Joomla Article or CB Blog Entry In Multiple Categories Possible?

My Joomla problem:

Joomla does not allow for an article to be in multiple categories. An article can only be in one category. I have been looking at tags as a form of categorizing articles since I need them to be in multiple categories/topics.

I would like for users to be able to submit articles (or blog entries) and categorize them (or tag them) so that I can render that content on the front end and be able to organize them accordingly. Possibly in a tree like menu, or a page with all topics/categories and articles displayed (like a directory maybe, to allow an article/entry to be listed under multiple topics/categories).

Since Joomla does not allow articles to be in multiple categories, is there a way to tag or categorize CB blog entries and then display them (and have them searchable) based on the topic/tag specified by the user (and/or admin)?

And is there a nice way to render this in the front end and have it searchable easily? Like maybe a tree like menu, or a directory with all different topics? And possibly pulling the article with it's corresponding image (intro image or main image etc.)

Since Joomla does not allow articles to be in multiple categories, is there a way to tag or categorize CB blog entries and then display them (and have them searchable) based on the topic/tag specified by the user (and/or admin)?

Nope, it stores blog entries directly to Joomla content. The internal mode also has no such feature as it would store to its own database instead. There's no tagging feature available.

And is there a nice way to render this in the front end and have it searchable easily? Like maybe a tree like menu, or a directory with all different topics? And possibly pulling the article with it's corresponding image (intro image or main image etc.)

The blogs store directly to Joomla content so any Joomla content extension will work in displaying the blogs. I suggest taking a look at K2 as it's a bit more feature rich and CB Blogs also integrates with it too.

Ok. During my search, I read yesterday that; Joomla! 3.1 Beta will include "tagging" features for all content, including articles. And that the tags may be nested inside other tags, so it sort of works as categorizing the content in a hierarchy, and allowing a piece of content to be tagged with many tags etc. So I'm sure with this new feature there should be some extensions coming out to organize and display. I don't mind waiting for this.

However, since CB Blog entries get stored as native Joomla articles/content (by the way how do I enable this to happen???), would it not be ideal to add a few form fields to the blog entries and include native Joomla fields such as Intro Image, Article Image, Link A/B/C, Meta Tag keywords & descriptions, and soon Tagging fields? Seems like it would make sense to take advantage of all the field options attached to a native Joomla article since the CB blog entry is stored as a Joomla article anyways. This would allow all Blog entries to be organized and displayed based on Tags and other attributes.

Ideally I would like to have many users blogging and then displaying articles/entries based on attributes such as topics or tags, as well as displaying articles based on user groups. So for example I would have 100 users, 10 of which are in a group called "staff" and have all their articles indexed, while the other 90 have their articles indexed (or not) based on other attributes, and/or manually selected by the admin (in case I see an article by a user and would like to index it and showcase it.

Any thoughts? Can I do this with Joomla native articles without having it as a feature of CB Blog?

Maybe I can enable CB Blog to store as Joomla articles, and then when I want to feature an article, I can then edit and tag it accordingly and that would display it accordingly. How do I enable CB Blog to store as Joomla content???

Ok. During my search, I read yesterday that; Joomla! 3.1 Beta will include "tagging" features for all content, including articles. And that the tags may be nested inside other tags, so it sort of works as categorizing the content in a hierarchy, and allowing a piece of content to be tagged with many tags etc. So I'm sure with this new feature there should be some extensions coming out to organize and display. I don't mind waiting for this.

Won't know until I've 3.1 stable to review closely. Betas changed too often so I wait for stable builds before exploring new feature implementations. It'll certainly be considered for CB Blogs if is feasible to implement.

However, since CB Blog entries get stored as native Joomla articles/content (by the way how do I enable this to happen???), would it not be ideal to add a few form fields to the blog entries and include native Joomla fields such as Intro Image, Article Image, Link A/B/C, Meta Tag keywords & descriptions, and soon Tagging fields? Seems like it would make sense to take advantage of all the field options attached to a native Joomla article since the CB blog entry is stored as a Joomla article anyways. This would allow all Blog entries to be organized and displayed based on Tags and other attributes.

Social site bloggers don't typically have access to meta fields, but it's possible to be implemented with their default display disabled. For now it does not allow you to use such features, but it is open source so you could extend it with such features if you needed.

As for using CB Blogs for Joomla content you need to first create the proper category structure in Joomla content it self. First you need a top level category (e.g. Blogs). This top level category will hold all the Blog categories (e.g. General, Movies, Videos, etc..) and is the categories users will be allowed to select. Once done navigate to CB Blogs > Config > Blogs > CMS and select your new top level category (ensure Mode is set to Auto or to your CMS version).

Any thoughts?

I suggest looking at full blown blog extensions. CB Blogs is meant to be small user blogs. It's not a full blogging extension by a long shot.

Can I do this with Joomla native articles without having it as a feature of CB Blog?

Probably not.

Maybe I can enable CB Blog to store as Joomla articles, and then when I want to feature an article, I can then edit and tag it accordingly and that would display it accordingly.

That'd work as you can always manually edit blogs inside of Joomlas content manager as needed.

How do I enable CB Blog to store as Joomla content???

See my reply above.

Ok. 2 more questions.

1. Why is there CB Blogs and ProfileBook blogging function?
2. Is CB Blogs Joomla! 3 ready? I didn't see an option for Joomla!3 in the CMS config field.

1. Why is there CB Blogs and ProfileBook blogging function?

I didn't write CB ProfileBook, it was before I became a part of the CB Team and its blogging feature is extremely basic (for example no categories and no true WYSIWYG). It also does not allow storage to Joomla content and uses its own database. It truly comes down to your needs though as for example if all you wanted was very simple blogging then CB Blogs would be overkill.

2. Is CB Blogs Joomla! 3 ready? I didn't see an option for Joomla!3 in the CMS config field.

Yes, Joomla 1.6, 1.7, 2.5, and 3.0 all are basically the same as far as our plugins are concerned; I just don't update the name everytime Joomla makes a release. Using Auto mode will detect it just fine as well.