Context arguments for default taxonomy/term/%term page missing term machine name.

I am not redirecting to solve the problem, rather I am encountering this problem in defining a panel variant to redirect. I am attempting to use the taxonomy based menu to generate a URL to call a view. The taxonomy menu is managing hundreds of terms in the menu, but the links are to taxonomy pages, not a view. I do not want the taxonomy page, but instead want the filtered content in my view definition which can act upon all of the taxonomy terms.

I noticed that if the "Taxonomy Vocabulary from a Term" context is selected, the machine name is available, so I thought the omission for the term might have been an oversight. Also, when I attempt to pass the argument on to views it is arriving with spaces requiring the validator to be set to convert them to dashes which is the opposite of the settings for a view contextual filter to read them from the URL using an alias. That is just another point of confusion for a new user trying to coordinate these advanced level modules.

Yes I did. The UI for dev does not offer a machine name either.
I assume from our conversation in this issue, that Panels does not give access to the machine name for the term and have changed this issue to a feature request. Please change it back if I am wrong (And let me know what I have missed!)

An alternative to providing the machine name is to provide a convert spaces checkbox similar to in Views Contextual Filters

BTW Thanks for helping.

While that may make sense for the programming, it is a problem for users using a URL display to match the pattern used for the rest of a site. I assume that Path aliases on may sites use taxonomy terms to identify a hierarchy. If the %term:name cannot be converted to use in the path URL then it cannot be used in panels for a redirect. Is there some way (without coding) to make this space-dash conversion to generate an URL to match what is generated through pathauto module?

Please accept my apology, I am not trying to ask you to do the impossible, it is that I do not yet understand the structure well enough to know what is possible. I would ask you to read the balance of this post. I have activated this issue one last time to briefly outline my experience implementing your modules and offer to contribute in a small way to assisting their usability.

I began working with Drupal 3 months ago with the intent to develop a specific content rich website. Choosing Drupal was an obvious choice. Developing a concept for a logical navigation structure for the materials was fairly easy, I have been developing materials for a printed format for years and the flexibility of navigation and presentation of materials using Views, Panels etc… complement the organization of the materials. My problem is I am not yet comfortable at the coding level (I have coded in Delphi but have just begun reading/writing PHP and internet website structure). My skill level for Drupal is more at the site developer level than as a coder.

Implementation of my site plan has been incredibly difficult although the structure I need would seem fairly simple (*see description below). For the past two months I have devoted a major portion of my time struggling to get beyond the basics of utilizing these modules successfully. I have read everything I can including “Drupal Building Blocks”(DBB) (thank you Merlin & Mrs.!), but am still struggling with the lack of documentation clarifying what some of the settings do and how to use them correctly. Most support sites and videos deal with very basic demonstrations and never deal with the more ‘advanced” settings. Passing Arguments back and forth between modules, for instance, is still not clear and every attempt I have made to make it work fails. DBB’s example only shows a ‘fixed’ context (fixed:T-shorts) being passed. Both Panels and Views (Content panes) have a half dozen settings that may or may not have a direct affect on a successful connection between them. Many of the options are not clear in any documentation I have found so far.

Again I apologize if I sounded antagonistic. I think I understand the scale of the challenge in doing what you have already accomplished in making Drupal as incredible as it is. DBB is an invaluable part of making Drupal accessible to Site developer/managers, but from what I see on Drupal support and question sites and my personal experience, there is more that could and should be done.

I am not complaining that you should do something, I am willing to make a extensive contribution (as long as I can also advance in understanding and skills in Drupal). I have excellent writing/communication skills and have the both the perspective of a newcomer to Drupal and the skills, perspective and time to generate some deeply need support documentation ( I envision a comprehensive reference manual for the modules) that is currently missing at Drupal’s documentation site. To do so, however, I need to get past some of the difficulties that I and most probably many others encounter trying to get a Drupal site working. I would need support in discuss the reasoning and purpose behind some of the settings with you and your team of contributors in order to do so. If this type of project holds any merit and interest for you, please let me know.

*The basic structure I need for the site is a hierarchical menu structure based upon a taxonomy (taxonomy menu) that will generate content based upon the term selected (views using contextual filters). For each term type there may be articles in a variety of subcategories (menu tabs). Sounds easy but so far I cannot get there! Taxonomy Menu URLS cannot be edited through the UI so a redirect is needed to call the view. (Panels cannot take the name of the term and send it to a view because of this space versus dash problem and leaving spaces in a URL is not going to work). As an alternative I have tried passing the term through panels to a view page or to a content pane in a view, but have not been able to find a single combination of settings between the two modules that actually passes the context value and shows the view content in a panel. Finally there is the problem getting menu tabs to work (I have discussed this in a separate issue).