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By brenda003 on
I really need some help with the category module (not the default taxonomy core module). It's just NOT working for me, even on a clean install of 4.7.
I'm trying to get distant parents and activeselect working, but just the basic functionality isn't working for me.
I set up a container, and add a couple categories. Now, I create a node and assign a category. THE CATEGORY ISN'T ASSIGNED! But, when I go in and change the container attributes to allow for "Multi-Select", then it works just fine. Totally mind boggling, can't find anyone else with this problem, I've cleaned installed a million times. I will be willing to pay for help on this now because I'm just stumped.
Please let me know if you can help.
Comments
Why don't you say exactly what it is you want to do..
And how you are going about doing it (provide steps and actual category names). The more explicit you are the better when it comes to category module. That way someone might be able to help you. And I'm not saying that person is going to be me ;-).
fwiw, I have used the category module in the past and it is generally not for the faint of heart.. umm that is unless you *really* take the time to go the actual category module home site and read through the documentation and play around with it for about a week :-). No shat! btw, that documentation isn't perfect but without trying to go through it, try an example or two and search the forum for prior posts about category, you are likely to pull your hair out trying to get it to work for yourself.
Mostly because it has some quirks in the way that it applies changes when you make them. (you may be experiencing this already) And because it has a boatload of options whose terminology is somewhat vague/elusive and differs from the documentation on the site.
I think for me and probably most the biggest quirk is that you generally have to decide your category structure up front. If you can do that so that you don't have to change your cat structure after you start creating nodes, you'll be in good shape. If like me however, your structure changes over time as new requirements pop up, AND YOU'VE ALREADY ASSIGNED NODES AND HAVE A MENU STRUCTURE, i found that the minute i changed that structure, it would wipe out the existing structure and I'd have to redo it (mostly because i wanted to make individual sub menu blocks for each top level menu). FEERUSTRATING. But again, mostly due to my requirements for submenus (don't ask me to explain it here).
NOTE: if you stick to just one menu block (the same one) for all top level menus, then this changing menu structure probably won't be a problem.
Clear as mud? :-).. You're going to have to bite the bullet and dive in and find out for yourself.
btw that site linke to teh documentation should be found on drupal module page for category.
That's probably not what you want to hear but it's the truth.
Also, my experience is that a very select few post replies to questions about the category module. This leads me to wonder about the breadth of useage. I think most get frustrated and move on. Those that DO make it work love it though and I don't blame them.
I myself took the time to really try and learn that module because i think in theory what it does is brilliant and should be core functionality of drupal. My experience was that i couldn't exactly make it do what i wanted and i was never able to figure it out completely for my multi submenus. I wish i had though.
Anyway, i may start jumping back into the category module again to try and solve that old submenu thing. But until then i'm not exactly fresh on it and probably won't be able to offer any more help then i've given you here, which actually is pretty invaluable (as i've written a semi novel ;-)).
fwiw, i'll track this thread and see what kind of replies you get from the community and who is using the cat module as of late..
good luck! when you get it to work and understand it, make sure you give back (post) to the community as experience with cat module is sorely needed and missing from the forums :-)
Thank you for response. I
Thank you for response. I have read all the documentation and gone through it a million times. I think it SHOULD be working, but maybe I am missing some fundamental understanding of it.
I just can't seem to get the basics of it working.
If I have a container, let's call it REGION. I assign two categories to it, NEW ENGLAND and MIDWEST and allow for a node type, let's say page, to use this container.
Now when I create a page, I get a drop down to choose either NEW ENGLAND or MIDWEST. I choose MIDWEST. Submit.
No category is assigned. I've looked at the database and the cid is set to 0.
Hmm, okay. So I go back in and edit the container REGION, and click on the "Multi-Select" option.
Now I create a page and I can choose either NEW ENGLAND or MIDWEST, or both. If I choose one or both, doesn't matter, then a category IS assigned.
Why would this be happening? It's bewildering to me. I've clean installed to see if something else was going on, but the same happens. It got to one point where I was able to fiddle with some of the hierarchy settings (from Disabled, Single, Multiple) and got it to work without Multi-Select on, but when I went back to try it on another container, it failed to assign a category again.
Now I don't think this is a failure in understanding how it works, because why would it work with multi-select? It seems to be a bug of some sort, but I see nobody else has had such a problem, and I have run MANY MANY Drupal sites on this very same server with NO problems, so yes, I am very bewildered.
So if anyone can help with any ideas, let me know please... I'm pulling my hair out here.
Like I said..
I haven't played with it in awhile. It sounds like you're doing everything right. Like you I had reviewed the documentation many times, was positive i was doing what i was supposed to do the right way, tried posting for help and in the end it just looked like *my* category was buggy. In the end i just dropped using it because i literally wasted (emmm.. spent ;-)) about a month trying to see if i could make it work.
It may be nothing you're doing. And the harder you try the more pissed you're going to get.. especially when nobody responds on the forum to offer any alternatives. So you might just save yourself a heart attack and move on.
That said, i only have 2 - 3 other suggestions for you:
1) when you said you did a clean install, did you start with a clean database or did you try to save time and just reinstall the modules/source base. you might want to blow away your db and start from scratch. just a thought
2) you mention that it works when you enable multiselect but you never mention if you have 'single' selected and it works (what i mean is that i think you must have at least one of those options selected - if you don't choose anything it doesn't know how to do it). not sure but you might want to check this. this seems like the most plausible based upon what you've stated above
3) there is something called the devel module. you might want to enable that thing and see if you can trace where the category module might be going wrong.
4) if i recall the category module has a lot of helper modules. you have to make sure you have the correct ones enabled or it's possible that some functionality may be getting dropped
5) just don't waste your time with this.. trust me if you don't solve it in a couple of days it's probably time to move on this one...
good luck
Well. Seems to have been
Well. Seems to have been some sort of settings/configuration problem on the server. Moved the site to a new location and it works perfectly. Go figure.
Ya know..
Stuff like that is sometimes the case..
I was just trying to use contemplate module that i had installed a couple of months ago but never got around to until now. it didn't work. downloaded latest version. reenabled. voila. it works!
glad you got it working!
that category module is pretty slick when it works...
I'd be curious to see how you use it on a site.
Post back a link when you get it working and be sure to assist other with the category module in the forums in the future.