Create a “multiwindow” front page (with entries from multiple categories)?

  • I run 1 blog with Movable Type 3.2, another with word press 2.02 (the new version is great!).

    I want to figure out which system (or another altogether) is best for this hack…

    I must have a front page with 4 to 6 “windows” which present the “excerpt text” and title for the latest post in each of 4 to 6 categories.

    This is verging into more advanced CMS territory. For example I could do this with Joomla… but so far Joomla has been very difficult to figure out in terms of controlling layout and page appearance.

    I think I do know how this might work in Movable Type… I sort of understand their whole tag system.

    Word Press is more mysterious to me. Does it seem possible to use word press to develop a web site that presents an excerpt from the most recent post in each of about 6 categories? Would this potentially all be done within a single “loop”? Would you set up six loops on one page?

    If I’m completely off on the wrong track here, or if you think it’s just a bad idea for an amatuer hacker to try to do this with Word Press, because of something in the way Word Press is structured, then I’d like to hear it.

    Has anyone tried something like this?

    Thank you.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Thread Starter miles

    (@miles)

    Well, a week or so later, I’ve hacked something together, but it has a long way to go! https://www.documentedlife.com

    Don’t look at the archives… they are still completely ugly. This is a not ready for prime time development project for now.

    Yes, I’m going with absolute positioning for now. I like to nail stuff down so I know where to find it.

    Sorry, I didn’t see your initial post.
    In this thread Kaf gives an example for displaying posts by category on the homepage:
    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/38046?replies=35
    Maybe it is not too late to take a look at the code.

    I hate when I miss posts. Here’s another think that may have been inspirational (may still be?)
    https://www.cre8d-design.com/blog/2006/03/09/wordpress-tutorial-blog-posts-in-different-columns/

    That being said, that’s an intriguing look you got going there so far. Now how about some drag ‘n drop of the boxes? ?? (I jest. kinda)

    Thread Starter miles

    (@miles)

    Never too late! Thanks…. my more pressing concern is in my other post on how to get a single resized image out of an rss feed and on to my front page. Thanks!

    As for Drag and drop…. no kidding! Here are some ideas.

    1) Random positioning… Lead article is always lead, but other articles change position with each reload… just a random number for the category variable…

    2) Here’s another problem… currently, to make an article the lead and appear in the big box, I have to put it into 2 categories… so it appears twice on the page… in the fixed location of its home category, and in the fixed location of the lead caetgory. What you’d really like to have is a way of designating an article to be the lead, which sucks it into the big box, and then leaves the SECOND article from that category in its normal position.

    3) Or, just to be completely cheesy, you could put a little animation in a center box, with a 10 image graphic of a little guy, say the author, who always points to the mouse location…

    4) Here’s another one I’d like to figure out…. a rollover function that brightens the box your mouse rolls over… the others are visible, but just very sligtly greyed out … roll over and they “light up” or acquire a thicker border.

    All for the future…

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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