U/I Category Order

[Terry Corbet]

Three Items:

01.  Do I have a conceptual mis-understanding concerning Categories?  Wherever they appear in the U/I, my users think that they ought to appear in some sensible order.  Granted the definition of sensible may take some thought, but shouldn't there me some configuration parameters and/or an administrative screen for controlling order of display?

02.  Ok, so, I do think it is important.  Is that a problem I should have been able to solve through the Velocity Macro capability, or is it necessary to go into the code?  If it is solvable via Velocity, I would appreciate any example code.

03.  Since I could not solve it at the Velocity Macro level, I have written and apparently successfully tested code to present Categories in alphabetical order.  That was just the simplest 'reasonable order' solution.  Actually, I suppose the correct solution would involve an 'ordering' field added to the Category class with a corresponding change to thye U/I form to capture that order as well as re-order when required.  If anyone is interested, give a shout.

[Allen Gilliland-3]

Terry Corbet wrote:
> Three Items:
>
> 01.  Do I have a conceptual mis-understanding concerning Categories?
> Wherever they appear in the U/I, my users think that they ought to appear in
> some sensible order.  Granted the definition of sensible may take some
> thought, but shouldn't there me some configuration parameters and/or an
> administrative screen for controlling order of display?

yes, some ordering makes sense.  I don't think anyone has ever suggested
that they want some ordering other than alphabetical so there has never
been a need for user control over ordering.


>
> 02.  Ok, so, I do think it is important.  Is that a problem I should have
> been able to solve through the Velocity Macro capability, or is it necessary
> to go into the code?  If it is solvable via Velocity, I would appreciate any
> example code.

You'd have to fix that in the code.


>
> 03.  Since I could not solve it at the Velocity Macro level, I have written
> and apparently successfully tested code to present Categories in
> alphabetical order.  That was just the simplest 'reasonable order' solution.
> Actually, I suppose the correct solution would involve an 'ordering' field
> added to the Category class with a corresponding change to thye U/I form to
> capture that order as well as re-order when required.  If anyone is
> interested, give a shout.

The code should already have been ordering the categories
alphabetically, so I'm not sure why that wouldn't have been happening.
What version are you using and how exactly are you getting the
categories listed on your page?

-- Allen

[Terry Corbet]

Allen Gilliland-3 wrote:

Terry Corbet wrote:
> Three Items:
>
> 01.  Do I have a conceptual mis-understanding concerning Categories?
> Wherever they appear in the U/I, my users think that they ought to appear in
> some sensible order.  Granted the definition of sensible may take some
> thought, but shouldn't there me some configuration parameters and/or an
> administrative screen for controlling order of display?

yes, some ordering makes sense.  I don't think anyone has ever suggested
that they want some ordering other than alphabetical so there has never
been a need for user control over ordering.


>
> 02.  Ok, so, I do think it is important.  Is that a problem I should have
> been able to solve through the Velocity Macro capability, or is it necessary
> to go into the code?  If it is solvable via Velocity, I would appreciate any
> example code.

You'd have to fix that in the code.


>
> 03.  Since I could not solve it at the Velocity Macro level, I have written
> and apparently successfully tested code to present Categories in
> alphabetical order.  That was just the simplest 'reasonable order' solution.
> Actually, I suppose the correct solution would involve an 'ordering' field
> added to the Category class with a corresponding change to thye U/I form to
> capture that order as well as re-order when required.  If anyone is
> interested, give a shout.

The code should already have been ordering the categories
alphabetically, so I'm not sure why that wouldn't have been happening.
What version are you using and how exactly are you getting the
categories listed on your page?

01.  I am ashamed to admit that I am not at all sure I know what
versions I am using.  I  have been running what I believed to be the
latest 3.1 beta binary since the end of November, but the CHANGES.txt
file there just talks about 3.0.
02.  When I decided earlier this week that I was going to have to get
into the code, the massive changes to the Roller site were in mid-stream,
and I'm pretty sure that the only source download I could find was
for 3.0.
03.  So, with egg on my face, I guess I am talking about 3.x.
04.  As to what I am displaying -- I have not made any sneaky changes
to any skins, so I am talking about the displays of Categories across the
top of a page, or in the right panel where By-Category RSS feeds might
be obtained.  And I am talking about the view you get as Blog owner
if you add or delete Categories.  In all of those places, the order is
predominately, the order of Category creation.
05.  I first tried to find the SQL.  I think I did.  I think I successfully
added an Order By clause using Hibernate's API, but it did not change
the views.
06.  My fix was to perform a Sort on the LinkedList that is created
in a piece of code that is evidently used by all those 'viewers' because
it changed the ordering at least on the top and in the admin view --
I have not checked RSS feeds.

Thanks for the feedback.


-- Allen

[Allen Gilliland-3]

Terry Corbet wrote:

>
> Allen Gilliland-3 wrote:
>>
>>
>> Terry Corbet wrote:
>>> Three Items:
>>>
>>> 01.  Do I have a conceptual mis-understanding concerning Categories?
>>> Wherever they appear in the U/I, my users think that they ought to appear
>>> in
>>> some sensible order.  Granted the definition of sensible may take some
>>> thought, but shouldn't there me some configuration parameters and/or an
>>> administrative screen for controlling order of display?
>> yes, some ordering makes sense.  I don't think anyone has ever suggested
>> that they want some ordering other than alphabetical so there has never
>> been a need for user control over ordering.
>>
>>
>>> 02.  Ok, so, I do think it is important.  Is that a problem I should have
>>> been able to solve through the Velocity Macro capability, or is it
>>> necessary
>>> to go into the code?  If it is solvable via Velocity, I would appreciate
>>> any
>>> example code.
>> You'd have to fix that in the code.
>>
>>
>>> 03.  Since I could not solve it at the Velocity Macro level, I have
>>> written
>>> and apparently successfully tested code to present Categories in
>>> alphabetical order.  That was just the simplest 'reasonable order'
>>> solution.
>>> Actually, I suppose the correct solution would involve an 'ordering'
>>> field
>>> added to the Category class with a corresponding change to thye U/I form
>>> to
>>> capture that order as well as re-order when required.  If anyone is
>>> interested, give a shout.
>> The code should already have been ordering the categories
>> alphabetically, so I'm not sure why that wouldn't have been happening.
>> What version are you using and how exactly are you getting the
>> categories listed on your page?
>>
>> 01.  I am ashamed to admit that I am not at all sure I know what
>> versions I am using.  I  have been running what I believed to be the
>> latest 3.1 beta binary since the end of November, but the CHANGES.txt
>> file there just talks about 3.0.
>> 02.  When I decided earlier this week that I was going to have to get
>> into the code, the massive changes to the Roller site were in mid-stream,
>> and I'm pretty sure that the only source download I could find was
>> for 3.0.
>> 03.  So, with egg on my face, I guess I am talking about 3.x.
>> 04.  As to what I am displaying -- I have not made any sneaky changes
>> to any skins, so I am talking about the displays of Categories across the
>> top of a page, or in the right panel where By-Category RSS feeds might
>> be obtained.  And I am talking about the view you get as Blog owner
>> if you add or delete Categories.  In all of those places, the order is
>> predominately, the order of Category creation.
>> 05.  I first tried to find the SQL.  I think I did.  I think I
>> successfully
>> added an Order By clause using Hibernate's API, but it did not change
>> the views.
>> 06.  My fix was to perform a Sort on the LinkedList that is created
>> in a piece of code that is evidently used by all those 'viewers' because
>> it changed the ordering at least on the top and in the admin view --
>> I have not checked RSS feeds.

Okay, well I will plan to take a look into that next week when I have
time, but I agree that the ordering should be alphabetical.

-- Allen


>>
>> Thanks for the feedback.
>>
>>
>> -- Allen
>>
>>
>>
>

[Terry Corbet]

Is the problem due to the data model/  I have not been working
with this code for very long.  I suspect that the originl data model
had a single level of Categories.  Then I suspect someone requested
Sub-Categories.  At least the little bit of code where I had to fix
the problem was working through a loop of sub-categories.  That's
why I asked about my understanding before even asking about the code.
If the application has to support Category hierarchies, of course the U/I
needs to be upgraded to provide some visual representaton the preserves
ordering between Categories and within Categories.  Obviously my simple
sort fix doesn't attempt to solve that kind of problem.

Thanks again for your help.

Allen Gilliland-3 wrote:

Terry Corbet wrote:
>
> Allen Gilliland-3 wrote:
>>
>>
>> Terry Corbet wrote:
>>> Three Items:
>>>
>>> 01.  Do I have a conceptual mis-understanding concerning Categories?
>>> Wherever they appear in the U/I, my users think that they ought to appear
>>> in
>>> some sensible order.  Granted the definition of sensible may take some
>>> thought, but shouldn't there me some configuration parameters and/or an
>>> administrative screen for controlling order of display?
>> yes, some ordering makes sense.  I don't think anyone has ever suggested
>> that they want some ordering other than alphabetical so there has never
>> been a need for user control over ordering.
>>
>>
>>> 02.  Ok, so, I do think it is important.  Is that a problem I should have
>>> been able to solve through the Velocity Macro capability, or is it
>>> necessary
>>> to go into the code?  If it is solvable via Velocity, I would appreciate
>>> any
>>> example code.
>> You'd have to fix that in the code.
>>
>>
>>> 03.  Since I could not solve it at the Velocity Macro level, I have
>>> written
>>> and apparently successfully tested code to present Categories in
>>> alphabetical order.  That was just the simplest 'reasonable order'
>>> solution.
>>> Actually, I suppose the correct solution would involve an 'ordering'
>>> field
>>> added to the Category class with a corresponding change to thye U/I form
>>> to
>>> capture that order as well as re-order when required.  If anyone is
>>> interested, give a shout.
>> The code should already have been ordering the categories
>> alphabetically, so I'm not sure why that wouldn't have been happening.
>> What version are you using and how exactly are you getting the
>> categories listed on your page?
>>
>> 01.  I am ashamed to admit that I am not at all sure I know what
>> versions I am using.  I  have been running what I believed to be the
>> latest 3.1 beta binary since the end of November, but the CHANGES.txt
>> file there just talks about 3.0.
>> 02.  When I decided earlier this week that I was going to have to get
>> into the code, the massive changes to the Roller site were in mid-stream,
>> and I'm pretty sure that the only source download I could find was
>> for 3.0.
>> 03.  So, with egg on my face, I guess I am talking about 3.x.
>> 04.  As to what I am displaying -- I have not made any sneaky changes
>> to any skins, so I am talking about the displays of Categories across the
>> top of a page, or in the right panel where By-Category RSS feeds might
>> be obtained.  And I am talking about the view you get as Blog owner
>> if you add or delete Categories.  In all of those places, the order is
>> predominately, the order of Category creation.
>> 05.  I first tried to find the SQL.  I think I did.  I think I
>> successfully
>> added an Order By clause using Hibernate's API, but it did not change
>> the views.
>> 06.  My fix was to perform a Sort on the LinkedList that is created
>> in a piece of code that is evidently used by all those 'viewers' because
>> it changed the ordering at least on the top and in the admin view --
>> I have not checked RSS feeds.


Okay, well I will plan to take a look into that next week when I have
time, but I agree that the ordering should be alphabetical.

-- Allen


>>
>> Thanks for the feedback.
>>
>>
>> -- Allen
>>
>>
>>
>

[Terry Corbet]

Allen,

For what it is worth in terms of your work, I have reconstructed the
release-version-related facts.
01.  The problem manifests itself in 3.1, which is what
I have been running as production since mid-November.
02.  Yesterday, when I took my first stab at fixing the code,
I did so with 3.0-RC5.  The fix worked.
03.  I finally managed to get the 3.1-RC2 source to compile
[xdoclet breaks with Java 6, but I needed Java 5 anyway to
match up with what is on the Tomcat 5.5 server.  The same
fix works.

Thanks for your help.

[rguggenb]

What's the status of  the "Category Order " topic? Are there any possibilities to order the categories in 4.0?

Terry Corbet wrote:

Allen,

For what it is worth in terms of your work, I have reconstructed the
release-version-related facts.
01.  The problem manifests itself in 3.1, which is what
I have been running as production since mid-November.
02.  Yesterday, when I took my first stab at fixing the code,
I did so with 3.0-RC5.  The fix worked.
03.  I finally managed to get the 3.1-RC2 source to compile
[xdoclet breaks with Java 6, but I needed Java 5 anyway to
match up with what is on the Tomcat 5.5 server.  The same
fix works.

Thanks for your help.

[rguggenb]

What's the status about the "Category Order " topic? Are there any
possibilities to order the categories in 4.0?


Terry Corbet wrote:

>
> Allen,
>
> For what it is worth in terms of your work, I have reconstructed the
> release-version-related facts.
> 01.  The problem manifests itself in 3.1, which is what
> I have been running as production since mid-November.
> 02.  Yesterday, when I took my first stab at fixing the code,
> I did so with 3.0-RC5.  The fix worked.
> 03.  I finally managed to get the 3.1-RC2 source to compile
> [xdoclet breaks with Java 6, but I needed Java 5 anyway to
> match up with what is on the Tomcat 5.5 server.  The same
> fix works.
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
>

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