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Features / Usability

Features / Usability


Categories Best Practices

posts: 758 United States

I would like to hear some opinion on this.
I understand that have too many microscopic sub categories in a wiki can be counter productive to a wiki.
So how many levels deep would you recommend categories to layered?

For example, our wiki is all about woodworking, and for the woodworking tools categories that would contain Hand Tools such as hammers, saws, planes and screw drivers, would it be best to just have a general category called "Hand Tools"?

Or should it look like this?

Hand Tools
Chisels
Clamps
Drivers
Files and Rasps
Hammers
Levels
Measuring
Planes
Saws
Shaves

and

Machinery
Band Saws
Boring
Dovetailers
Drill Presses
Dust Collectors
Grinders
Lathes
Miter Saws
Molders
Mortisers
Multi Purpose
Planers
Power Feeders
Radial Arm Saws
Sanders
Shapers
Table Saws
Tenoning

of course each of those sub categories could have deeper categories as well for example

Hand Tools
Chisels
/Bench Chisels/Carving/Mortise/Dovetail
Clamps
/C Clamps/Bar Clamps/ etc
Drivers
/Phillips/Straight Slot/Ratchet
Files and Rasps
Hammers
Levels
Measuring
Planes
Saws
Shaves

I've heard it best to have as few categories as possible for the semantic relations to be fully effective and basically open up the wiki's inter linking and more. To micro categorize would restrict a wiki from its natural potential?

Thanks for any help

John

posts: 3665 United States

Like everything else in life.... it depends.

Do you expect your visitors to navigate by category? Do you need to organize you content by category? If your clients are going to want to see all the Table Saws content, then I see no reason why you wouldn't want to have it as a category.

I don't think there's any technical limitations to the number of categories or how deep they can go. I've always found that a very well-created category structure leads to a useful sitemap and can aid in navigation.


HTH,

- Rick | My Tiki Blog | My Tiki UserPage

Why be a dummy? Get smarty! TikiForSmarties.com
Tiki for Smarties, your source for the best (and only) Tiki books, guides, and tutorials.

posts: 2695 United States

And then there's the FreeTags option to throw into the mix.

As I've started repopulating my web site, I've had this exact discussion with myself. rolleyes

I'm studying and relooking at many advanced Tiki features.

  • Especially https://doc.tiki.org/Groups
    • Ex. Steps to create a private room:
      • 1) Create a group and a >>>category>CategoriesCategory permissions:>Group Default Category>category


EDIT: Oh wow, I had way more info than this...
I'll throw some links back in.

https://doc.tiki.org/Workspace
https://dev.tiki.org/Workspace
https://doc.tiki.org/Permissions
https://doc.tiki.org/Groups+Management
https://dev.tiki.org/Organic+Groups
http://doc.tiki.org/Organic+Groups
https://doc.tiki.org/Category
https://doc.tiki.org/Group+Transitions
https://doc.tiki.org/Workspace+UI
https://profiles.tiki.org/Workspace_UI

After looking at all this, I'm leaning toward

  • Using FreeTags to group information
    • Using Categories to group people to that information


Keep us posted on what you come up with for your site...
WizarDave


posts: 2695 United States

Oh yeah, and then there's...

https://doc.tiki.org/Breadcrumb

  • This would show at top and/ or bottom
    • Patriot Workshop > Hand Tools > Chisels > Bench Chisels


For this area you might want to actually Structure the pages???
https://doc.tiki.org/Structures

  • Adds some nice navigation links
    • Plus you can create an ebook by exporting your structure to a pdf.


Hats off to all the contributors to Tiki.

  • You have created a kick butt program with soooooo many features,
    • webmasters can do pretty much anything they would ever need
    • even though it's a bit overwhelming for newbies (like me) to grasp with all the options. eek

posts: 758 United States

Rick and Dave, thanks so much for the suggestions and opinions, it was exactly what I was looking for.
Dave, I make use of BreadCrumbs already, love it!
And I will keep you informed of my progress. I love categories, and I am glad to hear I have been given the green light to create as many as I want!
John


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