Hi all,

Just wondered if there is anywhere the article block can me modified to only show articles from a specific article category.

I have a number of user guides within the forum I look after and would like to add them to an article block on the front page and not have them over written by articles published at a later date - a sticky article block if you like. The easiest way I can see of achieving of this would be to place these articles in a specific category - 'User Guides' and only have the article block look at this category.

I have tried using a custom HTML naviagtion  block to achieve this, but the HTML links get corrupted with PHPSESSID code when viewed by guests - see post here.

Thanks Nathaniel, I can see this works.

Not sure what's in the pipeline for SP 2.3.1 and do not know how difficult this would be, but it would be nice to be able to select a category for an article block or some flexibility that can achieve this.   

This will let you filter the articles by category for articles block.

Sources/PortalBlocks.php

$block_parameters = array(
'limit' => 'int',
'type' => 'select',
'image' => 'select',
);

if ($return_parameters)
return $block_parameters;
$block_parameters = array(
'limit' => 'int',
'type' => 'select',
'image' => 'select',
'category' => array(0 => 'All'),
);

if ($return_parameters)
{
global $sourcedir;

require_once($sourcedir . '/Subs-PortalAdmin.php');

$categories = getCategoryInfo();

foreach ($categories as $category)
$block_parameters['category'][$category['id']] = $category['name'];

$txt['sp_param_sp_articles_category'] = 'Category';

return $block_parameters;
}

$category = empty($parameters['category']) ? 0 : (int) $parameters['category'];
AND a.approved = {int:approved}
AND a.approved = {int:approved}' . (!empty($category) ? '
AND a.id_category = ' . $category : '') . '
While editigin Articles type blocks, you'll notice a new option "Category:" where you can select the category.

Oooh! I like this! 
 
This is much better than the solution I came up while I was trying to figure out "sub-portal" pages (http://simpleportal.net/index.php?topic=4654).
This is so much better than hand-crafting custom pages using grabmessage.
 
After I test your code, I think I will be back here for advice on how to put message text into the article block, so I can put the article block on a SimplePortal page and display the articles from that category.
 
Thanks [SiNaN], and thanks russ for thinking of the idea.
 
Putting these two ideas together really almost makes SimplePortal a CMS, because I will be able to put custom article categories on custom pages.
 
After that, I'll just throw in a custom navigation bar, and I'll be all set.  I'll let you know how I make out.