By lilon on
Hi,
I need to publish a collection of academic articles which need to be sub grouped within the collection (i.e. under subheadings. I could publish each article as a page or as a book but I can't find how to dynamically create a table of content which will sit on a separte page and allow me to display links to the articles under a few sub headings. For example:
My collection of academic articles
articles about the moon
Why the moon is round - James smith (a link)
The colour of the moon - John Doe (a link)
All about the moon - Mary Jane (a link)
articles about the sun
why the sun - Lily Jane (a link)
Too hot - Berta Joe (a link)
....
Would recommend help and please something not too complicated.
Thanks very much
Comments
This isa natural fit for the
This isa natural fit for the core taxonomy module. Take a look at what you can do with it -- it's very powerful and flexible.
-rg
Alternatively, the core book
Alternatively, the core book module would do this as well.
Taxonomy for the organization
Taxonomy for the organization of the research papers and Views for the dynamic generation of table of contents with sub-groups, auto-growing as more research paper nodes are created.
Hint to make all this much easier: for each research paper, I'm assuming they will be either a link or a pdf download for the paper itself... each research paper should be a node, one for each research paper, with a title and brief description (maybe the paper's abstract), and then the link to the paper itself.
Each research paper gets one node, and that node is given a taxonomy 'tag' corresponding to whatever tagging system you want for the organization of your research papers.
Then, using the Views module you can easily generate pages that are complete 'tables of contents' for all your papers as well as sub-pages with tables of contents for the sub-categories; each item in the lists can be the research paper's node title, and other information from the node as you wish, linking to the research paper's node.
Aside from understanding how this organization will work, entering all the information and links for each research paper is quite easy.
-Blake
www.BlakeSenftner.com www.3D-Avatar-Store.com
worked only so far
Thanks for the advice.
I taught myself Views and Taxonomy and managed to create a view which groups the papers based on sub topics. Everything works great, except...
The sorting isn't working. I had to use the Taxonomy weight since it is the only way for me to tell the view how I want it done, but weight doesn't work (see here: http://drupal.org/node/773000). Unfortunately, custom coding as a solution is not something I have the time to teach myself in such a short time.
Looks like I'll have to hard code the ToC, unless someone has a better idea.
Thanks
I think I'm not quite seeing
I think I'm not quite seeing what you need to do. You want to display lists of articles by category, you should be able to display a list of articles in a given category in views, not problem.
If you're trying to display multiple lists (moon articles, then sun articles, then mars articles) I would just use a view for each. So, a view block display for the moon articles, then a view block display for the sun articles, and so on. These can be each dropped into an area in your theme in the admin/build/blocks.
Taxonomy weighting, I don't *think*, is necessary for what you're trying to do, unless I'm missing something. What exactly are you trying to weight? What would you like to display?
-rg
Thanks for the quick answer
I have two problems:
Sorting the order of moon, sun, etc. Yes, using a number of views instead of one will solve this problem. Good idea.
Sorting the articles within each of the views. They need to be sorted in a particular order which only the weight can determine, but it doesn't seem to work. I'll try to see if the weight will work in the separate views.
Thanks
Weight might work, but if not
Weight might work, but if not there are other options.
Nodequeue, a module I've never used myself, sounds like it will do exactly what you're looking for.
In a similar case, using CCK and views and an addon to views called DraggableViews, I was able to set up a situation where nodes had a "priority" field, which was set in the draggable view. But even without the draggable view, you could create a CCK field that is hidden from the users but that sets a value you can sort by in the view.
-rg
Sorting items in a View is easy
Sorting items in a View is quite easy - I add this little bit of logic to almost all my taxonomy using sites:
1) Modify the Content Type you use for the research article nodes: add two new integer fields to the Content Type via the "Manage Fields" page, one called "major sort" and one called "minor sort".
2) For each new integer field, set them not be be required, and only single integer values. (If this Content Type is only for research papers, then make the two sort fields required.)
3) When creating a new research paper article, use the "major sort" field for the top level sort of your major categories, and the "minor sort" field for the sort order of the article within it's category. For example, you may have 6 areas of interest for your research papers, so any research paper node gets a "major sort" field setting equal to the integer value you've selected for it's research area. Then the "minor sort" field gets set to the integer value you want this article to appear within it's category.
4) When constructing your View, use the "Sort Criteria" section to add two Content Sort Order bits of logic, first on your Major Sort and second on your Minor Sort fields.
Also, it may make sense to use floating point values for your "minor sort" field, so it becomes easier to enter a "minor sort" value that is in between two existing articles. But that's up to you. The "minor sort" field could also be skipped entirely, and your secondary sort is based upon node creation date... it's up to you...
That's it. Easy as pie. (mmmm... pie....)
-Blake
www.BlakeSenftner.com www.3D-Avatar-Store.com
As you say, easy as a pie
Sorting is working great, all within one view. Thanks for the tute.
Now I only need to work out how to control the look of the view (theme? css?), teach myself to do it, and I am good to go.
Any suggestions of a resource that will show me how to add a css to a particular view (I see where you add the css name in the edit view page, but I can't figure out in which folder I need to place the actual css file)
Thanks
Theme Folder
CSS goes in your theme folder in sites/all/themes/your-theme-name. In order to enable a custom CSS file, look for your-theme-name.info in the same folder, and look for the lines that have CSS files listed. Just copy that syntax and add it in. It should be something like:
Views also already have classes automatically associated with them. I would recommend looking at the source of your page or downloading the awesome plugin called Firebug (http://getfirebug.com/ for Firefox or http://getfirebug.com/firebuglite for other browsers) which will let you examine all the CSS properties of each element (each span, div, anchor, etc.) on any page just by pointing and clicking.
Alan
what a great help - thanks everyone
I'll get right into the CSS business.
I've got one last question, I hope, but since its a different question, I will post it in a separate forum post, so as not to confuse things. It's about how to attach the ToC view, which I have created with your help, to the book that currently holds all the papers. I want to make that association in order to harness the navigation system of the book type (each one of my papers is of type book page). More specifically, I like the next (next paper), previous (previous paper), and up (the ToC View) navigation. But the 'up' is depended on such an association. Have a look here if you are interested: http://drupal.org/node/873300.
Thanks again for all the help.