Oh boy, not understanding pages/databases

[CavySpirit]

Okay, so I'm no dummy. I know WP and Joomla and ecommerce. I don't understand what I'm doing on setting my articles.

1. I want to add a 'summary' custom field to show teaser text on my main articles. Okay, add a field, no problem. Figure out the template later.

2. I run a large pet care site with a big forum (1M posts) that I'm migrating over from vB and a big Photopost Gallery (20K images). Migration is done, now I'm testing.

3. I want my main menu to be, for example: Home | Pet Care | Pet Cages | Forum | Gallery | Other stuff (for example).

4. Under those main menu options are primarily ARTICLES with my new summary field (among others). The secondary menu of each of those main menu items has categories of info, each leading of its own page of a lead article and then additional articles.

5. Home page will have selection of key articles (I don't lead with the forum).

From what I can gather from the help docs, I have to set up a separate database for EACH PAGE, that is, each sub-category?????

I'm confused. This is a standard, content-heavy website with a lot of organized articles. What am I not getting? All need to be searchable and organized.

[Joel R]

Welcome to IPS

26 minutes ago, CavySpirit said:

4. Under those main menu options are primarily ARTICLES with my new summary field (among others). The secondary menu of each of those main menu items has categories of info,

Pet Care would be its own IP.Pages database, with categories and articles listed underneath it.  

Pet Cages would be its own IP.Pages database, with categories and articles listed underneath it.  

You could potentially combine them into a single IP.Pages database if the structure will be the same.  The benefit of making them different databases is that you can apply different custom fields (eg. Pet Care could have options for grooming, whereas Pet Cages could have pricing information) and different templates.  

 

Within IP.Pages application, there are four options:

• Templates  
• Blocks
• Pages - these are to create standalone pages (eg. a homepage or an about page)
• Databases - you want to create your two databases here

[opentype]

3 hours ago, CavySpirit said:

From what I can gather from the help docs, I have to set up a separate database for EACH PAGE, that is, each sub-category?????

No. Pages databases can use categories and all categories and their records use one page in this case. 

There is however no direct option to put categories in the menu. Only pages can be linked directly. You might use a full static link to the categories as a work-around or – which is the official IPS way – don’t put the categories in the menu and instead drag the “Database Category Menu” into the sidebar of your page.