Easier way to list items?

Thanks, Mark. Now that I’m inside I’m not sure what to do. What should I be looking for so I can make this work on my client’s site? Going by your list above I’m not sure where to put those codes.

Take a look at the Hide-E-Hole Ferrets page (this is my equivalent of your current one).
https://t31os.onatha.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=11&action=edit

You’ll notice there’s little content, but this is our main ferret page, which simply has the ferret template i created attached (the page acts as a placeholder for whatever the page template chooses to display).

Then you have the ferret posts, these are each seperate entries which are displayed when viewing the ferret page.
https://t31os.onatha.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=ferret (feel free to click the edit link and have a look).

I’m just wanting you to get an idea of how new ferret entries would be posted using this code. Instead of updating a single page, you’d now add a new ferret entry, following the format i’ve done for the first two (so have a good look, and feel free to add new ones).

I’m going to be heading to bed shortly, but you’re welcome to add new entries and mess around with the existing ones if you like (it’s a testing environment, you won’t break anything).

Tomorrow i’ll try to go over everything in detail to clarify what you need to do to switch your current page over to the method i’ve used on the test site … ??

God bless your heart. My client will certainly be singing your praises for sure. She’s at a ferret function this weekend and I told her I’d try to find an easier way for her to handle the ferret entries. Well, looks like you did it my man. Excellent job.

I’ll mess around with it tonight and I look forward to getting it set up on her site tomorrow.

Thanks!

You’re welcome.

If you have any questions feel free to post them here(or email), and i’ll check back with you tomorrow.

Until then, take care.. ??

Mark, if you ever need any illustration work just let me know. It will be my way of paying you back for everything you are doing for me and my client.

This morning I created a post using your Ferret method. Works really slick, but there’s a couple things I noticed.

There’s no drop down to choose the Ferret template on the editor page (for adding a new ferret post). So my post just went on the front page like a regular blog post.

When I use the feature image link on the right it creates a code that goes in the post with some link added around it. I have to delete the link code and copy paste the remaining code at the top of the post, since it puts it at the bottom instead of at the beginning. Kind of a pain.

Is there a way to have all those custom fields already there, instead of having to add them individually? This could be a pain when my client is having to add dozens of ferrets at a time.

Hi,

There’s no drop down to choose the Ferret template on the editor page (for adding a new ferret post). So my post just went on the front page like a regular blog post.

You only need to apply the ferret template to the “page” that acts as a placeholder, the ferret posts are pulled into the page that has the template attached, you don’t need to add it for each entry, just the placeholder page(hide-e-hole ferrets).

When I use the feature image link on the right it creates a code that goes in the post with some link added around it. I have to delete the link code and copy paste the remaining code at the top of the post, since it puts it at the bottom instead of at the beginning. Kind of a pain.

The featured image link feature doesn’t require any code be put into the editor, you simply click the “Use as featured image” link, then click the close(x) button, the image will appear in the box to the right. I’m making a short and simple video to show you (will post it up shortly).

Is there a way to have all those custom fields already there

By default no, however there is a plugin that allows you to create custom field templates, i’m going to install that now and see how it works..

Will let you know how the custom field template plugin works out..

You only need to apply the ferret template to the “page” that acts as a placeholder, the ferret posts are pulled into the page that has the template attached, you don’t need to add it for each entry, just the placeholder page(hide-e-hole ferrets).

Well, that page already has that template picked. But when I made my ferret post it appeared on the template page and the front page, too. How did you get your ferret posts to just appear on the template page?

The featured image link feature doesn’t require any code be put into the editor, you simply click the “Use as featured image” link, then click the close(x) button, the image will appear in the box to the right. I’m making a short and simple video to show you (will post it up shortly).

I didn’t put any code in the post. I clicked the link for adding “set featured image” (on the right) and a box popped up where I had to pick an image from my computer, then I clicked upload and it placed the code in the post.

How did you get your ferret posts to just appear on the template page?

Custom post types shouldn’t appear on the main page, maybe it’s a side effect(or feature) of the plugin you mentioned earlier, Easy Post Types (is it enabled?).

I tried out the custom field template plugin, i can’t say i really like it (way too confusing to use – although i can follow, i doubt your client will), and it would probably be quite overwhelming for your client, additionally there’s no custom post type support (so it’s not going to work in this case).

Videos tend to be easier to follow than written examples (and i’m not the best writer), so i’ll wrap up anything you need to do into a video so you can watch me do it first… ??

First vid – t31os.onatha.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Creating-ferretpost-WordPress.mp4

I’m going to have another think about how we can simplify the custom field process for new ferret entries..

Custom post types shouldn’t appear on the main page, maybe it’s a side effect(or feature) of the plugin you mentioned earlier, Easy Post Types (is it enabled?).

I made the post in your test blog, lol. Do you have it enabled?

First vid – t31os.onatha.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Creating-ferretpost-WordPress.mp4

This didn’t do anything. It opened in Winamp, but there was nothing there.

Oh i think i know what you mean, you’re talking about these URLs..

https://t31os.onatha.com/ferret/indie/

Although individual URLs will exist for each ferret entry posted, there won’t be a link to them anywhere, since the ferret page is the only place these special posts are called.

Without registering the query_var and rewrite parameters (which generates the singular post views for them) the preview button for these entries will produce a 404. I assumed your client may wish to preview individual ferret entries, or may click preview expecting to at least see something, so wanted to remove the confusion a 404 page may produce by leaving these parameters and having previews work.

Which does brings me to another point, if these ferret entries are to have singular views, it is possible for me to have the ferret posts(on the ferret page) link to their respective singular views, and additionally a single view template should be setup for displaying these, along with their appropriate(thumbnail/featured) image – right now you’ll notice you only see the title and the content(description) when viewing a singular ferret entry.

In regard to the mp4, bear with me, i’ll find a plugin to embed the video in a post for viewing..

EDIT: https://t31os.onatha.com/2010/08/ferret-post-videos/

Oh i think i know what you mean, you’re talking about these URLs..

https://t31os.onatha.com/ferret/indie/

Although individual URLs will exist for each ferret entry posted, there won’t be a link to them anywhere, since the ferret page is the only place these special posts are called.

What I meant is that the post I made appeared on the front page, instead of just on the template page. But you’re right about the viewing – she would want to preview her posts, just like any other post. And yes, each post should link to a singular view.

See, the problem we’re running into here is that this is a WP site restricted by WP code. If it was just a simple HTML-built site (like her old site here), then this would be a lot easier to implement. As it is we are having to jump through hoops to get around WP’s confabulated coding structure (kind of reminds me of the old Homestead days).

Hi Doug,

I’ve been testing the More Fields plugin in an attempt simplify adding ferret bio information. If you’re around, login to the my site and open up one of the ferret posts, you’ll see a new box down the righthand side, is that the kind of thing you had in mind?

I can show you how to setup the plugin i’ve used, and also update the page template to pull in the new data in place of custom field data.

It would mean dropping the custom field method and setting up an additional plugin, but you might find the end result is worth it and i can provide a video on how to setup all the necessary fields if it’s suited (i couldn’t find anything else this straight-forward that would suit what we’re doing).

Let me know what you think… ??

I just tried using that new plugin, but after filling in the info and publishing the post it doesn’t appear anywhere on the page. Plus it doesn’t list all the details that actually appear on the page. It only has three (Pattern, Color, Gender).

I can see all of this on the Hide-E-Hole ferrets page, but not on the single page. I also can’t get my image to appear properly aligned like your cat picture. I notice a couple of the others one aren’t properly aligned, either.

Hi Doug,

I wanted to check if the plugin was suitable before spending time re-coding the page template and setting up all the fields.

I’ve added in some more fields now. The plugin does actually use custom fields, but nonetheless it does make the process easier because you don’t need to select each field you need for each entry, instead you can just use those that you want with the new box (the custom fields will be updated inline with what you place into the new boxes – see Cinnabun or Indie’s entry as examples, i’ve updated them).

RE: Image alignment
It looks like you’re still inserting the images into the editor. You only need to click the “Use a featured image” link, then click X to close the media window (nothing need go into the editor – i’ve covered this process in the video i posted). I’ve updated the Cinnabun entry now and you’ll notice the image aligns when it’s set using the “Featured Image” box on the editor page.

I’m going to build the single entry template for these ferret entries next, so that should be up within the next couple of hours(time permitting).

??

EDIT: Made a few updates to the page template, and also added a new single template, for the individual ferret posts and made a few minor CSS additions.

I’ve also bumped you up to admin so you can see the more fields plugin page, it’s under the Settings menu.