I am planning to develop some functionality for Joomla 1.5 and am looking for some pointers about where to start and where to look for similar projects, if exists.
Basic idea
- add the ability to add "sorting keywords" to an article, when submitted (naturally these keywords must also be modifiable afterwards)
- add the ability for the admin to create a menu displaying automatically all articles containing a given keyword.
Main usage
This would implement a sort of "multi-category" management, which is really missing from Joomla, IMHO. An example would be, management by location AND subject. You want a menu to display every article talking about "brussels", and a menu to display every article talking about "basket-ball". You have articles describing basket-ball competitions in brussels, and would thus like the article to appear in both menus. You don't want to manually create links to both menus each time an article is submitted.
Possible extensions to the idea
- the administrator could have the ability to define the possible list of sorting keywords once and for all, and restrain what can be chosen to the sorting keywords he defined.
- the administrator could be allowed to create a menu chosing, instead of a simple sorting keyword, a set of AND or OR-conditions that the article must match in terms of sorting keywords to be allowed in that menu. Example: the menu "Belgium" will display every article containing the keyword "Brussels" OR "Liège" (an other city in Belgium) OR ...
- "event" articles could be implemented in the same way, to implement a calendar, by adding some fields to the article submission like "date of event". The administrator could then create a menu displaying every events talking about "sports" AND taking place in "brussels", e.g.
- Are there any similar existing extensions / projects aiming at the same functionalities? I haven't found any browsing the extensions site, but there are so many...
- Any hint about where to look for implementing idea 1? I have followed the tutorials (module and component), but find nothing on how to extend the existing "submit article" functionality.
That's one more reason for the question 1. It would be far easier if I find an existing component adding some fields to the "submit article" Joomla functionality.
Thank you for any help or pointer.
Olivier