Blog categories without having to use Structure?

Question

I've read a few tutorials on how to use blog categories in conjunction with Structure. Is there a way to do this without Structure?

I've never used categories before. Any thoughts on displaying results for categories?

Typically do the following for displaying entries... Something similar for categories?

{exp:channel:entries channel="blog_entry|blog_link|blog_photo|blog_quote|blog_video" search:title_permalink="{segment_2}" limit="1" dynamic="yes"}

Answer 1

It's actually easier than with Structure. There's a URL breaking word that you set in Admin->Channel Administration->Global Preferences. By default, it's set to "category", which means that when it encounters a URL with /category/ as a slug, it treats the part after category/ as a slug for a category, so /category/holiday would treat "holiday" as the category slug.

Once you have the slug, an add-on like http://gotolow.com/addons/low-seg2cat would let you get the category ID from the slug, then just put that into your channel entries loop like so:

    {exp:channel:entries 
        channel="blog_entry|blog_link|blog_photo|blog_quote|blog_video" 
        category="{segment_3_category_id}"}

Answer 2

@AlexKendrick and @ jpea - You guys really helped me figure this out. Really appreciate the help.

I just had to set some appropriate category parameters for the template group that users are routed to after select a blog hyperlink.

Works great.

Answer 3

jpea's answer here is spot on, but since you asked me for more help, Justin, here is a pared-down example of how I build my category links and then filter the entries. There are lots of other ways to do this, though.

In a template somewhere, generate your category links:

<ul>
    {exp:channel:categories channel="blog" disable="category_fields" show_empty="no" style="linear"}
        <li><a href="/blog/category/{category_url_title}">{category_name}</a></li>
    {/exp:channel:categories}
</ul>

Then in your blog listing template where you display your posts (blog.group/index.html), set your channel:entries loop up like this. You will need to have LowSeg2Cat installed and enabled.

<h1>Blog{if segment_2 == "category"} Category: {segment_3_category_name}{/if}</h1>

{exp:channel:entries
    channel="blog"
    disable="categories|category_fields|member_data|pagination"
    dynamic="no"
    {if segment_2 == "category"}
        category="{segment_3_category_id}"
    {/if}
}

    <h2>{title}</h2>

{/exp:channel:entries}

Note the simple conditional in the channel:entries parameters that checks for the presence of a category filter. If you are not filtering by categories then it will just display an unfiltered list of all blog entries.