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List:       bricolage-general
Subject:    Re: how to group related stories as a series?
From:       David Wheeler <david () kineticode ! com>
Date:       2005-10-25 23:43:52
Message-ID: 7139FE51-EABA-4B3D-A3AC-D0382EF8E023 () kineticode ! com
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On Oct 24, 2005, at 4:41 PM, Dawn Buie wrote:

> I've thought of several ways of doing this which I'll outline  
> below. Please let me know if I'm barking up some wrong trees. I may  
> be mistaken in some essential assumptions I have made about the way  
> element and container structure works in Bricolage.

I think you'd have better luck on the list if you could break things  
down into smaller problems described in a few sentences. People are  
more likely to respond.

> First Concept and Problems:
> I initially looked at creating a new story-type or even cover that  
> could serve as a way to group a set of stories as a series. I could  
> also add data elements, such as a title, description and related  
> image to this series-type story.  This is the way I currently  
> create galleries of images (a new image on each page in a gallery- 
> type story). However this method requires that I upload each image  
> file serperately, publish each one, then create a new gallery-type  
> story, relate each media element and publish. Then I need to go to  
> an existing article-type story, relate my gallery-type story and  
> publish. Works fine but it takes a lot of time.

Yep, that's the way it's done. One thing we did for a customer was to  
make it so that a gallery story's template looked for all the images  
in the same category and with the same cover date as the gallery  
story itself and created the gallery from that. That way, they don't  
have to relate all the individual gallery image documents to the  
gallery story. We also created a very simple shell script to create  
all of the gallery images from a list of directories on the Bricolage  
server. So they scp a .zip file to the server and just run this script:

#!/bin/sh

/usr/local/bricolage/bin/bric_media_upload \
     --target-username auser \
     --target-password sekrit \
     --media-type gallery_image \
     --media-info \
     --content-source example \
     --site example \
     --verbose \
     $2 http://localhost/


> SO I wondered if there was a way to make a "series" story sub- 
> element and a 'publish_series" utility template that could improve  
> this workflow...

I don't really follow you here. Doesn't mean you can't or that it's  
not a good idea, just I don't understand what it is you're  
visualizing and asking for feedback on.

> Second Concept:
> So I created the "series" story sub-element. It has data feilds for  
> "Title" and "Description" and it can have multiple related stories.
>
> My hope was that I could edit one story, add a "series" element,  
> add the series title, description and related stories from within  
> that initial story, then publish that story which would trigger:
>
> 1. The addition of this series element to all the related stories
> 2. Trigger the republishing of all the related stories

I think you'd be better off with your "series" as a separate story  
that, when published, triggers the republication of the relevant  
stories that need to use it or point to it or whatever. Its template  
doesn't even have to publish the series story itself.

> The result would be anyone viewing a story in the series would see  
> a box with the series title, desc and links to all the related  
> stories (excluding of course the link to the story you were  
> currently viewing).
>
> Problems:
>
> 1. It seems I can't  relate a story to itself. When I add the  
> "series" element to a story and start adding related stories, my  
> checked-out story doesn't appear as an option. That's fine. I know  
> how to call the current story and could add it to the series in the  
> utility template. (is this a silly way to do things?)

I'm not following you again. Why would you want to relate a story to  
itself?

> 2. Using my "publish_series.mc" utitlty template I am able to add  
> the series subelement to all the related stories, however they are  
> all blank. I'm stuck. I don't know how to add the data content or  
> relate stories. I'm wondering if this is the wrong path to take  
> anyway.

You can't have one subelement in multiple stories.

> Am I close to a solution but just need better syntax to get this  
> system working, or should I try another method for relating stories  
> under the rubric of a series?

I think you're close, if I follow you rightly, but should use a story  
instead of a subelement for your series.

> ps- Is anyone actively sharing templates, other than the default  
> Bricolage site templates? I would like to make mine available for  
> what they are worth. I'm wondering if the wikki someone set up  
> before is still open and available for that sort of thing?

Yes:

   http://www.bricolage.cc/templates/

Send any you want to add to the list and Marshall or I will get them up.

Best,

David
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