GJ Groups versus CB Blogs - Joomla articles or not?!

I think I've only just realised a big problem with the idea for my site: Joomla Articles versus CB/GJ Articles.

It's taken me a very long while to grasp the way the various elements of GJ (and/with CB) actually work and what they can do, having for sometime been trying to shape the potential for a project sharing site.

My site's "Projects" are GJ's "Groups" organised into predetermined "Sections" (GJ's "Categories") and that seems to work acceptably well, people can enter their work and add comments, files, videos or whatever.

Then we have CB Blogs, which on the face of its interface looks virtually identical to the functioning of Groups in that it puts up a screen to enter a blog in much the same way as does the Groups entry screen. The only main difference seemed to be that you can't add a logo for the Blog like you can for a Group.

It's taken me some while to unravel this; but, whereas all the time I was noticing/thinking that some of the stuff written in either Groups or CB Blogs was entering itself as a Joomla Article, other times it wasn't. At times I'd played around with the various configurations of each and found I wasn't getting any J Articles saving depending on a setting or two that are so difficult to find or are easy to miss, or so, that is what I thought the problem was.

However, what I've come to understand after far too long (and it seems to be a sevear limitation for my site's plans) is that "Groups" entries cannot be saved as Joomla Articles whereas CB Blogs can.

Yesterday I hunted and hunted for an answer or explanation on this subject here on the forum and eventually I found one small reference to this fact on some obscure post somewhere, but I'm really hoping it's not true or can't be got around by some clever little process like using a third-party plugin or AutoAction process that will copy Groups article data into the Joomla system like CB Blogs can.

Any help or suggestions from anyone on this please?

Then we have CB Blogs, which on the face of its interface looks virtually identical to the functioning of Groups in that it puts up a screen to enter a blog in much the same way as does the Groups entry screen. The only main difference seemed to be that you can't add a logo for the Blog like you can for a Group.

The only similarity they share is their Bootstrap template styling. Aside from that they're miles apart in functionality. CB Blogs provides users with a personalized blog for their profile with category support, searching, paging, full WYSIWYG editor, and more. The blogs are stored directly to Joomla content table so any Joomla content extension or module can display them globally (or just let them be found by navigating to users profiles and seeing their Blog tab). Optionally you can set the model to Internal and it'll use its own internal database for storing blogs.

It's taken me some while to unravel this; but, whereas all the time I was noticing/thinking that some of the stuff written in either Groups or CB Blogs was entering itself as a Joomla Article, other times it wasn't. At times I'd played around with the various configurations of each and found I wasn't getting any J Articles saving depending on a setting or two that are so difficult to find or are easy to miss, or so, that is what I thought the problem was.

None of GroupJives content will create a Joomla article. By default CB Blogs will store the blogs as Joomla articles. It's intentionally designed this way, but it is optional (set model to Internal within CB Blogs configuration) and can use its own internal database to store blogs.

However, what I've come to understand after far too long (and it seems to be a sevear limitation for my site's plans) is that "Groups" entries cannot be saved as Joomla Articles whereas CB Blogs can.

Correct, using Joomla content to store GroupJive Groups would be impossible.

like using a third-party plugin or AutoAction process that will copy Groups article data into the Joomla system like CB Blogs can.

You could create a Joomla article each time a group is created using CB Auto Actions, but I honestly don't see any reason why you'd do this. GJ has nothing to do with Joomla articles.

Please see CB GroupJive description and information below to better understand what it does.

www.joomlapolis.com/cb-solutions/groupjive

Please see CB Blogs description and information below to better understand what it does.

forge.joomlapolis.com/projects/cb-cbblogs

krileon wrote:

like using a third-party plugin or AutoAction process that will copy Groups article data into the Joomla system like CB Blogs can.

You could create a Joomla article each time a group is created using CB Auto Actions, but I honestly don't see any reason why you'd do this. GJ has nothing to do with Joomla articles.

Please see CB GroupJive description and information below to better understand what it does.
www.joomlapolis.com/cb-solutions/groupjive

Please see CB Blogs description and information below to better understand what it does.
forge.joomlapolis.com/projects/cb-cbblogs

Yes. I've read those links probably a hundred times but I'm surprised you don't see why I'd want to have GJ Groups data displayed as Joomla Content articles, just in the same way as CB Blogs can?

For a start, modules that are designed to display/manipulate Joomla content/articles can't operate on GJ content. My project sharing site, that uses GJs 'Groups' as it's 'Projects' cannot appear/be summarised, and mix with, in the same was as other information on the site can, e.g. a standard Joomla module using a particular method of displaying category/author/date or whatever method of filtering specific data cannot at the same time be used to do the same, and most importantly, mix with, the GJ content. The GJ content can only be displayed on it's own in ways that cannot use the full permutations and styles of other more specialised display modules.

Or have I got that completely wrong and I'm missing one giant leap of logic for mankind?

You can not display GJ groups as Joomla articles. That is not how GJ works. It has its own database, display handling, etc... If you need GJ groups displayed in a module you can use the module included with GJ to do this. What you're wanting is not functionally possible. There is also a search bot included with GJ so you can use Joomla search modules (not smart search) to search GJ groups as well.

Yes, I understand that. I was replying to your thought that: "I honestly don't see any reason why you'd do this."

So, I was saying why I would want to do this and that the GJ module doesn't have the potential of abilities normal Joomla ones do that better fit ones rest of site layouts, methodology and visuals. Or, as I asked, have I missed something obvious?

Well you could use Joomlas loadposition to load the GJ module inside of a Joomla article, but I don't know if that's going to fit your needs still. There's no embed feature for displaying an entire functional GJ group as a module or anything of the sort.