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The search results feature allows you to use {auto_path} to take you to the correct template_group/template, however, I need a similar solution for regular garden variety channel entries.

I have a news feed section on the home page that displays the 3-5 most recent entries from five different channels. The code is like this:

<h4>Recent News Posts</h4>
<ul class="inline-list">
  {exp:channel:entries channel="community|government|education|business|history" limit="3"}
    <li><a href="/news/{url_title}">{title}</a></li>
   {/exp:channel:entries}
</ul>

Currently I have a generic "news" placeholder in the path, but what I need is to direct each entry to its appropriate section. Outside the search results {auto_path} I have not been able to find anything. I am open to suggestions.

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2 Answers 2

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I may be reading this wrong and so if I am then I apologise but could this not work for you? 

  <h4>Recent News Posts</h4>
<ul class="inline-list">
  {exp:channel:entries channel="community|government|education|business|history" limit="3"}
    <li><a href="/{channel_short_name}/{url_title}">{title}</a></li>
   {/exp:channel:entries}
</ul>

You then won't need to use any conditionals which add extra processing time to your template and if you ever add more channels then you won't need to add any more conditionals into the code either.

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  • Hi Mark, what a blast from the past - the old days on the EE forums. Welcome to the SE forum and thanks for the more efficient solution. Alex's solution worked, but this one is more efficient and extensible. Thanks.
    – forrest
    Mar 10, 2015 at 18:35
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One way is to use a conditional based on channel_short_name like this:

{exp:channel:entries channel="community|government|education|business|history" limit="3"}
    <li>
        {if channel_short_name == "news"}
            <a href="/news/{url_title}">{title}</a>
        {if:elseif channel_short_name == "community"}
            <a href="/community/{url_title}">{title}</a>
        {if:elseif channel_short_name == "government"}
            <a href="/government/{url_title}">{title}</a>
        {/if}
    </li>
{/exp:channel:entries}

For the sake of the example I just did three of your channels, but you'd want to add a clause in the conditional for each one.

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  • Alex, thank you for the solution. Exactly what I needed.
    – forrest
    Mar 6, 2015 at 18:41
  • 1
    I would just add that if the template code within a matching conditional is anything more than very simple (eg. if it involves additional database queries, etc) then you might be better replacing your {if:elseif} sequence with Switchee (devot-ee.com/add-ons/switchee). The reason is that the native if/ifelse routines process all the template code for each conditional, whether it matches or not, and only at the end does EE discard the unmatched stuff. That's wasteful. Switchee only processes the code inside the matching condition, making your page more efficient.
    – RickL
    Mar 8, 2015 at 0:03
  • @Rick I believe this was ameliorated with the new conditional parser in v2.9.
    – Alex Kendrick ♦
    Mar 9, 2015 at 16:22
  • @Alex: I think it's been partially ameliorated by 2.9's conditional changes (no more 'simple' and 'advanced' conditionals). But Mark Croxton illustrates how, in many circumstances, a plug-in like Switchee or ifelse is still required to get a template to parse the way you want it to: gist.github.com/croxton/9d012297096892ca5c10
    – RickL
    Mar 9, 2015 at 16:45

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