Clubs and Updates.

[mrbowers]

Well I love clubs and what it can do but it's time we give it update. It's time we look at adding Categories as the fact with some large communities. The options to have it shown in display or cards is not cutting it anymore. I feel it's very disorganized and only option we get is what order it can be shown then very what category perset for them to place there awesome club in... like i said when you have a community with 100+ communities it takes long time to look tho the list in order to find what club you may want to join. 

I'm just ask option for option to have pre made categories where members can place their clubs and make it 10 times as faster to look and find a club... 

[Saurabh Jain]

There is a option called extra field 

You can add extra field as Category .... you can filter groups based on that field 

 

[Meddysong]

Join the, ehem, club. This has been requested over and over again pretty much since the first day that we got to play with Clubs.

[mrbowers]

On 10/31/2018 at 12:43 AM, Saurabh Jain said:

There is a option called extra field 

You can add extra field as Category .... you can filter groups based on that field 

 

Is this built in or has some design this? The extra feild....

[loccom]

8 minutes ago, mrbowers said:

Is this built in or has some design this? The extra feild....

It's built in.

[USCJ Digital]

I have a question related to this ... when creating the extra field "Category," is it a text field or one of the other options for field type?

Once the field is created, will there be a "filter by" option on the clubs page?

Thanks!

[mrbowers]

On 10/31/2018 at 12:43 AM, Saurabh Jain said:

There is a option called extra field 

You can add extra field as Category .... you can filter groups based on that field 

 

How to you get this too work? I see the drop down menu.. what is this under so I can add this category in to.

[Pete T]

20 minutes ago, mrbowers said:

How to you get this too work? I see the drop down menu.. what is this under so I can add this category in to.

Once done that in clubs itself when make new club have this

[Huiwu]

I noticed that clubs don't show up in search results, please add the search function specifically for clubs.

[Huiwu]

Also, for "Start new topic" function on forum homepage, you should only be able to see and select topic categories from clubs you are a member of, instead of showing a long list of every club ever created.

[Pete T]

24 minutes ago, Huiwu said:

Also, for "Start new topic" function on forum homepage, you should only be able to see and select topic categories from clubs you are a member of, instead of showing a long list of every club ever created.

That could be if club private and need be invited to join would mean can post plus not all clubs might not have topic function added.

[mrbowers]

After some work was able to do the falling.

[Pete T]

5 hours ago, mrbowers said:

After some work was able to do the falling.

Nice was that easy to make or did it require some work.

[USCJ Digital]

How did you create the categories menu item in the AdminCP?

Does the clubs page now have a "filter by" option for users?

[bfarber]

You can filter by custom fields, as already pointed out in this topic. You create a custom field labeled "Category", supply some category options, and then you will be able to filter by it when viewing the clubs homepage.

[Joel R]

16 hours ago, USCJ Digital said:

How did you create the categories menu item in the AdminCP?

Does the clubs page now have a "filter by" option for users?

It's a custom field.  You can create as many custom fields as you want and call them whatever they want.  It adds a filter on the front-end.  

I'm not a fan of these custom fields as a way to sort and filter.  Forums have categories.  Gallery has categories.  Downloads has categories.  Page databases have categories.  Clubs have ... custom fields?  And somehow, users are supposed to adapt to this brand new way of flat organization when everything else is nested.   

[USCJ Digital]

21 hours ago, bfarber said:

You can filter by custom fields, as already pointed out in this topic. You create a custom field labeled "Category", supply some category options, and then you will be able to filter by it when viewing the clubs homepage.

@bfarber I thought so based on the thread, but actually was not entirely clear that users would be able to filter from the front end, so I very much appreciate the clarification!

 

5 hours ago, Joel R said:

It's a custom field.  You can create as many custom fields as you want and call them whatever they want.  It adds a filter on the front-end.  

I'm not a fan of these custom fields as a way to sort and filter.  Forums have categories.  Gallery has categories.  Downloads has categories.  Page databases have categories.  Clubs have ... custom fields?  And somehow, users are supposed to adapt to this brand new way of flat organization when everything else is nested.   

@Joel R It's a good point, and I agree (and believe I posted a suggestion in "Feedback and Ideas" some time ago) that nested categories such as I take advantage of on our forums and files pages, would be a far superior solution. The challenge for us is that over the next 1-2 years, we have the potential of having 100s of clubs setup by leadership teams of the institutions we serve, and I need a way of sorting out 'our' different types of clubs and also those of our constituent organizations. I am not sure I will take advantage of the custom fields, but just wanted to make sure I understood the functionality before diving too deeply in.

Another question then: I already have about 30 clubs. If I add a required "custom field" now, what happens to the clubs I already created? Will I need to add a custom field to those clubs for them to even display (or will users get an error message)? How would those clubs be sorted?

Of course, if I add custom fields I would go back to categorize the pre-existing clubs, but would not want there to be a blip from a user standpoint in the interim.

I assume the custom field in this case would be "text," correct?

Thank you all! 🙂

[Joel R]

2 hours ago, USCJ Digital said:

Another question then: I already have about 30 clubs. If I add a required "custom field" now, what happens to the clubs I already created? Will I need to add a custom field to those clubs for them to even display (or will users get an error message)? How would those clubs be sorted?

The custom fields will apply to all existing clubs.  You'll need to choose the field entry, of course.  

 

2 hours ago, USCJ Digital said:

The challenge for us is that over the next 1-2 years, we have the potential of having 100s of clubs setup by leadership teams of the institutions we serve, and I need a way of sorting out 'our' different types of clubs and also those of our constituent organizations.

Are your clubs location based? If they are, then two ways to filter: custom fields (eg, state) and the built in location so they show up on the club map.  

[USCJ Digital]

2 minutes ago, Joel R said:

The custom fields will apply to all existing clubs.  You'll need to choose the field entry, of course.  

Right ... but I assume one needs to go back to each club to indicate the custom field selection per club? Will the clubs still be visible prior to going back and filling that in?

3 minutes ago, Joel R said:

Are your clubs location based? If they are, then two ways to filter: custom fields (eg, state) and the built in location so they show up on the club map.  

Not really. We have 'congregational leadership' clubs (board, strategic planning committees, etc.), international cohort clubs (synagogue presidents from across North America, for example), and specialty clubs. The congregations are obviously location based, but that is not how users would search or filter for what they are looking for.

[bfarber]

2 hours ago, USCJ Digital said:

I assume the custom field in this case would be "text," correct?

Thank you all! 🙂

I would probably recommend a select or radio field if I were making a "Category" custom field. Freeform text fields aren't generally all that great for real categorization. Typos, variations and so on can mean ten different clubs all specify "America", "North America", "US", "USA", "United States", "United States of America" and so on (you get the idea) differently, even though users would expect them to be grouped together.

[USCJ Digital]

1 minute ago, bfarber said:

I would probably recommend a select or radio field if I were making a "Category" custom field. Freeform text fields aren't generally all that great for real categorization. Typos, variations and so on can mean ten different clubs all specify "America", "North America", "US", "USA", "United States", "United States of America" and so on (you get the idea) differently, even though users would expect them to be grouped together.

Yes, that would make more sense. 🤦‍♂️

[Joel R]

1 hour ago, USCJ Digital said:

Right ... but I assume one needs to go back to each club to indicate the custom field selection per club? Will the clubs still be visible prior to going back and filling that in?

Clubs will still be visible. You just won't be able to filter those clubs until you indicate the custom selection. 

You should plan out your custom fields in advance so it's easier when you build out your club directory.  As a suggestion, I recommend as few field choices as possible.  I never personally liked the design of Filter modal even though I appreciate the attempt by IPS to offer more flexible filtering options ... The fields and their choices are listed vertically in one column, so the design can stretch on if you try to offer too many options.  

[Huiwu]

Can't we just have a search bar using keywords to search for clubs and posts? don't think it's that hard to implement, maybe there will be a plugin for this.

[CSSlife]

Please include clubs in the search tool... common sense. Especially for communities with large amounts of clubs or for sites that use the clubs as the core purpose of the site!