hierarchical content

Maybe the http://drupal.org/project/taxonomy_list module does what you want. Check the demo page http://nanwich.info/taxonomy/vocabulary/2+1 (Not exactly nice, but you are expected to do some theming.)

This is possible, but unfortunately it's not a "piece of cake" for newbies. Also it is a process I can only recommend doing (this way at least) on Drupal 5, since it involves Panels module which is barely functional in Drupal 6 right now (just released first alpha version recently). My example was done with D6, but it was rough. An alternative to going with Panels would be to embed multiple Views in a node or template file.

Example embedding a Views 2 view (more details):

<?php
  $view = views_get_view('viewname');
  print $view->preview('default');
?>

Here's the result of me building something like this just now, by configuring Taxonomy, Views, and Panels (no programming at all):
http://www.davidnewkerk.com/files/img/taxonomy-powered-panels.png

What it basically boils down to is just a normal Views listing, however one which changes depending on the taxonomy term argument it receives (yes that does sound very complex - hopefully sometime soon I can write a guide to help... basically in a single-page View if you added a taxonomy term argument to it, and then added that to the end of the URL, it would filter the results to just those that match that taxonomy term). The harder part though is putting more than one of them together on the same single page, which is where Panels comes in. Not too hard with Panels, other than Panels for Drupal 6 being rather broken still.

This was done with the following modules: Taxonomy (Drupal 6 core), Views 6.x-2.0-rc4, and Panels 6.x-2.x-dev.

- Taxonomy vocabulary called for instance "Directory Category" (call it whatever you want). I set this Vocabulary to appear on Story content type forms. Add terms to this vocabulary that you want to categorize content with (e.g. I've added "Drupal lessons and resources" and "Cool Drupal modules"). I suggest you use these two terms initially since they're referenced in the code I'm giving below, so it's more likely to import correctly if you do have those terms. You can rename them once everything is working.

- Add several Story content items and add them to the terms you created so they'll be categorized.

- Next you unfortunately have to patch a bug in Panels module (D6)... I used the 6.x-2.x-dev version, but I think this would work the same for 6.x-2.0-alpha1, (needed since it has trouble receiving arguments in the current version). Open panels/panels_views/panels_views.module and find 2 instances of $block->content = $view->preview(); and replace it with $block->content = $view->preview(NULL, $args);. This should be fixed automatically in alpha2, so you only have to do this once.

- The next part I don't have time to explain "how" to do right now, but will give you the Views and Panels code to import (which might work):

Views 2 (Drupal 6):

$view = new view;
$view->name = 'directory_category';
$view->description = '';
$view->tag = '';
$view->view_php = '';
$view->base_table = 'node';
$view->is_cacheable = FALSE;
$view->api_version = 2;
$view->disabled = FALSE; /* Edit this to true to make a default view disabled initially */
$handler = $view->new_display('default', 'Defaults', 'default');
$handler->override_option('fields', array(
  'title' => array(
    'label' => '',
    'link_to_node' => 1,
    'exclude' => 0,
    'id' => 'title',
    'table' => 'node',
    'field' => 'title',
    'relationship' => 'none',
  ),
  'teaser' => array(
    'label' => '',
    'exclude' => 0,
    'id' => 'teaser',
    'table' => 'node_revisions',
    'field' => 'teaser',
    'relationship' => 'none',
  ),
));
$handler->override_option('arguments', array(
  'name' => array(
    'default_action' => 'ignore',
    'style_plugin' => 'default_summary',
    'style_options' => array(),
    'wildcard' => 'all',
    'wildcard_substitution' => 'All',
    'title' => 'Category: %1',
    'default_argument_type' => 'fixed',
    'default_argument' => '',
    'validate_type' => 'none',
    'validate_fail' => 'not found',
    'glossary' => 0,
    'limit' => '0',
    'case' => 'none',
    'path_case' => 'none',
    'transform_dash' => 1,
    'add_table' => 0,
    'require_value' => 0,
    'id' => 'name',
    'table' => 'term_data',
    'field' => 'name',
    'relationship' => 'none',
    'default_options_div_prefix' => '',
    'default_argument_fixed' => '',
    'default_argument_php' => '',
    'validate_argument_node_type' => array(
      'poll' => 0,
      'forum' => 0,
      'article' => 0,
      'book' => 0,
      'imagefields' => 0,
      'imageimage' => 0,
      'page' => 0,
      'player' => 0,
      'prayer_need' => 0,
      'section' => 0,
      'some_type' => 0,
      'story' => 0,
      'team' => 0,
      'tutorial' => 0,
    ),
    'validate_argument_node_access' => 0,
    'validate_argument_nid_type' => 'nid',
    'validate_argument_vocabulary' => array(
      '1' => 0,
      '2' => 0,
      '7' => 0,
      '3' => 0,
      '4' => 0,
      '5' => 0,
      '6' => 0,
    ),
    'validate_argument_type' => 'tid',
    'validate_argument_php' => '',
  ),
));
$handler->override_option('filters', array(
  'status' => array(
    'operator' => '=',
    'value' => 1,
    'group' => '0',
    'exposed' => FALSE,
    'expose' => array(
      'operator' => FALSE,
      'label' => '',
    ),
    'id' => 'status',
    'table' => 'node',
    'field' => 'status',
    'relationship' => 'none',
  ),
));
$handler->override_option('access', array(
  'type' => 'none',
));
$handler->override_option('use_pager', '0');
$handler->override_option('use_more', 1);
$handler->override_option('style_plugin', 'list');
$handler->override_option('style_options', array(
  'grouping' => '',
  'type' => 'ul',
));
$handler = $view->new_display('page', 'Page', 'page_1');
$handler->override_option('path', 'directory/more');
$handler->override_option('menu', array(
  'type' => 'none',
  'title' => '',
  'weight' => 0,
));
$handler->override_option('tab_options', array(
  'type' => 'none',
  'title' => '',
  'weight' => 0,
));
$handler = $view->new_display('panel_pane', 'Panel pane', 'panel_pane_1');
$handler->override_option('pane_title', '');
$handler->override_option('pane_description', '');
$handler->override_option('pane_category', array(
  'name' => 'View panes',
  'weight' => 0,
));
$handler->override_option('allow', array(
  'use_pager' => FALSE,
  'items_per_page' => FALSE,
  'offset' => FALSE,
  'link_to_view' => FALSE,
  'more_link' => FALSE,
  'path_override' => FALSE,
));
$handler->override_option('argument_input', array(
  'name' => array(
    'type' => 'user',
    'context' => 'any',
    'panel' => '0',
    'fixed' => '',
    'label' => 'Taxonomy: Term',
  ),
));
$handler->override_option('link_to_view', '1');
$handler->override_option('inherit_panels_path', '0');

Panels 2 (Drupal 6):

/**
 * Implementation of hook_default_panel_pages()
 */
function Directory_default_panel_pages() {
  $page = new stdClass();
  $page->pid = 'new';
    $page->pid = '1';
    $page->name = 'directory';
    $page->did = '1';
    $page->title = 'Directory';
    $page->access = array();
    $page->path = 'directory';
    $page->load_flags = 0;
    $page->css_id = '';
    $page->css = '';
    $page->arguments = array();
    $page->relationships = array();
    $page->no_blocks = '0';
    $page->switcher_options = array();
    $page->menu = '0';
    $page->menu_tab = '0';
    $page->menu_tab_weight = '0';
    $page->menu_title = '';
    $page->menu_tab_default = '0';
    $page->menu_tab_default_parent_type = 'tab';
    $page->menu_parent_title = '';
    $page->menu_parent_tab_weight = '0';
  $page->contexts = array();
  $display = new panels_display();
  $display->did = 'new';
  $display->layout = 'twocol';
  $display->layout_settings = array();
  $display->panel_settings = array();
  $display->content = array();
  $display->panels = array();
    $pane = new stdClass();
      $pane->pid = 'new-1';
      $pane->panel = 'left';
      $pane->type = 'views_panes';
      $pane->subtype = 'directory_category-panel_pane_1';
      $pane->access = array();
      $pane->configuration = array(
        'style' => 'default',
        'override_title' => 1,
        'override_title_text' => 'Drupal lessons and resources',
        'css_id' => 'drupal-lessons',
        'css_class' => '',
        'arguments' => 
        array(
          'name' => 'Drupal lessons and resources',
        ),
      );
    $display->content['new-1'] = $pane;
    $display->panels['left'][0] = 'new-1';
    $pane = new stdClass();
      $pane->pid = 'new-2';
      $pane->panel = 'right';
      $pane->type = 'views_panes';
      $pane->subtype = 'directory_category-panel_pane_1';
      $pane->access = array();
      $pane->configuration = array(
        'style' => 'default',
        'override_title' => 1,
        'override_title_text' => 'Cool Drupal modules',
        'css_id' => 'drupal-modules',
        'css_class' => '',
        'arguments' => 
        array(
          'name' => 'Cool Drupal modules',
        ),
      );
    $display->content['new-2'] = $pane;
    $display->panels['right'][0] = 'new-2';
  $page->display = $display;
  $page->displays = array();
  $pages['directory'] = $page;


  return $pages;
}

And lastly to add the images and make the links bold, add to style.css:

#drupal-lessons {
  background: url(term-icon1.png) top right no-repeat;
}

#drupal-modules {
  background: url(term-icon2.png) top right no-repeat;
}

.views-field-title a {
  font-weight: bold;
}

These CSS ID#'s are assigned in the Panel panes.

There's a module called Taxonomy image which I thought I might use to give an image for each Term using just Drupal, but on short notice couldn't discover how to make use of the image "only" in the title (it appears next to every item)... so I went with CSS (which I probably would do anyhow, since it is more semantically correct than including an image directly in the page for this purpose).

-- David
absolutecross.com
[new guide/lesson in progress: Creating a CCK and Views powered Drupal site - feedback welcome]