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 :)