List Pages: Creation & Maintenance

Introduction

There are a number of pages on the site which are lists of items. Examples include: plant lists, recommendation lists and so on. As these pages are subject to change, they are not created in the usual way with the Gutenberg editor (and cannot be edited by it). Instead, the information contained in the lists is held in a series of spreadsheet-like tables. You can create new lists or change/delete existing ones by adding or modifying these tables. Some of the tables (especially Plants) contain a large number of items. To help you find what you want, there are facilities for: sorting the table by a specific column, restricting the rows shown by the use of a filter, and searching for specific text. which can be modified as required. Once the appropriate table (or tables) have been updated, the page is generated by a plugin which is launched via the administrative dashboard (Pages, List generation). This page identifies which tables are used for each page and provides the instructions on how to update them.

Note: As of January 2022, the Seed List no longer uses this system. The page is generated directly from an Excel spreadsheet (‘MasterSeedList.xls’) in the wp-content/other_files folder. See the ‘Help’ worksheet in MasterSeedList.xls for details of how to update this list.

Pages & Tables

This section identifies which tables are used for each of the list pages.

Page	Tables
All plant list pages (exc. Plants for Wildlife)	Headers, Lists, Tab Names, Plants
Plants for Wildlife	Headers, Lists, Tab Names, Wildlife Plants
All recommendation pages (exc. Recommended Books)	Recommendation Types, Recommendations
Recommended Books	Headers, Lists, Tab Names, Recommended Books
Forthcoming Events	Headers, Events, Email Addresses
Gardens to Visit	Headers, Gardens to Visit

Updating a Table: General Instructions

The tables are maintained by the wpDataTables plugin. This is a commercial product for which MGF has a perpetual licence. To access a table for update, click the link near the top of the List Generation page in the dashboard sidebar and then click the name of the table required to see the data. The following general instructions apply to all tables; instructions specific to a given table can be found in the appropriate tab below. To make changes, click in the table and an action box will appear with three options: New entry, edit and delete. Click the one you want.

To change the contents of a row, click anywhere in it and select ‘Edit’ in the action box. Another pop-up box will display the current contents of the row. Make the necessary changes and click OK. You can also add a new row after changing an existing one by clicking ‘Apply and add new’ instead of ‘OK’.

To add a new row, click anywhere in the table and select ‘New entry’ in the action box. Another pop-up box will appear where you can add the new row. Click OK or, if you are adding more than one row, click ‘Apply and add new’.

To delete a row, click anywhere in it. A pop-up box will ask for confirmation of the delete. Be careful about using this feature as there is no undo function.

Sorting, searching and filtering

Sorting. At the head of each column, the column name is displayed. Clicking on the column name will sort the table by this column. An up or down arrow at the side of a column name indicates the table is currently sorted by this column; the direction of the arrow indicates whether the sort sequence is ascending or descending. Clicking the column name again will reverse the sequence.

NOTE: Using this feature does not affect the way the lists are ultimately sorted on the page itself; this is done by the list generation process.

Searching. Above the table, you will find a search box. Enter the text you are looking for. Without the need to click anything else, the system will display any rows where there is a match in any row for the search term that you entered. Remove the search term and all records will again be displayed (unless there is a filter active – see next paragraph). The search is not case-sensitive and will look in any part of the table for matches. So, for example, if you enter as your search term ‘La’, then you will get matches for any row that contains, say, ‘Plants’ or ‘Late Summer Colour’.

Filtering. Filtering is allowed on some columns, as indicated at the top of the column (between the column name and the first row) by either the message ‘Enter filter here’ or a down arrow. Where ‘Enter filter here’ is shown, enter the text on which you want to filter. Any text entered will limit the display to only those rows where there is a match for the term in the column concerned. As with search, filtering is not case-sensitive and all the contents of the column will be searched. Where the filter is shown by a down arrow, click the arrow and select the filter you want. Filters on more than one column will be combined (i.e. for a row to display, it must match all of the filters). To clear active filters, click ‘Clear filters’ at the head of the table.

Table Specific Instructions

Fields marked * are mandatory

Fields marked † can contain the following HTML tags (but no others): <a><i><b>

This table establishes a plant list and allows you to select the elements that you want shown at the head of the page. The header table contains the following items:

List name*: A one-word, unique identifier for the list. This will be used internally and will not be visible on the page. Use something short but meaningful.

Title 1*: The title which will appear at the top of the page.

Title 2: A second title line to be shown below Title 1. Typically used for the French translation of Title 1 where the two together would be too long to fit on a single line. For the Seed List, this column should contain the date of the update, e.g.: ‘ (updated / mise à jour: January / janvier 2020 )’.

Remark 1: A single line of text to be shown below the title.

Remark 2: A single line of text to be shown below Remark 1. Typically used for the French translation of Remark 1 where the two together would be too long to fit on a single line.

Click on images?: Enter ‘y’ or ‘n’. If ‘y’ is set, the following text will be displayed immediately above the list of plants: ‘Click on the thumbnail images to enlarge them / Cliquez sur les vignettes pour les agrandir‘.

Seed list?: Enter ‘y’ or ‘n’. If ‘y’ is set, the following text will be displayed: ‘Seeds for many of these plants are available from the MGF Seed Collection’. The French version of this text will be shown immediately below the English.

Rubric English†: At the top of a list, it is possible to have a framed box below the title and remark lines with bilingual text side-by-side. Enter the English text here.

Rubric French†: The French version of Rubric English to be shown alongside it in the framed box. If you wish to display a block of unilingual text, enter it in one of these two rubric columns. It will be displayed centred within a framed box.

Use this table to enter the names of the tabs which will be used on the page. If a list does not use tabs, then create a single entry with the value ‘None’ as the Category Name. The table contains the following items:

List name*: The identifier linking it to the Headers table. Select the one you want from the drop down box.

Category Name*: The wording to appear on the tab. Select the one you want from the drop down box.

Position*: A number indicating the position of the tab on the page, beginning with 1 on the left and increasing as you move to the right.

Use this table to create and update the names which will appear in tabs.

Category*: The name that will appear on a tab.

This table contains the details of the plants in the various plant lists. Some columns have rules regarding format:

List name*: The identifier linking it to the Headers table. Select the one you want from the drop down box.

Category*: The category (or tab) to which the plant belongs (if any). Select the one you want from the drop down box.

Photo: If there is no photo to go with this entry, leave blank. If there is a photo, enter ‘x’. This will display the image in the Media Library which has the same name as the plant name (or plant displayed, if this is used). If there is more than one image in the library with this name, enter the slug of the image which you wish to use.

Plant name*: the full name of the plant, including the cultivar/variety name, if present. The Latin words will be italicised by the system but the cultivar name must be enclosed in single quotes.

Synonym / Comment: will be displayed below the plant name on the page. If there is a synonym, then the content of this cell must be ‘syn. ‘ followed by the full plant name as for the principal plant name. No other content may follow a synonym. If there is no synonym, this cell can contain any suitable text as per the description lines (see below).

Plant displayed: If the image to be displayed does not correspond to the plant name, then the name of the plant displayed will be shown on the page after the description line(s), thus: ‘Photo: xxxxx’ where ‘xxxxx’ is the full name of the plant shown. This name should be put into this column, using the same conventions as for the Plant name. ‘Photo:’ will be added automatically by the system.

Description line 1*†: Any explanatory text to be displayed to the right of the plant name. Any plant names MUST be italicised by using the ‘I’ function of the editor. To insert a link, highlight the text which will contain the link and then insert the URL by clicking the chain icon.

Description line 2†: A second line of explanatory text to be displayed below the first; the same rules apply with regard to links and plant names.

The information in the Plants for Wildlife page is different from that of the other plants lists and so this table should be used instead of Plants.

Latin name*: the full botanical name of the plant, including the cultivar/variety name, if present. The Latin words will be italicised by the system but the cultivar name must be enclosed in single quotes.

English name: the common name of the plant in English.

French name: the common name of the plant in French.

Provides*: English text describing how the plant is useful for wildlife (living space, food, etc.) and the species who will use it.

Fournit*: The French version of Provides.

Recommendations are displayed on different pages according to type (designers, nurseries, etc.). Use this table to add new types or to change existing ones. NOTE: book recommendations are treated separately.

Type*: The bilingual text which will appear as the heading of the page in question. It is also used in the Recommendations table (q.v.) to identify the type to which the recommendation belongs.

This table contains the details for all recommendation pages except Recommended Books (which has different information and uses a table of its own).

Type*: The type to which this recommendation belongs. Select the one you want from the drop down box.

Photo: If there is no photo to go with this entry, leave blank. If there is a photo, enter ‘x’. The file name of the image must be ‘recommend-xx’, where ‘xx’ is the id. no. of the recommendation; this is assigned automatically by the system and is displayed in the first column of the table. It cannot be modified.

Caption: Short text to appear beneath the image, if present. If the caption contains a plant name then the Latin words of the name must be italicised by enclosing them in HTML tags thus: <i>Punica granatum</i> ‘Mollar de Elche’.

MGF?: Set to ‘x’ if the person concerned is a member of MGF, otherwise leave blank. If set, the legend ‘(MGF member)’ will appear on the page after the name.

Company*: The name of the company being recommended.

Owner*: The owner of the company being recommended.

Address: House number and street of the company address.

Commune*: Postcode and commune name of the company address. Where the company is outside of France, precede the postcode with ’99’ and add the country name after the commune name.

Telephone: Company telephone number.

Web site: URL of the company’s website. This should be the full URL, i.e. preceded by ‘https://’. The system will automatically create a link to this website using the company name.

Description*†: Free text to describe the company and its activities.

This table contains the details of recommended books. It should also be used to store details of books that have member reviews should these be part of the site in future (currently they are on the MGi site).

List name*: Can be ‘recommendedbooks’ or ‘bookreviews’. Select the one you want from the drop down box.

Category*: The category to which the book belongs. Select the one you want from the drop down box.

Photo?: If there is no photo to go with this entry, leave blank. If there is a photo, enter ‘x’. The file name of the image must be the same as the title of the book.

Recommended?: If the book is to appear on the Recommended Books page, enter ‘x’, otherwise leave blank.

Library?: If the book is in the MGF Library, enter ‘x’, otherwise leave blank. Entering ‘x’ will add the legend ‘ This book is in the MGF Library’ to be displayed for this book with a link to the library page.

Title*: The title of the book.

Author First Name*: Author’s first name. If the book has multiple authors, enter the first name of the first author.

Author Last Name*: Author’s last name. If the book has multiple authors, enter the last name of the first author, followed by the full names of the other authors.

Publisher*: The publisher of the book.

Year: Year of publication of the edition of the book concerned.

Description*†: Free text to describe the book; usually an extract from the publisher’s blurb.

Quotation†: Optional field for a review quotation from an external reviewer (i.e not a member of MGF).

Source: The source of the external quotation

Reviewer: If the book has a review on the MGi Book Reviews page, enter the full name of the reviewer, otherwise leave blank.

Review slug: The book review pages on the MGi site are named bkr[slug].html. Enter the slug here if there is a review article, otherwise leave blank.

International: Enter ‘x’ if this event is to appear in the International Events, otherwise leave blank.

Photo?: If there is an image to accompany this event, enter its slug, otherwise leave blank.

English title*: The title of the event in English.

English text*: The description of the event in English.

French title*†: The title of the event in French.

French text*†: The description of the event in English.

Start Date*: Use the date picker to select the start date of the event. NOTE: on the page, the entries will appear in ascending order of start date.

End Date: Leave blank for one-day events, otherwise use the date picker to select the end date of the event.

Location*: Short text to identify the location(s) of the event. For events in France, end with the name of the département. For international events, end with the country name in capitals.

Contact*: Select the name of the contact from the drop-down list. If the name is not there, add it to the Email addresses table.

This table contains the name and email address of all people or institutions to which emails can be sent from a page on the site. Placing email addresses on a web page is a security risk as they can be harvested by malware. To prevent this happening on the site, the real email address is replaced by a slug and a call to a special routine. This routine uses the slug to find the real email address in this table and then starts the mailto function of the browser. To add an email address link on a page, create a link with the editor. This link should be as follows:

“https://mediterraneangardening.fr/webmailto/?addressee=slug”

Copy the above into the link box (without the quote marks), having first replaced ‘slug’ with the slug of the address that you want from the table.

These email links must not open in a new tab.

Type*: Can be ‘Individual’ (email to be sent to a named individual); ‘Partner’ (email to a partner institutional mailbox, e.g hortusacl@orange.fr); or ‘MGF Role’ (email to an MGF institutional mailbox, e.g. treasurer@mediterraneangardeningfrance.org).

Name*: The name of the addressee. This name is what is displayed when using the Forthcoming Events table.

Email address*: The addressee’s email address.

Slug*: A one-word, unique identifier for the addressee, e.g. TChambers or MGMR.

Photo slug*: A one-word, unique identifier which will form part of the file name of the image which will be displayed for this entry. The full name will be ‘visits-xxx’, where ‘xxx’ is the slug.

Garden Name*: The name of the garden.

Address: Number and street of the garden’s address.

Commune*: Postcode and commune name of the garden. If the garden is outside of France, the first two characters should be the ISO 3166 alpha-2 country code (see here for the list).

Latitude*: The latitude of the garden, expressed decimals of degrees not degrees, minutes, secondes, e.g. 43.766772, rather than 43° 46′ 00”.

Longitude*: The longitude of the garden, also as decimals of degrees. NOTE: a longitude east of the meridan should be a positive number, a longitude west should be a negative number.

If possible, use the lat/long of the garden itself, otherwise use the nearest point possible. If not known, the best way to get the lat/long of a place is to use Google Maps. Click here for instructions on how to do this.

Telephone: Telephone number of the garden.

Web site: URL of the gardens’s website (if any). This should be the full URL, i.e. preceded by ‘https://’. The system will automatically create a link to this website using the garden name.

Description*†: Free text to describe the garden.

MGF Page 1, MGF Link 1, MGF Page 2, MGF Link2: For each garden, you may have up to two references to other pages on the site. These will appear after the garden description in the format ‘See also: xxxxx [and xxxxx] ‘ where ‘xxxxx’ is a link to the page(s) in question. Place the text to be shown in the link in MGF Page 1 or MGF Page 2. Put the full URL of the appropriate pages in MGF Link 1 or MGF Link 2.

Mediterranean Gardening France

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List Pages: Creation & Maintenance