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Taxonomy Filters

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Anders
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You can use taxonomy tags to apply filters to topics instead of using filter attributes. For example, you could use taxonomy filters to set a publication to include a topic for a Windows version of a PDF but exclude that topic for the iOS version of the PDF.

Taxonomy filters offer some benefits over attribute filters:

  • You can apply them to multiple topics at once.

  • You can create a hierarchy of filter tags for more complex filtering. For example, you could have a "market" filter tag for USA and then lower-level tags for each state of the USA.

  • You can use the Taxonomies view to see which topics have the various filters.

  • You can view the taxonomy tags that are applied to each topic from the Content Manager.

  • They support Scoped Filtering.

But there is also an important limitation: you can only use taxonomy filters at the topic level. For more granular filtering, such as filtering on block elements and inline elements, you need to use Types of Filter.

We recommend that you use taxonomy filters for your topic-level filters due to the benefits they offer. If you prefer, you can use filter attributes at the topic level instead, but be aware that to change them, you will need to open each topic individually.

To set up taxonomy filters:

  1. Add the Filter Values.

  2. Create Taxonomy Tags for Filters.

  3. Apply Taxonomy Filter Tags.

  4. Set the Taxonomy Filter Strategy.

  5. Choose your filtering preferences when you publish (see Choose Which Filters to Apply When Publishing).

Create Taxonomy Tags for Filters

We recommend that you create taxonomy tags for filtering at the topic level. This will let you use filtering to include or exclude entire topics when you publish.

Note

When setting up topic-level filters, be consistent and do not use a mix of taxonomy tags and filter attributes. If you do mix them, it makes it more difficult to find out which topics have certain filters in place.

To create taxonomy tags to use for filtering:

  1. In the Content Manager, expand the Taxonomy Manager and then expand Taxonomies.

    Taxonomy Manager is expanded. It has a child category called Taxonomies. That is also expanded, revealing three taxonomy tags named AA, Audience, and Automated.

  2. Select the dotted menu ( ... ) for Taxonomies.

  3. Select Create taxonomy tag and enter the name for the tag.

    The name has to match the name of a filter attribute, but without the xinfo: prefix. For example, if you are creating a tag for the xinfo:market filter attribute, name the tag "market".

    From this point on, we will refer to this tag as the filter attribute taxonomy tag.

  4. Select the dotted menu ( ... ) for the filter attribute taxonomy tag that you created in the previous step.

  5. Select Create taxonomy tag and enter the name for the tag.

    The name here is the filter value, for example, if it was for a "market" filter, you might have a value of "EU" or "USA".

    This tag represents a filter value. It is a child of the filter attribute taxonomy tag.

    Taxonomy hierarchy. There is a market tag as the parent tag. It has an EU tag as a child.

  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to create all of the filter values.

    You now have a filter attribute taxonomy tag as a "parent" and one or more filter value tags as "children".

    Taxonomy tag hierarchy for filters. There is a market tag that is the parent. It has three child tags named EU, UK, and US.

    This will work fine as it is. But if you want, you can add more levels of filter values, for more granular filtering (see Further Levels of Taxonomy Filter Tags).

Remember that for each filter value taxonomy tag that you create, you need to have an equivalent filter attribute value. If you don't have the filter attribute value, you won't be able to select the filter value as an option in the publishing settings. To learn how to add an attribute value, see Add the Filter Values.

When you have added the filter tags, filter value tags, and attribute values, you can apply the tags to your content.

Further Levels of Taxonomy Filter Tags

For taxonomy filters to work, you have to have at least two levels of tags:

  • Filter attribute taxonomy tag

    • Filter value taxonomy tag

For more granular filtering, you can have further levels of filter values. They need to be arranged as descendants of the first level of filter values, for example:

  • Market

    • EU

      • France

        • Brittany

        • Normandy

        • Nord Pas de Calais

        • Picardy

To create further levels of filter value taxonomy tags:

  1. In the Taxonomy Manager, select the dotted menu ( ... ) for a filter value tag.

  2. Select Create taxonomy tag and enter the filter value as the name. This new tag is a child of the tag you selected in the previous step.

  3. Repeat this process for as many levels as you need.

    A taxonomy hierarchy for filters. At the top is Market. It has a child called EU. That has a child called France. That has several children for different regions of France, such as Brittany, Nord Pas de Calais, Normandy, and Picardy.

With this type of filtering, it is usually best to set a Descendant filter strategy (see Set the Taxonomy Filter Strategy).

Remember that for every filter value taxonomy tag that you add, you also need to have a matching filter attribute value in the database. When you create the filter attribute value, ignore the hierarchy in the taxonomy and create a tag for the value. If we use the previous example of tags for regions of France, and you added "Picardy" as a taxonomy tag, you would also need to add "Picardy" as an attribute value. For instructions, see Add the Filter Values.

Apply Taxonomy Filter Tags

When you have the appropriate filter tags and hierarchy in place, you can apply the tags to topics and publications (reused publications, also known as subpublications).

  1. Select the dotted menu ( ... ) for the Taxonomies tag in the Content Manager, and choose Taxonomy Floating Content Panel. Floating_Content_Panel.png

  2. In the Taxonomy Floating Content Panel, find the tag that you want to apply. Drag the tag onto the topic or subpublication in the Content Manager.

    Drag and drop taxonomy

    Note

    When you add a taxonomy tag to a subpublication, Paligo displays a dialog that has an Apply to children checkbox.

    Apply taxonomy dialog. It tells you what taxonomy tag is being applied to the publication. There is an apply to children checkbox and an apply button.

    • Check the box to also apply the tag to the child topics in the publication. But please note that the tag only gets added to child topics. If there are child subpublications, they do not get the tag. You will need to apply the tag to those separately.

    • Leave the box empty to apply the tag to the publication only, and not any of its child topics.

  3. Repeat step 2 for each topic that you want to filter.

Tip

You can apply taxonomy tags to multiple topics at once. For more information on different ways of applying taxonomy tags to content, see Apply Taxonomy Tags to Content.

When you have applied the taxonomy tags to your topics, the next step is to choose a taxonomy filter strategy. This tells Paligo how to use the taxonomy hierarchy when it applies the filters.

Set the Taxonomy Filter Strategy

For taxonomy filters, you should choose a taxonomy filter strategy. The strategy affects how Paligo:

  • Matches the filter criteria in the publishing settings to the filter tags you have applied to your content

  • Determines which topics to include in the published output and which topics to exclude.

To choose the taxonomy filter strategy:

  1. Select Layout in the top menu.

    Paligo editor. The Layout option in the header menu is highlighted.

    Paligo displays a list of Layouts. The list is empty if there are no custom Layouts in your Paligo instance.

  2. Select the Layout you want to update or Create a Layout.

    Tip

    You can copy the URL of the Layout Editor and paste it into a new tab in your browser. This can be useful if you frequently switch between your Paligo content and the Layout settings.

  3. Select Classes and attributes.

    Note

    For PDF layouts, select General and then Filtering and Taxonomies to find the classes and attributes settings.

  4. Select Enable for Output taxonomies.

    Output_Taxonomies.png

    This setting has to be enabled for taxonomy filtering to work.

  5. Select Exact Value or Descendants for Taxonomy filtering strategy.

    Taxonomy_Filtering_Strategy.jpg

    This setting is labelled as Taxonomy filtering on some layouts.

    • Exact value

      If you choose Exact value, Paligo will ignore the taxonomy hierarchy. When you publish, Paligo will:

      • Include topics that:

        • Have the filter attributes and filter values that you choose in the publishing settings.

        • Do not use the filter attributes and filter values that you choose in the publishing settings.

      • Exclude topics that:

        • Have the filter attributes but with different filter values to those that you choose in the publishing settings.

    • Descendants

      If you choose Descendants, Paligo will use the taxonomy hierarchy to determine which topics should be included or excluded.

      When you publish and choose what filters to apply, Paligo will only include:

      • Topics that have a taxonomy tag that matches the filter attribute and filter value. We will call this tag the "descendant" tag.

      • Topics that have a tag that is a "parent" of the "descendant" tag in the taxonomy hierarchy. Note that Paligo includes not only the immediate "parent" tag, but also the "parent" of that tag and so on, until the top-level is reached.

      • Topics that are not marked up to use the filter attribute that you set for the publication.

    Note

    There is also a Disabled option, which turns off the taxonomy filter feature.

  6. Select Save.

When you have set a taxonomy strategy, you can publish your content and choose which filter attributes and values you want to apply.

Example 2. Taxonomy Strategy

This example gives a detailed look at how the exact value and descendant value taxonomy strategies affect the results of a filter.

Let's say you have the following hierarchy for a Product filter, and you filter the publication to include Product: ACME 1050. This is how the filtering strategies will work:

exact-match-example.jpg

Exact value filter strategy applied
descendants-match-example.jpg

Descendants filter strategy applied

The first image shows how the Exact value filter strategy works.

Paligo will ignore the structure of the taxonomy hierarchy. This means that the published output will include:

  • Topics that have the "ACME 1050" tag. Note that it has to be a "child" of the "Product" tag.

  • Topics that do not have any "Product" taxonomy tag

Paligo will exclude any topics that have a "Product" tag but with a different value to "ACME 1050".

The second image shows how the Descendants filter strategy works. Paligo uses the taxonomy hierarchy and includes topics that have the matching tag ("ACME 1050") or are "parents" of the matching tag. This means that the published output will contain:

  • Topics that have the "ACME 1050" tag. Note that it has to be a "child" of the "Product" tag.

  • Topics that have the "ACME 1000" tag or "ACME" tag, as these are "parent" tags of the "ACME 1050" tag in the taxonomy hierarchy.

  • Topics that do not have any "Product" taxonomy tag

Paligo will exclude any topics that have a "Product" tag but with a different value to "ACME 1050".


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