Series and categories

Since then, as it was the ability to fully use the categories and subcategories. I began to think?? What flexibility create the presence of entity "series". Because it is now possible to solve any task of grouping sermons and/or preachers through categories (also nested).

In fact, one level category without childrens - and there is one "serie".

Maybe there is a reason to gather the features of "series" and merge with categories. For the overall simplified working and understanding of the Component as a whole.

This is only just my small idea and proposal for review! We just think about it and offer their "yes" and "no".

Hi Eduard

It's true that series and categories are quite similar. However there are some additional info in the series which are not present in a category:

• counting hits (categories table has the hits column, but not sure if they're counted)
• defining a default series
• zipfile creation

The main thing is that this was grown historically like this. Series were first, categories were introduced later. And I think before SermonSpeaker 4.4.3 they weren't even really showed, they were only used to filter items. With SermonSpeaker 4.4.4 categories were no longer optional.

I still see the categories as a way to filter sermons, series and/or speakers or to apply access controls. It can also be used to group items based on a organizational view, like one category for sunday services and one for youth services.
Series however are used to group together sermons on a thematic level.

I think merging the series with the categories would be possible, but it would need a major rewrite of the component and break compatibility of modules, plugins and layouts. Also it would need a way to automatically migrate existing series into new categories so existing sites don't break. It's a huge task and will probably result in complaints from users who liked the series

I agree with everything! Just the fact remains! From the first time it is difficult to understand how working "series" and "category", and how to organize our the structure of records.

I think some kind of re-organization must occur in the "series" and "categories", so that it becomes intuitive, user-friendly and at the same time not lose the flexibility.

* * *

Ok, its now began to try to find a way to sort our records in the context of exist "series" and "categories". And met with a small dilemma:

I have two series. The first serie in the one category, the second serie in the same, but child category. Of course, these series have many sermons.

In the settings set "show_subcategory_content" to All.

Next i'm creating a menu to displaying a list of sermons (SermonsView) and specify the first category, and Category type - "series."
Results: in the list sermons included of two categories. All right, sermons in list. And the bottom of the page there is a list of sub-categories. But when you press on them. SS says it found no sermons match! - [And now I am as visitor at the site, expect to see a sermons only from this selected category] - It's feature, or something else I forgotten to turn on?

P.S. Please forgive me for my broken English : )

Hi Eduard

Sorry for the delay with my answer. I had to figure it out myself first.
You're not doing anything wrong, but you found a bug in SermonSpeaker. The subcategory link should have the added "&series_cat=xy" added but has the default "&sermon_cat=xy".

I will have to fix this in the routerhelper and the layouts.

Unfortunately that means you will have to wait till next release when it will be fixed. Hopefully I can get it out soon enough.

Very glad, that my tweaking was able to assist the correction of bugs!
But that's okay, while there waiting for the next release, it will correct this in scripts itself temporarily - now at least it is clear what's wrong!