Have the categories displayed first as default?

Des

The title basically says it all. I absolutely love the simplicity of Vanilla over the other forums such as Invision and vBulletin, however, I am a fan of the categories as the default forums page. Is there a way to have the cateogires listed first? Thank you, Des.

lech

Sit tight, wait for 9.3, aka 1.0, you'll love it more.

Des

Oy, all right. Will it be easy to upgrade from the one I just installed or will I have to start over?

lech

I would say, don't get too settled into the current version, as the next version, while it will be possible to upgrade, may not be simple for everyone. So yes, if you're not technically inclined or just not willing to get your hands dirty accessing the database directly, you may have to start over. 9.3 flips many things upside-down and all around in terms of style, and some added admin stuff. The DB also got a slight tweak along the way so anything you do in the current stable release will have coming changes you will need to apply.

c-unit

Once you go discussions, you'll never go catogories. Give discussions a chance, it's one of the reasons Vanilla rocks so much.

Ludwig

However when you are running a forum for support on the subject of PCs/Computer for those who aren't that great with them in the first place (probably never heard of a forum) the first thing they want to see is the categories that help are offered on. The reason I chose Vanilla is because people don't need to be familiar with the forum environment for them to be able to use it.

Bergamot

However when you are running a forum for support on the subject of PCs/Computer for those who aren't that great with them in the first place (probably never heard of a forum) the first thing they want to see is the categories that help are offered on.

I think that, for someone who has never seen a forum/message board before, starting them off with a category listing is the absolute worst thing you could do.

Minisweeper

Yeah. I'd say you start them off with a usefully titled sticky which can point them in all sorts of directions.

Ludwig

I disagree.... Scenario - Discussions: 1- They type in URI address: www.helponpcsetc.com 2- They arrrive at the site and see a list of links none of which are related to their query 3-They leave ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Scenario - Categories 1- They type in URI address: www.helponpcsetc.com 2- They arrrive at a site and see a list of links on topics such as 'Software', 'Hardware', 'Operating Systems', 'Internet' etc 3- They click on the category appropriate to them 4- They see a README or Beginner's Guide sticky 5- They read it and then follow the instructions And bergamot you can't just say it's the absolute worst thing you could without giving a reason. If you give a reason then I may agree or see that you're right but without one it looks like you are objecting because you can. Could you please state why it's the absolute worst thing you could do.

RJenkins

Ludwig I believe you are 100% right on. I am thinking of implementing Vanilla as the fourm for a senior enviroment website, the one thing that is holding me back right now is if I can get catagories to become the default. Can anyone tell me if this is possible?

jtelling

an example: if your domain is, say, www.foofoo.com and vanilla is stashed in /vanilla you could have people go to www.foofoo.com and then, say, have an index.php that looks like: <?php header( "Location: http://www.foofoo.com/vanilla/categories.php" ) ?> wouldn't that work?

RJenkins

Sounds like a reasonable work around thanks jt.

bshultz

I have no idea if it's the best way to do things, but I set categories as the default by adding the following to the .htaccess file at the forum's web root:
#Set categories.php as the default index DirectoryIndex categories.php

dhdesign

@bshultz - I tried your method on my Vanilla install, and it did take me straight to the categories page when I hit the forum the first time. However, when trying to click on any of the Category titles or the "Discussions" tab, it loops me right back to the categories page - I can't get to the Discussions page at all. Did it work for you?? I may have to try the solution suggested by jtelling to see if that will work for me.

jeffbax

Hi, any status on someone making an extension to handle what page the user defaults too? Every thread I read about this request says the same thing: "Wait till vanilla 1 - its gonna be easier (or built in)" but I am not really seeing it. I can understand the hesitation to do it, you want to bring a new paradigm of forum usage, but when the users are all complaining about it or the forum is trafficked and its hard to tell what threads are about what topic (such as for project management) its incredibly useful for the ability to set a default view. Anyone making any progress on this?

Dinoboff

I don't know if someone is working on it.

WallPhone

Scenarios:
...
2- They arrrive at the site and see a list of links none of which are related to their query a list of people getting their questions answered
3- They leave ask their own question.

...
2- They arrrive at a site and see a list of links on topics such as 'Software', 'Hardware', 'Operating Systems', 'Internet' etc tons of jargon they don't understand.
3- They click on the don't know which category appropriate to them.

These arguments can go either way. Only way to really know which is better is to present both to a group of your users and directly observe. Doesn't need to be more than 4-5 people.

jeffbax

I am not interested in a study or argument about "which is correct" I think that there is a lot of interests in choice. It would be a nice user preference - your users can choose to see either as their default. I like the discussions way, at the same time I understand some people like more structure. My forum is mainly for the managing of multiple projects and for some it would be just well appreciated to have a default categorical view. Thats all I'm saying and I'm sure others are in the same boat. I guess if nobody else does it, I'll look into making it myself I'm just not the greatest person for the job around :)

Dinoboff

Nobody has been interested enought in that to make on extension or just a hack. But the request come back quite often; would be good if you could make it.

Dinoboff

With friendly URL on, just adding in .htaccess "DirectoryIndex categories.php index.html index.php..." could work.

Dinoboff

change that as well $Configuration['FORWARD_VALIDATED_USER_URL'] = 'http://your.domain.co.uk/forum/categories.php';