[Cara-Dee Carlstein]

HI there, I purchased CMAP a while back for another project but I am looking into purchasing it again for another website. THis time, however, I am looking for a specific structure. I have designed what I want in photoshop and have attached a visual idea of what I need. Before I purchase cmap again, please can you tell me if cmap is the correct one to go for here? and whether or not this customisation is possible with your plugin? Also, if I am to customise it to look like this, do I need to know CSS and html and what else would I need to know in order to successfully do this?

Explanation of my needs:
1.) title
2.) right aligned image/ logo
3.) Parent Category with heading “Genre” before the categories are listed next to it with a comma inbetween each
4.) Sub Category with heading “Location” before the location is listed next to it.
5.) Biography
6.) bottom left: hyperlink to a page
7.) bottom left: hyperlink to another page.

Thanks very much for your help!!!
Kind regards
Cara

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[Steven Zahm]

@ Cara-Dee

Well, you could probably do this by modifying for Bio Entry Card that comes with Connections as that would likely make a better base (stylistically), unless, you need searching and category filtering; then, yes, you should use cMap.

The skills needed. You would need to CSS, HTML and PHP.

To show the categories, you would use this function:

$entry->getCategoryBlock( array( 'label' => 'Genre', 'separator' => ', ', 'before' => '<span>', 'after' => '</span>' ) );

I suggest using the address for the location rather than category. For example, perhaps use the line 3, city or state field; whichever is more semantically correct. The you could customize the output of the address using this function:

$entry->getAddressBlock( array( 'format' => '%city%' ) );

Assuming you decide to use the city field.

The “Click to view full band profile.” link can be made with this function:

cnURL::permalink( array(
		'type'       => 'name',
		'slug'       => $entry->getSlug(),
		'title'      => $entry->getName(),
		'text'       => 'Click to view full band profile.',
		'home_id'    => $entry->directoryHome['page_id'],
		'force_home' => $entry->directoryHome['force_home'],
	)
);

The “Contact Band” link, you can use the Link field to add a Link. Use this function:
$entry->getLinkBlock();

Just enter the URL for the contact web address and then enter “Contact Band” for the Title.

Hope that helps.

[Cara-Dee Carlstein]

THanks so much for your time. These suggestions have helped me.

My website is: http://eventmusic.co.za/directory/

I am not able to view the search drop down on my site. I have compared the settings on my other site where it is working fine and all settings seem the same.

My shortcode is as follows:
[connections category='2' show_empty_categories=’false’ show_alphaindex='false' repeat_alphaindex='false' width='630' enable_search=’false’ enable_category_select=’true’]

Even when I place the [connections] shortcode on its own it still doesn’t show up.

I have updated the plugin to the latest version.

Please can you tell me why this could be happening?

Thanks for your time!!
Cara

[Cara-Dee Carlstein]

Another question regarding the above…

If I use the address area instead of using it as a category as you mentioned, will I be able to insert a shortcode that allows users to search in the drop down search menu by area?

This was the initial reason for creating the address as a category so that users could search by it in the dropdown. There will essentially only be 7 provinces (states) to choose from.

Thank you
Cara

[Steven Zahm]

@ Cara-Dee

re: category drop down
The site is behind a coming soon landing page, I can not see the directory. If you give me a login, I’ll take a look.

re: location
Ok, I see, then in case, yes then you need to use categories. That will necessitate some in depth custom coding in order to support with multiple category drop downs but definitely still doable. A more plug and play approach might be to add the following to the shortcode:

enable_category_multi_select=true enable_category_group_by_parent=true

Both these options are undocumented beta features. Maybe they’ll suit your needs.

[Cara-Dee Carlstein]

This reply has been marked as private.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Cara-Dee

The issue is that the cMap template is not installed. That is why you are not seeing the category drop down and search. You’re using the Bio Entry Card which does not have those features.

I hope that helps!

[Cara-Dee Carlstein]

Oops! Yes it does thank you!! :)

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