Categories
Categories
TYPO3 features what are known as system categories. These are not content items in themselves, but rather categories that can be assigned to content elements, news items, calendar events or even web pages, thereby serving to label and filter them.
The categorisation of content therefore involves assigning additional attributes, which can be used to group and address different types of content. Here are a few examples of where categories are used:
- Organisational units
- Target groups
- Event types
- Thematic sections, e.g. for news items
- Campus areas
Ideally, categories should be organised hierarchically, i.e. each category should have a parent category. Taken together, this forms the category tree of the TYPO3 system at the UOL.
Examples of how to use categories
- News articles which not only display the categories but can also be searched or filtered by them: UOL News
- News items where the categories are clickable and lead to a dedicated section homepage: Institute of Educational Sciences
- Event dates which not only display the categories but can also be searched or filtered by them: International Office and University Didactics
- Continuing education dates that can also be filtered using categories that are not visibly displayed: C3L Continuing Education Programme (requires additional manual effort); calendar-based web pages are also used here, which have been categorised separately.
- Maps with various marker categories, where each address record is assigned a category: Mobility Map
Create categories
Create a new category
- Click on the page or system folder where the categories are to be created.
- Switch to the Web→List view.
- Click the button at the top: [Create new record]
- From the ‘New record’ list under the ‘Content’ sub-item, click on the ‘Category’ entry.
- Enter the name of the category in the ‘Title’ field.
- In the ‘Parent’ list, perform a selection of the desired parent category (only one item can be selected).
- Click the [Save and close] button.
This completes the basic configuration of the category. From now on, the category you have created can be assigned, for example, to a news item or a calendar event (in the [Category] tab).
Linking categories (relates to: news system)
In the news system, categories can also be linked. They are then clickable and link to a specific web page.
This is put into practice very effectively at the Institute of Educational Sciences. Each news item is categorised under the name of the department from which it originates. The departments can then also be accessed directly:
Assign map markers to a category
When using dynamic maps on which addresses are displayed as markers, different symbols can be used for different address categories.
- A marker can be assigned in the [Advanced] tab of the category editor.
- A selection of coloured markers is provided in system folder 33200 (“Map Icons”).
- If an address record is assigned the relevant category, it is displayed on the map with the selected marker for that category.