NOOB question about toplinks

Raven · 2006-02-19 19:15:03

Hi,

I’m afraid this is a total noob question, but I can’t seem to find the right info though I’ve by now hunted for it for a few hours and have difficulties wrapping my brain around this on my own… so please be kind ;-)

I have built a customized theme taking the theme Connections_TXP as a base sample. Currently I’m trying to set up the navigation and logic of the site.

The Connections theme displays the following top links:

Home – About – Archives – Links – Contact

I have also installed zem_contact, and I have the following sections: default – about – article – contact – images

As the links mentioned above are dead except for the Home-one, and as they are but partly the same as the sections I have, I’m now somewhat at a logical loss as to how these toplinks are connected to sections (if at all), as to how I would call them and whether I’d need additional pages or forms to display all that.

Greetings

R.

alesh · 2006-02-19 19:46:32

When you say the links are dead . . . are you getting the template, but with no articles, a 404, or what? Generally, the formula for an ‘about’ page is the have a section called ‘about,’ set to

Selected by default? no
On front page? no
Syndicate? no
Include in site search? tes

in the ‘sections’ tab, and a single article with its section set to ‘about.’ You may also want to do a different page template; then just set the ‘about’ section to use it in the ‘sections’ tab.

Once you get that one nailed down, the others will start to make more sense. It usually takes a couple of weeks of befuddlement to get the hang of TXP.

Raven · 2006-02-19 21:49:35

Hi,

the link is set to ‘#’, which is nothing, or a dead link if you will. So clicking leads to nowhere, there’s no action upon clicking. This is a sample Tag/URL of those links:

(li)(a href=”#” id=“navAbout” title=“About the Author” accesskey=“a”)About |(/a)(/li)

And LOL – I don’t have a couple of weeks, I need to get this site up and running as a basic blog for someone, pretty much pronto. I don’t plan on anything extraordinary, just basic blogging. Unfortunately Textpattern doesn’t exactly set up basic stuff like Nucleus or Wordpress, so I have some pains figuring navigation out. :o)

Greetings

R.

Last edited by Raven (2006-02-19 21:50:44)

KurtRaschke · 2006-02-19 22:06:11

I looked at a copy of the Connections theme, and in the default template I found the following:

<ul id="topnav">
<li><a href="/" id="navHome" title="Posted Recently" accesskey="h">Home |</a></li>
<li><a href="#" id="navAbout" title="About the Author" accesskey="a">About |</a></li>
<li><a href="#" id="navArchives" title="Posted Previously" accesskey="r">Archives |</a></li>
<li><a href="#" id="navLinks" title="Recommended Links" accesskey="l">Links |</a></li>
<li><a href="#" id="navContact" title="Contact the Author" accesskey="c">Contact </a></li>
</ul>

If that’s the code that you have, then I don’t see that there’s a Textpattern problem. Yes, it’s true that the links don’t go anywhere, but that’s because they’re hard-coded that way. If you want them to go somewhere, you’ll have to edit them to point to the appropriate destination. There’s nothing in TXP that will process the code above and create working links.

If you want for Textpattern to automatically generate links to the various sections of your site, there are a number of plugins for that.

-Kurt

Raven · 2006-02-20 06:48:55

Hi again,

well, Kurt, I happen to have known that facet of the problem, LOL. I’ve been around webmastering long enough to know a dead link when it bites me in the nose… I sure wasn’t asking for any automatic stuff either (though in other blog softwares navigation is pretty automatic in logical setup).

I have asked how and what to link these dead links to (syntax, mode) and how this relates to the pretty special way that Textpattern treats sections vs. categories vs. articles and forms and pages, as I’m having trouble finding this info in the docs so far.

With other blogs I can easily hook to the Archives loop with the id of the main section (of Archives) and it will (err, yesss, sorry) automatically display a clickable list of all articles per month or per title, as that’s inbuilt in many blogs. Same goes for frontlists of other sections. With Textpattern this so far does not appear to be the case without writing additional pages (or forms or articles?). So how do I get to reach that kind of setup that this theme apparently thinks is no problem for people to arrive at (and no, in WP it wouldn’t be a problem, but WP is in this respect quite different).

Greetings

R

zem · 2006-02-20 07:28:21

FAQ: How do I create navigation links?

Raven · 2006-02-20 09:30:05

Hi again,

this doesn’t really help me, I’m sorry, I read it before and I can’t make head or tails of it.

If I paste those tags into the href-reference (instead of the #) all which happens is that the links get mangled, it doesn’t result in a proper link to a section or a single static page.

Greetings

R

zem · 2006-02-20 09:32:23

Seriously, try what the FAQ says:

<ul>
<txp:section wraptag="li" link=1 title=1 name="about" />
<txp:section wraptag="li" link=1 title=1 name="archives" />
<txp:section wraptag="li" link=1 title=1 name="links" />
<txp:section wraptag="li" link=1 title=1 name="contact" />
</ul>

All you have to do is get the name="..." bits right.

Last edited by zem (2006-02-20 09:36:16)

Raven · 2006-02-20 09:56:51

Hi Zem,

seriously I just did, and nothing happens.

BTW I can’t even call my sections by direct URL (xyz.com/section) and I know they are there all right and have content, just as I created a static page for “about” and I can’t even find out what direct URL would call it (as I said, the URLs don’t seem to work as explained in the docs).

Sorry to sound that obtuse, but – hell – this isn’t working as most other blogs and CMS I ken work, so I’m completely at a loss right now.

I need to set this up and working for a friend fast, and chose Textpattern for its Unicode abilities, I’d be entirely happy if just that theme worked precisely as laid out and enabled basic blogging. I’ve tried prior to this setting up both Nucleus and Wordpress without the slightest hitch regarding nav and logistics, unfortunately I couldn’t get either to truly play nice with Unicode, which Textpattern does just peachy. Much as I hate to say it, but I don’t have weeks for trial and error.

So, once more…

I have sections default, article, about, contact (which I can’t call by the URL xyz.com/sectionname and of which I don’t know any other URL either), I have a static page with content for “about” (of which I can’t figure out the base/standalone URL), I have a plugin installed to create a contact form (and am at a loss as to how to call the URL for that contact form and how to set it up), I have articles in the article section under various categories (but I can’t call the section “archive” which – I think – ought to display them in a timeline manner list).

I truly don’t want to rewrite or redo that theme, I just want it to do what it offers, but can’t seem to find out how.

Greetings

R

Last edited by Raven (2006-02-20 09:58:48)

zem · 2006-02-20 10:31:29

seriously I just did, and nothing happens.

There is no such thing as “nothing happens” – blank page? Computer unplugged?

Please give us more info. Look at the HTML, and see here.

Raven · 2006-02-20 10:50:04

Hi Zem,

when I call for an URL like xyz.com/section I get served with the front page again.

when I insert the tag where the # is in the topnav lines of the template (see Kurt’s correctly displayed code of that topnav) I get a mangled line of what formerly was the clean topnav line. And as before it links to nothing.

R

KurtRaschke · 2006-02-20 15:21:13

In that case you may have a problem with your URL mode. Try messy URLs and see if that fixes the problem: FAQ. If that’s the case, please post your Textpattern diagnostics.

Then try generating section links using the code Alex gave above. Do not try to insert that code inside your existing links; the <txp:section /> tag will generate the links for itself. Of course, make sure to change the section names as needed.

-Kurt

Last edited by KurtRaschke (2006-02-20 15:22:27)

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#1 2006-02-19 19:15:03

NOOB question about toplinks

#2 2006-02-19 19:46:32

Re: NOOB question about toplinks

#3 2006-02-19 21:49:35

Re: NOOB question about toplinks

#4 2006-02-19 22:06:11

Re: NOOB question about toplinks

#5 2006-02-20 06:48:55

Re: NOOB question about toplinks

#6 2006-02-20 07:28:21

Re: NOOB question about toplinks

#7 2006-02-20 09:30:05

Re: NOOB question about toplinks

#8 2006-02-20 09:32:23

Re: NOOB question about toplinks

#9 2006-02-20 09:56:51

Re: NOOB question about toplinks

#10 2006-02-20 10:31:29

Re: NOOB question about toplinks

#11 2006-02-20 10:50:04

Re: NOOB question about toplinks

#12 2006-02-20 15:21:13

Re: NOOB question about toplinks

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