that any different than using the category MODULE? (of course you have to find the php snippet and know where to paste it, but otherwise it's doing the same exact thing isn't it?). Assuming that sarahr sets up her taxonomy module categories exactly as she has her category MODULE categories, both would be identical - yes?

4) in sarahr's example.. Can she have more than one node assigned to each category?

thanks for any clarity someone can provide...

vm’s picture

vm commented

more information about the category contrib module can be found here http://category.greenash.net.au/
That is the dev's documentation site.

category extends the book module idea. without verbally regurgitating most of whats already in the documentation over there, I thought I'd paste it.

newdru’s picture

newdru commented

i've been to that site already, and read it a number of times..

i admit, there is a tutorial on that site i need to walk through which will help so that's on me.

2 things:

1) i guess i was looking for someone to answer how the 3 options i presented above are really all that different.. I was asking for more of a BETWEEN analysis. because they appear to me to be variations on the same theme..

2) the problem (i hate to use that word because someone has devoted their time to make category a reality) with the category site (documentation) is that it's shy on "here's what i want to do, these are my other non-category options and what they would do to solve it, this is why category is better and then does it" type examples.

Many modules are more self-explanatory. They don't need a comparative documented example to that extent. But with something like category, you are exploring functionality that is grey and is shifting back and forth between a number of techniques. A more clear analysis for the consumer of a module would definitely help them make the quicker and better choice between several alternatives. That's just IMHO. :-)

It would save time for everyone involved. Including reducing repeated posts on the forum answering the same questions over again as well as the module developer him/herself.

That said.. i hope that reads more as a suggestion than a complaint. i really am greatful for the work all contributors make to these modules.

thanks

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

It would save time for everyone involved. Including reducing repeated posts on the forum answering the same questions over again as well as the module developer him/herself.

I volunteered for this task but haven't been able to do it so far. May be in a month's time.

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Previously user Ramdak. Feeling comfortable enough to use my real name after two years with drupal;-)

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

newdru, you may also like to read this article on why category is such a great improvement on the taxonomy and book modules:
http://www.nicklewis.org/node/851

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Previously user Ramdak. Feeling comfortable enough to use my real name after two years with drupal;-)

newdru’s picture

newdru commented

That's giving more of what i want (at least in terms of what the category mod can do).. I'll have to dig into this a bit to digest it...

Thanks for sharing the link...

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

What are the steps I need to follow for "Topics" to be a. its own top-level menu item that can then b. be a block, with the child containers and categories populated beneath them?

Go to ../admin/menu, click on 'add menu' and give a menu name. Now click on the edit link of the 'Topics' container and choose the menu you just created as its parent. Then go to ../admin/block and enable the block for your new menu and save the changes. That's it.

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Previously user Ramdak. Feeling comfortable enough to use my real name after two years with drupal;-)

newdru’s picture

newdru commented

As in sweet... :-)

After following this thread and the other post related to it at the top, i think i've got a significantly better handle on the categorY module thing now. i just need to play with it.

fwiw.. Your 1) 2) 3) defined steps above plus a few of the latter ones regarding turning the categories into a menu would be good fodder for your 'help' writeup when you get around to it. Also, a link to a live example would be really great too. i find that a majority of the snippets/examples don't really link to anything to show what they do. If you haven't been mucking around here for a bit or don't have any sql/php background, the learing curve is fairly steep for new users... but those examples speak volumes for the uninitiated.. thanks in advance for when you put that together.

fwiw2 : i wonder if a new name might not be better for the category module? it's hard to talk about category, categorIES, etc when they apply to both the module and the generic term that defines the problem they solve :-)..

Followups:

1) i imagine that because category menu essentially creates a block, you can conditionally display or not display the block like any other block in admin/blocks based on path or some condition you set in php - correct.?

2) the usefullness of the category MENU module seems very apparent to me. And because it is based on the category module of course you need the category module. But, is there any other reasons one might want to use the category module by ITSELF? I guess what i'm getting at is the category module seems to me like one of those modules you build other modules around. by itself, it appears to provide a foundation for value add functionality by other modules that use it's node categoriztion framework.

thanks again