Template & template file creation

[mtn]

I'm new to PW -- downloaded and went through tutorials -- and need advice in best approach to template creation.  I want to get started on the right track.  The website will consist of approx. 300 how-to articles, a list of which (with thumbnail image) is to be displayed on category pages (main menu - 6 categories) under various subtitles (not part of menu).

CATEGORY1

  -- Subtitle1:

    ---- Article1

    ---- Article2

  -- Subtitle2:

    ---- Article3

    ---- Article4

  -- Subtitle3:

    ---- Article5

    ---- Article6

CATEGORY2

  . . .

About 10% of the articles  need to be listed under multiple categories.  In creating Article template & template files for delayed output pages, what would it be the optimal way to organize template and template files?  (A. having two separate template/template files for single and multiple category articles -- simply placing the single-category articles in their respective admin hierarchical page tree and doing what with multiple-category pages?,  or B. -- having a single template for all pages that would have 3 category fields (and their respective subtitle dropdown selection fields), using only the first category field for single-category pages?, or C. something else.)

What would the resulting admin hierarchical page tree be?

What modules would be helpful in creating this site?

Thank you!

[abdus]

Check out this tutorial by @kongondo, under Simple Multiple Categories

 

[SamC]

I'm working on something like this. Here's how I did it so far.

Templates x 4:

/tutorials/ (blog-index)
/tutorials/tutorial-title/ (blog-entry)
/tags/ (tag-index)
/tags/tag-name/ (tag-entry)

Tree structure:

blog-entry has a multiple page ref field called 'tags'...

...like so:

tag-entry has a multiple page ref field called 'blogPosts'...

...like so:

Using:

https://modules.processwire.com/modules/connect-page-fields/

(this module has been very very useful so far, written by @Robin S and recommended to me by @abdus)

The fields are connected thus:

So when I create a tutorial (blog-entry template), I can select a bunch of tags (or create new ones):

...the page created with 'blog-entry' is automatically added to the associated tags in the 'blogPosts' page ref field:

So now you have the posts listed under the actual tag, it's as simple as just iterating over the 'blogPosts' page ref field:

<?php namespace ProcessWire; ?>

<div class="container py-5">
  <div class="row">
  <?php
    $tags = $pages->get("/tags/")->children;
    foreach ($tags as $tag):
      if (count($tag->blogPosts)):
  ?>
  
  <div class="col-md-4 mb-5 px-md-5">
    <h2 class="display-4"><a href="<?= $tag->url; ?>"><?= $tag->title; ?></a></h2>
    <?php
      // return PageArray of all items in blogPosts ref field
      $posts = $tag->blogPosts;
      // sort the PageArray
      $posts->sort("-postDate");
      // only want first 3 items
      $posts = $posts->slice(0, 3);
      // loop through the 3 items
      foreach ($posts as $entry):
    ?>
    
    <p><a href="<?= $entry->url; ?>"><?= $entry->title; ?></a></p>

    <?php endforeach; ?>

  </div>

  <?php
    endif;
    endforeach;
  ?>

  </div>
</div>

Still not decided how to list them when there are multiple tags, but hope this gives you some ideas.