Request for Feedback: spc_section_alias

spchampion · 2004-12-21 21:35:23

A recent request appeared in this thread concerning the creation of a category_alias plugin. I hadn’t really considered it before, but improved international language support and better link support could be good reasons to make a category alias plugin.

But before I take on a new plugin project, I want to step back for a moment and consider the section_alias plugin. By all accounts, it’s now become very popular and I know a lot of Textpattern sites are using it. However, I would like a better understanding of how people are using it and what people think of it.

For example, what features do people use the most? Is anyone using the on the fly renaming functionality? What about the extra functions that spit out the link information like title or id?

What suggestions do people have? What kind of improvements could be made from either a functional or coding perspective?

Finally, what should a category_alias plugin do?

Thanks for any insights!

Last edited by spchampion (2004-12-21 21:36:51)

Andrew · 2004-12-21 22:55:03

Is it even possible to internationalize plugins? I submitted a ticket a while ago regarding an encoding bug that I believe has yet to be resolved.

As far as how I’m using it:

I mainly only have used it for straight up aliasing
Not using on-the-fly renaming, but could at some point
Yes, using both title & id
Coding: haven’t reviewed it. I’ve always just used it on faith ;-)
category_alias… I haven’t needed it, but I’m assuming it’d be identical, only w/ categories. Perhaps there is a way to make one parent spc_alias plugin that you could toggle based on attrib=“category” or something

spchampion · 2004-12-22 16:01:58

compooter,

Just to clarify, are you using the spc_section_alias_title and id functions that return the set title and id values, or are you just using the link function that handles the title and id for you?

For more perspective, I originally thought that it would be nice to have the ability to construct a link by hand without the link function. With that in mind, I added functions to get title and id back out of the hash table. However, I’m not sure if anyone is using this and I would rather not clutter up a future plugin with a feature nobody wants.

Andrew · 2004-12-22 16:56:26

urm… heheh

to clarify, I’m still on 0.4.2 because I seem to remember hacking your functions a little bit (but can’t remember if I did so have avoided upgrading). I’m only using the function <code>spc_section_alias_iterate</code>. I’m pretty much using it as outlined in the plugin thread.

spchampion · 2004-12-22 18:36:23

So here’s another idea. What about defining different category aliases by section? The difficulty with this is that it adds another layer of goofy organization that’s bound to confuse people. However, saying one thing for a category under section “articles” and another for the same category under section “news” would be pretty darn powerful.

Of course, I would probably want to put the groups feature in, which means that the category plugin is going to be pretty darn complex when it comes to figuring out what definitions come from where in the hash table. Hmmm…

Last edited by spchampion (2004-12-22 18:36:45)

dapi · 2005-02-10 10:19:24

I second the need for a category alias plug-in! I am setting up a bilingual site in English and Korean, and not being able to display category names in Korean is making my head hurt. Not every Korean likes to read menus, site maps, breadcrumbs, and stuffs like “this article is filed in…” in English only.

I guess this could be a to-do for a next version of Textpattern: associating a display name to a category or a section. But until then, can anyone help me on what’s the best I can do in this situation? spchampion, how’s your work on the plug-in going?

Etz Haim · 2005-02-10 11:21:05

I have implemented a couple of hacks to emulate “URL-only category names”. I have hacked the tcm_crumbs plugin to replace category names and not just section names, and I have a custom little plugin that translates $pretext['category1'] and $pretext['category2'] according to a list of replacements, similar to those of tcm_crumbs.

When I update both my plugins to use an external file or the database, I’ll release them.

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#1 2004-12-21 21:35:23

Request for Feedback: spc_section_alias

#2 2004-12-21 22:55:03

Re: Request for Feedback: spc_section_alias

#3 2004-12-22 16:01:58

Re: Request for Feedback: spc_section_alias

#4 2004-12-22 16:56:26

Re: Request for Feedback: spc_section_alias

#5 2004-12-22 18:36:23

Re: Request for Feedback: spc_section_alias

#6 2005-02-10 10:19:24

Re: Request for Feedback: spc_section_alias

#7 2005-02-10 11:21:05

Re: Request for Feedback: spc_section_alias

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