sort my articles into issues?

guiguibonbon · 2006-02-20 21:52:22

Basically, I want something very A List Apart-like. I just want to be able to publish issues. These should have a number, a title, an excerpt and a few articles connected to them. And I’d like only the last issue to be shown on the homepage. The articles still need to be categorized (interviews, essays, etc.). I thought the ideal solution would be to have an “issue” section and an “article” section, but I find it very tedious to have to give each article and especially issue a custom field, and can’t find a way for the homepage to display only the issue with the highest number.. And there’s the problem of the issue/23 page which should show the related articles. Not shure this is understandable… Anyway, I’m shure someone has had to do this before!

alexandra · 2006-02-20 23:12:49

Sorry i do not understand your question. what do yu mean by ‘issues’? articles or categories? can you refer to A List Apart page, please?

guiguibonbon · 2006-02-20 23:44:15

Already thought nobody would understand it… See, I’m making this magazine.. right? So I publish articles.. Well I want those to be published every now and then, as issues. You know… like 5 articles on one theme being published at a time. Much like like ala’s last issue is a valentine issue.

guiguibonbon · 2006-02-20 23:49:42

Right now i’m trying to have that issue-number attached to each article with a custom tag. But I’m so shure there’s a better way

blumie607 · 2006-02-20 23:55:26

I understand. I think the easiest way would be to create a category (or section) for each issue. It probably won’t be that pretty but it should work.

To those who don’t understand, go to http://www.alistapart.com and see how its set up. Basically its like they publish a new “issue” of their “web magazine” every few weeks.

Edit: After reading your first post, what I wrote doesn’t make that much sense… Sorry…

Last edited by blumie607 (2006-02-20 23:56:47)

guiguibonbon · 2006-02-21 00:02:07

I know, the problem is that this would restrict me from adding any additional categories to the articles.

zem · 2006-02-21 00:56:05

“edition” might be a clearer term.

You might be able to achieve some of what you want using the if_different tag and the methods described here. Depending on your schedule you could group by year/month or year/weeknum (see strftime). Or store the edition/issue number in a custom field, and use <txp:custom_field .. /> instead of <txp:posted /> in the archive code.

guiguibonbon · 2006-02-21 01:36:40

Thanks a lot for the help. I went through most of this beforehand though… I’d rather not use time as a condition, as this might cause problems during hollidays and stuff.. you never know. The custom-field technique sort of does the trick indeed, where I’ve made an “Issue” section holding the issue’s (edition’s) title and excerpt.

One of the problems i have, is that on the issues-list, I would need the articles of each edition to be listed under each issue. Like at http://www.alistapart.com/articles/
I’m now looking for some plugin that might act like Txp:related_articles, but judging on custom fields. Finding a solution to this would also enable me to only have the last issue on the front-page.
But then again, this just seems stupid, since the articles-list should output the exact same thing… Or I would have to find a way to disable the articles-list page.

Somewhere in my head an alternative overwhole possible solution is getting shape, but it’s still verry blurry.

zem · 2006-02-21 01:50:50

One of the problems i have, is that on the issues-list, I would need the articles of each edition to be listed under each issue. Like at http://www.alistapart.com/articles/

Like I said, you could use the FAQ archive method with if_different and custom_field to do this.

guiguibonbon · 2006-02-21 02:09:52

I didn’t find a way to make this work in the issues-list… since the articles aren’t issues. It works superbly on the front-page though. It also works on the articles-page, except I can’t output the issues’ title or anything. Only its number. Tell me if that’s just due to my incompetence. But my other idea sort of took shape

Ok.. could this work? :

There are two main categories : “issues” and “category”. The issues category has all the issues’ numbers as sub-categories, and the category-category has all the rest. The title and excerpt of each issue would be determined by those of the only sticky article in each issue-sub-category. So, on my frontpage and other lists, I’de have a txp:article_custom limited to one, ordering by category and limited to the category “issues” and to status “sticky”. Then I’d have some tweaked txp:related_articles, which would also output the excerpt and the author. pfew… And finally, I’d have the urls showing in “category”/“subcategory”/“articleName” mode (which plug-in did this again?)

Last edited by guiguibonbon (2006-02-21 02:22:06)

zem · 2006-02-21 02:16:54

I didn’t find a way to make this work in the issues-list… since the articles aren’t issues. It works superbly on the front-page though. It also works on the articles-page, except I can’t output the issues’ title or anything. Only its number.

Something like this, in your archive form:

<txp:if_different><h2>Issue #<txp:custom_field name="custom_3" /></h2></txp:if_different>
<txp:title />
<txp:excerpt />

..with the correct custom field name, of course. You could use a second custom field for a title, volume number, etc. And sortby="custom_3" in your article_custom tag.

guiguibonbon · 2006-02-21 02:26:33

I would have to type the edition’s title in every one of its articles then, or at least in the first one. not so pretty…

I think i’m going to investigate my other possible solution a bit.

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#1 2006-02-20 21:52:22

sort my articles into issues?

#2 2006-02-20 23:12:49

Re: sort my articles into issues?

#3 2006-02-20 23:44:15

Re: sort my articles into issues?

#4 2006-02-20 23:49:42

Re: sort my articles into issues?

#5 2006-02-20 23:55:26

Re: sort my articles into issues?

#6 2006-02-21 00:02:07

Re: sort my articles into issues?

#7 2006-02-21 00:56:05

Re: sort my articles into issues?

#8 2006-02-21 01:36:40

Re: sort my articles into issues?

#9 2006-02-21 01:50:50

Re: sort my articles into issues?

#10 2006-02-21 02:09:52

Re: sort my articles into issues?

#11 2006-02-21 02:16:54

Re: sort my articles into issues?

#12 2006-02-21 02:26:33

Re: sort my articles into issues?

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