Comments on: Thesis Tutorial – Creating Custom Categories

By: Nicklas Larenholtz

Nicklas Larenholtz — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:18:13 +0000

I´m trying to figure out how I ad a “archive_info” for a certain Category. In this hook I want some amount of text that tells a bit more about the category.

I be so happy if someone has the answer.

By: rinus

rinus — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:33:34 +0000

Hi, thanks for this tutorial. I also want to have more posts visible on the archives page than on the homepage. Is this possible?

By: Jenny

Jenny — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:17:03 +0000

Just a note – I followed these directions with the updated Wordpress and was having a hard time getting it to work – make sure that you are using the category SLUG – which can be found if you go to
DASHBOARD >UNDER POSTS, CLICK CATEGORIES – and the slugs are displayed in your category list –
in the above code I at first had replaced Rae’s “apples” and “oranges” category with my category id that shows up in my browser bar, but it was not working, until I switched it to the cateogory slug. Hope this helps someone save some time and headache!

By: Phil Barnhart

Phil Barnhart — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:25:43 +0000

To avoid having to create a block for each category, I simply use the built-in WordPress category definition field:

function custom_archive_info() {
echo category_description();
}
then the thesis hook settings as in the original example. I then add HTML and text directly to the category description in WordPress. Add a little new CSS and done! No blocks of loops.

By: Farnoosh Brock

Farnoosh Brock — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:30:01 +0000

Actually, I see that I can put any HTML code there, and it’s awesome. Thanks *so much*!! All set!!

By: Farnoosh Brock

Farnoosh Brock — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:22:50 +0000

Excellent. I finally came back to original post here after reading the hook for dummies, and was able to successfully customize my categories. I was also wondering if there is a way to insert photos, and formatting in the text of each category page? I will experiment with things some more but would be nice to know your thoughts. Thank you!

By: Meethil

Meethil — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:18:06 +0000

Hi Rae,

Your tutorial is really well written and crystal clear. Thanks.

Can you suggest how I can have the most recent post show up in full in place of (or below) the custom text on the category page.

Like – for example, when you go to the ‘apples’ category archive page, you will see the most recent post (in full, below the custom text if any) followed by excerpts of the older posts in the ‘apples’ category.

Can I add some sort of function in the custom text area to pull up the most recent post of that category?

Please advise.
thanks.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:37:20 +0000

Hi Rae,
I am trying to figure this hook stuff out. I am having a devil of a time. I would like to display sidebars with different content on category pages, but can’t seem to figure it out! I have managed to duplicate sidebars ( I now have four), but what I can’t figure out is out to make (for example) sidebar 3 and 4 show up with category one, and sidebar 2 and 4 show up with category 2, etc. I have been copying/pasting different versions of your code above with now luck… any suggestions? I think the problem lies with not wanting the text, but different sidebars, and I don’t know how to call for them on category pages…. help!

By: shawn

shawn — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:47:33 +0000

I know this article is a bit dated, but it’s still relevant so I had a couple of quick questions.
1. Is it possible to have the template completely switch from the current layout to a completely custom layout with the system you are using? (I’m used to regular wp themes where I create a template file and then make a call to that for a page, thesis does not seem to be this way). Idea being that if someone clicks on a ‘video’ category, I could completely switch the layout to one more suited for video than blogging.
2. Echoing the question above about all the if/then statements. I was thinking the same thing. For my ‘model’ I will be using wp-mu so all my users get to use thesis. The problem is there is NO WAY I could ever allow them to insert php code for security reasons. It would be much easier using the traditional wp ‘custom pages’ way where they could assign a premade ‘template’ to their category.

I hope #2 makes sense.. kinda hard to describe.

well keep the lessons coming!
I only found this site a few days ago and have already read most of the articles. They are fantastic

By: leigh

leigh — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:06:19 +0000

how would you do this in openhook?