SandTracks (or breadcrumbs)

  • There is a post around here somewhere where breadcrumbs were discussed. Since there seems to be a … uh…. difference of opinion as to what breadcrumbs are and how they should function, I am calling my version SandTracks. It will show you the last X places you visted on the site.
    Example: When your first arrive at the site, you are on the Home page, so your ST would read “Home.” If you then clicked into the Feb archives, it would then read “Home, Feb Archives.” If you then clicked on a category, it would change to “Home, Feb Archives, Category X” and so on, adding to the list as you click through the site.
    Before I start work on something like this:
    1) Has anyone else implemented this in the maner described?
    2) Are the WP devs already considering something like this?
    3) Anyone willing to help develop &/or help debug/test it?
    4) Is this even something others would even be interested in?
    TG

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

  • Yeah I will help in anyway I can as well, as time allows of course! On another note; w00t! Real breadcrumbs! Kudos on the diplomatic handling of your hack title, but WE know don’t we?
    Yes I think we do.

    I think the easier way to create breadcrumbs is through using the variables set in the index.php … ie: if the user is simply browsing by year, the $year variable is set while the others remain blank. Simply put, you then tell the user that they are in the Home -> $year. Now if they’re in the month, you simply check the $month variable, and do a little “if” statement, producing Home -> $year -> $month. The only forseeable problem I have with it track where I’ve visited is that you have to constantly drop and readd the location of the site, rather than using preexisting variables. This adds to load, albeit a small addition, some ppl might take notice.
    I have some preliminary “breadcrumb” stuff I’d be more than happy to hand over. It deals entirely with the methods I’ve described, but is very customized at the moment and unpackagable. Therefore, maybe you’d want to popularize it and such? Let me know.

    Thread Starter TechGnome

    (@techgnome)

    chuck – I think I get what you are saying, BUT… that’s more of a “you are here” kind of thing and doesn’t really show where you were. What happens if you track through the archives going from month to month? Using the method you describe, I would only be able to show where the reader is…. which is how I have seen some of the other “breadcrumb” implementations. And that’s fine, but it isn’t what I’m looking for. I want to not only tell the reader where they are, but How They Got There……
    When done, if I were to hit my home page, click on Category “General”, go into the Feb Archives, then into my links page, I want my bread crumbs (or SandTracks) to look like this:
    Home -> General -> Feb ’03 Archives -> Links
    If I then hit the Home link again, I want it to look like this:
    Home -> General -> Feb ’03 Archives -> Links -> Home
    Get the idea? It shows, not only where I am (Home) but where I went traipsing through.
    TG

    I would really appreciate having this feature, TG. Whatever I can do to help, let me know.

    Thread Starter TechGnome

    (@techgnome)

    The reason I want to do the implementation the way I want it is because too often I found myself running through a site, then going…. how the fork did I get here? And trying to find my way back to a previous section…. especially in places were there are internal links to other posts. Yes I could use the back button, but I shouldn’t have to.
    I agree that the breadcrumbs/sandtracks are not for everyone, but they can be useful. In my case, I think I would find it useful on my site. That’s the beauty of this system. I can add or remove things at will. And I might find out that it doesn’t fit my site after all, but at least then it will be available to others if they want.
    TG

    I’m just *bumping* this because I wonder if you have made any progress on this or are pursuing it or not?
    Kevin

    *BUMP*

    Thread Starter TechGnome

    (@techgnome)

    Unfortunatly it fell by the way side…. sife happened while I wasn’t looking. I’d like to take a crack at it again one of these days…. Part of what I was trying to do was to use a cookie to track the user trapising throug hthe site, but in order to set it, it requires that the cookie be set, then refreshed back to the same page (ugh!) – but I never got around to testing that part of the theory.
    TG

    I think the breadcrumbs described in this post is sorta useless. If i visit 100 pages in a site, how long will the breadcrumbs be? It would fill the whole browser window if it shows a history of where you’ve been.
    The breadcrumbs should indicate where the user is related to the heirarchy of the site structure, not what pages where visited.

    The breadcrumbs should indicate where the user is related to the heirarchy of the site structure, not what pages where visited.

    That’s what I’m looking for too.
    Kevin

    TechGnome, why not just use referrers to check and print the previous page?

    Thread Starter TechGnome

    (@techgnome)

    What about the page before that…. and the one before that…. sure, linking to the only the last page works, but it’s the entire track that I’m after…. I have some ideas, but like I said in another thread, the kinks need to be worked out. I will have *something* soon, as a plug in (and a *hopefully* configurable, allowing you set the level of deepness).
    TG

    Why not let the reader decide?
    The way i see it there are two ways to offer this kind of navigational aid, via the structure of the site, or via the navigation through it. They’re both useful, and who am I to tell a reader which they would need most?
    If there can be links that can alter the stylesheet that a webpage uses, couldn’t there be links that do something similar to alter the presention so you can choose
    you were here >> you are here
    or
    the parent of “here” >> you are here

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
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