Different way to pick categories

[amyvansant]

I love mosets, but I have one complaint I'm wondering if there is a fix for... As people add their books to my book database maybe 1 in 10 picks the correct category because they don't understand the first button is the main category picker and the second is for additional categories. I end up having to fix every addition. Is there another way to do the "choose you category" part?

I should add the biggest problem is that they click the category, then that <<BACK shows up and then move on - they don't know to click "update category" button.

[dknight]

Thanks for your feedback on this. Would love to hear if you have seen or found any system that does this intuitively.

[amyvansant]

Couldn't you just have a multiple list pick? So once you select the categories you don't have to hit an additional button - just the main submit button.

That doesn't offer a way to choose a MAIN category though. Is that important?

OR

Two items:

1. Pick your MAIN category (plain old drop down)
2. If you like, choose additional categories (multiple list picker)

Each submitting with the main submit button instead of the additional button. I think two quick fields rather than one that everyone misunderstands would work for me, anyway! Like I said, you've done an amazing job I feel bad even mentioning it!

[dknight]

Hi,

Users who have used Mosets Tree back in the day will remember that we have a multiple select list that does something similar, where they select one or more categories without doing multiple clicks for browse back and forth. It's very similar to your suggestion here.

But we ended up with the current system to workaround issues affecting directories with huge amount of categories. In another word, it's more 'scalable'.

But I agree that the current method isn't very user friendly and worth reviewing in the future.

[amyvansant]

Ah... yes that makes sense. It's a bugaboo! Thanks for listening - If I ever bump into something that seems great I'll let you know!

[nicolakray]

Hello, this is an interesting thread, i am also thinking that choosing categories could happen in a more intuitive way. So just one question again for searching a new way. Is it important for mostes to have one main category or would it be possible to select all categories in one same way?

Thank you and best regards, Macjoomla

[dknight]

Hello Macjoomla,

Is it important for mostes to have one main category or would it be possible to select all categories in one same way?

I'm not sure if I understand your question. Can you elaborate?

Every listing in MT has to be assigned in a one primary category. Secondary categories on the other hand are completely optional.

[lotustechsol]

We too facing same issue. I end up having to fix every listing.
We need a way to fix this issue.

Originally Posted by amyvansant

I love mosets, but I have one complaint I'm wondering if there is a fix for... As people add their books to my book database maybe 1 in 10 picks the correct category because they don't understand the first button is the main category picker and the second is for additional categories. I end up having to fix every addition. Is there another way to do the "choose you category" part?

I should add the biggest problem is that they click the category, then that <<BACK shows up and then move on - they don't know to click "update category" button.

[peterwalker]

If cross category listing or category change is not needed, and is disabled in the config, you can overcome the problem by creating menu items to each category add function EG: This site uses Mosets tree entirely for all content, including the blog, and users are allowed to post to separate categories via menu.
http://my-caribbeanradio.com/add
http://my-caribbeanradio.com/mcr-post/add
http://my-caribbeanradio.com/event-list/add

[amyvansant]

I'm not seeing how to pick a category on the page you provided? I was pretty excited because I literally have to correct 90% of submissions because no one can figure out the Mosets category picker.

[peterwalker]

There are no categories to choose because category selection is disabled in Mosets configuration. Each page I listed are 3 different categories. My suggestion is that you use the Joomla menu system to create a category nav bar and the user can choose from that.

[amyvansant]

Oh, gotcha. Great work around, but it wouldn't work for what I do.

[peterwalker]

Categories can be endless and time consuming to manage, something that was realized with that internet radio listing site. Eventually it was determined that tags would be a better option, so a single category is used, and the tags control the dynamic categorization.

The tag list is fixed so the user cannot add tags, but use what's provided. The tag module can be used to display the list as categories.