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Rarst,

You say our question can not be answered because it is vague, and therefore have shut it down. I can not imagine how I could be more specific. I outlined exactly how we got to the current situation, and what we wanted to accomplish. What more could possible be provided?

Original Question -> Establishing multi-layer pages

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  • A closed comment can still be edited. If you need to clarify things or ask questions, please do so on the original question. Otherwise, please take the conversation to Meta ... where I'm moving this thread because it doesn't belong here.
    – EAMann
    Jun 5, 2012 at 17:38
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    the problem with your original question is that it's not specific. @Rarst's answer is pretty much what we can give you at this point: yes, it is possible to have multi-layered pages. But unless you come with some code to evaluate or some specific smaller problems to solve, this just looks like you want someone to do your work for you.
    – moraleida
    Jun 5, 2012 at 17:43
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    There you go, Jon. This one meta-question brought some quite notable answers to your very specific question "What more could possible be provided?". After you pass this arquitectural deadlock you'll find truly helpful folks around here for the long road you still have ahead. Best regards and welcome to WPSE :)
    – brasofilo
    Jun 5, 2012 at 18:28

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I think your first-hand knowledge of how your site is supposed to be working might be compromising your ability to explain it.

"Multi-layer pages" doesn't tell WP developer anything. It's not a term that WP development glossary has. You are not providing any examples of how it worked on your previous site, you are not providing examples of your progress on WP implementation and you are not operating with WP terminology. There is barely three sentences in a wall of rant about your actual issue. As for me that doesn't qualify clear question with sufficient details.

I feel and understand your frustration at being pretty much forced to deal with WP by circumstances.

However it is not a function of WPSE to wave a magic wand and make all your problems go away. It is to help you work through your problem, in scope and with effort reasonable for other people to get involved.

So please try to limit outpour of emotions and pile up technical details. If you are not the person that is dealing hands-on with actual code it might be better to task people in that role with formulating and asking questions about your situation.

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  • True dat. I don't understand jack sh1t as to what is meant by "multiple layers". Navigational depth (menus), ajax dependent content? I can only guess.
    – Johannes Pille
    Jun 13, 2012 at 15:10
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A "good" question on this site is one that can be answered. This doesn't mean it needs to be an easy question, but it needs to be clear and concise.

Your original question really just needs to be cleared up to be more clear and, really, should be split into more than one question. Here's the question as you asked it:

Our web hosting service had a technical failure erasing our drupal-based web site, and now says they can only support WordPress. So we have spent months trying to rebuild the site. WordPress must have more functionality than they are able to support, or no one would use it. I have spent more than 40 hours trying to rebuild our page structure. We need multi-layer pages, such that the first page lists for example date ranges for back issues from our magazine. The second layer would be full tables of content for each issue in that range. The third layer would be selected articles. People would click through the layers. It is inconceivable that WordPress does not allow so basic a level of functionality, but nothing I can find speaks to how to accomplish this.

You should really break this up into sections. You're providing background (which is great) but that should be clearly separate from your actual question:

Background

Our web hosting service had a technical failure erasing our Drupal-based web site, and now says they can only support WordPress. So we have spent months trying to rebuild the site.

Now that we know what boat you're in and have some context for your issue. Next, explain what you're trying to accomplish:

Objective

We need multi-layer pages in WordPress.

  • The first page needs to list, for example, date ranges for back issues from our magazine.
  • A second layer page would be the full Table of Contents for each issue within that particular date range
  • The third layer page would present the actual article
  • People would click through to each of the layers.

Now that we know where you're coming from and what you're trying to do, ask about a specific issue you're facing. Don't just ask "how do I do this," although now we have enough information to understand what "this" is. Instead, be as specific as you can:

I have done some research on WordPress, but haven't yet found any articles, tutorials, or illustrations that explain how this kind of multi-level navigation can work. What do I need to set up to build out this kind of layered page tree?

With that question in hand, you'll get a lot of answers. This is actually a pretty standard navigation structure and, if you ask your question clearly enough, you will get the information you need.

But your original question wasn't really a question. You don't have any "how do I" or "what is" or "where do I" questions in that block of text. Instead, you explain briefly where you came from, what you're trying to do, and close with a statement about how you are confident WordPress can do it. But you never actually ask anything.

That's why your question was closed. But a closed question is not a closed door ... it's our way of marking a question as "needs more work." Take the "this is vague and can't be answered" feedback and use it to clear things up. Re-edit your question to make it more concise and we can re-open it.

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    Doesn't look like anyone else is commenting on the elephant in the room... if the webhost had failure, lost data, and can no longer host Drupal... the real answer to all this is to find a new host. There's no real reason to re-architect a site and learn a whole new framework just to stick with a bad host.
    – user1337
    Jun 5, 2012 at 20:35
  • @user1337 from the discussion on original question Drupal version of the site was lost. But I agree completely that the host seems crazy bad.
    – Rarst
    Jun 6, 2012 at 11:10
  • @Rarst I would hope that the OP at least had a backup of the theme files or at least something that would get them rolling more quickly. Even still, the methodology behind Drupal and WP is very different so trying to learn a new CMS and make it do with another one did just doesn't make any sense.
    – user1337
    Jun 6, 2012 at 15:14
  • @user1337 I don't disagree, but since OP explicitly said old Drupal site is lost and not recoverable it's a moot point in this case.
    – Rarst
    Jun 6, 2012 at 16:54
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Jon,

You appear to be frustrated with WordPress, in that you are trying to fit your previous site architecture into a platform which out of the box does not support your structure immediately.

You said "I can not believe it is not possible to have multiple levels in WordPress."

Its entirely possible and I'd go as far as saying easily done, however that ease of doing such a thing is relative to my experience where I do this type of thing day-in-day-out, where as you being new to WordPress will find yourself out of your depth.

WordPress doesn't make any assumptions about the architecture you might need, however it does provide you a powerful API system for which you can abstract data in any way you'd like.

Your question is broad, in that it contains multiple parts, each of which are unique to your use-case and would otherwise require you to;

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