I'm working on one of our latest plugins, Blog Categories. It is getting close and wanted to offer a chance to beta test this on you your own WordPress Multisite installation.
Landing Page:
This section lets you select where the Blog Categories output listing will be displayed. This works similar to the Settings > Reading option on a normal site. Here is an example of the landing page output http://screencast.com/t/cUTXuZP90vq
Blog Categories Display Options:
This section handles options for the presentation of the Blog Categories on the Landing page. In this section the admin has the ability to control the display ordering, number of items and category icon and size if provided.
Blog Display Options:
On the Landing page the Blog Categories is front page of the listing. From there the user can click on a Blog Category link. The URL will have the category slug appended and a list of blogs within that category will be presented. Also, in this section you can control the ordering, number of items, and the option to display the Blog Avatar and size. Here is an example of the Blogs listed within the Category 'Elementary School' http://screencast.com/t/ZqBiiwaRQr
Blog Categories:
This section lets you select a default category. Set the number of categories a Blog can be assigned. As well as Add/Edit/Delete existing Blog Categories.
Similar to the Network Admin area there are two widget the blog admin can setup to present the list of Blog Categories as well as Blogs within a selected Category.
At the Blog level there is a section added to the Settings > General page where the admin can set the Blog Categories associate with the blog. http://screencast.com/t/wVnyWyffb
1216 pointsCommunity rank #41Supreme DeityMind-Blowingly HelpfulLifetime member
Member
(joined October 2011)
Likes (0)
Good day Paul.
I'm about to install an entirely fresh, clean install of WP that will be MultiSite so I'm game to test it. The site will not be live for a few weeks so I can test it along with other things that I'm incorporating. But, I'll warn you up front that I'll be using a Genesis Theme on the site, so if you think that may cause some issues that are out of the ordinary, say so up front and I'll not bother you with it.
Thanks for the offer. I love BETA testing software. I used to do that for some of the companies I represented when I was in the insurance/investment business. Many of their IT departments gave it to me to break because I seemed to have a knack for finding the chinks in the armor of their software. ;)
Have a great weekend and I'll await your response regarding Genesis before I download it.
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@JamesDunn, please do check this with Genesis. Most of the admin area will not be effected. And the two widgets are just that widgets. So I can't say that I have any issues with running the test on Genesis.
1216 pointsCommunity rank #41Supreme DeityMind-Blowingly HelpfulLifetime member
Member
(joined October 2011)
Likes (0)
Sounds good Paul.
It will be next week before I put it all together, but I'll go ahead and download the plugin now.
The reason I ask is because sometimes people "poo poo" the Genesis framework. Personally, I like it because it's well structured - unlike some of the premium frameworks I've seen - plus it's well documented. ;)
I will do my best to check this when I have a little time. As I've already said it looks really great.
Until that time could you make sure to replace the old default word "blog" by "site" please (and maybe rename the plugin? -- "problogs" was recently renamed" "prosites" for example because of new WP guidelines and direction towards CMS features). I'm not sure but I think this should be somewhere in your internal guidelines too.
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@Lorange, internally here at WPMUDev the plugin is still to be named 'Blog Categories'. But that could be changed just before the actual release. The beta version here is the same version I mentioned in the other forum thread. This version does not yet include the nesting abilities on the categories. Will probably be added after the initial release.
So on your comment regarding WP guidelines I'm not sure I follow. Can you provide specific links to these guidelines?
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@johnnymestizo, The beta version is already ready. Please see my first post in this thread for the link to the beta zip file. And let me know it you run into any issues.
525 pointsCommunity rank #95ExpertGunning for gold!
Member
(joined November 2011)
Likes (0)
Paul, I wish somebody would have asked me, but I already made one of these plugins for my own multi-network. I would have worked out a donation type thing or something to give you something to work off of.
Mine is optionless of course, as it's tailored to my site, but I also use a custom post type and mirror the last 5000 posts across the network. The "categories" of sites, setup custom taxonomies for the custom post type.
525 pointsCommunity rank #95ExpertGunning for gold!
Member
(joined November 2011)
Likes (1)
Liked by:
BTW, mine uses two categories, so when a user creates a new site, they are forced to choose TWO options. Like for example, going with the schools thing it would be like:
Choose Location:
School1
School2
School3
Choose Grade Level:
Primary
Upper Elementary
Middle School
High School
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (1)
Liked by:
@Jason,
Maybe there is some confusion on the functionality of the plugin. The Blog Categories plugin is not a centralized system for collecting Posts from the sub-site. We already have a good plugin to do that, Post Indexer. Also there is Comments Indexer.
This Blog Categories plugin allows the admins of the sub-sites to assign a category to the site/blog themselves. This has nothing to do with the Post Types and/or Taxonomy content of the site. More a way to provide a high-level taxonomy to the multitude of site within a Multisite system. For example you may have 10 site which are political focus. Or maybe focused on children. So using Blog Categories you would assign these sites to a common category so visitors can see the grouping based on that category.
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@Jason, On your 2 categories comment..
The Blog Categories allows the super admin to set the number of allowed Blog Categories a site can be associated with. If you look under the Network Admin > Settings > Blog Categories page you will see the input field for 'Categories per Blog'. http://screencast.com/t/ERX9Xa5Eazo So the Super admin could set this to 2, 4 10, 50.
On the sub site the admin will see the options on the main Settings page at the bottom http://screencast.com/t/t7ZjOJVl54 allowing them to set the categories for their blog. This same logic is applied to the front-end registration page when the site is created by the user.
525 pointsCommunity rank #95ExpertGunning for gold!
Member
(joined November 2011)
Likes (0)
@PaulM,
Maybe there is some confusion on what I was describing.
On initial blog signup, mine forces the users to chose from category a, and then category b. (Can this plugin, force the field entries?)
This is the bonus feature -> Then, that data is combined with my own post indexer, but instead of the posts being indexed somewhere? in lala land, it's a custom post type, so you can easily moderate the posts on the main blog.
So I will ask this, in your plugin, can you look at all the posts from all the blogs in any given category, or combination of categories? <- That's my point, or the difference if you will, that I'm referring to. I know your plugin can't.
Using the categories in mine, I can see posts from all the Middle Schools, or just one Middle School.
I'm wondering if the end-result of this plugin is just to have a widget or page list of sub sites in categories? Or is there more planned?
@Paul: Sorry for the lack of feedback but I'm currently very busy. My English is a little bit limited too, sorry. I was actually refering to the fact that "site" is now the recommended word to be used because a lot of Wordpress instances are real sites and not blogs. Similar problems has been mentionned several times in this WPMUDEV forum in the past and they have always been resolved by replacing the word "blog" by "site" when it was possible.
Regarding the nested subcats: Is this new plugin going to replace your very old "Blogs types" plugin? If this is the case, then the old one offered the possibility to set two levels of categories (I did not verify right now but I'm quite sure about this). Implementing this possibility would make the transition (from the old plugin to this newer plugin) easier for those who were using this option. And this would of course offer much more flexibility to the plugin (i.e. mirroring the fantastic Adwords categories scheme avalaible in many languages - think adsense, think network advertising, think $$$).
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@Lorange, Yes, yes, I agree on the 'site' vs 'blog' naming. This will be changed.
As for the nested categories this will happened. I looked at the code for the 'Blog Types' plugin. I personally don't like the way this was implemented. For the 'Site Categories' plugin I'll be using the standard taxonomy registered on the primary site to keep track of the categories. This was you will be able to nest for multiple levels not just one.
For the 'Site Categories' plugin I'll be using the standard taxonomy registered on the primary site to keep track of the categories.
Do you mean the plugin would be using the same categories registered on the main site of the network? On the project I'm working on, the main site will only have 4 or 5 categories (all related to the same and specific topic: Internet and websites). But the other sites that will be hosted on the same network may be of any other domain/topic (dogs, travel, games, sciences...). Should I add these many many other topics into my own categories and see them appear in my sitemaps, categories widget... ??
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
Lorange, No, the taxonomy will be private and not the same as your Post Categories taxonomy. Not to be too technical but the current Blog Categories plugin stores the information in a PHP array which is stored in the primary site's options table. Using a custom Taxonomy will provide much better flexibility.
So when you setup a sub site and assign Blog/Site Categories to it the code behind it will actually create the needed terms in the primary site.
The one advantage of using the Taxonomy is being able to do things like a category/tag cloud option or feeds or other built-in functionality like normal categories.
2480 pointsCommunity rank #21Supreme DeityMember of the MonthLifetime member
Lifetime member!
(joined May 2010)
Likes (0)
hiiiiii ahhhhhhhhh !
Enfin le voila ! Here it is !
So. now.... How to use it in buddypress ? ANd substitute it to the default BP blog list ?
Just dont set the blog page in the menu and use another one for blogs cataégories ?
mmmm the category creation could be enhanced, directly from the setting menu "add a blog cat" huh ? :)
Ok somme comments now.
Works perfectly, but display could be enhanced also :
- keek catagory listing on blog listing pages
- Add blog description ?
- display cats/blogs in collumn ? (somme css i presume ^^ but you will learn how i HATE css so i LOVE option boxes/shortcodes ^^)
Aller... Some ajax display to list blogs clicking on a cat ? This one worth a raccoon huh ? ^^
anyway, great !! So many time we were waiting for that :)
@Paul: Thank you for the explanations! Taxonomy is definitely the way to go!
So many time we were waiting for that :)
I totally agree! And Paul seems to have done a great job with this new plugin!
I also agree that having a way to show a listing of sites/blogs with columns and descriptions (a kind of sites directory that can be browsed by categories and subcategories) would be awesome! Basically something that look similar to this kind of web links directory: http://www.invitation.tv (something more basic of course).
... And a way to list the "pro sites" BEFORE the other ones (and with a different CSS class or maybe a little star icon) might be a good way to give them more visibility, send them more visitors and therefore attract more new potential paying customers in the network.
1871 pointsCommunity rank #28Supreme DeityMind-Blowingly HelpfulLifetime member
Member
(joined October 2010)
Likes (0)
Excellent guys! This is fantastic! Finally, I can stop hiding my blogs dir (actually it is called shops for me) and display them for the world to see :)
2480 pointsCommunity rank #21Supreme DeityMember of the MonthLifetime member
Lifetime member!
(joined May 2010)
Likes (0)
hiya !
I also have the
Warning: Missing argument 2 for Bcat_PublicPages::process_categories_title() in /home/bptest/public_html/wp-content/plugins/blog-categories/lib/class_bcat_public_pages.php on line 148
on the "my site page" in BP.
Seems that IF blog cat is not set there is the error :)
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
Well, to be accurate this is a Warning from PHP simply stating the argument is missing or empty. This is not a fail error in that it does not prevent the continuation of the PHP script. This will be fixed in the upcoming release.
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@Aphrodite.
mmmm the category creation could be enhanced, directly from the setting menu "add a blog cat" huh ? :)
Agreed, I think when this is recoded to use the built-in Taxonomy system the category management will be much cleaner. And standardized.
- keek catagory listing on blog listing pages
Not sure I follow. Can you provide more details?
- Add blog description ?
We are pulling by default the Blog tagline and title. Since the description would need to be managed at the Blog level this currently is not an option. But will consider for future feature list.
- display cats/blogs in collumn ? (somme css i presume ^^ but you will learn how i HATE css so i LOVE option boxes/shortcodes ^^)
Probably not going to happen for the initial release. Would be interested to see a mockup of exactly what you want visually.
Aller... Some ajax display to list blogs clicking on a cat ? This one worth a raccoon huh ? ^^
Not sure why that would be needed. I'm referring to the pages where the Blog categories are displayed. Not the widgets.
Keep the comments coming. Thanks all.
anyway, great !! So many time we were waiting for that :)
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@Lorange. OH Thanks for the link. Yeah, someone should have mentioned 'Yahoo style' and I would have understood. :)
Yeah, considering your request for multi-level categories I can see how this would work nicely. And I see how the descriptions will work as well. I'll push to get something into the initial release.
As for the other request/comment on the Pro Sites preferred listing this was discussed internally. As was the option to allow some sites to purchase 'extra' categories. Both were dropped for now. But I do like the Pro Sites top listing. I don't think it will make the initial release but do think it will come shortly after.
19 pointsCommunity rank #3113SophomoreJust Getting Started
Member
(joined March 2012)
Likes (0)
Yeeess this look great. Excited to see if this will eventually work for plugin activations, displaying blog cat criteria in widgets and more. I:e teacher blogs get this , student blogs get that, widget shows criteria form blog cat A. I think it's possible now but this would make it much easier. Network admin site folders for these cats would be great to clean up the management area too.
53 pointsCommunity rank #1086VeteranJust Getting Started
Member
(joined March 2011)
Likes (1)
Liked by:
As for the other request/comment on the Pro Sites preferred listing this was discussed internally. As was the option to allow some sites to purchase 'extra' categories. Both were dropped for now. But I do like the Pro Sites top listing. I don't think it will make the initial release but do think it will come shortly after.
This is what I will be waiting to test. I think it is the perfect solutions for us to monetise off of the feature. A featured shop/s to take the top of the category page, and the main page to display another level of shop "feature shops GOLD".. ;)
With this plugin your users will be able to chose a predefined template on sign-up and get the appropriate plugins, theme, content and settings activated based on the template they have chosen. Of course they will still be able to upgrade (pro-sites) after sign-up.
allready have this plugin installed. my problem is the way pro-site works. i can not offer different options to difernt types of users. pro-site is a single sales line and each one builds on the next.
what i was looking for is to create different slaes channels based on the needs of the client. so my thought was the Blog/site catagories gives me the missing link. now i can classify the types of blogs now all i need is to have a sales channel for each.
allready have this plugin installed. my problem is the way pro-site works. i can not offer different options to difernt types of users. pro-site is a single sales line and each one builds on the next.
what i was looking for is to create different slaes channels based on the needs of the client. so my thought was the Blog/site catagories gives me the missing link. now i can classify the types of blogs now all i need is to have a sales channel for each.
Maybe there is some confusion on the functionality of the plugin. The Blog Categories plugin is not a centralized system for collecting Posts from the sub-site. We already have a good plugin to do that, Post Indexer. Also there is Comments Indexer.
Is there a way to do a category indexer?
My problem is that my site is on a specific niche and most members are shop owners and therefore often use the same categories. when each site creates a 'new' category on their site it automatically creates the same category on the main site - thus giving me dozens of categories of the same name - causing not only confusion but a big bloody mess!
I know that's on a side track.... but as it was mentioned here thought I'd ask.
Back on topic...
With this new plugin will we be able to display all the sites within each category with a search facility?
428 pointsCommunity rank #116ExpertGunning for gold!
Member
(joined July 2011)
Likes (0)
I am curious about this plugin and other ones such as comments and posts etc.
Will using these plugins create much load on the database and slow the site down in any way. I love the idea of them but i would of though using these types of plugins would cause your server more work than necessary.
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@akeable, I'm not sure which other plugins you are referring to. I know we here at WPMU DEV have the Post Indexer and the Comments Indexer. These two plugins function somewhat similar.
Note there is some confusion on this thread about 'Blog Categories' and what that means. The plugin offered here is NOT a way to move the Post categories to a central site. The plugin here is a way to categorize sites within a Multisite blog network. If you remember the old Yahoo pages where you could drill through different category level to access site lists. This is what we are doing here. The super admin of the network can specific for example that each sub-site can list themselves using some number of category options. These categories will be listed on a site on the primary site. Where the user can drill down the category levels to find the sites.
428 pointsCommunity rank #116ExpertGunning for gold!
Member
(joined July 2011)
Likes (0)
Thanks for the super fast responce and glad to know im not the only one to make that error as feel a bit silly :)
What about the Post Indexer and the Comments Indexer would these cause any extra stress on your server as they will be constantly indexing your site. Especially if your sites busy?
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
Both of the these other plugins, Post Indexer and Comment Indexer work by using standard WordPress hook (actions/filter). For example the way Post Indexer works is when the post is saved with wp-admin there is an action it hooks into to grad some information like the post title, permalink, author, etc. and writes this to a proprietary table. So this actual only occurs once. Similar to the Post Comments. When the comment is first created a hook is made to copy some information like the comment title, author, date, post ID to a proprietary table.
So as you can see there use minimal server juice. These plugins to not constantly scan and index the sites. I know we have both running on our Edublogs site which have over a million sites.
Hi PaulM
This is just what I have been looking for, I will be glad to do some testing. I just migrated to WP from drupal so I was turned off by the name “Blog Categories”. You also mentioned 2 other plugins that are going to work out nicely with this. I will start testing on this Thursday. Do you have an easy 5 column theme with slider I can use with it? Thanks for mentioning those other plugins. You seem a little light on rep points for a staff member; I’ll send ya a few. :)
All, Thanks for the many many comments on this thread. I've been away busy updating the code base to function in some way per your request. So what changed?
1. Blog Categories is now rebranded as Site Categories. This is probably the most popular concept. Plus I agree now that Blog Categories tends to confuse some users.
2. Site Categories Taxonomy. As I mentioned in a few replies the previous version of this plugin kept the categories in an array stored in the primary site's option table. In this latest beta we are now using a real custom Taxonomy. This gives the ability to created nested categories. Yeah!
3. Related to the new Custom Taxonomy I've moved the Network Admin settings panel to the primary site. You will see a new menu section 'Site Categories'. This is where you will configure all global options for the landing page as well as manage the Taxonomy in normal WordPress fashion. This is available to only super admins on the primary site. The reason for moving this from the Network Admin section is it does not support Taxonomies like a normal site.
4. On all sites (even the primary) there is also a new Settings submenu option. This is where the site admin will manage which site categories their site is associated with. Also on this setting page is a field where the admin can enter a description for the site. This is multi-line text area.
5. Pro Sites. Someone posted in this thread about Pro Sites support. For now here is how I'm handling it. http://screencast.com/t/IFJ9XlS06O3U If Pro Sites is installed ands setup you can then assign the number of categories available per level. So a base site may be the default 2 categories. While a Pro Site may be 12. I've not addressed an issue with listing priority. That will come after this finally is released.
6. Landing Page output. Overall the landing page output is the same. But with some enhancements. In the prior version the categories were listed as simple lists. In this newest beta you can select two new options. Grid - This options will let you specify the number of columns and rows. so for example 3 columns X 4 rows. This is handy for showing top-level categories and related sub-categories. Here is a basic unstyled version http://screencast.com/t/jQdt8hvj The other option is Accordion. This is similar to the Grid where we will show the top-level categories. Then when clicked will expand to show the sub-categoies.
7. Lots of other options on the Landing page for Categories . Like hiding empty categories, Showing the count.
Pleas take this for a spin. One final note since these are beta I didn't put any effort to convert the older style categories into the new Taxonomy.
Also, I'm trying to get the overall functionality setup then I'll go back and do some magic for styling things.
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@johnnymestizo, Thanks for the comment on this. Yeah we have planned some ways to make Pro site show top in the listing. But wanted to get this released first. As for the styling I'm working on that this weekend. I'm trying to keep the style minimal so that you can override the styles via your theme.
I'll add the BuddyPress sites to a future point of integration.
156 pointsCommunity rank #326El PresidenteJust Getting Started
Member
(joined April 2011)
Likes (0)
Question: I have this on a live site here: interoccupy.net and the site is slow and we are getting this error serverside:
PHP Warning: Missing argument 2 for Bcat_PublicPages::process_categories_title() in sites/interoccupy.net/web/wp-content/plugins/blog-categories/lib/class_bcat_public_pages.php on line 148
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@Dana, Apologies if you are seeing that Warning but it is just that a PHP warning telling that something is empty, blank, etc. Should not cause any effect on the server load. Warnings are different than Errors. Warning are somewhat informational for developers.
Also, from the warning file reported I can tell you are running the older version of the plugin. Please see the link above I posted for the new beta version. One note the new bate uses a custom Taxonomy system and does not convert the old beta data.
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@johnnymestizo, Probably not something for the initial release. Trying to wrap things up so this can get out the door. Then will add in integration with other plugins after.
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@johnnymestizo, more like 20+ plugin support instances. Yes, the plugin is nearing launch. I finished the coding last week and waiting for documentation to be prepared this. Which is handled and reviewed by others. So hopefully this week.
Here is a link to the final version with a little but of styling on the output as well as proper Help.
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (1)
Liked by:
@Jason, @cmwwebfx, I've closed out the coding for the initial release. So this will be something in the first patch. I do anticipate some users will hold out for the patched version. No one wants to run with the initial release. :)
525 pointsCommunity rank #95ExpertGunning for gold!
Member
(joined November 2011)
Likes (0)
Thanks Paul, mine's working so far on the force registration and signup.
It even works on listing posts by category. But adding the categories to buddypress... I'm about to give up and either create a custom page type to list them, or use this plugin.
525 pointsCommunity rank #95ExpertGunning for gold!
Member
(joined November 2011)
Likes (0)
Ok, after going through the plugin for a bit, I got to say. Lot's of nice features, however there's one fundamental flaw with exactly what I've been asking about all along.
Not really a flaw per say, but when I kept asking if you can have two different types of categories, you kept saying there's unlimited categories.
I can only see one type of category, and a blog can select to be in many categories.
To rephrase, I see only one taxonomy called categories. The reason for two or more could be any reason. Let's say you've got one taxonomy for locations, and another for types of blogs say sports.
You don't want someone to choose Dallas AND New York as their 2 categories. You wanted them to choose 1 location, and 1 sport (Football Soccer Baseball whatever)
That way you could filter by Baseball Sites in New York.
Am I making sense now?
As far as just categories go, i a broader sense, great job. This is a great plugin!
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@Jason. As always thanks for the feedback. I don't think I originally interpreted your notion of multiple taxonomies at first. Now I understand. But I really don't think this is something we want to have this first initial release. The schedule for this has been pushed and pushed so we are trying to get this out the door. So this may be something we add in a near future release.
525 pointsCommunity rank #95ExpertGunning for gold!
Member
(joined November 2011)
Likes (0)
No problem! I knew there was a bit of a communication issue going on there. I'm afraid of getting too technical sometimes and I'm sure you do the same.
I'm just trying to spot things for ya. I know how staring at code gets. It's like driving on a straight long highway sometimes and you just go snow blind staring at code.
Speaking of which, what's your remedy when that happens?
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@Jason, yes. Actually on the font-end user Site creation form we have added the drop down options. But this is not made required since we don't have control of the form. But the time the form submit hits our action hook the new site has already been created. As for the internal create site this form doesn't have anything for plugins to hook into.
Any other features please start a new thread so we can make sure we move these to function requests and votes.
Congratulations! This is a great and well done new multisite plugin.
I'm looking forward to the option to list the "pro site" levels before the other ones with great interest (maybe with a different css class, a little star icon or something similar).
User interface: Maybe adding a link to the directory/landing page on "landing page" (see picture above) would make it more intuitive for our end users.
Another small but cool addition to the landing page would be to allow us to show the date of each site's creatiion. This is not so important, but may help to make the directory a little more sexy and informative.
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (0)
@Lorange,
I'm looking forward to the option to list the "pro site" levels before the other ones with great interest (maybe with a different css class, a little star icon or something similar).
Yeah, I added the Pro Sites logic on the backend. But left out the front-end display. I wanted to get more user input on how this could/should be handled. I think adding a CSS class to the items in the list would be the best option. Then from your theme you could tweak to your own needed like adding a border, background image, etc.
User interface: Maybe adding a link to the directory/landing page on "landing page" (see picture above) would make it more intuitive for our end users.
I'm not sure I follow this. But assumed you mean adding a link on the site settings page. Yeah, this is simple enough to include in the next release. I'll make a note.
Another small but cool addition to the landing page would be to allow us to show the date of each site's creatiion. This is not so important, but may help to make the directory a little more sexy and informative.
Correct. can add this as an option also on the landing page output. I doubt this would be helpful on the widgets.
Also, planned is another widget I wanted to add before the launch but ran out of time. A tag cloud widget using the Site Categories.
525 pointsCommunity rank #95ExpertGunning for gold!
Member
(joined November 2011)
Likes (0)
But this is not made required since we don't have control of the form. But the time the form submit hits our action hook the new site has already been created.
That's too bad cause that is a deal-breaker for me.
Why can it not be accomplished, like the TOS plugin, where that check box must be checked before continuing to register?
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (1)
Liked by:
@Jason, For you I will look into this deeper and see how the TOS plugin is doing this. As long as it can be done above board through standard WordPress hook. And not some redirection hack.
2448 pointsCommunity rank #22Supreme DeityWPMU DEV StaffLifetime member
Developer
(joined January 2012)
Likes (1)
Liked by:
@Jason, yes it does. Should have something for you to test shortly. I'm adding a new settings panel on the admin settings to control the form elements on the Signup form. Looks something like this http://screencast.com/t/6fws9iO1kNU4
Basically, allowing better control over showing the Site Categories element in the Signup form. And which fields are required as well as the minimum number of Categories to select.
Responses (77)
Member (joined October 2011) Likes (0)
Good day Paul.
I'm about to install an entirely fresh, clean install of WP that will be MultiSite so I'm game to test it. The site will not be live for a few weeks so I can test it along with other things that I'm incorporating. But, I'll warn you up front that I'll be using a Genesis Theme on the site, so if you think that may cause some issues that are out of the ordinary, say so up front and I'll not bother you with it.
Thanks for the offer. I love BETA testing software. I used to do that for some of the companies I represented when I was in the insurance/investment business. Many of their IT departments gave it to me to break because I seemed to have a knack for finding the chinks in the armor of their software. ;)
Have a great weekend and I'll await your response regarding Genesis before I download it.
JDD
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@JamesDunn, please do check this with Genesis. Most of the admin area will not be effected. And the two widgets are just that widgets. So I can't say that I have any issues with running the test on Genesis.
Thanks. Please download and try it out.
Member (joined October 2011) Likes (0)
Sounds good Paul.
It will be next week before I put it all together, but I'll go ahead and download the plugin now.
The reason I ask is because sometimes people "poo poo" the Genesis framework. Personally, I like it because it's well structured - unlike some of the premium frameworks I've seen - plus it's well documented. ;)
Have a great weekend.
JDD
Member (joined November 2010) Likes (0)
I will do my best to check this when I have a little time. As I've already said it looks really great.
Until that time could you make sure to replace the old default word "blog" by "site" please (and maybe rename the plugin? -- "problogs" was recently renamed" "prosites" for example because of new WP guidelines and direction towards CMS features). I'm not sure but I think this should be somewhere in your internal guidelines too.
And what's about the ability to set nested categories like discussed on your first thread: http://premium.wpmudev.org/forums/topic/multisite-site-categories-menu#post-225131
Many thanks
Laurent
Member (joined November 2010) Likes (0)
I forgot to mention that I'm using Genesis framework too.
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@Lorange, internally here at WPMUDev the plugin is still to be named 'Blog Categories'. But that could be changed just before the actual release. The beta version here is the same version I mentioned in the other forum thread. This version does not yet include the nesting abilities on the categories. Will probably be added after the initial release.
So on your comment regarding WP guidelines I'm not sure I follow. Can you provide specific links to these guidelines?
Member (joined January 2011) Likes (0)
i agree with @Lorange please do not use the word blog. the word site is better for a CMS system like wordpress.
any plains to associate a site category with a site template?
Member (joined January 2011) Likes (0)
i am using this plugin with budypress and in the list of sites i am now getting this error
Warning: Missing argument 2 for Bcat_PublicPages::process_categories_title() in /home/content/92/9398992/html/wp-content/plugins/blog-categories
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@cliffhoelz, thanks. I don't think this is specific to BuddyPress. Looking into the warning.
Member (joined May 2010) Likes (0)
I think everyone seems to use genesis, Ill test it out now to see if it works for me.
Member (joined October 2010) Likes (0)
I will be using this with domain mapping and anti-splog 1.x
Let me know when it is semi good to go!
Thanks,
Johnny
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@johnnymestizo, The beta version is already ready. Please see my first post in this thread for the link to the beta zip file. And let me know it you run into any issues.
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
Paul, I wish somebody would have asked me, but I already made one of these plugins for my own multi-network. I would have worked out a donation type thing or something to give you something to work off of.
Mine is optionless of course, as it's tailored to my site, but I also use a custom post type and mirror the last 5000 posts across the network. The "categories" of sites, setup custom taxonomies for the custom post type.
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (1)Liked by: 
BTW, mine uses two categories, so when a user creates a new site, they are forced to choose TWO options. Like for example, going with the schools thing it would be like:
Choose Location:
School1
School2
School3
Choose Grade Level:
Primary
Upper Elementary
Middle School
High School
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (1)Liked by: 
@Jason,
Maybe there is some confusion on the functionality of the plugin. The Blog Categories plugin is not a centralized system for collecting Posts from the sub-site. We already have a good plugin to do that, Post Indexer. Also there is Comments Indexer.
This Blog Categories plugin allows the admins of the sub-sites to assign a category to the site/blog themselves. This has nothing to do with the Post Types and/or Taxonomy content of the site. More a way to provide a high-level taxonomy to the multitude of site within a Multisite system. For example you may have 10 site which are political focus. Or maybe focused on children. So using Blog Categories you would assign these sites to a common category so visitors can see the grouping based on that category.
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@Jason, On your 2 categories comment..
The Blog Categories allows the super admin to set the number of allowed Blog Categories a site can be associated with. If you look under the Network Admin > Settings > Blog Categories page you will see the input field for 'Categories per Blog'.
http://screencast.com/t/ERX9Xa5Eazo So the Super admin could set this to 2, 4 10, 50.
On the sub site the admin will see the options on the main Settings page at the bottom http://screencast.com/t/t7ZjOJVl54 allowing them to set the categories for their blog. This same logic is applied to the front-end registration page when the site is created by the user.
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
@PaulM,
Maybe there is some confusion on what I was describing.
On initial blog signup, mine forces the users to chose from category a, and then category b. (Can this plugin, force the field entries?)
This is the bonus feature -> Then, that data is combined with my own post indexer, but instead of the posts being indexed somewhere? in lala land, it's a custom post type, so you can easily moderate the posts on the main blog.
So I will ask this, in your plugin, can you look at all the posts from all the blogs in any given category, or combination of categories? <- That's my point, or the difference if you will, that I'm referring to. I know your plugin can't.
Using the categories in mine, I can see posts from all the Middle Schools, or just one Middle School.
I'm wondering if the end-result of this plugin is just to have a widget or page list of sub sites in categories? Or is there more planned?
Member (joined November 2010) Likes (0)
@Paul: Sorry for the lack of feedback but I'm currently very busy. My English is a little bit limited too, sorry. I was actually refering to the fact that "site" is now the recommended word to be used because a lot of Wordpress instances are real sites and not blogs. Similar problems has been mentionned several times in this WPMUDEV forum in the past and they have always been resolved by replacing the word "blog" by "site" when it was possible.
Regarding the nested subcats: Is this new plugin going to replace your very old "Blogs types" plugin? If this is the case, then the old one offered the possibility to set two levels of categories (I did not verify right now but I'm quite sure about this). Implementing this possibility would make the transition (from the old plugin to this newer plugin) easier for those who were using this option. And this would of course offer much more flexibility to the plugin (i.e. mirroring the fantastic Adwords categories scheme avalaible in many languages - think adsense, think network advertising, think $$$).
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@Lorange, Yes, yes, I agree on the 'site' vs 'blog' naming. This will be changed.
As for the nested categories this will happened. I looked at the code for the 'Blog Types' plugin. I personally don't like the way this was implemented. For the 'Site Categories' plugin I'll be using the standard taxonomy registered on the primary site to keep track of the categories. This was you will be able to nest for multiple levels not just one.
I'm still gathering feedback on the beta.
Member (joined November 2010) Likes (0)
Do you mean the plugin would be using the same categories registered on the main site of the network? On the project I'm working on, the main site will only have 4 or 5 categories (all related to the same and specific topic: Internet and websites). But the other sites that will be hosted on the same network may be of any other domain/topic (dogs, travel, games, sciences...). Should I add these many many other topics into my own categories and see them appear in my sitemaps, categories widget... ??
Sorry if I misunderstood something.
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
Lorange, No, the taxonomy will be private and not the same as your Post Categories taxonomy. Not to be too technical but the current Blog Categories plugin stores the information in a PHP array which is stored in the primary site's options table. Using a custom Taxonomy will provide much better flexibility.
So when you setup a sub site and assign Blog/Site Categories to it the code behind it will actually create the needed terms in the primary site.
The one advantage of using the Taxonomy is being able to do things like a category/tag cloud option or feeds or other built-in functionality like normal categories.
Lifetime member! (joined May 2010) Likes (0)
hiiiiii ahhhhhhhhh !
Enfin le voila ! Here it is !
So. now.... How to use it in buddypress ? ANd substitute it to the default BP blog list ?
Just dont set the blog page in the menu and use another one for blogs cataégories ?
mmmm the category creation could be enhanced, directly from the setting menu "add a blog cat" huh ? :)
Ok somme comments now.
Works perfectly, but display could be enhanced also :
- keek catagory listing on blog listing pages
- Add blog description ?
- display cats/blogs in collumn ? (somme css i presume ^^ but you will learn how i HATE css so i LOVE option boxes/shortcodes ^^)
Aller... Some ajax display to list blogs clicking on a cat ? This one worth a raccoon huh ? ^^
anyway, great !! So many time we were waiting for that :)
Member (joined November 2010) Likes (0)
@Paul: Thank you for the explanations! Taxonomy is definitely the way to go!
I totally agree! And Paul seems to have done a great job with this new plugin!
I also agree that having a way to show a listing of sites/blogs with columns and descriptions (a kind of sites directory that can be browsed by categories and subcategories) would be awesome! Basically something that look similar to this kind of web links directory: http://www.invitation.tv (something more basic of course).
Member (joined November 2010) Likes (0)
... And a way to list the "pro sites" BEFORE the other ones (and with a different CSS class or maybe a little star icon) might be a good way to give them more visibility, send them more visitors and therefore attract more new potential paying customers in the network.
Member (joined October 2010) Likes (0)
Excellent guys! This is fantastic! Finally, I can stop hiding my blogs dir (actually it is called shops for me) and display them for the world to see :)
Johnny
Lifetime member! (joined May 2010) Likes (0)
hiya !
I also have the
Warning: Missing argument 2 for Bcat_PublicPages::process_categories_title() in /home/bptest/public_html/wp-content/plugins/blog-categories/lib/class_bcat_public_pages.php on line 148
on the "my site page" in BP.
Seems that IF blog cat is not set there is the error :)
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
Well, to be accurate this is a Warning from PHP simply stating the argument is missing or empty. This is not a fail error in that it does not prevent the continuation of the PHP script. This will be fixed in the upcoming release.
Thanks for reporting it.
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@Aphrodite.
Agreed, I think when this is recoded to use the built-in Taxonomy system the category management will be much cleaner. And standardized.
Not sure I follow. Can you provide more details?
We are pulling by default the Blog tagline and title. Since the description would need to be managed at the Blog level this currently is not an option. But will consider for future feature list.
Probably not going to happen for the initial release. Would be interested to see a mockup of exactly what you want visually.
Not sure why that would be needed. I'm referring to the pages where the Blog categories are displayed. Not the widgets.
Keep the comments coming. Thanks all.
anyway, great !! So many time we were waiting for that :)
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@Lorange. OH Thanks for the link. Yeah, someone should have mentioned 'Yahoo style' and I would have understood. :)
Yeah, considering your request for multi-level categories I can see how this would work nicely. And I see how the descriptions will work as well. I'll push to get something into the initial release.
As for the other request/comment on the Pro Sites preferred listing this was discussed internally. As was the option to allow some sites to purchase 'extra' categories. Both were dropped for now. But I do like the Pro Sites top listing. I don't think it will make the initial release but do think it will come shortly after.
Thanks.
Lifetime member! (joined May 2010) Likes (0)
hiya :
I mean when i clic on a cat, the blog list of this cat appears BUT the category listing disapears.
I am speaking about a fancy display like in "directory".
The ajax thing was a "gadget" suggestion that could list blogs directly when clicking on a cat, arranging visually like in many portfolios :)
Pulling out the blog description as title would be very good for presentation. Can be the blog "slogan".
Member (joined March 2012) Likes (0)
Yeeess this look great. Excited to see if this will eventually work for plugin activations, displaying blog cat criteria in widgets and more. I:e teacher blogs get this , student blogs get that, widget shows criteria form blog cat A. I think it's possible now but this would make it much easier. Network admin site folders for these cats would be great to clean up the management area too.
Member (joined March 2011) Likes (1)Liked by: 
This is what I will be waiting to test. I think it is the perfect solutions for us to monetise off of the feature. A featured shop/s to take the top of the category page, and the main page to display another level of shop "feature shops GOLD".. ;)
Member (joined January 2011) Likes (0)
Any thoughts on defining pro sites based on their category. i.e. a columnist would not have the same types of pro sites as an educators or financial .
in this way we could customize the offer to the need of the user.
Member (joined November 2010) Likes (0)
Hello Cliff,
Did you consider the following plugin?
http://premium.wpmudev.org/project/new-blog-template/
With this plugin your users will be able to chose a predefined template on sign-up and get the appropriate plugins, theme, content and settings activated based on the template they have chosen. Of course they will still be able to upgrade (pro-sites) after sign-up.
Member (joined January 2011) Likes (0)
allready have this plugin installed. my problem is the way pro-site works. i can not offer different options to difernt types of users. pro-site is a single sales line and each one builds on the next.
what i was looking for is to create different slaes channels based on the needs of the client. so my thought was the Blog/site catagories gives me the missing link. now i can classify the types of blogs now all i need is to have a sales channel for each.
Member (joined November 2010) Likes (0)
Ok, then I think you might be interested in the following discussion:
http://premium.wpmudev.org/forums/topic/pro-sites-and-new-blog-templates-1
... and maybe add your +1 and suggestions there (it's a different approach but I think it's going in the direction of your specific needs.
Sorry for my limited English.
Member (joined January 2011) Likes (0)
it is going the correct direction. pro-sit is a great start its only issue is only having one sales channel.
in my case one type of site all get the same template, with a wide range of widgets to fit into that template.
another type of site gets more and more templates as well as widgets.
currently i can not define both of these on the same MU site.
Member (joined January 2011) Likes (0)
allready have this plugin installed. my problem is the way pro-site works. i can not offer different options to difernt types of users. pro-site is a single sales line and each one builds on the next.
what i was looking for is to create different slaes channels based on the needs of the client. so my thought was the Blog/site catagories gives me the missing link. now i can classify the types of blogs now all i need is to have a sales channel for each.
Member (joined July 2009) Likes (0)
Is there a way to do a category indexer?
My problem is that my site is on a specific niche and most members are shop owners and therefore often use the same categories. when each site creates a 'new' category on their site it automatically creates the same category on the main site - thus giving me dozens of categories of the same name - causing not only confusion but a big bloody mess!
I know that's on a side track.... but as it was mentioned here thought I'd ask.
Back on topic...
With this new plugin will we be able to display all the sites within each category with a search facility?
Member (joined February 2012) Likes (0)
LIKE THE IDEA - WAY TO GO WILL WATCH FOR FURTHER UPDATES
Member (joined July 2011) Likes (0)
I am curious about this plugin and other ones such as comments and posts etc.
Will using these plugins create much load on the database and slow the site down in any way. I love the idea of them but i would of though using these types of plugins would cause your server more work than necessary.
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@akeable, I'm not sure which other plugins you are referring to. I know we here at WPMU DEV have the Post Indexer and the Comments Indexer. These two plugins function somewhat similar.
Note there is some confusion on this thread about 'Blog Categories' and what that means. The plugin offered here is NOT a way to move the Post categories to a central site. The plugin here is a way to categorize sites within a Multisite blog network. If you remember the old Yahoo pages where you could drill through different category level to access site lists. This is what we are doing here. The super admin of the network can specific for example that each sub-site can list themselves using some number of category options. These categories will be listed on a site on the primary site. Where the user can drill down the category levels to find the sites.
Hope this clears up the concerns.
Member (joined July 2011) Likes (0)
Thanks for the super fast responce and glad to know im not the only one to make that error as feel a bit silly :)
What about the Post Indexer and the Comments Indexer would these cause any extra stress on your server as they will be constantly indexing your site. Especially if your sites busy?
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
Both of the these other plugins, Post Indexer and Comment Indexer work by using standard WordPress hook (actions/filter). For example the way Post Indexer works is when the post is saved with wp-admin there is an action it hooks into to grad some information like the post title, permalink, author, etc. and writes this to a proprietary table. So this actual only occurs once. Similar to the Post Comments. When the comment is first created a hook is made to copy some information like the comment title, author, date, post ID to a proprietary table.
So as you can see there use minimal server juice. These plugins to not constantly scan and index the sites. I know we have both running on our Edublogs site which have over a million sites.
Member (joined March 2012) Likes (0)
Hi PaulM
This is just what I have been looking for, I will be glad to do some testing. I just migrated to WP from drupal so I was turned off by the name “Blog Categories”. You also mentioned 2 other plugins that are going to work out nicely with this. I will start testing on this Thursday. Do you have an easy 5 column theme with slider I can use with it? Thanks for mentioning those other plugins. You seem a little light on rep points for a staff member; I’ll send ya a few. :)
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
New Site Categories Beta 7 ready for review
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2616987/WPMUDev/site-categories-1.0-beta7.zip
All, Thanks for the many many comments on this thread. I've been away busy updating the code base to function in some way per your request. So what changed?
1. Blog Categories is now rebranded as Site Categories. This is probably the most popular concept. Plus I agree now that Blog Categories tends to confuse some users.
2. Site Categories Taxonomy. As I mentioned in a few replies the previous version of this plugin kept the categories in an array stored in the primary site's option table. In this latest beta we are now using a real custom Taxonomy. This gives the ability to created nested categories. Yeah!
3. Related to the new Custom Taxonomy I've moved the Network Admin settings panel to the primary site. You will see a new menu section 'Site Categories'. This is where you will configure all global options for the landing page as well as manage the Taxonomy in normal WordPress fashion. This is available to only super admins on the primary site. The reason for moving this from the Network Admin section is it does not support Taxonomies like a normal site.
4. On all sites (even the primary) there is also a new Settings submenu option. This is where the site admin will manage which site categories their site is associated with. Also on this setting page is a field where the admin can enter a description for the site. This is multi-line text area.
5. Pro Sites. Someone posted in this thread about Pro Sites support. For now here is how I'm handling it. http://screencast.com/t/IFJ9XlS06O3U If Pro Sites is installed ands setup you can then assign the number of categories available per level. So a base site may be the default 2 categories. While a Pro Site may be 12. I've not addressed an issue with listing priority. That will come after this finally is released.
6. Landing Page output. Overall the landing page output is the same. But with some enhancements. In the prior version the categories were listed as simple lists. In this newest beta you can select two new options. Grid - This options will let you specify the number of columns and rows. so for example 3 columns X 4 rows. This is handy for showing top-level categories and related sub-categories. Here is a basic unstyled version http://screencast.com/t/jQdt8hvj The other option is Accordion. This is similar to the Grid where we will show the top-level categories. Then when clicked will expand to show the sub-categoies.
7. Lots of other options on the Landing page for Categories . Like hiding empty categories, Showing the count.
Pleas take this for a spin. One final note since these are beta I didn't put any effort to convert the older style categories into the new Taxonomy.
Also, I'm trying to get the overall functionality setup then I'll go back and do some magic for styling things.
Let me here your thoughts. Thanks.
Member (joined March 2011) Likes (0)
#5 & #6 AMEN to this... Paul, you are a machine... :)
Haven't taken for test drive yet, but you have taken to the concept 105%
Member (joined October 2010) Likes (0)
Hi Paul
Great work so far!
I am looking forward to this coming into a production release.
This is my shop directory:
http://tradr.com/shops
Obviously, it is the output from buddypress but I would like your plugin to organise it way better.
Some sites are Pro Sites, some are 'Custom', some I would like to make 'Featured' up the top, 'Best Design Awards' etc.
Is it possible to integrate with buddypress/pro sites to figure out if this grouping can be done automatically?
Any ETA on this with styling?
Thanks,
Johnny
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@johnnymestizo, Thanks for the comment on this. Yeah we have planned some ways to make Pro site show top in the listing. But wanted to get this released first. As for the styling I'm working on that this weekend. I'm trying to keep the style minimal so that you can override the styles via your theme.
I'll add the BuddyPress sites to a future point of integration.
Member (joined April 2011) Likes (0)
Question: I have this on a live site here: interoccupy.net and the site is slow and we are getting this error serverside:
PHP Warning: Missing argument 2 for Bcat_PublicPages::process_categories_title() in sites/interoccupy.net/web/wp-content/plugins/blog-categories/lib/class_bcat_public_pages.php on line 148
What does this mean and how can I fix it.
Dana
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@Dana, Apologies if you are seeing that Warning but it is just that a PHP warning telling that something is empty, blank, etc. Should not cause any effect on the server load. Warnings are different than Errors. Warning are somewhat informational for developers.
Also, from the warning file reported I can tell you are running the older version of the plugin. Please see the link above I posted for the new beta version. One note the new bate uses a custom Taxonomy system and does not convert the old beta data.
Member (joined October 2010) Likes (0)
Hiya
not sure if it is possible to integrate... but to 'order site by rating' would be awesome !
http://premium.wpmudev.org/forums/topic/multisite-rating-system
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@johnnymestizo, Probably not something for the initial release. Trying to wrap things up so this can get out the door. Then will add in integration with other plugins after.
Member (joined October 2010) Likes (0)
Hi Paul
You seem to be working on 12 plugins at the same time? correct me if I'm wrong :P
How is the wrapping going on this one? Is it ready for production server yet?
Cheers,
Johnny
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@johnnymestizo, more like 20+ plugin support instances. Yes, the plugin is nearing launch. I finished the coding last week and waiting for documentation to be prepared this. Which is handled and reviewed by others. So hopefully this week.
Here is a link to the final version with a little but of styling on the output as well as proper Help.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2616987/WPMUDev/site-categories-1.0.0.zip
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
@PaulM
Can you make the categories a requirement to blog creation?
Say I have categoryX and categoryY and make both required from a drop down list?
Member (joined March 2011) Likes (0)
+1 on that question for sure.
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (1)Liked by: 
@Jason, @cmwwebfx, I've closed out the coding for the initial release. So this will be something in the first patch. I do anticipate some users will hold out for the patched version. No one wants to run with the initial release. :)
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
Thanks Paul, mine's working so far on the force registration and signup.
It even works on listing posts by category. But adding the categories to buddypress... I'm about to give up and either create a custom page type to list them, or use this plugin.
Can I PM you my URL and show you what I got?
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
Spelling error near footer "Avatar" on page=bcat_settings
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
Ok, after going through the plugin for a bit, I got to say. Lot's of nice features, however there's one fundamental flaw with exactly what I've been asking about all along.
Not really a flaw per say, but when I kept asking if you can have two different types of categories, you kept saying there's unlimited categories.
I can only see one type of category, and a blog can select to be in many categories.
To rephrase, I see only one taxonomy called categories. The reason for two or more could be any reason. Let's say you've got one taxonomy for locations, and another for types of blogs say sports.
You don't want someone to choose Dallas AND New York as their 2 categories. You wanted them to choose 1 location, and 1 sport (Football Soccer Baseball whatever)
That way you could filter by Baseball Sites in New York.
Am I making sense now?
As far as just categories go, i a broader sense, great job. This is a great plugin!
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@Jason. As always thanks for the feedback. I don't think I originally interpreted your notion of multiple taxonomies at first. Now I understand. But I really don't think this is something we want to have this first initial release. The schedule for this has been pushed and pushed so we are trying to get this out the door. So this may be something we add in a near future release.
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
No problem! I knew there was a bit of a communication issue going on there. I'm afraid of getting too technical sometimes and I'm sure you do the same.
I'm just trying to spot things for ya. I know how staring at code gets. It's like driving on a straight long highway sometimes and you just go snow blind staring at code.
Speaking of which, what's your remedy when that happens?
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (1)Liked by: 
@Jason,
I know of no such remedy. :)
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (2)Liked by: 
All this has finally launched. http://premium.wpmudev.org/project/site-categories/
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
Good documentation.
Are there upcoming features on the slate?
Such as category selection on blog creation, and having it marked as a required field?
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@Jason, yes. Actually on the font-end user Site creation form we have added the drop down options. But this is not made required since we don't have control of the form. But the time the form submit hits our action hook the new site has already been created. As for the internal create site this form doesn't have anything for plugins to hook into.
Any other features please start a new thread so we can make sure we move these to function requests and votes.
Best,
P-
Member (joined November 2010) Likes (0)
Congratulations! This is a great and well done new multisite plugin.
I'm looking forward to the option to list the "pro site" levels before the other ones with great interest (maybe with a different css class, a little star icon or something similar).
User interface: Maybe adding a link to the directory/landing page on "landing page" (see picture above) would make it more intuitive for our end users.
http://premium.wpmudev.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/12-site-category-dashboard.png
Another small but cool addition to the landing page would be to allow us to show the date of each site's creatiion. This is not so important, but may help to make the directory a little more sexy and informative.
Now I hope other WPMUDEV plugins will start to bring some new options related to this fantastic new plugin (for example the possibility to set different types of ads based on the site categories >> http://premium.wpmudev.org/project/simple-ads/ and http://premium.wpmudev.org/project/in-post-ads/).
Sorry for my limited English.
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@Lorange,
Yeah, I added the Pro Sites logic on the backend. But left out the front-end display. I wanted to get more user input on how this could/should be handled. I think adding a CSS class to the items in the list would be the best option. Then from your theme you could tweak to your own needed like adding a border, background image, etc.
I'm not sure I follow this. But assumed you mean adding a link on the site settings page. Yeah, this is simple enough to include in the next release. I'll make a note.
Correct. can add this as an option also on the landing page output. I doubt this would be helpful on the widgets.
Also, planned is another widget I wanted to add before the launch but ran out of time. A tag cloud widget using the Site Categories.
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
That's too bad cause that is a deal-breaker for me.
Why can it not be accomplished, like the TOS plugin, where that check box must be checked before continuing to register?
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (1)Liked by: 
@Jason, For you I will look into this deeper and see how the TOS plugin is doing this. As long as it can be done above board through standard WordPress hook. And not some redirection hack.
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
Thank you for looking into this further Paul.
I'm thinking it must hooks into the form validation somehow.
http://codex.wordpress.org/WPMU_Functions/wpmu_validate_blog_signup
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (1)Liked by: 
@Jason, yes it does. Should have something for you to test shortly. I'm adding a new settings panel on the admin settings to control the form elements on the Signup form. Looks something like this http://screencast.com/t/6fws9iO1kNU4
Basically, allowing better control over showing the Site Categories element in the Signup form. And which fields are required as well as the minimum number of Categories to select.
Member (joined March 2011) Likes (1)Liked by: 
@Paul,
Now you have me quite excited about this update. It was the real deal breaker for me as well.
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
I can't like Paul's post hard enough =D
I love a community like this that listens and values feedback.
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (0)
@Jason, Ok. Can I get you to try out this beta
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2616987/WPMUDev/site-categories-1.0.1-Beta1.zip
Highlights on the changes:
1. Better control on the Site Signup form complete with forcing required fields. Attaching screen from own testing.
2. Added a new widget for Site Category Tag Cloud with a bunch of options.
3. Added a link to the Landing page on the Site Settings page (per request from @Lorange).
Sorry, still noting new on Pro Sites display. This will come next.
Developer (joined January 2012) Likes (1)Liked by: 
Forgot to add the screen shot for the Network admin area to control the New Site Signup form
Become a member