Category: Technical Blog

It depends.
I’ve noticed that my clients are not big on selecting categories when they write new posts. And it is the rare client that pays any attention to Tags.But for the average client I would not recommend setting up a site that needs Custom Fields. Categories, yes. Categories are far more intuitive and a much easier concept to grasp.If your client is advanced enough to use Custom Fields chances are they don’t really need you at all!

But for the average client,if I have set up a site that depends on the correct selection of categories before publishing, I have to teach them that they must select the right category when writing a new post.If they get it (and most of my clients do get) it works.
Using WordPress as a blog does not depend on picking the right category. Because all posts get looped by index.php whether they are in category 3 or category 1003. But maintaining a site that is using WordPress as a CMS and a blog requires playing by some simple rules.

WP as a CMS, 2 Blogs in One
Here is an example of WordPress as a CMS that might be considered “too complicated” for some clients to upkeep. This site has a home page template using one version of index.php and a simple custom query to show only Featured posts. While another template loops only the Events posts. For this site I kept it very simple by creating only 2 categories. By keeping it this simple and knowing that my average client does not tend to create new categories just for kicks fingers crossed, this will be an easy site to maintain.

How to get 2 “blogs” in one. One “blog” on the frontpage that shows only one category and another “blog” that will use one master category to show all the other posts.
I left Reading settings as “Frontpage displays: your latest posts”. I wanted those latest posts to be from only one category. And then I wanted to exclude these posts from the other “blog” and vice versa. The question was use a category template or use a custom query in a template? I’ve used both and it’s my opinion that category templates are the better way to go.

Using a custom query
Trying to get posts in a template from one or 2 categories using a custom query breaks the next post navigation. This means you either have to set your Reading settings to show 100 posts or to use the showposts=100 in the custom query. It’s not that elegant. And I always felt it was a broken but working kind of way to use WP. Meaning it sort of does what you want but not really.

Using a category template
To use a category template all you have to do is copy your index.php and rename it category-1.php.
In this project’s case, category 1 is the Events category which is the second blog and is going to be used as a “real” blog. Upload category-1.php to your theme folder. That is all you have to do.How does WP know to use this file? When it comes to categories WP is set up to look for a category template first.

How to keep posts belonging to category 1 out of the front page?
Paste this in the template you are using for the Featured posts to keep category 1 posts out of the front page: [php]<?php query_posts($query_string . "&cat=3,-1"); ?>[/php]

code explanation
Category 3 is the Featured Posts category that I do want on the front page. Category 1 has a minus before it because I do not want posts from the Events (category 1) showing upon the home page.The template for the Featured posts is the main index.php file.The template for the Events Posts is a copy of the main index.php file.

How to keep posts belonging to category 3 out of the Blog?
Because WordPress will show posts from a specific category if you use a category template only posts from the Events category will show up on the blog pages. So you don’t have to do anything extra to this template.

Navigation
If Categories are the backbone of WordPress then Navigation is the backbone of your website.
(Many ready made themes already provide this in header.php ) but are set up for WordPress to be used as a blog so they probably include a link to Home and then add in the code below as well. But if you write a page called Home “Home” will then show up twice in your menu–which you probably don’t want.I find it is easier to include or exclude pages from my top navigation rather than hand coding in a link to pages. Here is how to include or exclude:
[php]<ul id="nav"><?php wp_list_pages(‘sort_column=menu_order&depth=1&exclude=12,16,18&title_li=’);?></ul>[/php]

code explanation
What this does is build a navigation menu of your pages while excluding pages with ids 12,16 and 18.
Excluding pages from the top menu is easy– all you have to know is the id number of the page you would like to exclude.This code will not show child pages.*

If you need a category title to show in your navigation you can do this:
[php]<ul id="nav"><?php wp_list_pages(‘sort_column=menu_order&depth=1&exclude=12,16,18&title_li=’);?><?php wp_list_categories(‘sort_column=name&title_li=&exclude=3’); ?></ul>[/php]

code explanation
Now your menu will show all your pages and at the end will show the Events category but will exclude the Featured category.

This does have it’s drawbacks.There is a limit to how many tabs you can have in a horizontal menu without going 2 tier. If my clients don’t add new categories doesn’t mean your client’s won’t.

So another way to insert a tab for the Events category would be to do this:
[php]<ul id="nav"><?php wp_list_pages(‘sort_column=menu_order&depth=1&exclude=12,16,18&title_li=’);?><li><a href=" <?php echo get_category_link($category_id=1);?> ">Events</a></li>
</ul>[/php]

Of course this has it’s drawbacks, too. It will make sure your menu doesn’t get overcrowded with category tabs but it will only create a tab for the Events category. If there are child categories of the Events category they will not be displayed in the list of posts. (**Not True!-Yay**)Still, this might be the best way to go. You can show other categories in a sidebar or use a query to show the child categories in the Events category template. Or you can use Yet Another Related Posts plugin (YAPP) or similar that creates a list of related posts using parameters.

Any site you hand off is going to require some attention from you.If you know you won’t be able to give your time try to set up the website accordingly. Don’t expect a client to get it right away. Be prepared to repeat instructions.

*This plugin will create a dropdown on any page with child pages:Multi Level Navigation .It should be used to replace your current menu so pay attention to the Advanced options.You will have to play with the css a bit but they also provide a css generator.