so i can easily list out the categories from a blog into a sidebar and have them link the the story. but my conundrum is that i have multiple blogs setup and i want to create a sidebar that list all the blogs in my EE site and link to them. i know i can do a query from the query module, but i just feel like i’m missing some kind of easier way of doing this.

I’d just create a template with the list of links, styled as necessary.  Then include that template in other templates where appropriate.

You’d have to manually maintain the list, but it’s only in one spot.  I often have weblogs that I wouldn’t want included in the navigation anyway, so creating the list dynamically would be more trouble than it’s worth.

i guess that would work. but i’m using EE more in a content management way instead as a true blog. so i’m guessing that from your answer the answer is no. there isnt any way to list out the blogs dynamically. at least that you know. your way will be my plan c. i guess i’m off to plan b. which is to use the query module. has any one out there done this yet?

No…looking through the tag library I don’t see a built in tag that returns all the weblog titles.

While I’ve actually used EE more as a CMS than a blog tool, I’ve yet to build a site where the blog list (IE Main Navigation) would be changing often enough to justify making it dynamic or spending the time to do so.

And (as mentioned) I often use seperate blogs to hold things like company addresses, hours, etc - “sidebar” content that doesn’t change often but it’s still nice to be setup such that the site owner can still maintain it.  Those blogs I wouldn’t want to show up in nav, as they don’t get presented as a group of content anywhere, I’m just pulling specific entries in different spots.

Be sure to post your solution, though, as I’m sure once I say I don’t need it I’ll run into a place where it makes sense…;)

I can’t find the post right now, but people have posted queries that iterate through all the weblogs.  I think they were pretty simple queries (nb: all queries look like nightmares to me, but as things go…).  There is nothing built in to EE to do this, though.

As LJ says, it’s an easy query- something like:

Just stuck the != ‘100’ bit in there as an example- in case you wanted to exclude a particular blog from the automatic generation.  And you might not be using the blog_url, so might need to change that bit.  But anyway, the query to grab the weblog info is a simple one.