Pages Tree: Group Pages by Template Type?

[ryanlath]

Let's say I have a page that has multiple allowed children pages with different templates:

Product 

 - User Reviews

 - Documents 

 - Options

In the Pages Tree view "User Reviews", "Documents", "Options" are all listed/jumbled together. 

One way I've thought of would be to make dummy container pages for each template for each product, but that seems wasteful/inelegant.

Is there some option so they are grouped by template type?   Is there a module?  Can I override some admin template?  Some PW way of looking at this differently?

Thanks,

Ryan

An illustrative, but irrelevant, example would be in the image below.  Under "Categories" there are two content types: category and basic page.  Can the content types under categories be group separately?

[pwired]

Did you surf the forum already ?

http://processwire.com/talk/topic/2782-template-design-better-route/

http://processwire.com/talk/topic/740-a-different-way-of-using-templates-delegate-approach/

[ryanlath]

I guess I should clarify.  This is for the administrative back-end, specifically the Page Tree View.  Those both deal with the front end.

Just added a screenshot to original post for illustrative purposes.

[mr-fan]

Ok you looking for how to structure your pages/templates/content....here we go:

easy prequel

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/5913-new-to-pw-how-to-structure-your-site/

the main story

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/3579-tutorial-approaches-to-categorising-site-content/

a little sequel

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/4116-best-way-to-structure-a-classifieds-site/

so maybe you have a good reading and finding all about how to structure your pages/templates...

for setup a special view in the backend (for editors) you can use Lister or Lister Pro:

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/5835-lister/

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/7911-lister-pro/

regards mr-fan

[ryanlath]

Maybe I should rephrase the question:  Is it possible to modify/override the behavior of the Pages Tree List in the Administrative back-end to subgroup children by template type?

[horst]

Yes it is. But you have to do it by yourself. And I think it isn't an easy task for a newbie. Maybe you read upon those links that Mr-fan has provided above? Maybe you will find another solution than to recoding the pages tree.

And BTW: a tree is a tree, it starts from the roots and goes up until it reaches the top. I have never heard about a tree that groups his branches by colors of the leaves or by thickness of the branches.

Mr-Fan has pointed you to Lister already.

[ryanlath]

So I guess the solution is dummy pages or modules like comments or pageRatings.  I was hoping there was something more elegant.

BTW:  I've never heard of a tree's branches or leaves being able to be sorted, but we can do that, no?  And once you can sort branches, you might as well be able to group them by similar attributes. 

[mr-fan]

Ok next round up....

Horst forgot to link his module

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/4758-release-pagetree-add-new-child-reverse-on-top/

And like Horst wrote - sorting pages for templates in pagetree is not needed if you setup your content and cathegories right.

Maybe you've missed the field dependencies for tagging or combining content that is under different parent-pages but stays together:

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/4323-field-dependencies/

=> give us a concrete example of your problem please.

if you have a basic-page template under cathegories - why this is needed??? cathegories only cathegories....that used on the normal (basic-what-ever-template) pages....with the field dependencies.

if your wanna really different content "blocks" on one page so pagetable module would be interresting.

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/7459-module-pagetableextended/

"dummypages" make no sense - don't waste energy to achieve something that could be done in an easy way. Make your problem as clear as you can instead running into a one way - i think here is always a helping hand that try to explain the things until you say aha......

regards mr-fan

[felix]

This is something i'm also missing. And I think most of you don't get what ryanlath means:

Sometimes it's just a waste of time to create special "folder" templates just to structure the information in the page tree (especially if they need different icons to distinguish them easier). It would be great to have some sort of pre defined "folder" or "strucure" element that doesn't (necessarily) create an url-slug.

Example: I always create a template called "folder" (sometimes even 10+ just for the icons) and on the root of the page tree there are 2 or 3 folders like "meta" (containing legal information, contact...), Data (containing PageTable items), [...]. Those folders wouldn't need their own url-slug but i don't want their contents to "mess up" my page tree. This is just a matter of keeping things easy to navigate (in the backend) rather than grouping information in a semantic way.

[Oliver]

Hey felix, did I miss something or what icons are you taking about here? Is there actually a way to assign icons to templates?

Regarding usability and as pages could be a thousand things like actual viewable pages, folders or partials, it would be really, really great to be able to display a font awesome icon in front of the page names in the page tree. Could be a document icon as default, but e.g. a globe for a subpage that is accessible through an own domain or subdomain. It would make even more sense to me than having icons displayed next to input fields, as they come with a specific label, description and appearance. 

[Soma]

Oliver it's in core since 2.4 I think, you can define a icon per template. Now in latest there's even a new fieldtype for selecting font-awesome icons, instead of manually entering name.

[Oliver]

Oh. Where exactly do I have to set a template’s icon? Can’t see anything icon related in template settings (PW 2.5.3). 

[Soma]

Under Advanced

[Soma]

Now it looks like this

[Oliver]

Ok, looks as I just didn’t see the tiny text below the input field. 

Having the icons at hand in the new version is pretty awesome. Thanks for the hint!