Posted by FTW on Fri, Nov 12, 2021 - 2:32pm --- Updated: Nov 12 '21 - 2:41pm

We are looking to place posts in "categories". We are using the concept of "posts" instead of pages, so the newest posts, (similar layout as news articles) would appear on the front or home page.

We have tried using tags as well as creating new content, but so far we have been unable to create a menu link that would allow a user to click on drop down menu name containing sub links, or even multiple root menu names that simply goes to a url with a trailing slash that would display links to thousands of posts for each category.

We use this technique on dozens of other programs, but we have not figured out how to accomplish it in backdrop yet, so if anyone can guide us in the right area, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

FTW

Most helpful answers

Do you have any taxonomy

Do you have any taxonomy vocabularies set up and added to the Post type as fields? (e.g. Category or Tags, for example) If so, the type of page you describe is created automatically -- the taxonomy term landing page.

Comments

Fri, Nov 12, 2021 - 2:55pm by laryn

Can you provide a link to a live site that uses this technique? I'm not sure I fully get what you are saying, although it doesn't sound unachievable based on what I do understand.

Fri, Nov 12, 2021 - 5:58pm by stpaultim

Let's see what the others have to say. But, based upon my understanding of the example you provided, this should be fairly simple in Backdrop CMS. 

  1. You will need a vocabulary called "Categories" and add each category as a term. 
  2. You will need a term reference field on the content types that you wish to "categorize". 
  3. Backdrop CMS comes with with default views for taxonomy terms, so each category should automatically link to a page that shows all content with that term. 
  4. If you want to create a menu of categories, you can use the "Taxonomy Menu" module, which will create a menu block that you can place where you need it. 

There are other solutions to this problem in Backdrop, you will need to experiment and find the solution that works best for you. None of them might work perfectly, but if you mix and match and/or do some custom theming, you should get what you want.

Other options:

  1. You could create your own content view with an exposed filter that filters on taxonomy terms. 
  2. https://backdropcms.org/project/tagadelic (I've not used this module, so not sure it if helps you)

 

Sat, Nov 13, 2021 - 5:01am by FTW

Thank you for posting a link to your video and blog. We noticed that you are using "pages" instead of "posts" for your examples. It seems to me I read that pages can NOT have a short intro posted on the home page, and if that is true, we would not be able to use pages. So, will your method also work on "posts" ?

Thank You

FTW

Sat, Nov 13, 2021 - 12:11pm by stpaultim

Thank you for posting a link to your video and blog. We noticed that you are using "pages" instead of "posts" for your examples. It seems to me I read that pages can NOT have a short intro posted on the home page, and if that is true, we would not be able to use pages. So, will your method also work on "posts" ?

Everything described in my article or video can be used with any content type. Every content type can have teasers and can be promoted to the front page. 

In my examples, I created a new custom content type called "stories." If you would like more information on creating or configuring content types, maybe this video would be helpful or this section of the Backdrop User Guide.

The default setup for Backdrop assumes that pages will not be promoted to front page and that posts will be, but that can be changed for either. 

The following settings can be set for every content type, including pages. 

If you want the option to promote posts to front page, you have to check that first box "Show option to promote". As you can see, you can also make this the default. 

I hope this helps.

Fri, Nov 12, 2021 - 3:10pm by stpaultim

I am also a little unsure of what you are trying to achieve. As I was working to formulate my answer, two other people responded ahead of me. Pointing us at an example would help.

:-)

I am also leaning toward Taxonomy Menu as a possible solution, if the the following is what you are going for:

  1. Create a large number of posts
  2. Assign each post to one or more categories
  3. Create a menu of categories that can be used to display all posts of any given category

However, I did a quick test and the taxonomy menu might not give you drop down men you are looking for. This might require extra theming or custom work.

You might also be able to achieve your goal by creating a view of all your posts and then including an exposed filter that allows filtering content by categories. 

In both cases, categories would be a taxonomy vocabulary. 

With a little additional clarification, I think we might be able to help you.

 

Sat, Nov 13, 2021 - 5:07am by FTW

"You might also be able to achieve your goal by creating a view of all your posts and then including an exposed filter that allows filtering content by categories. "

Thank you for responding. I am not sure what an "exposed filter" is or how to create one, but if it would allow us to filter "posts" by certain "categories, key words or tags" and place that list in a drop down menu like we use on the link I posted above, that would be great.

Thank You for any additional information on how to create and filter exposed filters.

FTW

Sat, Nov 13, 2021 - 7:14am by FTW

Here might be another approach we can take, if someone knows how we can accomplish it.

Instead of having a "drop down menu" like we are using at: https://uslegacies.org/homepage under the "Legacies" menu on the top menu bar, is there any way we could create a menu link to a "category" titled Wartime Memories that would automatically list every "post" that is assigned to a particular "content type" such as the following post.

https://uslegacies.com/wartime-memories/liberation-of-stalag-viia

That link works great if we want to link to a particular post, but we need a way to have a menu link that will take visitors to ALL of the soldiers diaries and memories of the American Civil War posts, another link to all of the Spanish American war Posts, WWI and WWII, etc.

 

I hope that explains our goal better.
Thanks

FTW

Sat, Nov 13, 2021 - 7:27am by laryn

Do you have any taxonomy vocabularies set up and added to the Post type as fields? (e.g. Category or Tags, for example) If so, the type of page you describe is created automatically -- the taxonomy term landing page.

Sat, Nov 13, 2021 - 8:09am by FTW

Laryn said:

"Do you have any taxonomy vocabularies set up and added to the Post type as fields? (e.g. Category or Tags, for example) If so, the type of page you describe is created automatically -- the taxonomy term landing page."

******************

Under Taxonomy, we have added "category" as a vocabulary and then we have terms under that, but primarily what we are using so far is simply adding "content types" under the structure.

Bottom line is we need to find some way of setting up a menu with "categories AND sub-categories" in order to make it easier for our users to find the type of topics they are interested in.

Thanks

FTW

 

 

Mon, Nov 15, 2021 - 12:51pm by FTW

Still Confused Here,

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions. I/we have tried a variety of techniques, but so far have not been able to make any headway.

I am starting to wonder if part of the problem might be us using php 8.0 and/or a version of backdrop that does not have the same layout as the manual.

One example: in the manual, regarding "Enabling the menu for the "Post content" it states:

Enable the menu for the Post content type

  • Navigate to the content type configuration page (Structure > Content types > Post).
  • Choose Menu settings vertical tab.
  • Click the checkbox of the menu(s) you want to enable.

We have been unable to locate any place where we are able to see any setting to adjust or change the "vertical tab"  and yes, we did look in the content type configuration page (Structure > Content types > Post

I know that I am old and half blind, so if someone could point me in the right direction where I could make a simple link in the "primary navigation" menu that could contains sub-links (or children) that would at least be a start in the right direction.

Then, after we get that accomplished, we will work in finding out how to have those sub links or children, link to a page that automatically generates links to all of the posts that contain a certain "taxonomy" or category.

Thank You

Mon, Nov 15, 2021 - 10:15pm by stpaultim

Just to assure you that you should be fine running on PHP 8, with a few exceptions - such as the bug we discussed before. We know that others are using PHP 8 and core is tested against PHP 8 on a regular basis. 

This does not mean that we won't discover PHP 8 bugs from time to time, but any major functionality should be working. 

Mon, Nov 15, 2021 - 2:09pm by FTW

Partial Success,

One of our volunteers finally got us part of the way set up on the Primary Menu.

We haven't figured out how to set up a complete drop down menu YET, however using taxonomy, we do finally have separate links set up for each category.

Now, all we need to do is figure out how to set up the individual links as child links.

Thanks