By nickblue on

could anyone point me to a document or resource that fully explains to me how taxonomy can help me in drupal and how best I can make it work? I am interested in a menu to grow and develop on its own based on how taxonomy is approached. I have been trying it on my site but the concept is still a bit beyond my grasp....:). Specifically, just what is meant by 'taxonomy'? I have installed a couple of modules but am looking for a detailed example of how it should be laid out. Thanks.

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nedjo’s picture

nedjo
he/him/his
Primary language English
commented

The help on taxonomy is a good start. See the page ?q=admin/help#taxonomy (Drupal 4.4) or ?q=admin/help/taxonomy (CVS).

annie-1’s picture

annie-1 commented

This is my basic understanding of taxonomy.
A taxonomy is a way of organizing (describing) objects (things). It's really quite simple. Think about your everyday life.
You interact with objects (things) all the time. Right now you're interacting with a computer monitor, which is interacting with a computer, which is interacting with a power source which is interacting with a power line which is interacting with a power station.
Each of these objects are 'things' that we can define and describe and they are related to each other through our description.
Using this example, we can use simple words--yes we can use complicated words, but I like to keep things easy! -- to create a list of words that define and group our objects. The really powerful part of a taxonomy is that YOU define it. We could create our taxonomy like this:

>Objects

>>>>Monitors

>>>>>>>your monitor

>>>>Computers

>>>>>>>your computer

>>>>Power Source

>>>>>>>your power source

and so on, you get the idea

We could also create this taxonomy this way:

Objects
>>>Light emitting

>>>>>>>your monitor

>>>>>>>power station

>>>Non light emitting

>>>>>>>your computer

>>>>>>>power line

>>>>>>>power source

How you use the taxonomy will depend on what your needs are. On one of the sites I manage, the content consists of documents available to the public and some that are private. These documents are basically organized by category, so I use the names of the categories for my taxonomy. I have:

Documents << this is a taxonomy vocabulary
>> VA Benefits   << this is a term in that vocabulary (category)
>>>>>>> doc 1  << this is a document assigned to the VA benefits term
>> Private documents (used internally by the office) << term
>>>>>>> doc 1 << document assigned to the Private documents term
>> Forms  << term
>>>>>>> Public  << sub term of Forms
>>>>>>>>>>>>>form 1 << document assigned to the Public term
>>>>>>> Private << sub term of Forms
>>>>>>>>>>>>>form 1  << document assigned to the Private term
Forums << taxonomy vocabulary
>> Veterans forum (public) << term within Forums--it's actually a forum
>>>>>>> forum topic 1 << a forum topic assigned to the Veterans forum
>> Special forums (private) << term within Forums--actually a forum
>>>>>>> forum topic 1 << a forum topic assigned to the Special forums

I find a taxonomy very useful because it allows me to:
1) generate a really nice site map automatically
2) show users all pages related to a term or vocabulary
3) organize the sites content in such a way that things are never more than two clicks away
4) create menus based on taxonomy terms

I hope this answered some of your questions and wasn't too confusing.

Annie

eka’s picture

eka commented

NICE!! my question is how i have that hierarchy in the menu?
how to link those hierarhies to the menu?

tnx