Geeklog Forums

I'd like to write articles that are targeted towards long tail keywords, but not really relevant to my Topics index. Is there anyway to hide a topic from appearing in the Topics block?
Thank you.

You could set the topic's permissions such that it's not visible for anonymous users. But that would then also apply to the stories under that topic, so it's probably not what you want.

Plan B: Disable the Topics block and replace it with a "normal" block where you list the topics yourself (in plain HTML).

bye, Dirk

I'm thinking of a Plan C. Where is the code that lists the block topics at? I'm thinking a properly inserted "if" statement in that logic should do it. Now.. I'm new to "writing" php so this will be a chore.. but I'll give it a try!

function COM_showTopics() in lib-common.php

We recommend against changing Geeklog's core code since it usually causes pains when you upgrade. So may I suggest Plan D:

Copy the code from COM_showTopics into a new function in lib-custom.php, call it phpblock_mytopics or something similar (but starting with phpblock_). Then create a new "PHP block", specifying the name of the function you used. Then you should get a second topics block, after which you can disable the original and modify the copied code to suit your needs.

bye, Dirk

Brilliant. I'll give it a go and let you know how it turns out.

Thanks, Dirk!

Actually.. one last thought. The whole reason I was hoping to assign it to a Topic is so that it would appear in the rss feed (otherwise I could just use a static page). So.. with that in mind, does the rss feed look for the block topics before pulling the story to the rss feed? If so, then I probably won't try it.
Thanks again.

You can create a feed for any public topic (i.e. one that anonymous users can see). It doesn't have anything to do with the Topics block.

bye, Dirk

Alright.. Mission accomplished. Here's what I did... Created a new Topic called 'Articles'. In lib-common.php, I found the function you gave me (COM_showTopics) and found where it was grabbing the array.


I then added this right underneath that:

and then I took the next existing line of code and wrapped an else around it.. to form this:

Works perfect! I now have a topic that doesn't show up in the topic list.. but shows as featured or front page.. and in the rss feed. I then created a new block and manually linked to the topic, for segregation from my main topic list.

Sadly.. this took me about 3 hours! I kept going through the page code (trying to figure out what it was doing) and using php.net, but in the end, I was still pretty proud because I did it.

Off to bed....