Alloy Blog page with NO blog entries visible

Foundry Alloy
1

Hello. I’m using Alloy for something it may not have been intended for so have a weird request. I’m building an online database of hospital drugs with each blog entry being a separate drug. Using Alloy will allow other experts to edit & update them without having to use Rapidweaver.

Each drug (blog) entry is accessed via the search bar which I see must be displayed on a Blog page. There will be about 200+ different entries. At the moment the search bar sits above all the most recent drug entries I’ve created which are in date order (not alphabetical).

Two dumb questions:

  • Can I hide all the blog entries so they are only displayed when accessed through the search bar? (i.e. can there be a Layout Style in the blog stack that is blank)
  • If not, is there a way to order all the blog entries alphabetically (by title which in this case is the name of the drug) so users can at least scroll through many pages to find the one they want (rather than the current order which is random depending on which entry was last edited).

Sorry for the strange request. You’ve created an awesome blogging tool but also (maybe by mistake), a great user-driven searchable online database!
Thanks
Alex

2

Unfortunately @alexps neither of those is in the realm of what Alloy was designed to do. I know people look at Alloy as a CMS but it really is not. It is a classic blog platform. It can be tweaked to do a lot it wasn’t made for — I’ve seen it — but what you’re describing isn’t something it can do. I am sorry.

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Please don’t apologise. It’s an awesome add-on to RW. I figured if I didn’t ask I’d never know. There’s nothing else I’ve seen that comes close & the fact people are using it as a CMS (despite your intent) shows what a great product it is.

1 Like
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Of course. It is not a problem. Maybe some of the people that work Alloy into doing things I didn’t think of when I made it will have an idea of how to achieve your goal.