Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › A button to reduce long list of posts
Tagged: content organization
- This topic has 15 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 8 months ago by Summer.
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August 23, 2014 at 3:24 pm #120657noahParticipant
I am not sure how I can not work this out … but I can’t.
On my site http://www.carlex.org.uk I have a long list of blog posts.
Half way down the site is a heading “news archive”.
I want to show 10 or so blog posts here and then have a button or heading that you click to show the rest.
But this button must not just be the category: the blog posts shown must not include those that have already been published on the site.
The Featured post widget does not work for this as I do not want to display anything at all until you click.
If I do it as a menu, then all the “news archive” posts show, including those that are already on the site.
I could copy all the posts I need from the news archive; create a new category and display them in this fashion as an entirely new category.
That seems very convoluted to me and inflexible for the future.
Basically, what I am after is a button for the “news archive” which does not show posts that have previously been published.
(The aim of the exercise is to cut down on the amount of posts on the opening page, which is now slow.)
Any thoughts?
http://www.carlex.org.ukAugust 24, 2014 at 8:21 am #120761Brad DaltonParticipantAugust 24, 2014 at 8:24 am #120762Brad DaltonParticipantHere's the code for the button http://wpsites.net/web-design/how-to-add-a-button-anywhere-in-your-theme/
Note: The code i have linked to works on HTML 5 themes only.
I suggest you update your markup and loop hooks first.
http://www.studiopress.com/news/genesis-2-0-resources.htm
August 24, 2014 at 12:14 pm #120794TomParticipantHi Noah,
I quite like Brad's hide-a-widget toggle, but I think you don't have a button or widget problem, you have a content problem - you need to plan it and organize it with a strategy to benefit your readers on this important topic.
For example there's lots of content for your readers but it appears to be *all* on the front page - 322 titles currently. The front page, like a newspaper, should present your most recent and most important content. The front page currently consists of (basically):
- Home-Top Featured Posts Widget ("Latest news" - 35 posts),
- Home Bottom Featured Posts Widget ("News archive" - 65 posts),
- Text Nav Menu ("Carlex contents" - 33 text links)
- The sidebar then continues with "News: 2013, 2012" for another 50 posts beyond the bottom of the content div.
With 222 post titles (plus full articles, 15 recent comments, 33 item nav menu, search, calendar, tags, category widget, etc.) the sidebar alone holds more than should be on the entire front page. Much of this is not current.
You could start by clipping the number of front page articles in the featured post widgets to, say, 10 each. Same for the sidebar archive content. This is an instant fix to cut down on the amount of posts on the front page and speeding it up.
Then consider your categories and tags and the use of archive pages plus revised menus to make content easier to find. A newsy theme like Lifestyle Pro, New Pro, Magazine Pro, Metro Pro or any of these themes would be good foundation for longer term reorganization if you don't want to do a redesign right away.
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[ Follow me: Twitter ] [ Follow Themes: Twitter ] [ My Favourite Webhost ]August 24, 2014 at 1:06 pm #120802noahParticipantTom and Brad,
Thanks for the responses.
Although I like the idea of a toggle button, that is not quite the problem here (although could well be useful at a later date, if I get brave enough to edit the php file).
It is what Tom has identified: the presentation of the posts items (there are 343 published posts) is the issue.
There are only two important categories: latest news and news.
But I don’t know how reliably to publish these EXCEPT by placing them all in some form on the opening page in WordPress.
(I have the same issue with http://www.leaseholdknowledge.com, which is a News Pro site.)
Take Carlex’s “Latest News” with 35 posts. I use the Featured Posts widget. If I limit the posts to 10 and activate the “Show Category Archive Link” I will get all the posts – starting again with the first 10.
I cannot see how I can prevent the listing of posts that have already been displayed.
It would be useful if there were an “Exclude Previously Displayed Posts?” option at this point, but there isn’t.
The problem is even worst with the news archive.
I cannot show 50 posts, say, and then activate the “Show Category Archive Link” which will then show the first 50 posts all over again.
Readers will give up and assume that the link is just a duplication.
This website has controversial and highly influential news items, and around 400 unique visitors a day. Seeing everything in the archives is important, and readers do read the older posts.
I COULD break up the News Archive, and place posts in, say, different years.
But issues that began at the end of 2013 are still relevant today.
Obviously, the posts are also sub-divided into other categories, but that assumes readers are competent to search using these categories.
I like a simple, large chronological news archive where readers can just scroll down.
Basically, I need a Page 2 of the website, which doesn’t start duplicating Page 1.
In the absence of this, I think it is preferable to have a clear archive on page one – even if it is playing havoc with my web speeds.
Thanks to you both for your replies.
August 24, 2014 at 2:21 pm #120812TomParticipant> "There are only two important categories: latest news and news."
I disagree: It's all (1) news, some of it is (2) less current - neither of these are categorizations. There are easier ways to lead your readers to older posts than to put them all on the front page. More to follow, but first ...
> "The problem is even worst with the news archive."
How do you determine that something is "in the news archive" for your second batch of 'featured posts'?
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[ Follow me: Twitter ] [ Follow Themes: Twitter ] [ My Favourite Webhost ]August 24, 2014 at 4:18 pm #120821noahParticipantWell, “Latest News” is the most recent … but also some items of particular importance that I want to make quite prominent.
I have not yet moved them over into the “News archive”.
“News Archive” is basically all other news items dating back to Jan 2012.
Some “Latest News” that is of less importance, or is overtaken by events I move into the “News Archive” quite quickly.
It is surely quite an anomaly that I cannot just show 25 posts and then have a clickable heading /button to display all the rest without duplication?
(As a national newspaper journalist for 30 years, I am so impressed by most of this stuff, and the multiple ways of archiving in particular).
Curiously, I have done a few tweaks and Google PageSpeed Insights is now giving this site 84/100 on desktop (OK, it falls to 52/100 on mobile).
August 24, 2014 at 4:54 pm #120824SummerMemberHi Noah,
I think your stumbling block may be that you're thinking about your content too rigidly as a newspaper archive, not as a flexibly accessible online content archive.
You should never have to recategorize something to "archive" it... with WordPress archive is just a term use to allow people to search through the entirety of a particular category/tag/author history.
Using the various post widgets, either Genesis Featured Posts, or Featured Posts Amplified, or Sandbox Featured Content widget, or any of a handful of others, it's simple enough to configure a space to display 10 items, then have a link to lead people to a category listing of more items in that same category.
For instance, if there are stories you want to keep on the main page, create a category specifically for those items (Issues, Hot Topics, etc), and have one of your widgets display only that category. And WordPress will automatically generate year and date archives for you, but you can customize those a little bit if you want.
It doesn't work as well if you have multiple categories in that same section (sometimes), but that's where you can have fun creating different post organizations for your content.
I have 2 sites that are nearing 9 and 12 years old, and both sites have been running WordPress since 2006. That's a lot of content and I've never once had to put a few hundred posts on the front page. See http://www.dragonpage.com (using Associate) and http://www.sliceofscifi.com (using Metro, but a new theme & layout is imminent for Slice of SciFi, hopefully by September 1).
For instance, on Dragon Page, there's one listing for shows that's like a regular blog listing:
http://www.dragonpage.com/category/show-archive-c2c/And another one that's list of every single show going back to the beginning, displaying titles only:
http://www.dragonpage.com/category/show-archive-c2c/podcast_c2c/The first list makes it easy for people to browse through the more recent shows, and the long list gives people a chance to find a particular show at a glance... no need to ever swap a post into a different category.
On Slice of SciFi, the front page is broken up by different categories as well... the first post beneath the slider will always be the most recent show. The section under that is the most recent 3 news items, the section under that is the most recent poll question, and the section under that continues the most recent news, offset from the previous 3. And there's a link at the bottom to go to the News category to browse through everything.
Does that help give a different view of playing around with categories and the front page widgets?
For your site, I think maybe there's just too much... since you have 50 posts on the front page, there's no way to make your archive look like it's not the same articles, unless you can skip to page 2 of your archive right off the bat... there might be a way to do that, but I think having less content on the front page and several different ways to navigate to the rest might be a simpler and more readable approach.
WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
Slice of SciFi | Writers, After DarkAugust 24, 2014 at 6:09 pm #120831TomParticipantWell, “Latest News” is the most recent … but also some items of particular importance that I want to make quite prominent.
In "WP speak" this would be recent posts and featured posts or sticky posts. Virtually any theme can do this (or be made to do this.)I have not yet moved them over into the “News archive”. “News Archive” is basically all other news items dating back to Jan 2012." Some “Latest News” that is of less importance, or is overtaken by events I move into the “News Archive” quite quickly.
How do you "move them over" ?
(As a national newspaper journalist for 30 years, I am so impressed by most of this stuff, and the multiple ways of archiving in particular).
I'm not sure what you mean by "multiple ways of archiving". As Summer noted, archives are really just " the entirety of a particular category/tag/author history." You don't need to "do" anything to create an archive other than create content. However, there are almost infinite ways to draw content from an archive.Curiously, I have done a few tweaks and Google PageSpeed Insights is now giving this site 84/100 on desktop (OK, it falls to 52/100 on mobile).
What percentage of your readers are on mobile? Given the 100 or so images loading on the home page, things will be slower on a phone. Having a newer theme designed for mobile use would help with presentation, but the images will still have to load if you keep 100 post excerpts with featured images.It is surely quite an anomaly that I cannot just show 25 posts and then have a clickable heading /button to display all the rest without duplication?
It's actually something I've never heard of. I think it could be done with Brad's code, but it won't necessarily improve your page speed, and it does nothing to organize your content or help your readers consume it. A concept referred to as "infinite scroll" can (usually) be done with a plugin and some code tweaks. With infinite scroll the page never ends. A certain amount is shown when the page loads, then more appears at the bottom of the page as you continue to scroll down. It will output your content from the beginning to the very end, but it, too, does nothing for organization.Would a newspaper, if it could, try to put all content on the front page? Every political story, sports story, entertainment piece, business tidbit large and small and mix them all together randomly? Without categorization, notation or any hint of That's asking a lot from a readership - to navigate and essentially read every headline until they find something of interest or importance. Could you not curate this content, placing the more important and recent pieces prominently?
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[ Follow me: Twitter ] [ Follow Themes: Twitter ] [ My Favourite Webhost ]August 25, 2014 at 4:20 am #120874noahParticipantHi Summer,
Your Home pages on both sites show exactly what I am trying to do.
On sliceofscifi, you have “More News”. At the bottom is the link “More Slice of SciFi News …”.
When you click this you get 15 DIFFERENT news items.
When I do this on Carlex – as you can now see – I first get the SAME items then the rest of the category. Readers would be completely confused by this and not scroll through.
(Also, the page numbers at the bottom of page 2 would be very useful. How are you doing this?)
I assume you are using a simple Genesis Featured Post widget?
Similarly, on dragonpage you have “Dragon Page Blog” displaying three items. Click on “More Blog Entries …” and you get more, but different entries.
And again the useful page numbering …
August 25, 2014 at 6:44 am #120883noahParticipantThe numbering I have discovered how to do.
August 25, 2014 at 1:50 pm #120973SummerMemberYes, the numbering is set in the Genesis theme settings, and I've always preferred that option 🙂
On both sites, I'm using Genesis Featured Posts Widget Amplified. Both the regular Genesis Featured Posts and GFWA should have an option to "display more posts from category" or "display category archive link"... that's what creates the link to the category being displayed in the widget.
Be aware that GFWA can be a little tricky to configure in newer versions of Genesis, depending on what other jQuery happens to be installed (at least that's my guess as to why it works on some sites just fine, and behaves like a pouty 3-year-old on others).
If it misbehaves for you, just keep fiddling with it.
WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
Slice of SciFi | Writers, After DarkAugust 25, 2014 at 1:56 pm #120976TomParticipantI think GFWA has more or less been superceded by Genesis Sandbox Featured Content Widget from Travis Smith.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/genesis-featured-content-widget/
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[ Follow me: Twitter ] [ Follow Themes: Twitter ] [ My Favourite Webhost ]August 25, 2014 at 2:15 pm #120983SummerMemberI know about those, but Sandbox Featured Content Widget, Jo Waltham's Featured Custom Post Type Widget, and the two other new ones (including ones Brad Dalton recommended) have one big FAIL in my book: no way to set placement on featured images.
Meaning I can't choose to place the image before the title or after the title... the widgets always choose before, which works great when you've got a large image to go above the post, or if you want title and excerpt beside the image... but if you have a featured image that you want alongside all the excerpt text but after the post title, well tough noogies for me 🙂
Makes them kinda non-optimal as replacements/updates on some sites for me.
Sandbox also started having the same configuration problems that GFWA has after I updated one of my test sites to Genesis 2.1.2, so if it's doing the same thing as GFWA, I'll stick with GFWA... at least I know that GFWA will *eventually* select the option I'm trying to set... Sandbox won't, no matter how many times I click on it.
update: okay, Sandbox is now semi-working on that one site, and it will let me modify the image location, but I'm still fighting with it making an initial selection. Sandbox had an excerpt problem, now I recall. It forces a limit instead of using the manual excerpts if they exist.
WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
Slice of SciFi | Writers, After DarkAugust 25, 2014 at 3:10 pm #120995TomParticipantWeird. I'm finding it will output the excerpt just as it has been input. It doesn't seem to want to respect the excerpt limit (Limit excerpt to: xx words.) as is does for setting a content limit value. (I think I'm finding the opposite of your problem ?)
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[ Follow me: Twitter ] [ Follow Themes: Twitter ] [ My Favourite Webhost ]August 25, 2014 at 4:14 pm #121009SummerMemberDefinitely weird. I went back to Genesis 2.0.2 on that test site, and it shows the manual excerpt as-is, and the problem with not being able to activate an option when I click on it isn't there.
That may warrant someone digging into that a little bit more... I don't have the time today to do it 🙂
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