Automated Article Index page and widget
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WordPress.com already provides an automatic sitemap, updated with all new content and containing all the fields and information of the blog. At the same time, many people have asked for a way to make an automated index of every post on their site.
Why not create a new tab on the Dashboard, something like “Index Page.” It would gather useful fields from the sitemap and place them on the page. That page could be edited like any other page. Perhaps there might be a Help topic as to which fields could be taken, and how to add or remove them from the automated page.
The page would be visible (published?) but not accessible by default.
Given the page’s existence, WordPress could then add an “Article Index” widget to the design area. The widget would have some customization: Title of the box, and basic layout options. “Sort by Category, Include post count, Include comment count,” whatever.
The work’s already been done in capturing the relevant information, it only needs a way to place it into a blog. With a page always existing, users would use the Widget as the “on/off” option. The page itself would format according to the overall blog theme.
Couldn’t that be done relatively simply?
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Even if it could be done, what would you end up with? Any really useful “table of contents” should be organized by subject, which is best if done by hand, adding the links one at a time. If some kind of index is generated automatically, all you’d get is your posts listed by date (which the archive widget already provides). If your posts were automatically listed in alphabetical order, that would be useless unless you’re very careful when selecting the titles of your posts.
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It would be organized by catagories. Presumably, when someone builds a blog they’re already organizing it by those categories. The “heading1” would be the category, the subheading would be the automated links to each article in that category.
Likewise, putting together posts with an index in mind would mean a little more thought on the titles. You wouldn’t have to be “very” careful, just apply some reasonable thought about titling a piece. Anyone who preferred not to do that, and was just doing a simple diary, wouldn’t have to use the widget at all. The index page would be there much like an “import” and “export” tab is there in case it’s wanted.
The Widget tool would probably offer sorting by alphabet or by date. Remember, the automation is in building the special “index” page. The Widget would make it visible or not, and offer the sorting.
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Thinking about it, I realize I was drawn into justification of the concept. There isn’t a need for that justification. Perusing the forums shows a clear interest on the part of many WordPress users for such an index. Whether or not they use it, it seems to me that having the option of an automated article index is better than having no such option. Anyone can leave it invisible, but as it currently stands, nobody can make a page like this visible.
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Misty look actually has an archive page template and it lists by category and also by date if I remember correctly. I’ve always been impressed with Sadish, the designer of that theme.
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“Several people here do theirs by hand.” Some of them, however, don’t know how easy it actually is: you just open two windows in your browser and drag&drop post titles from main blog area to page editor.
As for the “archive page template” (“posts-list” in the URL), it’s available and working in the following themes:
Andreas 09
Black Letterhead *
Chaos Theory
Chaotic Soul
Cutline
Fauna *
Hemingway
Kubrick
Misty Look *
Pool
Pressrow
Sandbox
Sandbox 10
Sapphire
Solipsus *
Sunburn
Supposedly Clean
Tarski
The Journalist 1.9
2813
White as MilkAlmost all give a list of categories and months (Fauna: months only; Journalist1.9: plus tags; 2813: plus total number of posts, categories, comments e.o.), some of them including post count. The ones I’ve marked with an asterisk also give a list of posts (all posts in Solipsus, last 25 in Black Letterhead, last 50 in the other two).
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I have an index done by hand. It works, it’s not “that” hard, given an HTML editor, but that’s not the point. It should be a one-click button! Computers are supposed to make life easier, and there’s no real reason why such an index couldn’t be automated. The current organization by category isn’t enough, and the so-called “tag cloud” widget is just plain stupid.
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