Allow Max Number of Items Per Category in SingleColumn Control

[GoogleCodeExporter]

The SingleColumn control currently gets the list of all link categories and 
gets every single link in each category and that's what makes up the general 
side bar on a blog.

Unfortunately, for people who have been blogging for a long time, this means 
you see every single month listed where there's a blog entry. I've been 
blogging for over seven years - that's more than 84 entries just for the list 
of months.

It would be nice to be able to specify a max number of items to show for each 
link category. For example, "only display the last 6 months" in that list. It 
could be a per-skin thing so it doesn't even need a config option in admin, 
just a property on the control.

This may tie in with Issue #39 which suggests the ability to turn on/off 
individual link categories.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by travis.illig on 18 Aug 2010 at 3:18

[GoogleCodeExporter]

It also might be nice to have the ability to insert a "more" link so if the 
list of months displayed is not complete, a link like "View complete list" 
could be inserted at the bottom to take the user to the full archive page.

Original comment by travis.illig on 18 Aug 2010 at 3:19

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Yeah, I've been thinking about this too. I'm wondering if we couldn't consider 
ways of grouping things better. For example, for the months, if we reach a 
certain number, we could just show years. Or maybe format the months so they 
don't take up so much vertical space. If you have ideas, put them here. :)

Original comment by haac...@gmail.com on 18 Aug 2010 at 3:24

• Added labels: Priority-High

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I considered putting each year inside a collapsible panel of some nature so if 
you click on a year, it expands to show the months in that year. Of course, for 
new blogs, a list of one year is sort of lame looking so it may be that this 
sort of behavior has a threshold of some nature, like "over 10 items in the 
list, roll up to the next level."

Could list by day for the first 10 days, then roll up to weeks; list by week 
for the first 10 weeks, then roll up to months; list by month for the first 10 
months, then roll up to years. If you get over 10 years of blogging in... 
congratulations. And maybe then it puts out the "see all archives" link. :)

Original comment by travis.illig on 18 Aug 2010 at 3:33

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I implemented a simple control for a skin I'm working on that will allow you to 
specify the number of months to show. If the list is longer than that, it adds 
a "View Complete Archives" link at the bottom of the month list.

It uses the same ASCX code as SingleColumn, it just derives from this control 
instead of that one.

Might be something to look at as a starting point for this.

Original comment by travis.illig on 18 Aug 2010 at 4:47

Attachments:

• NavigationColumn.cs