Selecting featured items
How Do I?
I am currently using an add-on called Selected Items to add a featured item to the index of each section of my site. I have found it to be a very handy way of creating featured items since it doesn’t change anything about the entry itself: no need to make it sticky, not need to change the status. That way, there’s also no need to change anything back once the item should no longer be featured. Additionally, because all featured items can be handled in one place, through the add-on interface, it is quick and easy to get an overview of what you have featured in different sections.
My dilemma is that it would appear it will not be updated for v3 and I would like to make the move myself, so I am trying to phase it out. But as of yet I have not been able to come up with a good replacement method for making featured items.
Sounds like Low Reorder has some of the functionality you are looking for: http://gotolow.com/addons/low-reorder
Maybe Low Variables as well, but could be more than you need: http://gotolow.com/addons/low-variables
I agree that Low Reorder can perform the same basic functionality. But doesn’t managing that list still amount to selecting / deselecting / promoting / demoting an entry? Can you describe a bit more about why you’re adverse to using statuses? The entry manager lets you filter by title and status, so finding and changing which entries are featured or not isn’t a workflow that requires an add-on.
Jeremy,
Low Reorder does seem like a good fit, thank you. 😊
Derek,
What I like about my current workflow is that I go to the add-on interface and there I have my index pages defined and I can check each of them in one place and see what I currently have featured. Plus, each index can pull from whichever channel I designate at the time. I’ll give an actual example so its less abstract to describe.
The main index for the page is “Westeros” and it can feature items relating both to the Game of Thrones TV show and the A Song of Ice and Fire books. There’s actually two more sections to the site that it can feature articles from, but lets keep it to two here.
Additionally, each section (Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, etc) have their own index where articles from within that section can be featured.
Finally, there’s multiple channels for each section – Game of Thrones, for example, has news, episode reviews and articles.
Now, I haven’t tried using just status, but it seems to me it would be harder for me to get an overview of (and control of) which item is featured where. For example, I might want the Game of Thrones index to feature the newest Game of Thrones article, but I would like the Westeros index to feature the newest Game of Thrones news item. If each index is setup to pull items with the Featured status from across multiple blogs, this would be hard to achieve (as far as I can tell).
Maybe I am overcomplicating something (I often do), but I think I need something that has more specific control over ordering and which item is shown where.
Hi Linda,
I’d be happy to try and convert Selected Items to EE3 if you would find it useful.
To be honest, I did not know anyone was still using it! 😊
Andrew
Makes sense, Linda, thanks for the details. And looks like you will have multiple options to choose from. 😊
Hi Linda, I’d be happy to try and convert Selected Items to EE3 if you would find it useful. To be honest, I did not know anyone was still using it! 😊 Andrew
My apologies for not contact you directly, Andrew! I had mailed some time ago about a support issue regarding Datagrab and did not get a response, so when I couldn’t find any recent posts from you on your forum, I thought you weren’t actively working on things anymore. Should not have assumed that. 😊
I would certainly not mind being able to stick with Selected Items, but if it is a lot of work to convert it, it may not be particularly useful for you if its not widely used.