2 different Categories on same landing page

  • Resolved TxFig

    (@txfig)


    2 years, 7 months ago

    Hi Steven, I’m sure you’ll remember me (lol)

    I have the directory page *almost* to where I want it, but need to figure out 1 more thing in order to get it “perfect”.

    The people in my directory have 2 distinctly different categories that are unrelated:
    1) a list of counties (in Texas) in which they service
    2) the TYPE of bee removal they will do.

    The way it is setup is that I have 2 top level categories:

    • Is this a Swarm or Colony?
    • What County in Texas are you in?

    The 1st category has 2 child categories: Swarm & Colony
    People in our directory who only do Swarm removals are in the first category; People who do colony removals get both categories checked (because everyone who will collect a colony will also collect swarms).

    The 2nd category has 256 child categories – each county in the state is a child category.
    The people in our directory will have 1 or more of the counties selected.

    ————
    What I want to have happen is for visitors to go to a landing page where they have to narrow down the directory entry by choosing BOTH types of category. I saw a post (and reply) you made a week ago to “sk101” and tried to do a landing page where the only thing on the page was [connections_categories]. That page is at
    https://txapbr.org/helpme/

    Obviously that is not exactly what I was looking for – I wanted the drop down buttons, but it’s just giving me text for the categories.

    But what I really want is for visitors to the page to have to select something from BOTH categories, then hit a “search” button and get the combined results. I’m trying to get the landing page to look something like this:
    https://txapbr.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Category-page.jpg

    ……
    And then when the results are displayed, I want them to be randomized (so that the same person does not always appear at the top of the list).

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
  • Plugin Author Steven

    (@shazahm1hotmailcom)

    In my last email reply on Dec 21, 2021 (so you can find it in your archives), I proposed the advanced search beta addon that can perform multiple category searches.

    Another possibility is utilizing a Gravity Form to create a custom search form for Connections. I just tested making such a form meeting your specific criteria, and it seemed to work well. The one part that is not so great is that you’d have to manually select all 256 of the county categories for the country dropdown when setting up the county dropdown/select. But, that would only be required to do once during the setup of the form.

    Thread Starter TxFig

    (@txfig)

    Sorry, I had filed that email in an incorrect folder and couldn’t find it. I have now located it and will give it a shot based on that documentation.

    But… I have run into a different problem. On the main page that lists the directory entries, I included the shortcode
    enable_pagination=false

    That does indeed remove the ability to select the page numbers at the top, but the directory entries that are shown are simply cutoff at 20 entries. What I’m wanting is for ALL of the matching directory entries to display on a single page, regardless of how many there are.

    Plugin Author Steven

    (@shazahm1hotmailcom)

    If you added the limit or page_limit to the shortcode instance, please remove it. Thanks!

    Thread Starter TxFig

    (@txfig)

    I don’t see limit or page_limit in my shortcode anywhere. Here is the entire shortcode I am using for that page:

    [connections enable_pagination=false show_image=false image=none image_fallback=none image_single_fallback=none image_single=none str_select='What County are you in?' str_select_all=''?enable_category_by_root_parent=TRUE enable_map=TRUE show_addresses=TRUE card_width=370 card_height=180 str_seperator=''? str_image='' str_contact='' str_home_addr='' str_work_addr='' str_school_addr='' str_other_addr='' str_home_phone='' str_home_fax='' str_cell_phone='' str_work_phone='' str_work_fax='' str_personal_email='' str_work_email='' show_links=true]

    Plugin Author Steven

    (@shazahm1hotmailcom)

    Hmmm, that is odd. Please open a support ticket so I can better assist you with this issue. Thanks!

    Thread Starter TxFig

    (@txfig)

    Ticket submitted. Thanks

    Thread Starter TxFig

    (@txfig)

    Going back to the first (original question) – I have been banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to get this work right (I haven’t even worried about getting it to look right yet).

    I am using the cn_multi_category_search addon as suggested – pointing it to a landing page (https://txapbr.org/helpme/). Here is the shortcode I’m using:
    `[cn_multi_category_search category=’2|This is just a swarm.|Is this a Swarm or a Full Colony?’]

    [cn_multi_category_search category=’1|What County (in Texas) are the bees located?’]`

    But that isn’t even close to what I’m wanting…

    What I WANT to have happen is for a person to have to choose from both category choices, THEN hit a single search button. Specifically:

    • Tell me if this is a swarm or a full colony
    • Tell me what county they are in

    THEN hit “search”.

    Now it is entirely possible that my problems are in how I set up the categories. I’ve tried numerous ways of configuring them and finally came down to this:

    “Which county in Texas”, ID=1, no parent
    254 child categories, each one is a county name (ID # 4 through 257)

    “I have a Swarm”, ID=2, no parent-
    1 child category of “I have a full Colony”, ID 3

    Everyone who can remove a full colony can also collect a swarm. So if “I have a swarm” is selected, the everyone in the matching county gets listed. But if “I have a full colony” is selected, only people who match ID=3 and are in that county get listed.

    Some examples of how to use this shortcode would really be appreciated.

    Thread Starter TxFig

    (@txfig)

    Replying to my own before seeing a reply from Steven.. <grin>

    I think I got it!!!! There was a problem with putting quotes in the shortcode where they didn’t belong (and using the word “category” again).

    This is the shortcode I ended up using….
    `[cn_multi_category_search category=’2|This is just a swarm.|Is this a Swarm or a Full Colony?,1|What County (in Texas) are the bees located?’ enable_keyword=false]’

    Now to make it look pretty…

    • This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by TxFig.
    • This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by TxFig.
    • This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by TxFig.
    Thread Starter TxFig

    (@txfig)

    Stupid quick follow up question to the cn_multi_category_search:

    Can I make the results randomly sorted? I do not want them sorted by last name (or any other way)…

    Plugin Author Steven

    (@shazahm1hotmailcom)

    @txfig

    The wp.org support forum rules do not permit the support of commercial plugin add-ons, such as the advanced search beta, in their support forums. Please open a support ticket at the following link for this add-on, and I will be sure to answer promptly.

    It is good to see that you figured out the correct shortcode parameters!

    The ordering can be applied to the core Connections shortcode. For example:

    • [connections order_by='id|RANDOM']

    Learn more here:

    There would be an exception if you were using the keyword filter. The order is based on a score applied by the WordPress database. The score is assigned by how relevant the database thinks the result is. Letting you know in case you decide to enable the keyword filter.

    I hope this helps!

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
  • The topic ‘2 different Categories on same landing page’ is closed to new replies.