Sort cities by country?

[qrush]

Seems like this would be easier for organization of the sidebar.

• Reformat _config.yml to use new data structure
• Add countries to existing cities
• Nest cities into countries in _layouts/default.html
• Change generator in Rakefile for cities to include country on input and on output into _config.yml

[aquaranto]

Or maybe have expandable sections for each country?

[qrush]

Sure, either works. @jameschildress what say you?

[jahio]

I like the expandable sections by country option myself, but either is a good move in my opinion. So +1

[justinxreese]

I don't like the sound of the expanding menu because the bulk of the cities are in the US and will therefor require an extra click.

I'd support a nested menu though. Same idea with no clicks.

[anoldguy]

Thoughts...

1. Yes, that's a UX issue, and I don't know how to solve it.
2. Ethnocentricity, man... How do we put all of the countries on an equal footing and solve the UX issue?

What would a nested menu look like? Do you have a mockup?

[justinxreese]

@anoldguy Just a really simple mockup here in the comments section, because either way the actual look of this is still to be determined.

The countries are the top level sorted by number of cities inside or alphabetically.

US

• Atlanta
• Austin
• Buffalo
• Birmingham

Canada

• Toronto
• Windsor

China

• Beijing

[jahio]

regarding point number 2 on ethnocentricity, I personally see nothing wrong with going either by number of openhacks per country or alphabetizing by country. Either way has a logical reason behind it and therefore no need for anyone to feel that some one's not on equal footing. It's just numbers and/or letters.

[qrush]

So we can use this data structure in _config.yml:

---
countries:
 USA:
  - atlanta:
      name: Atlanta, GA
  - buffalo:
      name: Atlanta, GA
 Canada:
  - waterloo:
      name: Waterloo, ON
  - toronto:
      name: Toronto, ON

Looping through it is dumb, but works:

{% for country in site.countries %}
  {{ country.first }}

  {% for city in country.last %}
    {{ city.first.first }}
    {{ city.first.last.name }}
  {% endfor %}
{% endfor %}

[anoldguy]

Looks like a good 80/20, and fixes the issue we have. If you don't tackle it, I'll try to get to it tomorrow.