Understanding Taxonomy, Drupal Camp Colorado, June 2009

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The power and flexibility of Drupal's taxonomy (classification) system is one thing that sets it apart from other CMSs. Yet many Drupal builders fail to fully harness what Drupal gives them in taxonomy. This session will help you get the most from it.Session Overview:- Introduction to taxonomy: what it is.- Clearing up some terminology: what it means.- Current uses, by Drupal core modules, by contributed modules, and on live sites.- How taxonomy relates to the rest of the Drupal framework.- When to use taxonomy and when to use something else, such as custom fields or custom content types.- Modules that further expand the usefulness of taxonomy.

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Drupal TaxonomyGetting the most out of Drupal’s taxonomy system

Session format

• Conversational

• Ask Questions

• “Meetup Style”

Session parts

1. Concepts

2. Implementations

3. Alternatives

Taxonomy is not:

photo by Orin Optiglot

Taxonomy IS:

• Classification

• Categories

• Tags

• Naming

Why Taxonomy

• To organize content (in multiple ways)

• To make it easier to find things

A few live examples

• http://www.developmentseed.org/tags/meetup

• http://www.discerningreader.com/

• http://www.foreignaffairs.com/regions/Africa

• http://www.lynda.com

developmentseed.com

discerningreader.com

foreignaffairs.com

lynda.com

Terminology

• taxonomy "system"

• vocabulary "facet"

• term "category/tag"

• nodes

Terminology

• Taxonomy » Vocabulary » Term

• Taxonomy = Multiple groups of categories

• Vocabulary = Attribute Area (or Category Type)

• examples: “Genre” “Tags” “Color”

• Term = Actual Attribute or Category

• examples: “Romance” “Africa” “Purple”

Basic StructuresFlat Hierarchical

demos

Alternatives

• CCK text fields (dropdowns)

• CCK content_taxonomy fields

• Custom content types (posters vs images)

CCK Text Fields (dropdowns)

• If the list will very seldom change

• Harder for hierarchies

content_taxonomy module

• Maintain lists using taxonomy system

• More separated from the taxonomy system

Content Type

• When you need lots of meta-data, attached fields

• e.g. Actor: Name, Age, Photo, Awards

Questions

• Be kind :)

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