Adding database?
-
Hello folks,
I’m trying to make the growing list of entries on this page more manageable and appealing presentation wise. Any ideas about how to turn it into a searchable database or something to that effect?
Thanks,
L.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
-
Hi, it looks like you have a search bar on the top of the right column.
In my experience, the search bar is the best way to provide a “database” of sorts to your users.
-
You’re not doing justice to your posts, because you only allow visitors to browse them by scrolling down and clicking the Older Posts button. You need to add the Categories widget (or display your categories as a dropdown in the top menu, if they aren’t too many), and you need an index of posts.
-
Thank you both!
Smetheny – the search bar is great; but it’s all we have to go by at the moment… I’m thinking of alternative ways to organize our entries in indexical form, so that people can search by categories and build a thematic trail. There may be visitors who don’t quite know what they are looking for but would like to perform a visual search by applying variables and narrowing down the number of choices. The question is: how do I go from an endless list of entries into a more manageable form of relational organization?
Justpi – how do I go about creating an index of posts?
-
The simplest way would be the archives shortcode in a static page. This would create a reverse chronological list of links to all your posts. But since you’ve already published more than 100 posts in 2013 alone, such a list would be extremely long so of little usefulness. Best thing to do is use the display-posts shortcode multiple times, to create sublists of links to your posts – arranged by category, possibly by author as well, maybe even by tag:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/display-posts-shortcode/
You can create all of them in one page, or in several pages; or even in one page split into a series of numbered subpages:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/nextpage/ -
Here you go:
general info about shortcodes
http://en.support.wordpress.com/shortcodes/
archives shortcode to make an index of all posts:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/archives-shortcode/
and a fine-tuned way to display your posts:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/display-posts-shortcode/
feel free to ask about specifics with this one–it has a lot of options. -
-
-
1tess,
I think customizing those shortcodes could do the trick, but as you say, there are a lot of options. I basically have sections on my blog – each in a static page with an editorial in place. What I need is to have an archive for each section that intelligently picks up ONLY the posts that relate to that section. So, for our interviews, people could go and search for the post manually, but also navigate through the archive as opposed to having to scroll down an endless list which looks rather dull: http://figureground.ca/media-and-technology-studies/
-
It’s a relatively new shortcode so I haven’t had much experimenting time with it. It is a powerful tool, though. And I have to work so unfortunately I cannot help you right now. Justpi and several other volunteers are more qualified on such things. But first and foremost, you must do thoughtful categorizing of the posts to make specific lists of them with that shortcode. Best wishes to you.
-
~~
As an example, to create an alphabetical list of links to all the posts filed under the category “Scholarly Interviews” you’ll use these version of the shortcode:
[display-posts category="scholarly-interviews" posts_per_page="-1" order="ASC" orderby="title"] -
-
-
Dear WP Bloggers
I’ve been looking for ‘data base’, for I was wondering how to create a searchable data base for children who’ve been taken by Social Services:
— which Council
— which pretext
— what age
— which Social Worker – for they do get moved around, once caught out.Do you think that ‘forms’ can do the job?
Many thanks in advance!
Meanwhile also thanks for getting me to think about publishing my 500 posts in an organised fashion!
-
No, I don’t think that you can create a searchable database like that here unless you use age, council, pretext and social worker names as categories. It’s a nightmare.
-
Thank You, raincoaster.
I’ve now used http://www.Wufoo.com – as suggested on the Support site and created a form.
http://sabinemcneill.wufoo.com/forms/child-snatching-cases-online/
But have yet to make the link with WP.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/wufoo/
Maybe, together, we’ll get there!
-
Yeah! I now did the code embedding and the form shows!
http://victims-unite.net/child-snatching/
I then can use Wufoo to produce reports and, hopefully, searches. One step at a time!
- The topic ‘Adding database?’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 