Thread

I have a site with a very large site structure that I need some help with in determining the best approach to take regarding the navigation and setup. I know the difference between categories and weblogs and how to implement, but I am looking for any opinions on the best approach to take.

Here is a sample of the site structure:

Services
    -Animal Control
    -Public Works
    -County Clerk
    -Fire Department

Community
    -Parks and Recs.
    -Community Development

Departments
    -Animal Control
    -Fire Deparment
    -Sheriff’s Department

Emergency
    -Fire Department
    -e911

So the main section of the site would be Services, Community, Departments, Emergency, etc. And then within each of those main sections are links to subsections. The subsections though can belong under more than one main section. So Animal Control may be under Services and also under Departments.

Im wondering what the best way to set this up is as far as categories and weblogs. Should I just have one weblog for entries and then use categories and sub-categories for the sections and subsections. Or should I have a template and weblog for each main section and then have categories for just the subsections? Another wrinkle in this is that not every page will have the same content structure so I’ll end up having multiple weblogs based on the type of content they are entering.

Any thought, best practices would be helpful. Thanks.

There’s no right or wrong way necessarily, it depends on the actual content. Weblogs are content and different sections of a site may need a different set of custom fields, if so, then you need several weblogs. Categories just allow you to organize/categories that content.
So, you might have several weblogs but just one set of categories that you apply across those weblogs.

I would definitely go with different Weblogs, in your case. Make a weblog for each part of your site, containing the different pages/posts.

I’m in the process of building some very large sites around EE too. I have read about every tutorial I could find on the subject. To be honest… I think the most helpful resource I have spent time with is watching and re-watching Michael Boyinks’ video screencast found at http://www.train-ee.com/courseware/screencasts/designing-an-expressionengine-architecture/.  It’s a great way to get up to speed on a lot of structure related questions. I have saved immense amounts of time by investing that measly $25 and can’t recommend it high enough.

Thanks for the feedback. I’ve thought about getting that screencast. I feel like a I have a good handle on ExpressionEngine but I always enjoy seeing how others approach problems (best practices, etc.).

As for this site I’m working on, I think I’m going to have a series of weblogs based on the type of content that needs to be entered (static pages, faq, meeting minutes). Then Im going to use categories for the main site sections. So when I write the “Animal Control” entry I can assign it to both the “Services” and “Departments” section using the appropriate categories.

I second Doggie52,
Go with weblog per “section” of Service, Community..etc..and then create category groups for each.
This will allow for you to “add new Service entry” without relaying on categories or even worse having categories be shared among these sections. That is is assuming that you want a clean-cut and logical division between these sections…
and I just re-read your last post 😊 so sounds like you are set.
All the best!

@lebisol Thanks for the reply. The only reason I decided not to go with separate weblogs per section on this site is because there are a few different types of content pages and each main section can have pages from each content type. So within the “Services” section there may be a static content page a FAQ page and a Forms page. I didn’t want to have a section weblog that handle all those different types of content. So instead I thought having a weblog for each content type, then specifying the appropriate section for it to belong to by using categories would work best.

I generally prefer to use weblogs for sections as it does make things more logical, but with all these different content types, it as proving to be a pain.

Just because nobody seems to have mentioned it yet: http://expressionengine.com/wiki/Category_or_Weblog/

Sure thing, one thought also to keep in mind is the ability to relate weblog entries. The ‘down side’ is that it more complex as you would need to add few more related_fields into your main weblog.
Eg.
weblog: Service
-tf_related_FAQ1
-tf_related_FAQ2
...
which you would have to manually add each time you would add new ‘FAQ’ that relates to weblog ‘Service’.
Anyhow, just rambling here.. 😉