Ennovy.org

Update 06/03/05: I’ve updated the plugin so that it will work with ExpressionEngine 1.3
Update 09/09/05: Added a sort parameter, variables for the category image and description, and cleaned up the code a bit.
Update 07/23/07: Added documentation for parent_id parameter, fixed bug when there are no results to be displayed, and variable for category URL title.

I wrote a very basic plugin to display weighted categories. Most of the credit goes to these two however. And to the person who wrote the developer documentation because I would have been lost otherwise. :p

Check out my archives for an example.

You can download the plugin here and it’s also listed in the Plugin Library.

ABOUT

This plugin will display a linear list of the weighted categories. The categories are weighted on the number of entries assigned to the category.

PARAMETERS

group_id - the id of the category group you want to display. To figure out the id number of a category group, look in the exp_category_groups table. You can include several category groups by separating them with the pipe | character. If you have a category group assigned to multiple weblogs, the plugin will count entries from all of the weblogs.

weblog - the short name of the weblog you want to display (the plugin will limit the categories shown to those in the weblog). You can include several weblogs by separating them with the pipe | character.

min_font - size of the smallest category (category with the least number of entries). The default value is 12.

max_font - size of the largest category (category with the most number of entries). The default value is 30.

backspace - the number of characters that you want to chop off the end of the display.

order_by - how you want to sort the categories. Valid options for this parameter are ‘count’, ‘cat_id’, ‘category’, ‘category_description’, ‘category_image’, ‘group_id’, and ‘weblog’.

sort - the sort order. Valid options for this parameter are ‘desc’ or ‘asc’. The default is ascending.

parent_id - the category parent id, if you want to display only a subset of categories.

VARIABLES

SINGLE VARIABLES
{category} - the name of the category.
{category_description} - the category description.
{category_image} - the category image.
{cat_id} - the id of the category.
{cat_url_title} - the URL title for the category.
{count} - the number of entries in the category.
{font_size} - the weighted font size.
{group_id} - the id of the category group that the category belongs to.
{weblog} - the short name of the weblog.

Note: the {weblog} variable may not be accurate if you used the group_id parameter when calling the plugin. This is because when you use the group_id parameter, it counts the number of entries in each category of a category group from all weblogs, and not just one weblog. It will not be accurate if you specify several weblogs using the weblog parameter, and these weblog have the same category group. It is accurate only if each category group is assigned to one weblog.

CONDITIONAL VARIABLES
All of the single variables above can be used in a conditional statement.

{if no_results}{/if}
Used if there are no categories.

EXAMPLE

The following will display an alphabetical weighted list of categories from one weblog:
{exp:weightedcategories weblog=“weblog1” min_font=“10” max_font=“20” backspace=“3” order_by=“category”}
<span style=“font-size: {font_size}px;” title=”{count} entries”><a href=”{path=“weblog/index”}C{cat_id}”>{category}</a></span> - {/exp:weightedcategories}

The following will display an alphabetical weighted list of categories from two weblogs, with a different output depending on the weblog:
{exp:weightedcategories weblog=“weblog1|weblog2” min_font=“10” max_font=“20” backspace=“3” order_by=“category”}
{if weblog==“weblog1”}
<span style=“font-size: {font_size}px;” title=”{count} entries”><a href=”{path=“weblog/index”}C{cat_id}”>{category}</a></span> - {/if}
{if weblog==“weblog2”}
<span style=“font-size: {font_size}px;” title=”{count} entries”><a href=”{path=“weblog2/index”}C{cat_id}”>{category}</a></span> - {/if}
{/exp:weightedcategories}

The following will display a weighted list of categories belonging to two category groups, with the categories from the first category group listed first:
{exp:weightedcategories group_id=“1|2” min_font=“10” max_font=“20” order_by=“group_id”}
<span style=“font-size: {font_size}px;” title=”{count} entries”>{category} ({count})</span>
{/exp:weightedcategories}