I would like to find a way when selecting categories for stories that the character lists generated include characters from the parent category.
So, for example, if you had a category of "Harry Potter" and within that category you listed all the Harry Potter characters, and then you created sub-categories of "comedy", "drama", "adventure", then authors wouldn't have to select both "Harry Potter" and "Harry Potter->Adventure" for their stories in order to get the character selection list. And I won't have to add all the Harry Potter characters into each sub-category. But I don't want them available site-wide because if I also have a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" category, most authors wouldn't want to have to sort through the Harry Potter characters to find the Buffy characters.
I know what I want is for the category selector to check if the selected category has a parentcatid of "-1", and if not, then use the parentcatid when selecting which characters to display along with any characters in the current category. I'm just not skilled enough to do it.
Has anyone found a solution like this? I hope my request is clear.
mm i'd like the characters fixed up a bit myself, but so far no code. this had been brought up in some fashion before.
I am rebuilding efiction! Join us on irc! #efiction at
I don't know how to fix that, but I do know that the categories were intended for actual categories, like different TV shows, which is why the characters act the way they do.
If you list "comedy", "drama", "adventure" as Genre classifications, you will have the characters selecting right, and members will still be able to sort the Harry Potter category by Genre when they look at it.
There are built in Browse sorts:
http://www.potionsandsnitches.net/fanfiction/browse.php?type=titles
Whoever said nothing is impossible never tried slamming a revolving door.
url: https://www.potionsandsnitches.org/fanfiction
php: 7.4.33 msql: 5.6.51-community GPL
efic version: 3.5.5 latest patches: yes
bridges: none mods: challenges, tracker, story end, beta, word
I don't know how to fix that, but I do know that the categories were intended for actual categories, like different TV shows, which is why the characters act the way they do.
If you list "comedy", "drama", "adventure" as Genre classifications, you will have the characters selecting right, and members will still be able to sort the Harry Potter category by Genre when they look at it.
There are built in Browse sorts:
http://www.potionsandsnitches.net/fanfiction/browse.php?type=titles
I'm not sure I'm understanding you. I'm not worried about browsing for characters, that will work regardless, I believe. My request is for modification when entering stories to the archive. I understand that the categories were intended to list only specific categories like "Harry Potter", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Lord of the Rings", etc., but after you start getting 10,000 Harry Potter stories, some people want to be able to search for specific types of stories, like Romance (Lord help me when they start asking for sub-categories based on specific pairings) or Adventure or Comedy. And I'd like to basically force authors to select a sub-category for that purpose. I'd like to lock the main categories and force users to select a subcategory, but I don't want to have to list the characters for each subcategory.
I'm lazy.
I think what Jan was trying to explain is that things like "romance," "adventure," would be better set up as classifications than categories and that you could set that classification up as "genre". (You could do the same for pairings, if need be.) That way, when people are submitting stories, they select category> Harry Potter, genre> Romance, pairing> Harry/Ginny, for example, and the classifications function separately from categories but are still searchable, because anytime you create a new classification, it gets added to your browse page.
I think what Jan was trying to explain is that things like "romance," "adventure," would be better set up as classifications than categories and that you could set that classification up as "genre". (You could do the same for pairings, if need be.) That way, when people are submitting stories, they select category> Harry Potter, genre> Romance, pairing> Harry/Ginny, for example, and the classifications function separately from categories but are still searchable, because anytime you create a new classification, it gets added to your browse page.
That does make more sense to me. I will test your suggestion and get back to you all. Thank you both for your help!
You're welcome. 🙂
Yeah, in my experience, forcing people to select a sub-catgeory and not having any fics in the main catgeory doesn't work. It's better to list all the fics together, and then narrow the list of fics down in the browse page.
I have one category with two sub-categories on my archive, and I'm resigned to the fact that people will choose the upper category as well, or only the upper category.
Whoever said nothing is impossible never tried slamming a revolving door.
url: https://www.potionsandsnitches.org/fanfiction
php: 7.4.33 msql: 5.6.51-community GPL
efic version: 3.5.5 latest patches: yes
bridges: none mods: challenges, tracker, story end, beta, word
