Join our WikiEducator discussion group or Register now for free skills training.
Help:Category
From WikiEducator
Categories and Categorising |
-
This content resource is a stub. Please help by adding more information.
Contents |
What are categories?
A category is just what it sounds like: a method of grouping pages according to their content. Categories also work with parent-child connections in the same way that subpages do. The category you put a page in will actually be a subcategory of another. A category system has many levels within it and a well-developed category system defines many useful relationships among the pages in the wiki. While a subpage can only have one parent page, any page or category can be in as many categories as we like. This is where the MediaWiki software becomes genius in its use of virtual reality; even though there exists only one document, at a single url, it can be found and related to other documents in any number of ways. This creates a powerful browseability that is trumped only by the searchability of the SemanticWiki extension, which involves a steep learning curve.
Why categories?
The category system is a built-in method of organising content far better than the subpage system method. It creates relationships between content that cannot be defined by subpages, making it easier for members to move from page to page and between related information. Want to know what other projects there are on astrophysics? The category system will tell you that. Want to be able to find all the resources from Otago Poly-Tech easily? Curious about what 10-year-old children are learning elsewhere in the world? The category system allows for these. Using the category system is preferred over contents listing pages because it requires far less effort from members to keep current. To add a page to a category, one never has to leave the page, itself!
The other key factor for categorising pages is a concept called "search engine optimisation" (SEO). You may have heard of this if you are in any way involved with web publishing. The point of SEO is to increase readership organically (they come to us, we don't market directly to them). This is done by appealing to the formulas Google and other search engines use to determine who goes at the top of any search list. The thing is, if there aren't any links to a page, Google never sees it! Categories create a link-based map of the website, allowing Google's programs to see each page that has a category.
Adding a page to a category
To add a page to a category, simply include the category tag for the identified category, [[Category:Category name]] or [[Category:Category name|Sortkey]], to the wikitext on the page. Note that the category tag must be processed, i.e. it will not work if it appears between ... or tags, or in a comment. The declaration may however come from the application of a template, e.g., adding a note to a page using Template:note automatically adds the page to Category: Pages with editorial comments.
In WikiEducator, it is customary to place wiki category codes at the end of the wikitext.
Once the category tag on the page is processed, the name of the page will be listed automatically on the category page. When a page has been added to one or more categories, a categories box appears at the bottom of the page. This box contains a list of the categories the page belongs to, in the order in which the wiki category codes appear in the processed wikitext. The category names listed on the page are links to the corresponding category pages. They appear as redlinks if no category page currently exists.
To see a list of all the currently available categories in this wiki see the Special:Categories page .
To link to a category page without putting the current page in that category, precede the link with a colon: [[:Category:Category name]]. Such a link can be piped like a normal wikilink.
A category name can be any string which would be a legitimate page title. It cannot begin with a lower-case letter. If the category name given in a category declaration begins with a lower-case letter, then it is interpreted as if it were capitalized.
Creating a category
If you have checked the Special:Categories page and there is not an already existing category that might apply to content you are working on, you can create a new category by adding the syntax [[Category:Category name]] to your page. After saving your page you should follow the link that has been created for your new category and place some instructions on that page to let other users know how to use the new category.
Item Categorizing Criteria
- Persons
- Country
- Profession
- Filiation
- WikiEducator Certification
- WikiEducator Role
- Discilpline
- Organizations
- Community of Practice
- Geographic region
- Main Activity
- Filiation
- Domain
- Projects & Initiatives
- Context
- Status
- Objects (Image files, sound files, video files, text files, etc).
- Specific Set/Project
- Country
- Usage
- Taxonomy (organisms)
- Typology (things)
- Open Educational Resources (OER)
- Grade / Age level
- Subject
Best practices for Categorizing
- Before start categorizing an item search for Categories already set. Visit:
- Select short words or phrases that accurately describe the item. See Item Categorizing Criteria.
- It's preferable for an item to be part of several categories.
- Promote consistency:
- Make categories names reusable, putting similar items into the same container.
- Be as generic as possible, an extremely specific category name might make your content harder to find.
- Avoid slight name variations with the same meaning. E.g. If there is a previous category titled "User photo", use it rather than a new category you are planning to title "User pic".
Resources related to Categories and Categorising
Information about this resource
The section "Adding a page to a category" is adapted from Wikipedia's Help:Category page.
