Steven Zahm@ Lynn
First, I apologize! I just now noticed this post because I did not receive notification of it.
re: I have 1 hunting outfitter that hunts 6 different species. I am creating 6 different entries for the same outfitter; one for every species so I can highlight that species on the specific listing. Each entry is put in it’s own unique category (ie, bear hunting, moose hunting, etc.)
Well… can’t really help you with that if you need to create different entries for the same business for each species to highlight that particular part of their business that want you need to do.
re: Now shouldn’t I just be able to add the bear hunting category to the menu and have the gridder list come up with all the outfitters profiles that hunt bears?
Sure, that is easy enough to do. Let’s assume you have a page named “Hunting” and on this page you have this shortcode:
[connections template='gridder' order_by='organization|RANDOM' contact_name_format='%first% %last%' phone_format='%number%' email_format='%address%' link_format='%title%' background_color="#7994a5;" background_gradient=TRUE enable_search='false' str_bio_head='View Hunt Details']
Now you can add this custom link URL to the menu nav with the title of “Black Bear Hunting”.
http://75.103.85.206/hunting/?cn-cat=2
When you visit the page, Connections will automatically filter the results by category ID 2, your black bear hunting category in Connections.
You can do this for each of you hunting categories, just change the ID number at the end of the URL.
For the hunting category lead in (intro) instead of adding it to the page, you would add it to the category description And then enable the Category Description option on the Connections : Settings admin page under the Display tab.
This could be made to be more SEO friendly to by using the same method but use the permalinks Connections supports for filtering by category. Instead of using the query var and the category ID you can use the category slug. Like so:
http://75.103.85.206/hunting/cat/black-bear-hunting/
You see that cat in the URL? That is configurable. You can change it to be more specific by changing it on the Connections : Settings admin page under the Advanced tab. You could change it to “species” and then the URL would be:
http://75.103.85.206/hunting/species/black-bear-hunting/
Just like the category ID url, to change what results are returned, you would change “black-bear-hunting” to another Connections category slug.
Now, you have a single page that can show the results based on the category being viewed. One thing I must mention… the category description will only display if you use the query var URL with the category ID.
Just so you do not miss it… this all assumes that you have a page named “Hunting” with the slug “hunting”.
re: If I do put the category on the menu it doesn’t load anything. I get, Nothing Found error. Here’s a link to the bear category;
Do not confuse the WordPress categories with the Connections categories … they are completely different. Also do not confuse WordPress pages with categories. The reason you get the not found message is because, from what I can tell, you have not WordPress category named Black Bear Hunting Alberta Canada You have a WordPress page, but no category. Like I said, completely different.
re: I’m also having problems with a few things, like when you click the + sign to open a listing it jumps to the top of the screen;
That would only happen if there is a fatal javascript error on the page. This breaks all javascript on the page, even in Connections. 99.99% of the time these are caused by the theme or another plugin. When I visited the page just now, the +’s worked just fine, so I assume something has changed since your posting and me viewing it.
re: I have a bunch of white dead space at the bottom I can’t figure out how to get rid of.
If you are referencing the whitespace at the bottom when view the entry profile page, that is where the map should be displayed. My best guess it is not being displayed because the Google Maps API tion was disabled on the Connections : Settings admin page under the Advanced tab.
re: My issue is, I have 50 outfitters who advertise, so right off the bat I have to enter 50 people, then if each one does 6 species, and i have to create a new entry for each species they hunt then I have 300 entries to do! On top of that there are over 400 more outfitters to add to the list that are not paid advertisers but will still have a listing. Now I’m talking about 700 entries!!!
There’s really nothing I can do about that. You are building a complicated comprehensive niche directory… even if you would add all species details to a single entry… you still have to enter it. My suggestion… create a base entry for each which will have the common details for each species. Then to create the specie specific entries use that nifty little copy feature to copy an entry. That should save you tons of time entering info by removing the need to re-enter redundant info 6 times.