Best way to "tag" content

(Birdg) #1

Hi,

 

We are on 4.16.0 and just starting to build a bilingual site using Contexts.

 

We want to tag different types of content in a freeform way (ie not a fixed list of categories) and had been looking at Thesaurus but were advised against it because it might cause performance issues as the usage grew over time (along with the fact that they are not contextable).

 

We also considered multi-value text fields but we want to prevent duplicates where possible and ideally need the tags to be bilingual too. Text strings don't seem like a good way to encourage use of existing tags without some kind of auto-suggest or similar.

 

We were advised to use Data Records instead and "tag" our content by linking between the content itself and the Data Records that represent our tags.

 

This seems like it would work but I've tried to link a Data Record to a Standard Page and to another Data Record with no success. In both cases the system refuses saying that the assets cannot be "TYPE_1" or "TYPE_2" linked to a Data Record.

 

How else could we approach this?

 

Thanks,

 

Graham

(Birdg) #2

I would also be interested to know from Squiz staff whether there are genuine performance concerns with using Thesaurus terms to tag large amounts of content as it seems ideal for this purpose.

 

Thanks,

 

Graham

(Nic Hubbard) #3

I use folders as "Tags". That way I can link content into multiple folder, and list the contents later. It works really well, at least for my purposes.

(Bart Banda) #4

If you use data record assets you will potentially end up with massive linking lists for data record assets which may or may not affect your performance, I haven't done it this way before so not sure if it's a good solution or not, the linking this is the first thing that comes to mind.

 

Have you tried linking the data record asset as a type 3 link under the standard page? I assuming this linking will be done automatically using a trigger or js api or similar right?

(Birdg) #5

Hi,

I really like Nic’s idea of using folders - ingenious!


No one seems to use Thesaurus then…is there a particular reason for that?


Thanks,


Graham

(Nic Hubbard) #6

Hi,
I really like Nic's idea of using folders - ingenious!

No one seems to use Thesaurus then...is there a particular reason for that?

Thanks,

Graham

 

I love it because assets can even list all the "tags" that they have. You can nest in an Asset Listing, look up the tree for folders, and list those parents. Make sure to give it a unique link value.

(Birdg) #7

Hi Nic,

Thanks again. Can you explain a bit more about the unique link value? Do you mean something like “tag” for all of these links or do you mean truly unique such as “tag123456”?


Thanks,


Graham

(Nic Hubbard) #8

Thanks again. Can you explain a bit more about the unique link value? Do you mean something like "tag" for all of these links or do you mean truly unique such as "tag123456"?

 

Yeah, just something like the word tag. Only reason for that is if you ever want to list the tag folder, you would have issues if those assets were linked in any other folder that wasn't a "tag". Know what I mean?

(Birdg) #9

Hi, of course, otherwise you couldn’t tell the difference between “normal” folder links and “tag” folder links. Thanks Nic.

(Birdg) #10

Hi,

 

I got this working as suggested. Thanks Nic.

 

I have a folder called "Tags" which contains subfolders called "biology", "chemistry", etc. I have linked content to these folders using a "tag" link value (although as yet I have not needed it).

 

The content itself is in subfolders within a shared "Content" folder - for example I have "Videos" and "Quotes". The actual content items are Data Records.

 

I can then use an Asset List page to display all items that are tagged with "chemistry". I can also limit the Asset List to a particular content folder by adding the "chemistry" folder and the "Videos" folder as Root Nodes and telling the Asset List to only list items under both. This will result in a list of "chemistry videos".

 

[attachment=670:tagassetlist.jpg]

 

This seems to be working well. Is there anything we need to be aware of when using Asset Lists in this way?

 

Thanks,

 

Graham tagassetlist.jpg (28.4 KB)

(Nic Hubbard) #11

This seems to be working well. Is there anything we need to be aware of when using Asset Lists in this way?

 

Not that I can think of. I have always been really happy with this solution.

(Birdg) #12

Hi Nic,

 

With this solution, how could we display a list of all of the folders that an item is "tagged" with?

 

Thanks,

 

Graham

#13

We had been using thesaurus terms for a large component of our site for tagging content for related asset listings. But the original implementation ( by the Scotty himself ) was done some time ago. Thanks for the ideas guys. Yoink!

#14

We had been using thesaurus terms for a large component of our site for tagging content for related asset listings. But the original implementation ( by the Scotty himself ) was done some time ago.

Thanks for the ideas guys. Yoink!

(Nic Hubbard) #15

Hi Nic,

 

With this solution, how could we display a list of all of the folders that an item is "tagged" with?

 

Thanks,

 

Graham

 

You would just nest an asset listing and look up the tree one level. This would show the parent folder that the asset is inside.

(Steve Brown) #16

I guess one of the possible pitfalls of this solution is when you want to remove content from the site.  ie if you want to delete one of your pages from the site then you will need to ensure you also delete it from all the "tag" folders that it lives in.

 

I think Nick's solution is great considering the limitations of the product but it is obviously a bit kludgey as well.  Its a shame the tagging solution within Matrix doesnt suit your needs - thats what it should be there for.

 

Steve