How would create a blog with tags?

(Charlotte Westney) #1

Hi everyone,

 

I've been asked to set up a simple blog in Matrix (v 5.1.8).

 

The bit I'm struggling with is how to allow the author to select and add new tags to their blog post, and then have each tag displayed alongside the posts linking to all blogs with that tag.

An asset builder to create the blog as a standard page. What would you use for the tags? Thesaurus terms, or metadata? And I can see how they could select one or more from an existing list, but how to get them to be able to free-type to add new ones?

 

Has anyone set up a blog with this kind of functionality in Matrix, and what did you use?

 

Thanks for any ideas! Charlie.

(Nic Hubbard) #2

I do this on zedsaid.com, and what I did what use folders as tags. That way, the user can choose which "tags" they want (create locations) and it will be linked under each. Then, on a blog post, when you want to show which tags a post has, you nest an asset listing into the paint layout which looks on level up the tree and prints out all the parents.

 

If you want them to be able to create new ones you would have to do some js trickery, but that shouldn't be too hard.

(Peter McLeod) #3
Hi
 
We have used a combination of asset listings, search pages, xsl files and some of the keyword modifiers related to transforming xml data (mainly ^xslt) to achieve something similar.
 
Basically we store tags as xml nodes in a metadata field. The xml essentialy allows us to store the tags as key / value pairs, where the keys are absolutely unique (and also not contained in part of another key). This then allows the tags to be searched and listed etc. The ^xslt keyword allow the xml data to be transformed into html (or other formats). 
 
It's not exactly simple though, and requires a bit of set up work, and there are probably better ways to acheive the same result! But it's resonably flexible in how it can be used. 
 
Here's an example:
 
Individual page with tags displayed in panel on left side of the page: http://www.eih.health.nsw.gov.au/initiatives/state-cardiac-reperfusion-strategy
 
Listings of linked tags with totals (bottom of page): http://www.eih.health.nsw.gov.au/
 
Thanks
Peter
(Bart Banda) #4

Can'y you just use a metadata multiple text field to enter and edit these tags and just use a jQuery plugin for the picking from existing list of tags? http://goodies.pixabay.com/jquery/tag-editor/demo.html 

(Ryan Archer) #5

Hope you guys don't mind me jumping into this thread but I am looking for a way to have 'suggested pages' appear as a list of links on a page.

I was assuming this would work with tags. Bart I had a look at the Tag Editor (even though the link here did not work when I clicked on it, had some weird characters at the end) and yes the Tag Editor looks like it would work to set and get tags on objects.

 

So if a page creator was to setup tags in the metadata (i.e. keywords), how would Tag Editor JQuery plugin interact with Squiz to return a menu list of links to pages that have the same tags (and also limiting the listing to like the top 10 of the stack). Would it be a combination trigger with paint layout and/or design asset?

 

*scratches head*

(Tbaatar) #6

I prefer Nic Hubbard's way of creating tags as you get nice, clean and logical URL path and it is lot faster to serve the page compared to tag search.

 

Another issue I have with creating any tag at will result in clutter. I think you need to speak to the content strategist and figure out the list of tags (folders/pages) that needs to be setup first. You can always add new tags on request in the future but I wouldn't allow free for all.

(Ryan Archer) #7

Good points @tbaatar. 

For now I am using a combination of Thesaurus terms and the Related Asset Listing for just working on 'Related Pages' listing.

Not sure if this functionality could extend to blogs or not...