Whether to use pagination or not

[SamC]

I've got the structure:

Tutorials (blog-index template)
Any child of that (blog-entry template)

I know I could have 'Page 1 of tutorial' being some sort of list which shows an extract of the children but I didn't want that here.

Page 1 should look the same as the children. I've modified the template to include a menu at the top when on a page which (a) has children or (b) the parent pages' template is 'blog-entry'. The important bits are here:

// blog-entry
<?php namespace ProcessWire; ?>

<?php
  // parent of multi page tutorial
  if ($page->hasChildren()):
    $entries = $page->and($page->children);
?>

  <ul>
    <?php foreach($entries as $index => $entry): ?>
      <li>Page <?= $index + 1; ?> <a href="<?= $entry->url; ?>"><?= $entry->title; ?></a></li>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
  </ul>

  <?php elseif ($page->parent->template == "blog-entry"):
    // parent and children of multi page tutorial
    $entries = $page->parent->and($page->parent->children);
  ?>

  <ul>
    <?php foreach($entries as $index => $entry): ?>
      <li>Page <?= $index + 1; ?> <a href="<?= $entry->url; ?>"><?= $entry->title; ?></a></li>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
  </ul>

<?php endif; ?>


<div class="container py-5">
    <div class="row justify-content-center">

        <div class="col-lg-9">
            <?php if($page->bodyRepeater): ?>
                <?= $page->render("bodyRepeater"); ?>
            <?php endif; ?>
        </div>

    </div>
</div>

...which outputs:

at:

/processwire-tutorials/page-1-title/
/processwire-tutorials/page-1-title/page-2-title/
/processwire-tutorials/page-1-title/page-3-title/

So in essence, 'it works'. A user can navigate between the parent and the children and they look like a coherent section.

However, two blocks in the code above are repeated and I was thinking is there a way to do this with the built in pagination or a way to condense the code? The main problem I'm having is that I want to include the parent which means there are three conditions when displaying the menu:

1) Is a blog-entry post and has blog-entry children - show menu
2) Is a blog-entry post and parent is blog-entry - show menu
3) Is a blog-entry post and has no children - hide menu

Or should I just get on with life? Just after some feedback really on how other people would handle something like this.

Thanks for any advice.

[bernhard]

i think i would create a single blog-entry template with a repeater holding one ckeditor body-field.

1 repeater entry = single page blogpost
more repeater entries = blogpost with multiple pages

based on url-segments you could show the corresponding repeater item. without url-segment it would show the first. all other content would always be the same (like a comment section, for example would show up on all pages, like here: http://processwire.com/docs/tutorials/hello-worlds/ )

[dragan]

31 minutes ago, SamC said:

Or should I just get on with life?

Yes.

Kidding aside: If you really want to split each tutorial into several pages, I would put them all on the same level. Perhaps use a tutorial-parent page for summary and introduction only (and maybe a "further links and downloads" section), and each child-page as actual tutorial-content. 

 

[abdus]

https://modules.processwire.com/modules/textformatter-pagination/

[SamC]

15 minutes ago, bernhard said:

i think i would create a single blog-entry template with a repeater holding one ckeditor body-field.

The blog-entry template has a repeater matrix field which is great for this. I can add body > image > body > code > image > body etc.

11 minutes ago, dragan said:

Yes.

Kidding aside: If you really want to split each tutorial into several pages, I would put them all on the same level. Perhaps use a tutorial-parent page for summary and introduction only (and maybe a "further links and downloads" section), and each child-page as actual tutorial-content. 

I was looking at this:

https://processwire.com/docs/tutorials/simple-website-tutorials

And seems that what you described is going on there. I didn't pay close enough attention to see that there is a parent summary page. Think I'll just make another template 'complete-tutorials' and as you say, list the entries under that. I could use the parent page to show what's actually going to be created as a teaser.

I'm not a fan of multi-page tutorials (i.e. nasty SEO let's make 10 pages out of one) at all. They're a pita. However, i think there is a case when it comes to complete 'start to finish' tutorials, it makes sense to split them up into sections.

[SamC]

1 minute ago, abdus said:

https://modules.processwire.com/modules/textformatter-pagination/

Yeah I thought of something like that, used to do it in Drupal 7. I think same level child pages would be easiest for me here.

[SamC]

==UPDATE==

I did this in the end using a single 'blog-entry' template. I have the structure:

post 1
post 2
post 3
 - post 3.1
 - post 3.2
post 4
post 5

My menu is now in an include file:

<?php namespace ProcessWire; ?>

<?php
  // check if menu needs to be rendered before getting PageArrays
  if ($page->template == "blog-entry" && $page->parent->template == "blog-entry" || $page->template == "blog-entry" && $page->hasChildren()):

  // children of complete-guice parent
  if ($page->template == "blog-entry" && $page->hasChildren()) {
    $entries = $page->and($page->children);
  }
  // children of complete-guide parent
  elseif ($page->parent->template == "blog-entry") {
    $entries = $page->parent->and($page->parent->children);
  }

?>

<ul class="list-group">
  <?php
    foreach($entries as $index => $entry):
      // apply 'active' for current page
      $currentClass = ($page->id == $entry->id) ? "active" : "";
      // change the parent blog post page title to 'Summary'
      $title = ($index == 0) ? "Summary" : $entry->title;
  ?>

    <li class="list-group-item <?= $currentClass; ?>">Page <?= $index + 1; ?>:&nbsp;<a href="<?= $entry->url; ?>"><?= $title; ?></a></li>
  
  <?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

<?php endif; ?>

...and to output it at the top of a blog post. Only shows if the page has children:

// blog-entry.php
<?php namespace ProcessWire; ?>

<?php include("./includes/multi-page-menu" . ".php"); ?> 

<div class="container py-5">
    <div class="row justify-content-center">
        <div class="col-lg-9">
            <?php if($page->bodyRepeater): ?>
                <?= $page->render("bodyRepeater"); ?>
            <?php endif; ?>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

<?php include("./includes/multi-page-menu" . ".php"); ?>

      
      

...with structure:

...renders:

Only need one template now for anything that is a blog post  whether it's a single page or has children. Now I can use the family settings properly without having to choose a template when Adding New > Blog Post. I'm quite a big fan of these settings.