method to add catagories/forums - faster/easier?

[Ibu]

Hi, I am setting up a new forum that is not launched. (No members or topics or posts yet - except me.)  I have many categories/forums set up. I want to replicate them. I have three (3) questions.

1.)  So, my thinking is evolving as I set this up. As of today, I believe I want to duplicate the exact same categories/forums that I have already created - but under some new higher-level categories relating to regional areas (north/south/east/west/central) - is there some way to copy/paste a repeat of what I have created (four more times) in code or a code template (or something?) rather than manually click and refresh for every single repeated item?

2.)  Is there some limit to the quantity of categories? of forums? I have about 130 now. (130 x 5 = 650). This is important to understand before I begin doing what I want to do - and especially important if I must add one-by-one manually under Administration Panel => General => Categories and forums.

3.)  Also:  It appears I can create sub-categories under categories - but afterward the 'sub-category' appears 'live online'---looking exactly like a forum. (Is that right?) What are any pros/cons in my doing that?

 (I have more questions but I'll ask under different topic titles.)

Thanks in advance!

[Ange Tuteur]

Hello Ibu,

1. ) Unfortunately not, however, you can copy the permissions of a forum over to the new one.


2. ) See this topic for limits : https://help.forumotion.com/t1709-some-limits-of-forumotion-forum

3. ) this sounds like something with your structure ? Check here :
Administration panel > Display > Structure and hierarchy

For index packing choose medium or full.

[Ibu]

Thanks for the reply.

1.) This is going to be very painful manually creating 130 "exact duplicate"  categories/forums/sub-forums (including the screen refresh dropping me  apart from input fields)---four (4) more times or 520 items. I believe your point - - - to the limit of Categories/Forums/Sub-forums being: "999" - - - is going to work for me---if my head does not explode or implode first.

Re:

3. ) this sounds like something with your structure ? Check here :
Administration panel > Display > Structure and hierarchy

For index packing choose medium or full.

I misspoke in my question - to add to the question's chaos.  I will try again.

I discovered that it is possible to create a new sub-category (yes, I intentionally wrote the word "category") under an existing "category." Meaning you can in fact attach a new category via "attached to:" in the entry field provided and it appears as a category - like this:



However - as you can see below - the sub-category does not display but the forum below and "attached to:" it - does.



I'm trying to understand why this is this way. What would be the advantage of this working this way?  I would like to put all my existing categories and forums under a handful of higher categories. I would rather create one higher category above if possible - but it seems like that would make all the sub-categories below - invisible. Unless of course there is something I do not understand about this mysterious invisibility? I'm fishing for short-cuts.

Thanks! - ibu 

[Ramdaman]

Did you change your structure? Admin Panel => Display => Homepage => Structure and Hierarchy

[Ibu]

Not that I'm aware of.

[Ramdaman]

Change it to Medium and try it out.

[Ibu]

[Ramdaman]

You have to choose the "Medium" on the bottom.

[Ibu]

That is the medium selected - "on the bottom". 

(?)

[Ramdaman]

Have a look at the others and see which one fits your needs.

[Ibu]

Just tried them all. Unfortunately, none will work for what I need. In terms of hierarchy:

I need to be able to display five major "divisions": North, South, East, West, Central. After a choice is made from those five (5) options....

I need 130 categories & forums (one set already created) - that will display the "category" bar that is associated with categories.

Unless you can help me think of some sort of a work-around... it seems that I am limited to being able to display a colored category bar for one level of categories. No?

Thanks!  ~Ibu

[TheCrow]

Hello,

Go to Admin Panel >> General >> Categories and forums
Click on the edit icon ( ) on the one you have problem with (the black boxed icon on the image below)

and where it says "Attached to:" find the one with the | and select that. You must have something like this shown to that field:

Once you do that, the below field says "Position this category after :" there you must select the first category which is "To Get Started--read this!". Once you select that, click the Save button and that should solve the category problem!


MrMind

[Ibu]

Thanks I'll see if I understand that and I will try it if I can figure it out --- but I'm running out of time at the moment. I will try that last suggestion and I can get back later.

[we have establish that "sub-categories" can indeed be created and they will be display as text]

So, from here it looks to me like my question boils down to this:

Can a colored category bar be displayed along with the text of a "sub-category" that is under (or inside?) a parent category that is already displaying a category bar?

Thanks ~ibu! 

[TheCrow]

Hold on a second. You want a sub-category in the category?

[SLGray]

So you what the sub-categories to appear on the homepage?  Or are you referring to sub-forums?

Take a look at this - https://help.forumotion.com/t3313-categories-and-forums-creation-and-appearance .

[Ibu]

I'm referring to "sub-categories" as posted in the screen capture above. However, if I can get forums to display a color bar divider - just like the categories display a color bar as a divider - that would work fine too.

Maybe if I explained what I'm trying to do rather than stumble around in a vernacular that I am unfamiliar with - that would help me errr.... all of us?

I need a forum that generates member reviews city-wide for a huge city. However, traffic can require three hours travel from one side to the other at peak times and just 35 minutes---at other times. For example, folks don't drive 6 hours for dinner or a blood test through traffic - but will drive a half-hour each way at other non-peak times to the same location. Geo-proximity is important at some times and at other times---not.

So I'd like topic poster & reader members to be able to first choose their own flexibility in the city's geo regions of north, south, east, west or central ---as their choice.  After making that choice - I'd like to have something like 130 items total: like perhaps 40 for categories and (2 or 7?) for forums under the categories.  Without the some organizational hierarchy for that mess - a 130 line-item list---is a very very long list to read through.

Yes- I could set up five completely different sites for the different regions - but in that I am dividing-up a member-base that overlaps half the time and overlaps for non-routine matters.

I'm certain I'll never get members to 'self-specify' the geo-region (north, south, etc.) without some sort of system - like employing an index hierarchy (as I've described), or a "forced choice" before allowed to post, or something.

Ideas?

Thanks! ~ibu! 

[Ramdaman]

You could try a sub forum to act as a sub category.

If you want to color it, use HTML.

Also your idea of the forums are very confusing for me.

[Ibu]

Re:


Unless you specify "what" of my idea is confusing for you, I cannot help you to help me.  Above I provided a screen capture example of a "category" that is below (hierarchically) under a "category." The docs here reference it too.

I don't know how you characterize the animal - but "sub-category" certainly serves as one possible accurate descriptor. In one place, the place that the animal is created---it is characterized as a "category"; one chooses to create either a category or a forum below a category - there is no other characterization when it is created - it is created as a "category." When it is attached to another "category" it apparently becomes, as described in another place---( I was directed to) it is or becomes a "Description (optional)" (see below):



I think my question is fairly simple. I'm not sure if anyone understand it however. It appears to me that one can have a sub-forum below a forum - but not a sub-category below a category. I want five larger categories to appear on the forum page when it opens. When any of those are clicked upon - (inside or below each of those five, hierarchically and nvigationally speaking, I want 40 catagories with  forums and sub-forums to appear. Seems this is not possible and there is no work-around option that would accomplish the objective shared in my windy narrative.

Thanks!  ~ibu  

[SLGray]

Do you have a forum attached to the sub-category?

[Ibu]

Yes. I provided a screen shot attached above. The form appears normal.

The sub-catagory however - displays without the color bar associated with categories.

[SLGray]

Maybe this would work for you - https://help.forumotion.com/t21989-multi-forums-in-one ?

[Ibu]

SLGray,

Gads! That looks like it might work. I once built a site using HTML - for a business. I've not used HTML since. That was 1991. It looked great. However, the only traffic generated by the site---was a computer science student maybe one a week from somewhere around the US, asking if the world wide web --- actually could make money for a business. lol!  This will probably require me two or three days (that means five or six) to verify that this it works - but I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Thank you!  ~ibu.

[Ramdaman]

Is multi forums what you were looking for all along?

[Ibu]

I truly have no idea what multi-forms means. I'm a political science grad who has never worked with anything (since 1991) that is not for an 'end-user'. (I think I used that term correctly.)

The tutorial says: "Members have been asking how to create more than 4 categories. Its really a matter of adding a table or two. but just incase here is a set of codes for a 6 level category and a 8 level one."

That sounds spot-on to me.

Thanks!  ~ibu

[Ramdaman]

Actually that tutorial will make you 4 forums in a 2x2 category. Want an example? The first category of the support forum (this forum) is what multi forums are.

[Ibu]

I need for a single search engine (at least a single entry field) to scour topics posted across the whole thing - does that happen with a multi-form?

Thanks!  ~ibu

[Ramdaman]

Are you referring to a "Visit last post" button on the forum index?

[Ibu]

No. Actually, I was referring to the capacity of a member/user to search the entire database via some key word entered one time in a search box field. So if a member was inside the 'multiform section' under the top category "North Jakarta" the member's search would also include results from under the "South Jakarta"  top category.

Thanks!  ~ibu 

[SLGray]

The search engine of your forum just searches by keywords in topic titles.

[Ibu]

....good to understand  - I'll probably need to prominently let my members know that too. Maybe a watermark (?) (like the one I see here, as I type this very note) in the quick reply box that says, "explain your problem" here.) 

My watermark could say "use good searchable keywords in your message topic subject line" or something like that.

I suppose that I should post in a suggestion box (wherever that might be), a request for search engine improvement - something that drilled deeper (?) Incorporating such a thing - clearly must be a difficult thing to do for FM - as it occurs to me that it would so easily and obviously improve the experience of the site. (?) I'm brand-new to forums and in over my head already. If database searching is not a common forum feature, whoever untangles that one, figures out how to make it easy, may likely become a very wealthy programmer.   

Now back to learning about multiforms....

Thanks!  ~ibu