Taxonmy - Do I really need to use it?
Hello, I am hoping this topic will generate some good discussion. I am going to be converting a website over from a different CMS. During the conversion, I am planning on creating the same exact pages/structure that was in the previous CMS. So, it will be a 1 to 1 conversion. I already have this worked out, so that the nodes get populated correctly, menus get populated and displayed only on the node that it belongs to, etc.
Once everything is converted to Drupal and we run on Drupal for a few months, then we are going to work on a redesign of the layout and a redesign of the structure. With that being said, do I really need to use taxonomy? I am going to populate the URL aliases, so the urls stay the same as what they were on the old website. I seen a module that will build breadcrumbs based on the path in the URL, so I should be able to use that to get breadcrumbs. I installed the content type access control lists, so I am able to manage permissions to content based on the content type.
What am I going to lose/miss if I do not use taxonomy? After the redesign/restructure, I will most likely use taxonomy, but I've read that once it is built, it is much harder to change it if you are going down a completely different path. Which is my main ready for asking whether or not to use it. I do not want to build a taxonomy, and then when we do the redesign, have everything mixed up or classified incorrectly.
Thanks,
Shane
Good question. I'm
Good question. I'm interested in this too. I'm building a site based on URL aliases, which is very easy, and am just general confused about taxonomy and why I would use it.
Taxonmy - Do I really need to use it?
That's a hard question to answer - have a listen to the Lullabot taxonomy podcast
Ofcourse you don't need to
Ofcourse you don't need to use taxonomy but using without taxonomy is like having a car without engine.
I am pretty sure everybody will agree that being able to "categorize" the content is what differs CMS from bunch of scripts. And Drupal uses taxonomy for this categorization. You may not understand taxonomy exactly but let me to give some examples. In other cms like Joomla you can put your content in "1" category which is usual and most people used to it. But in drupal you don't put your content to categories you just tag them so you are able to use unlimited categories (tags). That is what made gmail superior to hotmail & yahoo so if google use that why don't you.
But final decision is your you may not use it but create many content types.
Don't stress
The good thing is that you don't need to use taxonomy right away, at any point you can create vocabs/terms and move your existing nodes into them... and at any point you can change your categories fairly easy
You can run a good site
You can run a good site without taxonomy, no doubt about that. But with a taxonomy system, you gain incredible flexibility. With a decent taxonomy structure, you can add a whole new system of navigation in a couple of seconds. It would take me much longer to describe it than to actually do it.
The basis of a taxonomy system is not at all technical - well, there are a few things to tune and maybe one or two additional modules to install, but that's really nothing special. The basis of a taxonomy system is, on the contrary, content-based, i.e. the system grows when your content grows, when you add more articles etc.
Whereas your menu structure is more or less fixed, only changing when you, the admin, "does" something, your taxonomy based navigation can change without you having to intervene. Your contributors add taxonomy terms, thereby adding to your navigation system.
With a taxonomy system with, say, 2 or 3 vocabularies, you can have a multitude of cross-references, articles "belonging" to as many "categories" as you want, on the same level, in a hierarchy relationship or whatever.
Furthermore, its close integration with CCK and Views, 2 of the most essential Drupal contributed modules, make it as versatile as you want.
And you don't just use taxonomy to organize your content. You can also use it to finetune access rights, you can use it for decisions in your layout logic, you can have different templates auto-picked depending on the taxonomy terms of this or that particular node, etc.
So, can you have a site without taxonomy? Sure. Should you? Probably not.