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Robert Axford User is Offline

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5/26/2008 3:42 AM
Hi Scott, This is some feedback I have taken notes on since spending a fair bit of time with both the Property Agent and News Articles the past couple of weeks. The task has been to create a directory of companies based on the chart in the PDF I sent through a short while ago. The chart had 4 company categories and a dozen company capabilties. Companies could belong to any number of categories and have any number of capabilities. I decided to have a go at it with Property Agent, but soon ran into a problem that entries cannot belong to more than one property type, thus negating that level of the hierarchy entirely. To get around that I created one type called "Company" and all entries had to belong to that. (I know you've already mentioned you're looking at improving this) Then I used the method you suggested and created a very long multiple check box entry. This is really too unwieldy for a non-admin to carry out, but it did successfully create a grid of categories and another grid of capabilities. So, armed with this, I set about creating a module with which to browse the directory. The problem I ran into was that there is no means of click-browsing the fields entered by way of check boxes. Instead, one has to check off boxes and run a search. That's when I realised that there isnt' really any means of browsing (not searching) through entries other than by using Property Types, which of course I could not create. I think it would be a good enhancement if one could click through fields as hyperlinks even if they have been originally entered via checkboxes or radio buttons. The method of browsing the data doesn't have to precisely match the way it was entered. I hope that makes sense. As well as being able to browse by clicking through fields, the directory also needs to be browsable by letter, like any directory really. Today someone posted a request in the DNN forum asking about a directory module. I examined their sample and found it to be very similar to what is needed and so I'll paste in the links as further examples: http://emeraldtowns.com/directory/ Please note the click-browsable alphabetic links along the top. Also note the categories and sub-categories. Perhaps these things could be in a seperate data browser module. After all of the above, I ended up not using Property Agent at all and instead used News Articles for the directory. The category system in News Articles only allows a single-level hirearchy, but because entries can belong to any number of catagories, I could create the directory as required and more easily make it click-browsable. It also allows sorting by title so I can (sort of) create an alphabetic list. ideally however it would also provide a letter index of articles as I've suggested above. That's enough from me for now. Everythign else in teh modules has been working well. They're definitely very flexible already. Regards, Rob

Scott McCulloch User is Offline

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5/26/2008 5:54 AM
Click through on checkbox's could be possible, I implemented something similar for another user using comma seperated entries in a text field. You say browse via letter, are you talking about browsing a custom field by letter?

Scott McCulloch Site Administrator

Robert Axford User is Offline

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5/26/2008 4:13 PM
hmm.. good question... I'll blab on a bit about it and see what happens... In a business directory, e.g. the yellow pages, there is layered alphabetic browsing. The top layer might be the location (one picks up the ‘local’ yellow pages) and then it’s the business type. Then the businesses are organised alphabetically by title, with featured items to the fore. The yellow pages is a good example to work with. Let’s have a look at this one: http://yellow.co.nz It asks, What and/or Where. This would be for a search. But what I’m after is finding/browsing rather than searching, so click on the link under What that says ‘Select a category’. The pop-down displays several choices. Popular categories, categories by letter, and then the categories beginning with A. So this is using the letters to browse the categories at this level. Now choose a category, but ignore the empty Where box and simply click Find. This displays all items of that category. On the left is a box for refining the results. One of the options is a row of letters.. so here it is refining the result based on title. That means the ability to browse by letter would need to be configurable for any field. hmm.. the more I think about it, perhaps levels and sub-levels of categories is not at all the right analogy for organising data. Better would be 'groups' of features. So, data would be organised and displayed based on any such grouping, and browsable by any means available. I think the ability to browse by alphabet should simply be available all the time, but you’re right, what it displays shouldn’t strictly be the data already on the page, but any selectable field perhaps deeper inside the data... e.g title. Here’s another variation on the yellow pages http://yellowpages.com.au/ Once you click through to some results, the left column has many options for refining, including detail, name, distance, and even custom fields that have obviously been created specifically for that category, e.g. Brand. Some entries have an button to show additional locations.. all very cool. I think these directories show the ultimate possibilities. Everything is there... email, contact, send to mobile, find related, maps, service areas, etc, and it is all browsable by various groupings. There are presumably hidden features as well, such as tracking clicks... displaying related featured entries and/or adverts. I would imagine the thing to consider with Property Agent is how far you want to go to pre-build for a single purpose, or how flexible you’d like it to become for all purposes. I think the main difference between a directory like the yellow pages and a property site is the photos and the broker/agent relationship, but these features needn’t hobble the module for other purposes; they should only make it even better. That sample I gave http://emeraldtowns.com/directory/ Is a good partial solution for much of the functionality a directory needs. Much of this applies to News articles as well.. An index of article titles would ideally be browsable by letter; as would a list of authors, or an index of content, if the latter were a feature. The News Articles module does need further ability to group content, such as grouping articles together as chapters of a book or articles of a magazine. And another one is to be able to group categories.. not as root and sub categories, but simply category groups, where any one category can also be in another group. If the News archive module allowed for selecting of categories in the settings, just like the other two related modules allow, then that could be used to create a means of browsing groups of entries. I’m really just hoping to stimulate some thought about all of these things... as you know; I’m always after the ultimate content management module.. and I think that in the end there will be just one tool that does it all. It’s only logical. The News Articles module is serving its purpose as a company directory quite well, but really, it should have been the Property Agent module doing it, because of all the additional management features. They’re all very cool and useful modules... sorry for the long posts Regards, Rob

Robert Axford User is Offline

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5/28/2008 1:00 AM
Just for interest, here's another example of a directory of data that allows one to click-browse by several different things. It doesn't have a letter browser, but does have an alphabetic view, and then also views by other fields such as location and postal code. http://www.camese.org/ The bit I'm referring to is in the middle... "Browse Member Information" Rob

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