Textpattern CMS

#1 2008-02-06 21:16:02

scdoody

Member

Registered: 2006-10-18

Posts: 129

advice for site organization

Hello,

I’m doing a small site that features various members of a team. Each member will have a profile page, video page (that has a list of videos and then goes to a video detail page), a dedicated blog for each team member, and then a page for each of their dreams (each dream page will have some static content plus a blog specific to each dream).

My problem is that I’m confused as to the best way to organize this site. Each team member will be an author because they will be updating their own blogs. Should I make each team member a section and then have profile, video, blog, dream as categories or vice versa or are there any other ideas for how best to structure this site. Sorry if this is vague but I think you’ll get the general idea. Let me know if there are details that I’ve left out that might be beneficial.

Thanks

#2 2008-02-06 22:23:26

els

Moderator

From: The Netherlands

Registered: 2004-06-06

Posts: 7,458

Re: advice for site organization

scdoody wrote:

Should I make each team member a section and then have profile, video, blog, dream as categories

This would give you the clearest URLs I think (/member-name/?c=profile or with gbp_permanent_links even /member-name/profile/, /member-name/blog/ etcetera). It’s also possible that you prefer it the other way around: /profile/member-name/, /blog/member-name/. In that case you would not need categories, it would be /section/author/. You could then use the categories for something else, for instance for the blog articles and/or videos.

I’d definitely use gbp_permanent_links to be able to have URLs like /member-name/blog/article-title or /blog/member-name/article-title.

I assume the team members will be posting in all of the (blog, video, profile, dream) sections/categories? The second method (/section/author/) will allow them to accidentally post in the wrong section (e.g. in blog instead of dream), but the first method will also allow them to accidentally post in another member’s section.

#3 2008-02-08 20:08:03

scdoody

Member

Registered: 2006-10-18

Posts: 129

Re: advice for site organization

This was helpful. I’ve been thinking about what I’m trying to do and have another question.

Is is possible to get a link structure like this: http://www.domain.com/teammember/element such as http://www.domain.com/jake/blog or http://www.domain.com/jake/video. I’m thinking I would make each team member a section but from there I am lost. I am reluctant to make blog and video categories because I need to be able to assign each blog post or each video to a specific topic such as travel, dining, entertainment.

Any thoughts or am I trying to stretch Textpattern too far?

#4 2008-02-08 21:21:15

els

Moderator

From: The Netherlands

Registered: 2004-06-06

Posts: 7,458

Re: advice for site organization

I’m not sure if gbp_permanent_links can do this (but it can do a lot, so why not?), but you’d need URLs like

• /jake/blog/ = /author/section/
• /jake/blog/first-post = /author/section/article
• /jake/blog/travel = /author/section/category

I have used the plugin but not to that extent ;) So it might be wise to ask in the plugin thread if this would be possible.

#5 2008-02-08 22:12:51

scdoody

Member

Registered: 2006-10-18

Posts: 129

Re: advice for site organization

I installed the plugins but what do I set my permanent link mode to in my Preferences > Admin ? I can’t find any strong documentation on the plugin.

Thanks.

#6 2008-02-08 23:35:34

els

Moderator

From: The Netherlands

Registered: 2004-06-06

Posts: 7,458

Re: advice for site organization

No, documentation is not included in the plugin. That’s why I said ask in the plugin thread. I am sure Graeme or some experienced user will help you. (I would if I could…)