Unlimited Categories in Textpattern
One of the few limitations of Textpattern is the ability to assign each article to only 2 categories. In my case, the need arose to use multiple categories for the purpose of creating an online store for Favorable Designs. For others its a desire to tag articles with multiple categories as you can on services such as del.icio.us and flickr. In either case, the rss_unlimited_categories plugin now brings that ability to Textpattern.
How It Works
The plugin will add a multiple select list to your article -> write tab to enable the selection of unlimited categories. It also includes several public side tags to display the categories and list articles by category. In addition, the plugin enables recognition of /section/category URLs when you use either /section/title or /section/ID/title URLs.
Smart Tagging
The chh_keywords and ran_txp_tags plugins enable tagging support in Textpattern as well. While essentially the same, the rss_unlimited_categories plugin simplifies the process. You won’t have to worry about spelling your tags the same each time. You won’t even have to re-type them each time. Just select the appropriate categories from the multiple select list and you’re done.
You also get the benefit of using other plugins and tags within Textpattern that recognize categories. For example, you can still use the rss_suparchive to display a listing of articles filtered by category as I am on this site. You can also use the article listing tag included with the plugin.
Converting Existing Categories
In order to support unlimited categories, the plugin will add a new table to your database. If you already have an existing site and are dreading having to setup your categories all over again, never fear. Running 2 simple SQL statements will copy all of your existing category assignments into the new table.
Using Unlimited Categories
The plugin includes several tags that can be used on your site to display lists of your categories. For example:
The trendy tag cloud listing:
web development, textpattern, photos, general tech, miscellany
The standard unordered list:
The categories assigned to this post: textpattern, web development
The remaining rss_unlimited_categories_article_list tag is an unlimited category aware replacement for the standard Textpattern article listing tags.
And that should about do it. Carry on then…
Comments
21. January 2006
Thanks Rob, This is a really huge feature leap for textpattern.
Great Work!
Jamie
Jamie
22. January 2006
I just wanted to say thank you for creating so many great plugins.
Lowell
24. January 2006
Great work! Especially the ran_txp_tags plugin slows down when working on a big TXP site. Maybe this works better with your plug-in.
But: Is there any way to convert all the tags inserted into the Custom1 field (for the ran_txp_tags plugin) to the new textpattern_category table (I do not know too much about SQL commands)?
26. January 2006
Kossatsch – In the example SQL I posted on the rss_unlimited_categories plugin page just replace “category1” with “custom_1”.
27. January 2006
In order to get it to work you’d have to create categories with the same name as the tags you created.
3. February 2006
I don’t want to sound like a total idiot—but whenever a plugin author writes a tag without the specific coding needed—I don’t know what to do.
For example rss_unlimited_categories_cloud is a tag I want to use, but I don’t know how to write it—do you just throw it in with a < in front and a /> behind?? Do I need to use something like with it?
I know—not too advanced.
3. February 2006
All Textpattern tags and plugins are called with < txp: before and /> after (without the space of course).
So to call the tag you mentioned, you would use < txp:rss_unlimited_categories_cloud />.
9. February 2006
Hi Rob,
i love to use this neat plugin for TXP Mag but can not get it to work. Hitting a tag or a category redirects me to a 404. Many people encounter the same issue. Do you have an idea what is going wrong?
16. February 2006
“Hitting a tag or a category redirects me to a 404.”
Same here. If this would work, I could probably die happy.
16. February 2006
Thanks Rob!
I’m putting this through some paces on a dev version of my site. One thing that I have noticed is that in many instances the documentation given for your txp tag attributes simply say “The maximum number of categories returned.” even though this description does not apply to the attribute. In most cases it is pretty easy to infer what the attribute actually does, but you may want to go through it again for the benefit of those less experienced with textpattern.
21. February 2006
need to see how it looks
nick
6. March 2006
This plugin, and your database backup plugin are broken. Please fix, or remove them from the forum, txp resources etc to save many people many hours of frustration.
6. March 2006
Thanks Oliver, but they’re not. I use them both on this and several other sites. As do many other people. If you were a little more specific than saying the plugins are “broken” someone could try to help.
7. March 2006
Great idea for a plugin.
I installed the plugin on a fresh install for a client. I then imported a large Movable Type database. The import went fine, but I did have to re-enter all the category names in the title field of the database.
I did the sql commands, but I still can’t get the plugin to work like I want on the imported Movable Type entries. Should it work? Am I wrong to expect your plugin to work in this way?
Thanks for your great TXP work.
7. March 2006
blurb – Since this is a plugin and not accounted for in the standard TXP import process, your posts won’t be automatically tagged with these categories. Its something that would have to be added to the import for MT or done manually.
8. March 2006
Perhaps Oliver is referring to the 404 error that many people, including myself, seem to be receiving.
Has that been resolved and I just missed it?
8. March 2006
Rob, thanks for the response. With a couple thousand entries, this hurts. :-)
Anybody out there know of a fast way using either phpmyadmin or straight up mySQL commands to do this?
18. June 2006
Great work, Rob! Is there an easy way to adapt this approach to allow unlimited categories for images?
Lukibester
12. December 2007
I’m using 4.0.5, and if I say:
<txp:if_article_list>
<txp:rss_unlimited_categories_article_list section=“press” category=“releases” form=“press_list”/>
</txp:if_article_list>
Then the list article in the list is always missing. If i don’t put the rss_unlimited in a conditional, my life is painful.
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