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I've been trying to find answers to these questions for several weeks without any luck.  There are more details at each of the linked topics. I'd be happy to get any suggestions.  thanks.

unanswerable questions?

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,6530.0.html
I'm trying to correct an issue with Table-Content Category pages.  The links displayed for the content items on Table-Content Category include the Itemid of the Table-Content Category instead of the Itemid of the content item.

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,15253.0.html
Anyone have a workaround to allow cross-referencing of content items in menus? For example I'd like the content item apples to show up in two menus
Round things
donuts
apples
baseballs

Red things
apples
fire trucks
I've though of three ways of doing this, but all have serious drawbacks...
[url=http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,13256.msg86066.html]
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... 86066.html[/url]
I could have sworn I saw a switch somewhere to define whether content items, category listings etc. showed the real name or username of the author when you choose to display the aouthor.  All I can find now are show/hide options.
Can you set authors globally to show username?
[url=http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,13301.msg87310.html#msg87310]
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... l#msg87310[/url]
Is there a way to remove the password requirement for registered users.
In other words, for a user to register they simply choose a username, and for a registered user to login they simply put in their username.
I don't want to hack it out altogether because I'd sitll like the password requirement for author, publisher etc.

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Ray,
joomla in testing at Costa Rica Travel: http://costaricamap.net
http://costa-rica-guide.com

i know this isn't the exact answer you want on these...but here you go.

1. i can't duplicate what you describe.
2. you have three work-arounds in your post. all three work.
3. there is no switch.
4. i don't think what you're asking is wise because 1. no one is used to a passwordless login 2. it has inherint security concerns

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okay, answer to number 1 issue:

the itemid# refers to the category.

the id# in the url refers to the id# WITHIN THE CATEGORY itemid#.

hope this helps.

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1.  Do you have an example of somewhere it's not duplicated. 

Every Table-Content Category listing I've seen substitutes the Table-Content Category Itemid for the listed Content Items Itemid in the linked title.  Typically people don't notice because they have assigned the same modules and menus to the Table-Content Category and to the Content Items linked to by the Table-Content Category.  So it looks like all is well, but that's just a coincidence.

If you click on the linked title you get the Content Item displayed surrounded by the modules, menus etc. that are assigned to the Table-Content Category NOT the  modules, menus etc. that are assigned to the Content Item.  If you have different

2. Hmm...  You don't see the potential for nightmares when trying to update...?

3. Must have been some other CMS.  Thanks though, at least I can stop looking.
4. Fair enough.  I've been rethinking it and you're probably right.

Thanks for the input

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Ray,
joomla in testing at Costa Rica Travel: http://costaricamap.net
http://costa-rica-guide.com

If you look at a link to a content item from a menu (see menu item "Module Moon Phase" under Credits on the left in [url=http://]this page[/url]), you'll see something like
http://costa-rica-guide.com/travel/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=30

where Itemid=30 is the integer stored in mos_/jos_menu in the field "id" for the link to the Content Item
and id=19 is the integer stored in mos_/jos_content in the field "id" for the link to the Content Item

This (19) is the number you have to get into the URL in order to display the modules you've assigned (under modules >> site modules >> yourmodule name there is an option  Menu Item Link(s): which displays a list of choices to display the module on) to this content item.

If you click on the above link, or go to the site and click on a link to the Content Item with 19 in the mos_/jos_content field "id" you will see the Content Item correctly displayed with the assigned modules.

If you look at a link to the same content item from a linked title in a Table-Content Category it will read
http://costa-rica-guide.com/travel/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=18

The Itemid that is inserted in the linked title URL is the integer stored in mos_/jos_menu in the field "id" for the link to the Table-Content Category (in this case 18 instead of the correct Itemid 30)  not the integer stored in mos_/jos_menu in the field "id" for the link to the Content Item.  If you click this link you will generate a hybrid page showing the Content Item with 19 in the mos_/jos_content field "id" and the modules for the  Table-Content Category with the integer 18 stored in mos_/jos_menu in the field "id"


I'm asking how to prevent the formation of this hybrid page (half Content Item/half Table-Content Category) and instead have a linked title with a URL that points at the body content and the associated modules for a Content Item.

--edit for clarity, although that may be hopeless....--

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Ray,
joomla in testing at Costa Rica Travel: http://costaricamap.net
http://costa-rica-guide.com

That's what menus are for. Seriously, If you want to just show the content item and you want to control which modules appear you need to use a menu link, not a linked title.

I have something like 150 menus. You have so much more control with them. I think of the oontent tables as only for work in progress. The only problem is, if you are like me and coming from a site that started with thousands of pages, it creates a huge problem of gigantic drop downs.

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Thousands of pages is exactly the issue, and Table-Content Category is a great solution because of the filtering and sorting capabilities.

I'm at a complete loss as to why this seems impossible.

The mos_/jos_content "id" is correct and know at the time that the URL for the linked title is being generated (in my example 19), if you assign that to the variable $CorrectContentID,  you can look up the correct Itemid with something like



if you have 19 in $CorrectContentID the result will be 30 which is the correct Itemid.

I'm just not familiar enough with the core code and global variables to figure out where or exactly how to do this...

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Ray,
joomla in testing at Costa Rica Travel: http://costaricamap.net
http://costa-rica-guide.com

How do you deal with cross referencing on the menus.  With 150 there must be some items that show up on more than one menu, then you end up with multiple Itemid for individual content items or multiple copies of each content item. (problem 2 in the original post)

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¡Pura Vida!
Ray,
joomla in testing at Costa Rica Travel: http://costaricamap.net
http://costa-rica-guide.com

1. I've replied to your original thread. It is a big problem, yes. And you are not going mad or being unclear.

3. You are thinking of Simpleboard forum.

See, I actually see that as a feature. I can have different modules depending on where the user is coming from.

I guess ignorance is bliss, but using menus also solves many of the "you do not have permission" problems.

Compare:

http://www.manhattancountryschool.org/i ... &Itemid=83

http://www.manhattancountryschool.org/i ... Itemid=111

One comes from the curriculum menu. THe othe comes from the  farm menu.

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So we must fix our vision not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but upon the positive affirmation of peace. MLK 1964.
http://officialjoomlabook.com Get it at http://www.joomla.org/joomla-press-official-books.html Buy a book, support Joomla!.

I see what you mean, one has curriculum modules and one farm...Do you ever run into errors because the Itemid is not unique... I noticed you've also killed the pathway, and forgone active menu item highlighting...I suppose you have to since these are determined by Itemid and could sometimes point at something irrelevant to the content in the context...

I'm having enough trouble keeping the architecture user friendly just considering where people are and where they'll most likely want to go from there, I'm not sure I'm quite clever enough to add where they just came from into the equation and make any sense of it, but if you've got lemons...

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¡Pura Vida!
Ray,
joomla in testing at Costa Rica Travel: http://costaricamap.net
http://costa-rica-guide.com

I really disliked the look of the pathway so I killed it right away when modifying my template. Actually, with a school site, the way I look at it, I try to take different groups of users through the site in different ways. I tried to think about what each group would want in what order and it turned out to be compex. So, people looking for admissions information go one way, via a starting point at the admissions page. I give them a simplified over view of the site.
People looking for information on the farm start at a different point and then if they want, they go to other parts.
Each group of insiders (teachers, parents, students) each have their own starting points and menu systems that makes sense for them, with the stuff they need most often up front, and other things further back.

There are lots of pages that people get to in different ways.

The thing is, itemids are from menus--that's why items without menu links get messed up itemids. So the menu system is really the way to solve a lot of problems. I just wish that the category and section tables would use menus rather than links.

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So we must fix our vision not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but upon the positive affirmation of peace. MLK 1964.
http://officialjoomlabook.com Get it at http://www.joomla.org/joomla-press-official-books.html Buy a book, support Joomla!.

I understand that, and believe me I have every intention of using the menus to their best advantage, but they simply aren't suited to some things.  If I have 1,500 hotels and want to be able to sort and/or filter them by price, location, class, regional activities, availability singly or simultaneously (just the sort of thing people want to do with this type of information) the combinations would require tens of thousands of menu items and updating would be impossible.  Alternately something like a working Table-Content Category with it's filter and sort would create the subsets on the fly from the database....

There seems to be a fundamental difference in content type between our sites that makes the menu approach more suitable for you.

I guess I'll just have to try to write a CMS type component that I can integrate with the user management, module functionality, and menu creation that mambo/joomla provide.

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¡Pura Vida!
Ray,
joomla in testing at Costa Rica Travel: http://costaricamap.net
http://costa-rica-guide.com

My suggestion about blog categories in the other thread isn't going to work either, then...

Oh well, maybe a component is indeed the way to go.

Mosets Tree? http://www.mosets.com/

With something like that I think you need something much more dynamic and more structured than the content system. You want something that has a strong search function, tags/keywordsr and a standardized format for inputting new entries.  Mosets is definitely one possibility, you could look at joomlaya, they have it installed. Also, I would just sit and spend a few hours looking through exsting components that were designed for other purposes and see if you can modify them to fit yours.

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So we must fix our vision not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but upon the positive affirmation of peace. MLK 1964.
http://officialjoomlabook.com Get it at http://www.joomla.org/joomla-press-official-books.html Buy a book, support Joomla!.

I've spent at least a hundred 


Don't I know it...

With some hacking Phil-a-Form has worked reasonably well to develop the standardized input.

I'm almost done creating a contact manager that can integrate with my standardized input.

I've developed one module that works on the ascii code of a true type symbol font that I created specifically to categorize, store and display practical info (e.g. ammenities, rates, seasons, contact etc.) in a graphical format.

I've developed another module to display the location of the current content item on a thumbnail map.  When you click the thumbnail it pulls up a  detailed local map and generates a list of other hotels, restaurants, activities, and National Parks Reserves and refuges within a set distance.  This geographical filtering provides the main mechanism for displaying appropriate links and peripheral content (including the correct pathway, modules, and active menu item highlighting as defined by the Itemid) on a Content Item.

I'm getting tired and was hoping I could just plug-and-play on this filter and sort to provide a secondary type of navigation 

Thanks for all of your help and input.

_________________
¡Pura Vida!
Ray,
joomla in testing at Costa Rica Travel: http://costaricamap.net
http://costa-rica-guide.com

So I guess to summarize

1) There is no quick fix for the Itemid issue (and in many cases, not even a slow painful fix) and you'll have to hack/workaround/avoid/write your own using this thread and the FAQ for guidance (BIG Thanks to kenmcd for working on editing the FAQ into more of a howto or tutorial but as the title says it's still a "Work In Progress")

2) There is no way to avoid Itemid or content item duplication when cross referencing with menus because the menu is what assigns the Itemid.  As soon as you make a second menu link to a content item (a crossreference) you are going to get an additional Itemid.  If you are working with the right sorts of groupings of content items, you can use this to your advantage by creatively generating "hybrid" pages that include information from the content item and from the page you were visiting previously...

3) There is no switch to control whether a "realname" or "loginname" is displayed.

4) It's probably not a great idea to make passwordless logins (although I still think there are circumstances where it would be useful...)

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¡Pura Vida!
Ray,
joomla in testing at Costa Rica Travel: http://costaricamap.net
http://costa-rica-guide.com

Cross Referencing:

I am not sure if I understand what you are asking, but...

Why not make a module and hard code a menu into it. Its not that dynamic, but infintely flexible.

ps
I think you might want to optimize some of your images, I just found some 2MB+ on your site 

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Hmm... That's not good, but can you be more specific?    doesn't turn them up?
It is in development, so there are all kinds of things laying around to be cleaned up later but I didn't know any of them were +2,000 kb.
Thanks
Ray

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¡Pura Vida!
Ray,
joomla in testing at Costa Rica Travel: http://costaricamap.net
http://costa-rica-guide.com

Er, I think its the first image on the farm home page

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No wonder I couldn't find it, that's mcsmom's site 

_________________
¡Pura Vida!
Ray,
joomla in testing at Costa Rica Travel: http://costaricamap.net
http://costa-rica-guide.com

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Follow me on Twitter @compassdesign
www.compassdesigns.net - Get get free templates and news for Joomla
simplweb.com/joomla-hosting - Fully Managed Joomla Hosting - Unlimited Support

Urg, tell me about it. I've been trying to get out of dealing with content, but  I guess I will have to intervene.

_________________
So we must fix our vision not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but upon the positive affirmation of peace. MLK 1964.
http://officialjoomlabook.com Get it at http://www.joomla.org/joomla-press-official-books.html Buy a book, support Joomla!.