How to use categories

This wiki is using a very flexible but simple categorizing system to keep everything properly organized.

1. Adding a page to an existing category

To add a page to an existing category simply add a link to the relevant category page. For example, to mark page MyPage as a child of category MyCategory, just add a link to MyCategory from MyPage. This will automatically add MyPage to the list of pages belonging to that category. Category links are put by convention at the end of the page, but the position of these links does not affect their behavior.

2. Adding a subcategory to an existing category

To create a hierarchy of categories, you can follow the same instructions to add pages to categories. For example, to mark category Category2 as a child (or subcategory) of another category Category1, just add a link to Category1 in Category2. This will automatically add Category2 to the list of Category1's children.

3. Creating new categories

To start a new category just create a page containing {{category}}. This will mark the page as a special category page and will output a list of pages belonging to the category. Category page names start by convention with the word Category but you can also create categories without following this convention. To add a new category to the master list of categories just add a link from it to CategoryCategory.

4. Browsing categories

To browse the categories available on your wiki you can start from CategoryCategory. If all pages and subcategories are properly linked as described above, you will be able to browse the whole hierarchy of categories starting from this page.


CategoryWiki
Comments
Comment by RichardBerg
2004-11-29 01:11:33
Are the syntax/options for the Category {{ }} action documented anywhere?
Comment by JavaWoman
2004-11-29 07:44:02
I've just volunteered to start working on documenting *all* actions, starting with the "core" actions (I do consider {{Category}} part of that core); so it will be documented in the near future. There will then be a new action wich "pulls in" all of the actions documentation. (Until then - ummm - read the code if you can read PHP ...)
Comment by AugustBrunsman
2004-12-07 05:36:45
Okay, it's late, and I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but it took me like ten minutes to figure out that in order to create a new category I had to make a new Wiki page and then put the word CategoryCategory in it. You might wanna spell that out a bit more for the slower of us.

Thanks!
Comment by JavaWoman
2004-12-07 10:36:01
August,
I edited this page somewhat to make teh difference between using and creating categories clearer - does this help?
Comment by KickTheDonkey
2004-12-08 15:59:58
I have to agree, the documentation surrounding this is very hard to follow. Took me far to long to figure it out. I finally figured it out by viewing the source code of this wikki.
Comment by NilsLindenberg
2005-02-24 17:29:17
"(think very hard before doing this though, we don't need too many of them)"

Perhaps we should remove that sentence (at least from the page automatically created in a new wiki).
Comment by LudoM
2005-03-11 19:06:44
Quote: "a CategoryName page, including {{Category}} in it and placing it in the Category Category (without the space) category (for a main category or another parent category in case you want to create a subcategory)." Unquote

Impressive, 8 times the word "category"... :-)
Comment by JavaWoman
2005-03-11 19:41:52
LudoM,
:)
This _is_ a wiki though - feel free to come up with a better formulation and edit the page!
Comment by NilsLindenberg
2005-03-15 16:11:34
Now better?
Comment by JasRandal
2005-04-14 14:13:51
Under "Creating a new category" should an instruction be added, after or as a part of #2, to include Category Category (without the space) at the bottom of the new page? (I would have added it, but since I'm a non-geek newbie ...) At least, that worked for me, to get my new category to show up on the main Categories page.
Comment by NilsLindenberg
2005-04-14 15:57:20
I have copied my proposla for a new version here. Comments please :)

And yes, every user can edit this page ... :)
Comment by 194.223.231.3
2005-07-27 14:28:26
Hi,
Do you know how the default install says: "The master list of the categories is Category Category...............and should never be edited. This list is easily accessed from the Wiki's top navigation bar. (Categories)."
Well it's been edited and now it's not showing categories...any ideas?
Comment by 194.223.231.3
2005-07-27 14:31:46
whoops, sorry, realised it's due to a hack of mine that allows free links...
Comment by BruceMoa
2006-07-31 11:46:50
I propose that we should forget categories, and call it tags (or tagging). Many systems use tagging, and it proves to be very easy to grasp. (Del.icio.us, Flickr and more, use tagging).

Every page (while editing) should have a text input to type in tags, the way you post a url to delicio.us.
Comment by DarTar
2006-07-31 12:05:36
Hi Bruce,

flat tags and categories are really two different approaches (or different cognitive styles, if you prefer) to organize content in a wiki. I personally like very much the idea of tagging and would like to implement something along these lines in the future. For a preliminary discussion on tags and beta implementation take a look at these pages:

http://wikkawiki.org/WikkaFolksonomy
http://www.zylstra.org/extra/wikka.php?wakka=WikiTags
Comment by JimVentola
2006-08-31 02:13:18
As this page might be the first thing someone sees on the subject, I suggest adding an explanation of what a category is, what it is for, how it is typically used, and a few examples to make the concept clear. I would do it were I competent. But after reading the page, I remain clueless about categories.
Comment by HansStienen
2006-11-21 13:00:41
A category is created by using the name of a category **anywhere** on a page.

This can be quite tiresome, when you are using plain page names as categories. Anyhow, parsing the whole page, without exceptions like text between e.g. ""[["" and ""]]"", cannot be the whole story.
Comment by DarTar
2006-11-22 02:48:00
Hans, the category system needs a big overhaul - you can take a look at http://wikkawiki.org/CategorySystemOverhaul for some discussion.
Comment by DavePreston
2007-01-21 14:11:03
I add this as a comment so as not to risk confusing anyone, but a category doesn't need to begin with 'category'! Any word or wikiword can be treated as a category name. For example, my wiki has pages about places in the UK which are categorised into counties by including (for example) CountyLancashire on the page. CountyLancashire's page is then a category page without even mentioning category in it's name, just by putting the {{Category}} action on the page.

I think this is a wonderfully flexible and powerful system for page categorisation and would hate to see it change too much.
Comment by AndCod
2007-11-07 22:42:49
I agree with DavePreston, the system is very good as it is...for the most part. Two things bug me a lot: that there is no way to link to a category without including the linking page in the category, and that categories are not generated automatically (one has to add the category action manually). The second of these is less of a bother, but not being able to link to my categories pretty much destroys the functionality for me.
Comment by DarTar
2007-11-08 03:58:11
AndCod, I totally agree. I've posted a comment as a reminder to the ticket that reports this issue and changed its milestone to 1.1.7: http://wush.net/trac/wikka/ticket/359#comment:5
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