Customize The Categories Interface

dliao

Please forgive, I'm a new non-technical, community administrator. Is it possible to separate categories onto subsequent pages?

I would to have the home page be a list of 'cities' and when you click one, the next page downstream is a list of 'stores.' Is this doable? What would be the best way to accomplish this?

• City 1
  
  -- Store 1
  
  ---Threads
  
  ----Posts
  
  -- Store 2
  
  --- Threads
  
  ---- Posts
  
  -- Store 3
  
  --- Threads
  
  ---- Posts
  

• City 2
  -- Store 1
  
  ---Threads
  
  ----Posts
  
  -- Store 2
  
  --- Threads
  
  ---- Posts
  
  -- Store 3
  
  --- Threads
  
  ---- Posts
  
  Etc.

Thanks,
D.

fr3em1nd

go to
yoursite.com/vanilla/settings/managecategories

and make your categories there, and drag the child menu to it's corresponding parent menu . attached

for more designs, you could use @x00 's plugin

dliao

Thanks for the response. I have already organized the categories as you described.

However, I have 50+ categories and the page is too long. So I would like to have the 'parent' category on one page, and the 'child' category on another. Can this be done with HTML/CSS? Or is this re-architecting the core code.

fr3em1nd

@dlaio that might require alot of php code modification

anyway it sounds like you're needing something like a business directory, @Aolee 's plugins might help you. here ..........

He have pretty good support and written plugin with a small cost

if you need further enhancements, im not sure but he can also help

dliao

This is great! Now I can see the potential of Vanilla. I will look into the BizLink plugin or get some php custom development.

fr3em1nd

ok let me know if you have it working

businessdad

@dliao ony of my Clients had a similar requirement. He wanted to display the root categories in the front page, with the 1st level underneath. By clicking on a root category, User should get to a page showing the level 1 categories children of the selected one, and the posts in that root category. Clicking on a level 1 category would bring to a page with child level 2 categories, and so on.

I eventually managed to make it work, but, as @fr3333333x pointed out, it required quite a bit of coding. I believe that the BizLink plugin might be your best bet.

Kasper

The easiest would probably be upgrading to 2.1 as this category hierachy is already present in 2.1.

businessdad

@kasperisager said:
The easiest would probably be upgrading to 2.1 as this category hierachy is already present in 2.1.

That could also be an option, but one must keep in mind that 2.1 is not stable yet, and it might not be the best idea to use it in production (that doesn't mean it's not possible, just that it's not recommended).

dliao

@kasperisager said:
The easiest would probably be upgrading to 2.1 as this category hierachy is already present in 2.1.

From what I can tell on the SaaS version of 2.1, is that categories are all contained on a single page and secondary layers indicated with indentation.

I'm looking to create something like this directory (attached), where Layer 1 categories are on the home and Layer 2 categories are on the next navigational layer down.

Kasper

Vanilla 2.1 has 3 different category layouts:

Modern: All 1st level categories (incl. headers) are displayed in a linear fashion using div, ul and li elements. Direct children are listed in a small "Child categories" list.

Table: All 1st level categories (incl. headers) are displayed in a linear fashion using good ol' table elements.

Mixed: All categories (excl. headers) are displayed with 5 discussions displayed beneath each category title. A "More Discussions" link will appear if a category contains more than 5 discussions.

On top of that, there's the "Categories" module in the sidebar, which displays all categories in an indented list for quick navigation between the different categories: