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How to integrate a database?

Hi there,

I'm working on a shopping guide for sustainable adventure gear. Right now I'm doing everything manually and would like to automate the guide by using a database. Here is what it looks like now:

www.forwardoutdoor.com

Within each category I have a company name, with a URL, description (which I would like to hyperlink content to separate pages with info on the terms), then links to where it can be bought (hopefully soon affiliate links). 

Just to build this I've done a lot of copying and pasting, and I know that's a super inefficient way to do it. I have the world's most basic understanding of HTML, so the sheetsee.js instructions I found in another thread were a little too beyond my knowledge. I know this could easily be automated, I just don't know how. Can anybody help?

Thanks,

Kurt

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@kurtforward The best approach here would be to use a Weebly blog. Each post in the blog would contain the descriptive material for each gear line (e.g., Jack Wolfskin, La Sportiva). The descriptive material for each line would be what you currently have in your gear type page listings: website url, descriptive text, shops that carry the line. You could even choose to add the line logo in the line's blog post for a bit of visual punch.

The blog approach will greatly simplify the administration of your "Gear Guide" since a blog is in fact a type of database which means you'll eliminate the duplicative content effort you currently engage in with the static gear type pages. You can easily (and without any code) filter the view of posts in the blog down to particular gear types (e.g., clothing, hike, camp, snow) as well as conduct free-form term searches across all blog posts via a search bar (your site will need to be hosted at the Pro plan level or higher to have search capability).

All of your lines, regardless of gear type will be housed within the single blog page (which you can name "Gear Guide" rather than the default "Blog"). You'll leverage blog post "categories" to identify which posts belong to which gear category. (When you create a gear line post, you'll specify the category or categories to which the line belongs. So, for example, the "Astral" line post will contain all the content you currently have for that line and the post will belong to multiple categories like "Clothing" and "Hike." Because you can assign a line post to multiple gear type categories, you only have to create one post for the line.)

Now, for the database part: Each of your home page gear type images currently links to the particular gear type page containing the listing of the lines that carry that type of gear. For example, the "Hike" gear type image links to the "Hiking Gear Guide" page which lists all the lines that produce hiking gear. You'll modify each image link to the relevant blog page category link. So, for example, your Hiking Gear Guide home page image currently links to the hiking gear type page url:

https://www.forwardoutdoor.com/hiking-gear-guide.html

If your blog page is named "Gear Guide" and your hiking gear posts are categorized under the category label "Hiking Gear," you'll simply change the image link to this:

https://www.forwardoutdoor.com/gear-guide/category/hiking-gear

What this will do is present the visitor with the Gear Guide blog page filtered down to just the blog posts categorized as "Hiking Gear." (The Astral line post will appear in this blog page listing but that same post will also appear in the blog page listing for posts categorized under "Paddling Gear" because Astral belongs to multiple gear type categories.)

Here's an example blog page done for a client who produces a variety of radio podcasts across different drink categories (beer, wine, cocktails, etc.): https://www.justhereforthebeer.com/podcasts. In the right-hand sidebar are the category filter links (so, if you, say, just want to see the podcasts for the "JHFTB Radio" show, just click that link in the sidebar and the blog page will be filtered down to just those shows - these links are essentially simplified versions of your home page image links). If you want to perform a free-form term search across the entire site (blog and other site pages), just enter the term in the search bar.

You'll need to spend a little time learning how to set up a blog so do that before you begin (it's not hard):

https://www.weebly.com/app/help/us/en/topics/start-a-blog

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@kurtforward The best approach here would be to use a Weebly blog. Each post in the blog would contain the descriptive material for each gear line (e.g., Jack Wolfskin, La Sportiva). The descriptive material for each line would be what you currently have in your gear type page listings: website url, descriptive text, shops that carry the line. You could even choose to add the line logo in the line's blog post for a bit of visual punch.

The blog approach will greatly simplify the administration of your "Gear Guide" since a blog is in fact a type of database which means you'll eliminate the duplicative content effort you currently engage in with the static gear type pages. You can easily (and without any code) filter the view of posts in the blog down to particular gear types (e.g., clothing, hike, camp, snow) as well as conduct free-form term searches across all blog posts via a search bar (your site will need to be hosted at the Pro plan level or higher to have search capability).

All of your lines, regardless of gear type will be housed within the single blog page (which you can name "Gear Guide" rather than the default "Blog"). You'll leverage blog post "categories" to identify which posts belong to which gear category. (When you create a gear line post, you'll specify the category or categories to which the line belongs. So, for example, the "Astral" line post will contain all the content you currently have for that line and the post will belong to multiple categories like "Clothing" and "Hike." Because you can assign a line post to multiple gear type categories, you only have to create one post for the line.)

Now, for the database part: Each of your home page gear type images currently links to the particular gear type page containing the listing of the lines that carry that type of gear. For example, the "Hike" gear type image links to the "Hiking Gear Guide" page which lists all the lines that produce hiking gear. You'll modify each image link to the relevant blog page category link. So, for example, your Hiking Gear Guide home page image currently links to the hiking gear type page url:

https://www.forwardoutdoor.com/hiking-gear-guide.html

If your blog page is named "Gear Guide" and your hiking gear posts are categorized under the category label "Hiking Gear," you'll simply change the image link to this:

https://www.forwardoutdoor.com/gear-guide/category/hiking-gear

What this will do is present the visitor with the Gear Guide blog page filtered down to just the blog posts categorized as "Hiking Gear." (The Astral line post will appear in this blog page listing but that same post will also appear in the blog page listing for posts categorized under "Paddling Gear" because Astral belongs to multiple gear type categories.)

Here's an example blog page done for a client who produces a variety of radio podcasts across different drink categories (beer, wine, cocktails, etc.): https://www.justhereforthebeer.com/podcasts. In the right-hand sidebar are the category filter links (so, if you, say, just want to see the podcasts for the "JHFTB Radio" show, just click that link in the sidebar and the blog page will be filtered down to just those shows - these links are essentially simplified versions of your home page image links). If you want to perform a free-form term search across the entire site (blog and other site pages), just enter the term in the search bar.

You'll need to spend a little time learning how to set up a blog so do that before you begin (it's not hard):

https://www.weebly.com/app/help/us/en/topics/start-a-blog

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@PaulMathews Wow, thank you so much for the extensive feedback, that's fantastic! I'll admit, that's quite a bit different than what I had originally envisioned, but after reading through your comments again and really thinking about it this could very well be a much better option. It would be at once more descriptive for the reader, yet simpler on my end, while still maintaining searchability.

I'll check out the Pro level plan for that function, and play around with how to set this up.

Thanks for thinking about it differently and putting so much thought into it, I really appreciate it!

Kurt

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