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#1 2008-08-21 03:14:14
- rsilletti
- Moderator
- From: Spokane WA
- Registered: 2004-04-28
- Posts: 707
Usefulness of an authors_list tag?
I could use some feedback on the usefulness of an authors_list tag. This tag works much like category_list and section_list. I have a plugin working under 4.0.6, but the move up to the container tag capabilities leaves me with some unanswered questions.
The tag as it stands requires a patch of taghandlers to operate as it should and much of the code is copied/cobbled together from other functions. My original intent was to use this as an exercise to make better sense of the most recent improvements in the container tags, nevertheless, what I have at present seems to work well.
The more serious difficulty would seem to be making use of the tag.
Questions:
Is the tag needed?
Is the value of an article’s author so out of context in a page context that pursuing this doesn’t make sense at all?
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Re: Usefulness of an authors_list tag?
I don’t have a use for such a tag myself Rick so my comments are possibly biased in some way however as far as a simple author list goes I’m pretty sure you could extract one using the <txp:if_different> tags and depending on what attributes you used in the page template for the “article” or “article_custom” tag the list could be all authors or section authors or category authors or a mix of the last two, so I’m thinking that how useful an “authors_list” tag might be is going to depend a lot on what attributes it comes with and would it be possible to link to an author’s bio. I know a few people who would like to be able to do that.
Last edited by thebombsite (2008-08-23 09:25:48)
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#3 2008-08-23 18:27:45
- rsilletti
- Moderator
- From: Spokane WA
- Registered: 2004-04-28
- Posts: 707
Re: Usefulness of an authors_list tag?
The tag as designed draws a discreet list of authors that have posted articles of whatever status to the textpattern table, it then builds linked list items with the author’s name as text and the same type of author search link that a linked author tag would render. This tag being a list style page context tag would carry all the same attributes as the category & section list tags do, insofar as they apply. I don’t think it would work well for linking to specific bios, though that is an interesting idea.
Last edited by rsilletti (2008-08-23 20:54:59)
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#4 2008-09-01 10:10:03
- Mary
- Sock Enthusiast
- Registered: 2004-06-27
- Posts: 6,236
Re: Usefulness of an authors_list tag?
If it restricted by the author’s privs (Freelancer, Editor, GrandPooba, etc), I could see that being very useful to magazine or multiple-user blog sites.
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#5 2008-09-02 02:19:26
- rsilletti
- Moderator
- From: Spokane WA
- Registered: 2004-04-28
- Posts: 707
Re: Usefulness of an authors_list tag?
Something along these lines?
Plugin top of the download list.
Code
I changed the approach from actively posting authors to members of the users list, that adds flexibility for use. If a designer doesn’t mind empty author searches they can code it that way. This now allows selection by author privileges using a type attribute as a comma delimited list.
The first “Yeah, but can you make it bark like a dog?” question out of the bag is most likely going to be ordering by type within a single tag and the, currently, very limited sort options. Ordering by type would best be taken care of with multiple tags, the sort options could still use a little work.
This is an interesting idea. Any testing feedback, suggestions, or recommends would be welcome.
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