[Brittany V]

Hi –

I wish to make a category menu much like Rutgers did on the right-hand side of their example site (http://eohsi.rutgers.edu/eohsi-directory/eohsi-division-directories/toxicology-division-directory/).How can I achieve this?

What I mean by category menu is the menu on the right-hand side of their site. When you click the category menu item, a new page is displayed with the proper category open.

I am a developer, so I am not afraid to get into the code if necessary.

I have purchased the slim-plus theme which is used on the Rutgers website.

[Steven Zahm]

re: Brittany

That’s not actually a category menu… judging by the page source, this is what they did (best guess).

They created several pages for Connections, one for each of their faculty/staff directories. On those pages, they used the [connections] shortcode and limited the display to specific categories by utilizing the category shortcode option and then disabled the category filter of the template by using the enable_category_select='false' shortcode option.

Then on the WordPress Menus admin page created a new menu and added the directory pages to it.

Lastly, on the WordPress Widgets admin page they added a new Custom Menu widget to the theme’s sidebar selecting the new menu they just created.

Hope this helps, please let me know.

[Brittany v]

Exactly what I needed. I was confused at first, because I noticed on wordpress that Connections makes you choose the page where the directory is located. I thought the [connections] shortcode could then only be used on that page (where the directory is located). However, I created sub-pages of that main page where the directory is located and used the [connections] shortcode on each sub-page and it worked like a charm on each sub-page.

I followed the instructions that you’ve listed exactly. Thanks for the tips!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Brittany

re: Exactly what I needed. I was confused at first, because I noticed on wordpress that Connections makes you choose the page where the directory is located. I thought the [connections] shortcode could then only be used on that page (where the directory is located).

Nope, the shortcode can be used on any page making Connections quite flexible when it comes to slicing and dicing the database. There are instances where the directory home page is required and enforced. One, the widgets in the Widget Pack, the link would all resolve to the directory home page… kind of necessary because the widget would have no way to determine which page they should link to. So there are trade offs.

re: However, I created sub-pages of that main page where the directory is located and used the [connections] shortcode on each sub-page and it worked like a charm on each sub-page.

Great to hear it all worked out!

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