All categories for a site are managed in the Categories admin page. On the left side of the page is a grid containing a list of category groups. A category group is associate with a given article, product, calendar event or contact, which allows the categories defined in the group to be applied to that item and its children.
Selecting a category group will show its details in the category group detail area, where is can be edited. To add a new category group:
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Click the “Create new Category Group” button in the main button bar
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Type a unique category group name based on the type of element the categories are intended for. For example, articles for a group of developer docs could have a category set named “Developer Topics”.
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Pick the type of data element the category group is for in the Associated Type field.
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The Auto Populate Categories checkbox is designed to associate data objects that are a part of the category group to specific categories based on content within them. For example, the categories for the Developer Topics group could be associated with keywords that are found within the body of the article without having to manually pick them.
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The Default Open Graph Category Name field is used to specify an Open graph category name that is applied automatically to every data object that is part of this category group via a category being applied to it. This is to help sites like Facebook have a deeper understanding of the given data object. For example, if you have a group of articles that are reviews for restaurants, you might set the default open graph category name to Restaurant so that by default all child articles in that group would be setup with that attribute. When the restaurant article is displayed on a page with a like it button, Facebook will know the article is about a restaurant and associate it that way when people use the like it button.
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Use the Update button to save the new category group
The categories grid shows only the categories defined in the currently selected group. You can define new categories by typing in the values for the category in the blank row at the bottom of any already defined categories.
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Image – Once you’ve selected the blank row, use the set image button in the grid’s footer toolbar. Some displays may use the image when displaying the list of categories a given data object is in.
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Display Name – The name to show for the category
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Searchable Keywords – The text to search for in an associated data object when the auto populate categories feature is being used. If this is not set, the display name is used as the keyword. You only need to set this if what should be searched for is different than the display name.
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In Listings – The default option to show the category when showing the list of categories applied to a given data object. Some categories are used for associates and other things for display formatting. These categories should not be displayed when showing the list of categories a given item is with.
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Open Graph Name – If the category name has a relationship to an open graph name, use this to set the open graph name. When this category is applied to an item like an article that is display on a page, the open graph name will be used by Facebook and other sites to categorize the item better.
Category Properties
A category can have a set of custom properties associates with it. When an item like an article is associated with the category, then it can also have values set for the custom properties. For example, the restaurant category could have a custom properly called “has indoor smoking section”. When an item is associated with the restaurant category, it would have a custom field for the “has indoor smoking section” which when editing the item could be set. Public views of the item could show the option so that site users can know that the given restaurant allows smoking inside or not.
You don’t need to define any category properties for a category. You may never use them in a given site. They are very useful for certain types of sites, such as those that do reviews of businesses.
The category properties grid has the following editable columns:
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Display Label – The name for the custom property that is shown to uses when they see it and the value for it when associated with a given item like an article.
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Name – The JavaScript valid name for this custom property that is used when programming and accessing the properties from code.
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Type – A drop down of options that includes:
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Image – The property is set by selecting an image from the media library.
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Article – The property is set by selecting an article from the site. When displayed it would typically be shown as a link to that article.
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Text – Plain text value shown directly as keyed.
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Integer – A numeric value only shown directly.
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Boolean – A true false value, typically shown as a checkbox type display
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Options – A set of choices that can be picked with a drop down control. The selected option is what is shown when a given item is display that has this property applied to it.
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Rating – A values between a low and high (defaults to 1 to 5). The value is typically shown using a rating type control that can pick a value between the given range.
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Secure – Indicates if the property should only be shown to authenticated users. Anonymous users will not see the property in displays.
Note that the order the properties are listed in the grid is the order that they will be displayed to unless driven by custom code. Use the up and arrow buttons in the grid’s footer toolbar to change a properties position.
Use the grid footer toolbar delete button to delete the selected property. NOTE: Items that already have values for that property stored in the database will still have those values even though they wont normally be displayed. If you recreate the property, those older values would be shown again.