Mura 10: Categories and Tags

Categories

Mura CMS enables you to create a hierarchy of categories, and then assign content items to one or more of those categories. By categorizing content, you can create unique indexes, or collections, of content items that you can use throughout various sections of your site to highlight content. In addition, Mura CMS offers a built-in category filter as a display object that site visitors can use to drill down to content that might be of interest to them.

Creating Categories

To create categories, you need to go to the Categories section of the back-end administrator and follow the instructions below.

  1. From the Categories section, select "Add Category"
  2. You should now see the "Add Content Category" screen
    1. Name: This will be the name of the category
    2. URL Title: Leave this blank to have Mura automatically generate your category a URL title based on the name you chose. Or, feel free to enter your own unique URL title.
    3. Parent Category: The select menu will display all existing categories. If you prefer the category be assigned as a subcategory, simply select the desired parent category. Otherwise, select "Primary."
    4. Is this an interest group?: Select "Yes" to allow Site Members to choose it when completing/editing their profile.
    5. Allow Content Assignments?: If "Yes" then content can be assigned. If "No," it will simply show as a heading on the Categorization tab under "Available Categories. This is useful when you want to group some categories together, but not necessarily allow content to be categorized as such. For example, you might have a category called "News Categories" that contains several subcategories, and you wouldn't really want someone to assign content to this specific category.
    6. Allow Content Features?: If "Yes" the content can be featured under the specified category.
    7. Active?: If "Yes" then the category will appear as an option for content managers to assign content to, otherwise it will be hidden.
    8. Restrict ability to assign content to this category?: If utilized, only the group(s) selected will be allowed to assign content to this specific category.
    9. Notes: Enter any notes pertinent to the category, if desired. It's not used for any display purposes.
  3. Complete the fields as desired, then click "Add" to create your desired category.

Categorizing Content

Once you've created one or more categories, you can categorize your content by following the steps below.

  1. Select a content item to edit.
  2. Select the "Categories" tab.
  3. Select one or more options from the list of available categories.
  4. Select your desired publishing option.
  5. Repeat these steps for any other content items you wish to categorize.
  6. Congratulations! You've successfully categorized content.

Feature Categorized Content

Sometimes, you'll want to feature one or more content items within one or more categories. Under the "Feature" column, click the icon to open the Feature quick edit popup.

  1. Select "No" and the content item will not be featured within the specified category.
  2. Select "Yes" and the content item will be included in a content collection/local index that is looking for "featured" content within that category.
  3. Selecting "Scheduled Feature" is the same as "Yes," except the content item will only be featured during the specified period of time.

 

Category Summary Display Object

The Category Summary display object is a listing of categories used throughout the site, where each category listed contains a count of categorized content items and is hyperlinked to a search results page to display content items associated with the selected category.

Displaying a Category Summary

Category Summary display objects are typically applied to Mura Folder content types so that the display object will also appear on child content items, such as a "News" or "Blog section of a site. To display a Category Summary, follow the steps below.

  1. From the front-end public view of your site, select a content item to edit such as the "News" section, and from the front-end toolbar, hover over the pencil icon and select Inline Edit.
  2. The inline edit panel should appear on the right-hand portion of the browser.
  3. Select the Navigation display object, and then drag it to your desired area, such as the right-hand column. As you drag the display object, drop zone target areas will highlight with either a red dotted box or red dotted line.
  4. When you release the mouse button, the display object should appear on your screen, and the inline edit panel should display a form with configuration options.
  5. Select "Category Summary" from the Select Navigation menu.
  6. When you're done making edits, select your desired publishing option to save your changes.

Tags

Mura CMS allows you to add free-form "tags" to content. A "tag" is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information. Tags are usually single words. This kind of metadata helps describe the item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. If a tagged content item is child of a Mura Folder, each tag may display, along with other summary information, and would be hyperlinked to other content items associated with that tag.

Tagging Content

Follow the steps below to add/edit content tags.

  1. Select a content item to edit. If you're editing content from the front-end public view, use "Full Edit" mode.
  2. Select the "Tags" tab.
  3. If the content item you've selected has already been tagged, they will appear below the text box.
  4. If you want to delete/remove one of the existing tags, simply click the circle with an "x" in the middle of it just to the right of the existing tag.
  5. If you want to add/create a tag, type the word into the text box, and hit "Enter" or "Return" on your keyboard.
  6. As you type, Mura will display a list of tags that have already been used before that match the letters you're typing. So, for example, if you type a "k" into the text box, any tags that contain a "k" in it will appear below. Also, if you click the down arrow in the empty text box, a full listing of tags that have already been used will appear.
  7. If your desired tag appears in the list, simply click on it, and it will be added.
  8. When you're finished tagging your content, select your desired publishing option to save the content.
  9. Depending on how your layout templates were created, your tags may appear with your content. Visit the Tag Cloud Display Object section for more information.

Tag Groups

Tag Groups offer a way to apply tags to individual sections, such as "News Tags" or "Blog Tags." This will also allow for the ability to display a specific grouping of tags that only apply to a specific region of a site, for example.

Creating Tag Groups

To create tag groups, follow the steps below.

  1. Go to the back-end administration area
  2. Select Site Settings > Edit Settings
  3. On the Basic tab, scroll down to locate the Custom Tag Groups form field
  4. Enter your desired tag group names, separated by a carat (^) in between each group name
  5. Click Save Settings
  6. That's it!

Using Tag Groups

To use tag groups, follow the steps from Tagging Content to apply tags to content items, using the desired specific tag group(s). For example, in the illustration below, the tags "california" and "wine" have been applied to the "News Tags" tag group.

When finished applying your tags, select your desired publishing option to save your content.

Tag Cloud Display Object

The Tag Cloud display object is a visual representation of text data, used to depict keyword metadata (tags). Tags are usually single words, and font size is used to indicate how frequently each tag has been used. Each tag is hyperlinked to a search results page containing a listing of associated content items.

Displaying a Tag Cloud

As a display object, Tag Clouds can be applied to most any area of a site or layout. Typically, Tag Clouds are used on Mura Folder content types so that the display object will continue to appear on child content items, such as a "News" or "Blog" section of a site. To display a Tag Cloud, follow the steps below.

  1. From the front-end public view of your site, select a content item to edit such as the "News" section, and from the front-end toolbar, hover over the pencil icon and select Inline Edit.
  2. The inline edit panel should appear on the right-hand portion of the browser.
  3. Select the Navigation display object, and then drag it to your desired area, such as the right-hand column. As you drag the display object, drop zone target areas will highlight with either a red dotted box or red dotted line.
  4. When you release the mouse button, the display object should appear on your screen, and the inline edit panel should display a form with configuration options.
  5. Select "Tag Cloud" from the Select Navigation menu, and then select your desired tag group from the Select Tag Group menu. Once you do, the display object will dynamically update to reflect your configured options.
  6. When you're done making edits, select your desired publishing option to save your changes.