I have brought up this problem before, in this forum thread.

All the way through Sidebars 1.7,  we could "nest" sidebars. That is: (1) create a container style with minimal formatting; (2) create a sidebar with the codes for two or more other sidebars within it.

This permits stacking different sidebars vertically. Not only does this make for a clean presentation (with no text bleed and formatting problems from the article text), it also provides a lot of flexibility. I can reuse sidebars in varying combinations to enhance the content. This is a much more efficient and workable solution than using tables.

On of our sites, TS-Si.org is stuck at 1.0.7 because this feature dropped out of the subsequent releases.

iJoomla applied a hotfix on my development site, SS-G Dot Net, promising it would become part of a future release, but it has not appeared.

Now, I am planning to migrate TS-Si.org to Joomla! 1.5.x

I did an install of Sidebars for 1.5 on my personal site, sharon-gaughan.com - that site (for now) is just for fooling around and trying out things. I am glad I did that. Sidebars for 1.5 also lacks the nesting functionality.

It appears they ported over 1.9 with the shortcomings. Our site, TS-Si.org has nearly 500 sidebars, used in varying combinations throughout the site. Many of them use the nesting technique. I can't proceed without understanding what I will need to do, either with an improved Sidebars release or none altogether.

Yes, I have put in a support ticket. Why not just restore the functionality and get it over with?

Sharon

The information I have is that the nesting functionality dropped out to accomodate the new feature that allows attachment of sidebars to categories.

This sounds like non sequiter to me, since we are talking about two very different things.

If a user errs by nesting more than one sidebar in the side position with incompatible formatting, the results are visble on the published page. I have done this once or twice; it is obvious and easy to correct.

The program calls the "container" sidebar, which in turn recursively accesses the other sidebars within the container. I most often do this for alignment on the right (or left) side of the text. As touched on earlier, this ensures a uniform margin and eliminates txt bleed between sidebars.

Likewise, I have manually appended nested sidebars at the article's tail for several articles. For an example, look at DSM-V: Annotated List Of TS-Si.org Articles (Update). Both the text box and signature close are nested in a container sidebar. Both of the nested sidebars are used in other articles.

This conforms to a rock solid database management pratice of maintaining one-to-many relationships. This is no different than how sidebars work in the first place.

Just because the program calls for appending a sidebar to a category should not matter. The same prnciples apply.

Let me point out that the "nesting" functionality is one of the strongest arguments for using Sidebars in the first place. It is a real productivity booster and enhances the presentation. If I had to choose, I would take nesting over the crippled category feature any day.

I am told that nothing will happen on this issue until next week. Let's hope we get a solution.

Sharon

Yes, we still working on your ticket.
Thanks for your patience.