Post offset and included/excluded solutions or suggestions?

[writekelly]

Hey all–

I remain very happy with the Kleo theme and have very few issues with it. The following is one of just a few that have been lingering. I searched the forums but couldn’t find a recent answer.

There are a lot of really nice options included with the various Kleo post formats, but in order to create a nice content flow on a main page that includes multiple categories of aggregate content, I really need the ability to INCLUDE and/or EXCLUDE posts at the category, tag, and author levels, so as not to repeat content.

I have, for example, a full-width “Spotlight” category near the top of the page that is a temporary featured area holding 6 or so posts in a slider, most of the common categories in their own containers below it, and a container showing posts by author. Without an included/excluded option and easy access to post offsets, it’s rather difficult to manage content flow so that Story A, about Product A, written by Author A does not appear three times.

There are plugins that do this, but, of course, they just add more burden to overall performance and also adds confusion among authors who are presented with too many (thus confusing) post options.

 

Any advice?

[Laura]

Hello, you can use visual composer elements for that, for example KLEO Focus, KLEO post grid, KLEO Carousel, KLEO Highlight…
Select in the element settings Build Query and then you will be able to include categories, select special tags, authors etc… 🙂

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Laura Solanes - Graphic Designer and Web Designer

Please be patient as I try to answer each topic as fast as i can.

If you like the theme or the support you've received please consider leaving us a review on Themeforest!

Always happy to help you 🙂

[writekelly]

Thanks Laura–I am aware of the elements but am finding the Kleo-specific ones to be too limited for my needs compared to the generic post-related elements, which allow for specifying offset number, exclusions, etc.

I may be doing something wrong, but the generic elements better allow me to set-it and forget it, where content is concerned. I really prefer not having to enter specific posts/IDs, etc., and structuring a varied page that employs offset, exclusions, etc., without getting too manual on a post level.

Any recommendations for how to add offset and “Not In” logic using the Kleo post elements?

[Laura]

Hello, i would suggest to use categories for that, we might add more options in the future 🙂

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Laura Solanes - Graphic Designer and Web Designer

Please be patient as I try to answer each topic as fast as i can.

If you like the theme or the support you've received please consider leaving us a review on Themeforest!

Always happy to help you 🙂

[writekelly]

Thanks for the response Laura, but I can’t say I am seeing an answer of any kind.

I know how to use categories, etc.–and thought I explained the reasons why that wouldn’t work in the original question. To repeat, ultimately I am seeking to build a dynamic layout that does not repeat content OR require a complex web of tags/categories to manage or explain to other editors.

Perhaps a single loop comprising entirely latest posts, for example, can have a top story that is a “Standard” format, then 4 “Grid” posts (Which would require an offset of 1, then 5 posts with the left thumbnail option (beginning with offset 5).

Am I to understand that coding a “NOT_IN” and also starting a loop after SKIPPING X POSTS is too challenging to bother? Or perhaps it’s a licensing issue? VC’s Posts elements include both options and many more, but of course, also introduce another layer of code, the need to customize css, etc.

I look forward to your response.

Best,

Sean

[Laura]

Hello, will assign the ticket to a higher support level who can help and advise you in your query.
Thanks! 🙂

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Laura Solanes - Graphic Designer and Web Designer

Please be patient as I try to answer each topic as fast as i can.

If you like the theme or the support you've received please consider leaving us a review on Themeforest!

Always happy to help you 🙂

[writekelly]

I’m not sure how the status of this topic has been tagged as resolved, but it’s most definitely not.

Does anyone have an answer to the question of offsetting posts using Kleo’s post styles? I have been able to use other shortcodes and plugins to handle this easily, but typically there is a performance cost.

By offset, I mean finding a way to create a Kleo posts loop of say 5 posts, interrupt it, then start another loop at the 6th post? Kleo’s own magazine theme demonstrates why not being able to do this through a “Not__in” shortcode or php creates a problem. Without such a function, it’s very difficult to create a decent content page without repeated posts appearing on the page.

I love the Kleo theme and support, and have continuallly praised the developers, but content is a critical part of my existing business, and no answers on this matter is proving very problematic.

Should I consider switching themes?

[Andrei]

I’m sorry for the fact that your post got marked as resolved, we already have this on our to do list for one of the next updates of the theme ( most probably the next one which should be out soon ).

We’ll add the offset parameter for the build query tool but for excludes we don’t see it working because exclude works by post ids and it would be lot of work to keep updating what ids to exclude each time you add new content.

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[writekelly]

Hi Andrei–Thanks for the response!

Let me try to explain my objective clearer. I am not trying to run queries that exclude on a post by post basis so much as to eliminate duplicates appearing next to one another on a page with multiple containers on an index page that aggregates content from multiple categories.

It’s really a matter of content flow. Although there may be exceptions I encounter on occasion, I am trying to architect a page I can easily “set and forget.”

The reason this is important is that the importance of some posts will be greater than others at times, the expectation of readers is to have, generally speaking, a “standing element” (a place they know they will find certain content), and also to break up some of the monotonous characteristics of a single loop with a single style.

Let’s say I have a page with 4 rows and 1 column + 1 sidebar.

Row 1, let’s say, is a full-width post-based Rev Slider that shows all posts tagged as “Spotlight.” A Spotlight post is similar to a featured post but appears only on this page. A Spotlight post is tagged according to relevance and independent of Chronology. It might, for example, be the 2nd most recent post, the 6th, the 30th, and something two years old that re-emerges due to a news development.

Let’s say row 2 is a regular loop that includes the most recent 4 posts using your left thumbnail format, but to prevent dupes it “excludes” posts tagged as Spotlight, so it is printing most recent posts 1, 3, 4, 5.

Row 3 is simply a designed to add variety to the look, so it’s a single post in your “Standard” format. It would typically be the 5th post, but it also excludes Spotlight and the previous posts so it skips over 2 and 6 (another Spotlight post) and prints Post 7 instead.

Row 4 hypothetically resumes the chronology based loop in the left thumb format and includes 5 posts: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

Lastly let’s say my sidebar has 3 containers–an ad, a container featuring the three most INTERESTING posts under Category “People” in your news highlight format and a container comprising short original posts of news emerging from a conference. They’re newsworthy but not completely developed. (HEadline and short excerpt).

That means I don’t want these being being associated with the regular loop. BUT…if something is really important, one of the conference posts might be tagged as Spotlight… Where people are concerned, I may interview one that isn’t all that interesting so I want it to be part of the regular loop but excluded from the People loop.

I realize all this could seem confusing to you, but I have tried to highlight with a degree of specificity the need to build rules based containers that exclude posts from some categories and tags, but that also have a little flexibility for unusual situations.

If you have made it this far understanding what I mean, I will be mighty impressed!

Best,

Sean

[writekelly]

How long can I expect to wait for a reply?

[Andrei]

For the moment the only good solution on achieving such thing is to tag/categorise your content more accurately and make blocks of content ( post loops ) to represent each tag/category in part or using post offsets.

Observing, registering and excluding posts from the several blocks where you use post loop elements in a page that is dynamically created might not be fully possible depending of the plugins that’s producing those post loops and also would add a significant extra weight on your page load and processing.

I’ve already proposed the offset feature for the post loop settings and most probably will be available in the next update.

Please let me know if I can help you with anything else.

Cheers

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[writekelly]

Thanks much. I do hope you decide to include it in the next version.

Your magazine demo design is terrific, but it’s obviously not terribly helpful with regard to this matter. I see tremendous value in the potential of offering tutorials that help people along these lines. While it could be time consuming, I believe you could be the first theme developer to offer sufficient substance along deeper lines than most.

The question involves a current theme limit. The answer presents new questions about added weight and development time. The solution, not presented here but alluded to, is using combo tags/cats. I think many people such as me (and I even have a 25-year history in publishing) are a little nervous about how they implement those techniques out of fear of having some SEO ramifications.

My thinking is I might want to have topics represented by categories, and story types (features, columns, departments, reviews) represented by tags. I don’t know. Point me toward some places that reference this? (I have done the Google search thing ad nauseum but not found anything particularly enlightening from a content perspective.)

Thanks and best,

SK

[Andrei]

We are already working to improve our documentation and create a knowledge base.

Keep an eye on the updates, cheers.

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[writekelly]

Thanks Andrei–Of course I meant know sleight on your team–you’re the best there is.

I’m not a developer–maybe intermediate and learning something new everyday. I am a longtime publisher, however, and it’s clear to me that there’s a major void in content that the right organization can capitalize on.

Right now, for example, I have a lot of questions about the architecture of my site. Multisite over a series of subdomains? A single database? Multiple installations and dbs dedicated to each significant app? I admittedly have a lot of plugins–but they’re critical.

Thanks for all your hard work. It’s at least nice to know that 7Q can be counted on.

[Andrei]

Organising your site fully depends on the way you want your information to be displayed, personally I won’t go with a multisite, in news/magazine style websites categories and tags should be enough.

The post offset option should be out probably in a week or so.

Cheers

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[writekelly]

Thanks for the response, Andrei.

My site is not as simple as a singular mag site + community.

I also have (and need) fairly full-function apps for classes, events, classifieds, a directory, shop, and more–all affiliated with the same domain.

Each of the apps I am content with, but its how to achieve the best performance, I am worried about. And it all changes depending on whom one speaks to.

[Andrei]

In your place I would start by preparing a strong hosting solution, like a custom built VPS for your site with lot of caching on static resources and pages and a CDN proxy for saving server load impact and bandwidth.

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