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Organizing content with taxonomies

A taxonomyA content-level categorization system that uses one-to-many relationships (such as Ronald Reagan is to Actor, Governor, and President) to create a scalable organization of content. A taxonomy lets your site visitors go content independent of the folder structure. is a top-level navigation structure, independent of the folder structure. It provides site visitors with multiple access routes to content. A taxonomy contains 1 or more categories.

NOTE: A taxonomy is essentially the highest-level category. You can perform most of the same operations on a taxonomy that you can a category.

For example, a taxonomy about Books can have categories called Nonfiction, Entertainment, Mystery, and so on. A site visitor may look for a book about Ronald Reagan's acting career and find it in the Entertainment category. Another visitor may look for a book about his political career and find it in the Nonfiction category. Although you store all the books that were written about Ronald Reagan in 1 Workarea folder called Famous People, the taxonomy assignments let your site visitors access information in the way that they think about Ronald Reagan (such as Actor, US Governor, or US President).

The following example shows the hierarchy of a taxonomy and it categories and sub-categories. A category can have any number of sub-categories. In the OnTrek sample site, the OnTrek Site Navigation taxonomy has Products, Services, Clients, Support, Company, and Community categories. Similarly, the Products category has Software, Hardware, and Training sub-categories.

You can use taxonomies in many ways such as helping site visitors narrow shopping choices in the immediate vicinity with GeoMapping, or organizing a photo album by categories, or organizing group discussion board topics, and so on.

Best Practice—Design a Taxonomy before Creating it

It helps to design a taxonomy on paper before creating it in Ektron. This can let you determine relationships among the kinds of information before you try to implement the taxonomy.

Review the site content and decide which content items and folders to assign to taxonomy categories. Some categories might map directly to a folder. Other categories might refer to content from several folders. After you determine how content and folders should be assigned to taxonomy categories, log in to Ektron and set up those relationships.

A taxonomy directory control can create the navigation on your website automatically. When the content is tagged with a category, it automatically shows up in the correct section of the site. The author does not need to know where the content is going to show up because the taxonomy tagging determines that. If you are managing large amounts of information, this use of taxonomy is especially powerful.

Creating a taxonomy and its associated categories

Prerequisite

Only Administrators group members and those assigned the Taxonomy Administrator rolecan perform these actions.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies > Taxonomies.
  2. Use the View > language selector to choose a language for the taxonomy.

    See also: Working with taxonomies in a multi-language environment

  3. Click Add Taxonomy. The Add Taxonomy screen appears.

  4. Complete the screen with the following information.
    • Category Title. Give the taxonomy a title. The title identifies the taxonomy wherever it appears. The title cannot contain these four characters: <> , '.
    • Category Description. If desired, enter a more complete description of the taxonomy. It appears only on the Edit Taxonomy screen.
    • Taxonomy Image. If desired, you can assign an image to this taxonomy. For example, in the eCommerceAs of Ektron version 9.10, Ektron has discontinued new development on its eCommerce module. If you have a license to eCommerce, you will continue to receive support, but if you need to upgrade, contact your account manager for options. feature, you could display an image that indicates the type of products that make up the taxonomy.

      To display the taxonomy image, use Ektron’s API.

    • Template. If desired, select a template to apply to the taxonomy or category. See also: Creating a taxonomy-based search on a Web page.
    • Inherit (only appears when creating a category underneath a taxonomy). Check this box if you want this category to inherit its template from the parent category or taxonomy. If not, assign a template using the Template field (above).
    • Category Link. Use this field to direct a site visitor who clicks this taxonomy or category to a page on your website. For example, when someone is using your site’s company directory and clicks Human Resources > Benefits, he is directed to that area of your site.

      Without a Category Link, if a site visitor clicks a taxonomy category, the results appear on the same page.

      Enter a path to a destination page relative to your site root folder. For example, aboutus.aspx. When a site visitor clicks this taxonomy or category, the site visitor is directed to http://your-URL/siteroot/aboutus.aspx.

      You could also direct the user to a content ID, such as aboutus.aspx?id=62.

    • Synchronize Languages. Check this box to synchronize all language versions of content assigned to this taxonomy. That is, maintain the same content in multiple language versions of a taxonomy. The maintenance only occurs when one of the affected content items is published.

      For example

      • there are English and Spanish versions of the taxonomy 'Press Releases'
      • content ID 406 exists in English and Spanish

      If you add content ID 406 to the English 'Press Releases' taxonomy then publish that content, Spanish content ID 406 is added to the Spanish 'Press Releases' taxonomy.

      Conversely, if you delete content ID 406 from the Spanish 'Press Releases' taxonomy then publish that content, content ID 406 is removed from the English 'Press Releases' taxonomy.

      As another example

      • there are English and a Spanish versions of the taxonomy 'Press Releases'
      • content ID 407 exists in English only

      If you add content ID 407 to the English 'Press Releases' taxonomy then publish that content, the Spanish 'Press Releases' taxonomy is not affected, since content ID 407 does not exist in Spanish.

      Conversely, if you delete content ID 407 from the English 'Press Releases' taxonomy then publish that content, the Spanish 'Press Releases' taxonomy is not affected, since content ID 407 does not exist in Spanish.

      If you choose to not synchronize languages, when you click publish, Ektron does not synchronize the taxonomy of the content with the same ID but different languages.

      NOTE: This setting is enabled by default. You must disabled it on each node to remove this functionality.

      See also: Working with taxonomies in a multi-language environment

    • Create the Taxonomy in All Languages. Check this box if, whenever a taxonomy is created in the default language, it is also automatically created in all other enabled languages.

      NOTE: This field only appears if you are creating a taxonomy or category and do not check Synchronize Languages. It does not appear on the Edit Taxonomy/Category screen.

    • Display to Users. Check this box if you want this taxonomy or category, and its subcategories, to appear when this taxonomy appears on your website.

      Uncheck this box to block categories from appearing as part of this taxonomy. For example, you have not finished creating content for a category.

      If you uncheck this box, this node and its child nodes are indicated by a gray background in the Workarea.

      The gray background also appears when users work with this taxonomy or category on the Edit Content screen’s Category tab.

      This setting does not prevent you from assigning taxonomies or categories in the Workarea.

    • Apply display setting for all languages. Check this box if you want the Display to Users field value to affect content in all languages, not just the currently-selected language.

    • Configuration. Select a configuration with which to associate the taxonomy.
      • Content
      • User
      • Group

      NOTE: By default, a new taxonomy’s configuration is content. Also, this field only appears for a taxonomy. It does not appear for categories, which are below the taxonomy.

      Custom Properties tab. Let you extend the taxonomy's functionality by creating custom fields to capture additional information.

  5. Click Save. The View Taxonomies screen appears.
  6. Add categories to the new taxonomy by clicking Add Category. The Add Category screen appears.

  1. Enter the Category information. See Step 4 for information about these fields.
  2. When finished, click Save.
  3. Repeat this process for each category you want to add to this taxonomy.

NOTE: You can also assign a Taxonomy to content using the Edit Content in Folder screen’s Category tab.

Assigning taxonomies and categories

You assign taxonomies and categories to content and folders. You also can do it the other way around: assign content and folders to taxonomies and categories.

NOTE: A taxonomy is essentially the highest-level category. You can perform most of the same operations on a taxonomy that you can a category.

The following topics show you how to connect various types of content to categories.

Assigning a taxonomy to content

Use a folder property's Taxonomy tab to determine which taxonomies may be assigned to content in a folder. For example, to restrict Support team members to the OnTrek Site Navigation taxonomy, check the box next to it; those member cannot assign other categories from the Featured Products taxonomy.

Assigning categories to content

When you edit content, if you choose the Category tab, you see Taxonomy categories that you can apply to the content.

The number to the right of any taxonomy or category is the total items assigned to it. For example, the Support taxonomy has 22 items assigned to it. The number includes individual items plus all items in any assigned folders. So, for example, if 1 content item and 1 folder are assigned to a category, and the folder has 5 items, the category’s number is 6.

Assigning categories to a folder

An administrator can make a taxonomy available to a folder.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Folders and then click a folder.
  2. Choose View > Properties.
  3. Click Edit Properties.
  4. On the Taxonomy tab, uncheck the Inherit parent configuration checkbox if it is checked.

    Unlike many folder properties, Taxonomy settings are not inherited from a parent folder by default. But you can cause them to be inherited if that is appropriate. If you are not working on the root folder and the appropriate set of Taxonomies is applied to a folder’s parent folder, go to the folder’s properties screen and check the Inherit parent configuration checkbox.

  5. Check a taxonomy or categories that should be available to this folder.

From now on, users editing content in this folder can assign categories from the selected taxonomies.

Requiring the assignment of at least one category

In folder properties, you can require all content to be assigned at least one taxonomy category. If you do, when content in that folder is saved, Ektron verifies that at least one taxonomy category is assigned. If none is found, the user must assign a taxonomy category before saving the content.

NOTE: If a required category is assigned to an English content item, it also is required (for example) for its corresponding content items in other languages.

To set a folder-level requirement for content to be assigned a taxonomy category:

  1. Go to the folder.
  2. Choose View > Properties.
  3. Click Edit Properties.
  4. Click the Taxonomy tab.
  5. Enable the At least one category is Required checkbox.
  6. Click Update.

Assigning categories to a community group

Prerequisite

You can perform this procedure only if the Group box is enabled on a taxonomy properties screen (Configuration field). Only members of the Administrator user group or those assigned to the Taxonomy Administrator rolecan perform these actions.

You can assign a taxonomy or categories to a community group in the following ways.

Assigning categories to a community group from the community group area

  1. Go to Workarea > Settings > Community Management > Community Groups.
  2. Select a community group.
  3. Click Edit this Community Group.
  4. Click the Category Tab.
  5. Check the taxonomies or categories to apply.

  6. Click Save.

Assigning categories to a community group from the taxonomy area

Members of the administrators group or taxonomy administrators can assign a taxonomy or categories to community groups via the View All Categories of Taxonomy screen. See also: Defining roles

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies.
  2. Select a language whose taxonomies you want to work with. You can choose All.

  3. Select a taxonomy.
  4. Select the category to which you want to assign content.
  5. Click Assign Items to Taxonomy ().
  6. From the View drop-down, choose Community Groups.

  7. A search field appears. Click the search icon to see a list of all community groups. You also can enter one or more letters and only groups containing them appear.

  8. Check the box next to community groups you want to assign.
  9. Click Update.

Assigning categories to a membership user

You can assign a taxonomy or categories to a membership user from the Workarea.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies.
  2. Select a language whose taxonomies you want to work with. You can choose All.

  3. Select a taxonomy.
  4. Select the category to which you want to assign content.
  5. Click Assign Items to Taxonomy ().
  6. From the View drop-down, click Members.

  7. A search field appears. Click the search icon to see a list of all community members. Or, enter one or more letters, and only members containing them appear. You can use the drop-down to specify if you are searching the membership user's first name, last name or user name.

  8. Check the box next to membership users you want to assign.
  9. Click Update.

Assigning categories to a user

Prerequisite

Only members of the Administrator user group or those assigned to the Taxonomy Administrator rolecan perform these actions.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies.
  2. Select a language whose taxonomies you want to work with. You can choose All.

  3. Select a taxonomy.
  4. Select the category to which you want to assign content.
  5. Click Assign Items to Taxonomy ().
  6. From the View drop-down, click CMS Authors.

  7. A search field appears. Click the search icon to see a list of all Ektron users (that is, authors). Or, enter one or more letters, and only users containing them appear. You can also use the drop-down to specify if you are searching the user's first name, last name or user name.

  8. Check the box to the left of the users you want to assign.
  9. Click Update.

Assigning content to categories

Prerequisite

You can perform these procedures only if the Group box is enabled on a taxonomy properties screen (Configuration field). Only members of the Administrator user group or those assigned to the Taxonomy Administrator rolecan perform these actions.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies.
  2. Select a language whose taxonomies you want to work with.
  3. Click a taxonomy.
  4. Check a box next to the category to which you want to assign content.
  5. Click Assign items to taxonomy ().
  6. From the View drop-down, choose Content.

  7. Choose the type of content you want to see via the Type drop-down.

  8. Go to the folder that contains the content you want to assign to the taxonomy or category. The path shows on the screen. Folder content appears below the folder path.
  9. Check the box to the left of content you want to assign. You can assign all types of content, even blogs.

    NOTE: Only content in the selected language appears.

  10. Click Update.

    You can verify that the content was assigned to a category by going to the content block and viewing the Category tab of its properties.

Assigning a folder to categories

Prerequisite

You can perform this procedure only if the Content box is enabled on a taxonomy properties screen (Configuration field). Only members of the Administrator user group or those assigned to the Taxonomy Administrator role can perform these actions.

NOTE: If you assign a folder, a relationship is established between the folder’s content and the taxonomy category. The folder is only a convenience for creating this relationship.
Because there is no relationship between a folder and a taxonomy category, if you delete the folder from the taxonomy, the taxonomy category is still applied to the folder's content.

You can assign a folder to a taxonomy, thereby displaying published content in the folder when the page is viewed. As content is added to or deleted from the folder, the taxonomy on the Web page changes dynamically.

For example, you have a “Top News Stories” folder, in which newer news items are frequently added, and old ones are deleted. The taxonomy only shows the latest news items. The updating of the content is handled by the taxonomy automatically.

IMPORTANT: If you move content from a folder to which a taxonomy category is assigned, the category remains with the content in the new folder. If the new folder also has a taxonomy category assigned, the new category is also applied to the moved content.

To assign a folder to a taxonomy category:

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies.
  2. Select the language of the taxonomy on which to work.
  3. Select the taxonomy or category to which you want to assign a folder.
  4. Click Assign Folders to Taxonomy ().
  5. Go to the folder you want to assign to the taxonomy or category.
  6. Check the folders you want to assign.

    NOTE: Only checked folders are assigned to the taxonomy or category. Checking a parent folder has no effect on its child folders.

  7. Click Update.

Additional tasks for taxonomies and categories

Viewing taxonomies

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies and click on Taxonomies. The View All Taxonomies screen displays all taxonomies currently in Ektron. The language pull down lets you filter the list by a language.
  2. To work with any taxonomy, select it. When you do, it appears within the View All Categories of Taxonomy screen.

  3. Click a taxonomy to view the categories in it. The View Taxonomy screen appears.

Editing a taxonomy

Prerequisite

Only members of the Administrator user group or those assigned to the Taxonomy Administrator rolecan perform these actions.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies.
  2. Select the taxonomy from the list of taxonomies.
  3. Click Edit (). The following screen appears.

For a description of these fields, see Creating a taxonomy and its associated categories.

Adding a taxonomy or category

Prerequisite

Only members of the Administrator user group or those assigned to the Taxonomy Administrator rolecan perform these actions.

To add a category to a taxonomy, or to add a subcategory to a category:

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies.
  2. Select the taxonomy or category under which you want to create a new category.
  3. Click Add Category. The Add Category screen appears.
  4. Complete the fields for the new category.
    • Category Title. Give the taxonomy a title. The title identifies the taxonomy wherever it appears.
    • Category Description. If desired, enter a more complete description of the taxonomy. It appears only on the Edit Taxonomy screen.
    • Taxonomy Image. If desired, you can assign an image to this taxonomy. For example, in the eCommerceAs of Ektron version 9.10, Ektron has discontinued new development on its eCommerce module. If you have a license to eCommerce, you will continue to receive support, but if you need to upgrade, contact your account manager for options. feature, you could display an image that indicates the type of products that make up the taxonomy.

      To display the taxonomy image, use Ektron’s API.

    • Template. If desired, select a template to apply to the taxonomy or category. See also: Creating a taxonomy-based search on a Web page
    • Inherit (only appears when creating a category underneath a taxonomy). Check this box if you want this category to inherit its template from the parent category or taxonomy. If not, assign a template using the Template field (above).
    • Category Link. Use this field to direct a site visitor who clicks this taxonomy or category to a page on your website. For example, when someone is using your site’s company directory and clicks Human Resources > Benefits, he is directed to that area of your site.

      Without a Category Link, if a site visitor clicks a taxonomy category, the results appear on the same page.

      Enter a path to a destination page relative to your site root folder. For example, aboutus.aspx. When a site visitor clicks this taxonomy or category, the site visitor is directed to http://your-URL/siteroot/aboutus.aspx.

      You could also direct the user to a content ID, such as aboutus.aspx?id=62.

    • Synchronize Languages. Check this box to synchronize all language versions of content assigned to this taxonomy. That is, maintain the same content in multiple language versions of a taxonomy.

      For example

      • you have English and Spanish versions of the taxonomy 'Press Releases'
      • content ID 406 exists in English and Spanish

      If you add content ID 406 to the English 'Press Releases' taxonomy, Spanish content ID 406 is added to the Spanish 'Press Releases' taxonomy.

      Conversely, if you delete content ID 406 from the Spanish 'Press Releases' taxonomy, content ID 406 is removed from the English 'Press Releases' taxonomy.

      As another example

      • you have English and a Spanish versions of the taxonomy 'Press Releases'
      • content ID 407 exists in English only

      If you add content ID 407 to the English 'Press Releases' taxonomy, the Spanish 'Press Releases' taxonomy is not affected, since content ID 407 does not exist in Spanish.

      Conversely, if you delete content ID 407 from the English 'Press Releases' taxonomy, the Spanish 'Press Releases' taxonomy is not affected, since content ID 407 does not exist in Spanish.

      See also: Working with taxonomies in a multi-language environment

    • Create the Taxonomy in All Languages. Check this box if, whenever a taxonomy is created in the default language, it is also automatically created in all other enabled languages.
    • Enable. Check this box if you want this taxonomy or category, and its subcategories, to appear when this taxonomy appears on your website.

      Uncheck this box to block categories from appearing as part of this taxonomy. For example, you have not finished creating content for a category.

      If you uncheck this box, this node and its child nodes are indicated by a gray background in the Workarea.

      The gray background also appears when users work with this taxonomy or category on the Edit Content screen’s Category tab.

      This setting does not prevent you from assigning taxonomies or categories in the Workarea.

    • Configuration. Select a configuration with which to associate the taxonomy.
      • Content
      • User
      • Group

      NOTE: By default, a new taxonomy’s configuration is content. Also, this field only appears for a taxonomy. It does not appear for categories, which are below the taxonomy.

      Custom Properties tab. Let you extend the taxonomy's functionality by creating custom fields to capture additional information.

  5. Click Save.

Copying and moving a taxonomy or category

You can move any taxonomy or category to any other taxonomy or category. There are 2 ways to do this.

Copying and moving a taxonomy or category using a toolbar button

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies and open the category that you want to move or copy.
  2. Click Move/copy (). A dialog appears.
  3. Select a taxonomy category to which you want to move/copy the current category.

  4. Click
    • right arrow () to move the taxonomy or category to the new location
    • Copy to the current Taxonomy to copy the taxonomy or category to the new location

Copying and moving a category using menu options

  1. From the left panel of the Taxonomy area, right click a category.
  2. Choose Cut category name or Copy category name.
  3. Hover over the destination category
  4. Click Paste Taxonomy.

Deleting a taxonomy or category

WARNING! When you delete a taxonomy, existing links to content (on the Category tab) are deleted. If a taxonomy was assigned to a folder (on the Folder Properties screen), it is no longer assigned.

NOTE: Only certain users are allowed to delete Ektron taxonomies. See Auditing changes.

Deleting a taxonomy from View All Taxonomies screen

Prerequisite

Only members of the Administrator user group or those assigned to the Taxonomy Administrator rolecan perform these actions.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies.
  2. From the View All Taxonomies screen, check the box next to the taxonomy you want to delete.
  3. Click Delete ().

    NOTE: The delete button does not appear if the language selector is set to All.

Deleting a category from View All Categories screen

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies.
  2. Select a taxonomy from the list of taxonomies. The taxonomy items and properties appear on the right.
  3. Click Delete ().
  4. Click OK.

Removing content from a taxonomy or category

Prerequisite

Only members of the Administrator user group or those assigned to the Taxonomy Administrator rolecan perform these actions.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies.
  2. Select a taxonomy or category.
  3. Check the box to the left of content you want to remove.

  4. Click Remove Items.

Removing a folder from a taxonomy or category

Prerequisite

Only members of the Administrator user group or those assigned to the Taxonomy Administrator rolecan perform these actions.

If you assign a content folder to a taxonomy category, the internal relationship is between the folder’s content and a taxonomy category. A folder is merely a convenience for creating this relationship. There is no data connection between a folder and a taxonomy category.

Therefore, if you delete a content folder from a taxonomy category, all content in that folder remains assigned to it. To remove the folder’s content from the category, see Removing content from a taxonomy or category.

However, after deleting a content folder, the connection between the folder and taxonomy category is broken. So, content subsequently added to the folder is not assigned to the taxonomy.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies.
  2. Select the taxonomy or category that has the folder that you want to delete.
  3. From the View drop-down, select Folder(s).

  4. Check the box next to folders you want to remove.

    NOTE: To remove all folders, check the box in the title bar.

  5. Click Remove Items.

Reordering categories

Prerequisite

Only members of the Administrator user group or those assigned the Taxonomy Administrator rolecan perform these actions.

You can reorder the categories of a taxonomy or one of its categories. Reordered subcategories appear only within the Workarea.

To reorder the categories assigned to a taxonomy or category:

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomy.
  2. Select a taxonomy or category that has content that you want to reorder.
  3. Click Reorder ().
  4. Set the Type drop-down list to Category.

  5. Select an item then click the up or down arrow to move it in that direction.
  6. Continue step 5 until the content is in the desired order.
  7. If there are several language versions of this taxonomy, you can automatically reorder all versions. To do that, check Apply ordering for all languages.

  8. Click Update.

Reordering content assigned to a taxonomy category

You can reorder (that is, change the sequence of) content within a category. Reordered content appears within the Workarea and can appear on your website of the Directory server control’s ItemSortOrder property is set to taxonomy_item_display_order.

To reorder the content assigned to a category:

Prerequisite

Only members of the Administrator user group or those assigned to the Taxonomy Administrator rolecan perform these actions.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies.
  2. Select the taxonomy or category that has the content that you want to reorder.
  3. Click Reorder ().
  4. Set the Type drop-down list to items.

  5. All items assigned to the category appear.
  6. Select an item then click the up or down arrow to move it in that direction.
  7. Continue step 6 until all content is in the desired order.
  8. Click Update.

Creating a taxonomy-based search on a Web page

A site visitor can search your website by its taxonomy structure when a developer places a Directory server controlA server control uses API language to interact with the CMS and Framework UI to display the output. A server control can be dragged and dropped onto a Web form and then modified. on a Web page. The following image shows a taxonomy displayed through the Directory server control.

When a site visitor clicks a hyperlink on a Web page that has the Directory server control, it uses the template assigned to the linked content (such as default.aspx shown in the following example).

To display the linked content in a different template:

  1. When creating or editing a taxonomy or category, select the appropriate template at the Template pull-down field (shown above).

    NOTE: Any category below the root level can inherit its parent’s taxonomy template. Use the Inherit checkbox to do this.

    You may need a developer’s help with the remaining steps.

  2. In Visual Studio, open the .aspx page that contains the directory server control.
  3. Look at the server control’s MarkupLanguage property.
  4. If the property is blank, open the following file: siteroot/workarea/template/taxonomy/taxonomy.ekml.

    If the property displays an EkMLEktron Markup Language file, open that file. Its path may be listed in the property. If the .ekml file’s path is blank, it is workarea/template/taxonomy/.

  5. Find the following line: [$HyperLink]<br/>[$Teaser]
  6. Replace it with the following: <a href="[$TemplateQuickLink]">[$Title]</a><br/>[$Teaser]
  7. Save the .ekml file.

The content selected from this Directory server control will use the template assigned to the taxonomy or category.

Importing and exporting a taxonomy

You can export any taxonomy as an xml file. Then, you can reuse it or send it to someone else, who would import it to bring a copy of it onto their computer.

You can use the Export/Import feature like a “save as” feature. For example, you want to create a taxonomy that is similar to an existing one but has a few differences. The easiest way to do this is to export an existing one, import it under a new name, and edit it.

Note that imported categories have no content or folders assigned to them. The import and export only includes the category names, hierarchy, and properties.

<ArrayOfTaxonomyData 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <TaxonomyData>
    <TaxonomyId>959</TaxonomyId>
    <TaxonomyName>Bob Taxonomy</TaxonomyName>
    <TaxonomyLanguage>1033</TaxonomyLanguage>
     <TaxonomyLanguageName>English (U.S.)</TaxonomyLanguageName>
     <TaxonomyDescription>Sample</TaxonomyDescription>
     <Taxonomy>
       <TaxonomyData>
         <TaxonomyId>960</TaxonomyId>
         <TaxonomyName>Subnode</TaxonomyName>
         <TaxonomyLanguage>1033</TaxonomyLanguage>
         <TaxonomyLanguageName>English (U.S.)</TaxonomyLanguageName>

       </TaxonomyData>
     </Taxonomy>
   </TaxonomyData>
 </ArrayOfTaxonomyData>

Exporting a taxonomy

Exporting a taxonomy means saving it as an .xml file on your computer or network drive. To export a taxonomy:

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies.
  2. Select the language of the taxonomy that you want to export.
  3. All taxonomies in that language appear.
  4. Click a taxonomy that you want to export.
  5. Click Export Taxonomy ().
  6. You are prompted to select a folder into which to save it.

Importing a taxonomy

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Taxonomies > Taxonomies.
  2. Click Import Taxonomy (). The Import Taxonomy screen appears.

  3. In the Title field, enter a name for the new taxonomy.
  4. Click Browse.
  5. Go to the taxonomy file you want to import. The path appears in the Files field.

    NOTE: Alternatively, you can enter or paste the xml into the XML box.

  6. Determine the taxonomy’s configuration.
    • Content. Associate this taxonomy with content.
    • User. Associate this taxonomy with Ektron users or membership users.
    • Group. Associate this taxonomy with community groups. (See the Category tab of the Edit Community Group screen.)
  7. Click Import Taxonomy.

Creating and assigning taxonomy custom properties

Prerequisite

Only members of the Administrator user group or those assigned to the Taxonomy Administrator rolecan perform these actions.

Custom properties let you extend the functionality of a taxonomyA content-level categorization system that uses one-to-many relationships (such as Ronald Reagan is to Actor, Governor, and President) to create a scalable organization of content. A taxonomy lets your site visitors go content independent of the folder structure. by creating custom fields to capture additional information. Custom properties act like metadata for taxonomies and categories.

For example, your organization manages a nationwide chain of retail stores. You create a Sales Regions taxonomy, where each category represents a different geographic region (Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest).

You can create a custom taxonomy property named Regional Manager and use it to create a list of regional managers.

  1. Go to Workarea >Settings > Configuration > Custom Properties.
  2. Select the language of the new custom property. You will only be able to apply the custom property to taxonomies/categories in this language.
  3. From the ObjectType drop-down, click Taxonomy.

  1. Click Add. The Add Custom Property screen appears.

    • Name. Enter the custom property name. The name identifies the custom property on the Edit Taxonomy screen's Custom Properties tab.
    • Editable. Check this box to let the user (who is applying this custom property) choose a value or edit the default value. Uncheck the box if the user cannot choose or edit the value. In this case, the user is only applying the property. If a property is not editable and has several values (type string: select from list or boolean), only the first or selected value is applied to the property.

      For example, assume you manage an auto parts stores and want a custom taxonomy property to indicate if a car can be repaired at a facility. You create a property named Repair Services Available, and make it boolean and editable. Then, the person applying that custom property to a taxonomy category can choose Yes or No to indicate if repair services are available.

    • Enabled. Check this box if this property can be applied to a taxonomy or categories. If you uncheck this box, this property does not appear on the Edit Taxonomy screen's Custom Properties tab.
    • Data Type.
      • String. a series of characters
      • Boolean. true (yes) or false (no)
      • Numeric. a series of numbers
      • DateTime. one or more dates and times selected from a calendar popup
    • Display Type/Value. If the Data Type is String, Numeric or DateTime, you have 2 choices.

      NOTE: If the Data Type is boolean, select either Yes or No.

      • Select a single value. the property accepts one value
      • Select from a list. the property accepts several values. When you choose this option, a lower field appears. (See previous image.)

        In the top field, insert a value then click Add. When you do, the value moves to the lower field. Continue until all values are entered.

        If you want to edit the order of the values, select a value and then use the up/down arrows to the right of the lower field..

        NOTE: If Editable is checked and you insert several values, the user applying the custom property can choose the value. If Editable is not checked, the first value is applied to the custom property.

  2. Click Save. The View Taxonomy Custom Properties Screen appears.
  3. Go to Content > Taxonomies > Sales Regions > {region} and click Edit (). The Edit Taxonomy screen appears.
  4. Click the Custom Properties tab.
  5. Choose Regional Manager from the Select a Custom Property drop-down and click Add ().
  6. Choose the manager from the Value drip-down that you want to assign to the selected region.

  7. Click Update.
  8. Access each region category, click the Custom Properties tab, and apply a manager to the region.

Editing a taxonomy custom property

  1. Go to Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Custom Properties.
  2. Select the language of the custom property.
  3. From the ObjectType drop-down, click Taxonomy.

  4. Click the Title of the custom taxonomy property you want to edit.
  5. The Edit Custom Property screen appears.
  6. Move to the field you want to change. You can edit the Name, Editable, Enables, and Value fields.

    NOTE: You cannot edit the ID, Language, CMS Object Type, Data Type, or Display Type fields. If you need to change these fields, delete the custom property and create a new one.

    • Name. Enter the custom property name. The name identifies the custom property on the Edit Taxonomy screen's Custom Properties tab.
    • Editable. Check this box to let the user (who is applying this custom property) choose a value or edit the default value. Uncheck the box if the user cannot choose or edit the value. In this case, the user is only applying the property. If a property is not editable and has several values (type string: select from list or boolean), only the first or selected value is applied to the property.

      For example, assume you manage an auto parts stores and want a custom taxonomy property to indicate if a car can be repaired at a facility. You create a property named Repair Services Available, and make it boolean and editable. Then, the person applying that custom property to a taxonomy category can choose Yes or No to indicate if repair services are available.

    • Enabled. Check this box if this property can be applied to a taxonomy or categories. If you uncheck this box, this property does not appear on the Edit Taxonomy screen's Custom Properties tab.
    • Value. If the Data Type is String, Numeric or DateTime, you have 2 choices.

      NOTE: If the Data Type is boolean, select either Yes or No.

      • Select a single value. the property accepts one value
      • Select from a list. the property accepts several values. When you choose this option, a lower field appears. (See previous image.)

        In the top field, insert a value then click Add. When you do, the value moves to the lower field. Continue until all values are entered.

        If you want to edit the order of the values, select a value and then use the up/down arrows to the right of the lower field..

        NOTE: If Editable is checked and you insert several values, the user applying the custom property can choose the value. If Editable is not checked, the first value is applied to the custom property.

  7. Click Save.

Deleting a taxonomy custom property

If you delete a taxonomy custom property, it cannot be assigned to additional taxonomy and categories, but it remains assigned to all taxonomy and categories to which it is assigned.

To delete a custom taxonomy property:

  1. Go to Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Custom Properties.
  2. From the ObjectType drop-down, click Taxonomy.

  3. Select the language of the custom property.
  4. Click the Title of the property you want to delete.
  5. Click Delete (). A dialog box asks you to confirm.
  6. Click OK.

Reordering taxonomy custom property values

  1. Go to Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Custom Properties.
  2. From the ObjectType drop-down, click Taxonomy.

  3. Select the language of the custom property.
  4. Click the Title of the custom taxonomy property.
  5. In the Value field, select item that you want to reorder.

  6. Click the Up or Down arrows to move the value up or down.
  7. Click Save.

Saving a taxonomy custom property in a different language

When you save a taxonomy custom property in a different language, Ektron creates a new (different language) version of the content that is not linked to the original content. If you edit or delete the original language version, your edits do not affect the new version. (However, the new version uses the same ID number as the original language version.)

To create a custom taxonomy property in another language:

  1. Go to Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Custom Properties.
  2. Select the language of the custom property.
  3. From the ObjectType drop-down, click Taxonomy.

  4. Click the Title of the custom taxonomy property to be created in another language.
  5. From the Add drop-down, select the language in which you want to create the custom property.

    NOTE: The Add drop-down shows enabled languages for which this custom property does not already exist.

  6. Complete the fields for the new category.
    • Name. Enter the custom property name. The name identifies the custom property on the Edit Taxonomy screen's Custom Properties tab.
    • Editable. Check this box to let the user (who is applying this custom property) choose a value or edit the default value. Uncheck the box if the user cannot choose or edit the value. In this case, the user is only applying the property. If a property is not editable and has several values (type string: select from list or boolean), only the first or selected value is applied to the property.

      For example, assume you manage an auto parts stores and want a custom taxonomy property to indicate if a car can be repaired at a facility. You create a property named Repair Services Available, and make it boolean and editable. Then, the person applying that custom property to a taxonomy category can choose Yes or No to indicate if repair services are available.

    • Enabled. Check this box if this property can be applied to a taxonomy or categories. If you uncheck this box, this property does not appear on the Edit Taxonomy screen's Custom Properties tab.
    • Data Type.
      • String. a series of characters
      • Boolean. true (yes) or false (no)
      • Numeric. a series of numbers
      • DateTime. one or more dates and times selected from a calendar pop-up
    • Display Type/Value. If the Data Type is String, Numeric or DateTime, you have 2 choices.

      NOTE: If the Data Type is boolean, select either Yes or No.

      • Select a single value. the property accepts one value
      • Select from a list. the property accepts several values. When you choose this option, a lower field appears. (See previous image.)

        In the top field, insert a value then click Add. When you do, the value moves to the lower field. Continue until all values are entered.

        If you want to edit the order of the values, select a value and then use the up/down arrows to the right of the lower field..

        NOTE: If Editable is checked and you insert several values, the user applying the custom property can choose the value. If Editable is not checked, the first value is applied to the custom property.

  7. Click Save.

Working with taxonomies in a multi-language environment

When creating a taxonomy, you select a language. At that point, a version of that taxonomy is created in each enabled language. For example, you create a taxonomy in English, and French and Spanish are also enabled (in the Settings > Language Settings screen). Ektron now has English, French, and Spanish versions of that taxonomy. Each taxonomy ID is the same—only the language IDs are different.

You do not need to use all language versions. And, if you add a new category to a taxonomy, it is automatically added to all language versions of that taxonomy. Also, if you enable a new Workarea language, a version of every taxonomy is automatically created in that language. If you disable a language, all of its taxonomies are deleted.

Edits to taxonomy properties

Initially, all related-language versions of a taxonomy inherit properties from the original language version. For example, if you create a taxonomy in English and French is enabled, the French taxonomy description is the same as the English one, as are the taxonomy image, taxonomy template, value of Display? checkbox, and so on.

After the initial creation of the related-language versions, changes to taxonomy properties affect the current language only—they do not affect the related-language versions.

Assigning content to a multi-language taxonomy

You can only apply content to a taxonomy category whose language matches the taxonomy language.

If the Synchronize Languages field on the Taxonomy Properties screen is checked, and you assign content to an English taxonomy, content with the same ID in the other languages is assigned to the other language versions.

For example, you apply content ID=30, Ektron Server Controls to 1 or more categories of an English language taxonomy. If that same taxonomy also exists in German, and there is corresponding German content (also ID=30), it is applied to the corresponding category in the related German taxonomy.

If you remove content from a taxonomy in any language, it is removed from all language-related taxonomies. However, if you remove a folder from its assignment to a taxonomy or category, the content in that folder is still applied.

WARNING! If you delete a taxonomy, all related language versions are also deleted.

Assigning a folder to a multi-language taxonomy

When you assign a folder to a taxonomy category, you indicate that all folder content is assigned to that node. Ektron folders are language-neutral, so the folder is also applied to the corresponding taxonomy category in every language. However, only folder content that matches the taxonomy’s language is assigned to the taxonomy category.

For example, a folder has 3 content blocks.

  • English content in folder—100, 101, and 102
  • German content in folder—100

If you apply that folder to a taxonomy, the English version of the taxonomy gets 3 content blocks assigned, but the German version only gets 1 content block assigned (ID 100).

If content is later added to the folder, new English content is assigned to the English taxonomy, and new German content is assigned to the German taxonomy.

NOTE: If you apply a folder to a taxonomy, numbers on the View Taxonomy screen indicate how many content items are applied to it. Unless you have the same number of content items in each language, this number is different for every language.

Effect of multi-language on folder’s taxonomy properties

If there are several language-related versions of a taxonomy and you select 1 of them then edit a folder’s taxonomy properties, content in the related language inherits the taxonomy folder properties. For example, assume you select English, then apply a taxonomy or categories to a folder’s properties. If you later edit Spanish content in that folder, the corresponding Spanish taxonomy categories are available to be assigned on the Category tab.

The value of the At least one category is Required check box is also inherited. See also: Requiring the assignment of at least one category

Reordering content and categories

If you reorder content assigned to a taxonomy or category, there is no change to corresponding categories in other languages. This is because there is no guarantee that content that exists in 1 language exists in the other languages.

If you reorder categories assigned to a taxonomy or category, you have an option to apply the changes to all language-related categories. See also: Reordering categories

Using taxonomies with social networking

If you have a community or social networking website, you can assign users and community groups to a taxonomyA content-level categorization system that uses one-to-many relationships (such as Ronald Reagan is to Actor, Governor, and President) to create a scalable organization of content. A taxonomy lets your site visitors go content independent of the folder structure.. This lets site visitors search for users and groups by category.

To enable a taxonomy-based search of users and community groups, a developer uses the CommunityGroupBrowser server controlA server control uses API language to interact with the CMS and Framework UI to display the output. A server control can be dragged and dropped onto a Web form and then modified. on your site, which lets a site visitor browse a taxonomy category for community groups. See also: Assigning categories to a community group

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