Category Clouding and AJAX navigation

[mikesmullin]

I want the front page of the directory to look like Eurekster.com:

A simple search box
and a cloud of categories below it

When I click on a category then I want a Windows Explorer type of view, with categories displayed alphabetically down the left hand side, but still with the clouding effect that makes more popular categories larger.

On the right-hand side, i would like it to list the links with the description on the right-hand side. The descriptions will be kept short for my application.

By the way, all of this should be using AJAX. I do not need a page refresh with every click. I want to be able to navigate through all the directories and have the path always displayed at the top (eg. /Videos/) with each category clickable like a breadcrumb.

So the address is at the top, the nav is on the left, and the links are on the right.

Oh yeah, and I want complete control over the display with my CSS stylesheet.

I'm going to keep browsing around the web for another solution before I decide to code this myself, but just in case someone else out there is interested I know this would become a VERY POPULAR plugin.

[anon]

mmm AJAX! :D

I am in the middle of doing some ajax modifications with my directory.
fun fun fun (frustrating at times with cross browser platform issues, but a great learning experience)

Rob

[LyndaLAX]

Hi,
Count me in on wanting these features. I will even contribute a few dollars to help!

Lynda

[David]

So if we do not refresh the whole page, then doesn't that mean the url would not be changing, and if so, would their be some disadvantages with regard to SEO?

Here is my recommendation for the way we could start into AJAX.

I'm very interested too in implementing same AJAX. I think searching would be a good starting point. It would not be too difficult to make searches use AJAX (and this is basically what we did for one part of www.dancestudiomanager.com).

Then once we accomplish this first goal, we could move on to other items. I still want to make sure we have our eyes on SEO as we do these things.

What do you think?

[anon]

Content visible to registered users only.

Why not contribute now? Are you telling me that AJAX is holding you back? hrmm... script might not even get that far without contribution prior to.

[David]

It's great to see so many people that want to see phpLD keep getting better. I do too! 8)

[Boby]

Yeah my friends, your dream came true ;)

Category selection with AJAX:
http://www.phplinkdirectory.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4049

Boby

[anon]

Boby, turned out a lot better than had imagined. great job.

While I do question your moderating, I don't your coding. :)

Rob