Drupal CCK and Taxonomy Striking a Balance for Your Information Architecture

Kenny Silanskas Client Advisor

Acquia

@webkenny

Bryan House Sr. Director, Marketing Acquia

@bryanhouse

Upcoming Webinars

 Tuesday March 30th  Drupal Gardens Preview at 8:30am

Register Today - http://acquia.com/webinars

Introduction

•  Kenny Silanskas – Client Advisor, Acquia

@webkenny

What is CCK and Taxonomy?

CCK: Content Construction Kit Community Contributed Module (For Now)

Provides API for custom field definitions.

Provides a UI for custom field definitions.

There are nearly 450 CCK related modules.

What is CCK and Taxonomy?

Taxonomy Part of Drupal core

Provides a method for users to classify content in a hierarchical structure

Consists of one or more vocabularies with one or more terms

Can be used for “Free Tagging”

A Delicious Example of CCK

ice_cream

Tantalizing Taxonomy

•  Flavors   Chocolate

  Fudge

  Vanilla   Cherry

  Maraschino

  Cream

“Why isn't the flavor a field on our Ice Cream?”

Consider My Favorite Flavor!

Vanilla Cream Cherry

ice_cream

candy_bar

cake

Chocolate

Many of these flavors (terms) can apply to many different types of treats (content).

“Ok. So, how do I choose?!”

CCK or Taxonomy?

•  Are you listing attributes?

•  Do you need to store data other than plain text?

•  Do you need more control over the theming?

CCK

CCK or Taxonomy?

•  Do you need a hierarchy?

•  Should users be able to “free tag” content?

•  Do your objects exist in the real world? (e.g. a U.S State?)

Taxonomy

CCK or Taxonomy? Both! Let the features decide!

(You wouldn't split up Peanut Butter and Jelly would you?)

CCK: Various Data Types

CCK: Validation in the User Interface

CCK: Wide Variety of Field Types

There are over 430 modules in the community tagged with “Content

Construction Kit (CCK)”

CCK: Relationships through References

Define a “Node Reference” and create relationships between your content.

Decide which content types can be referenced using simple controls or get as granular as you need to be using the Views module.

Taxonomy: Free World. Free Tagging.

Let the users speak for themselves.

Taxonomy and Views Sitting in a Tree

March (32) February (10) January (4) December (12)

Taxonomy: Cool UI Through Contrib

A Simple Rule to Remember

CCK Defines. Taxonomy Classifies. (And Ice Cream is delicious, but we've covered that)

Drupal 7: What's Coming

Growth is on the horizon!

Drupal 7: Field API (CCK, The Sequel)

  Fields can be attached to more than just nodes! Yes, that means users and taxonomy terms.

  Consistent Way of Storing and Referencing Fields Consistency == Efficiency == More Beer Time

  Field API Bundles to Group Related Fields No more awkward nodes!

Taxonomy: A Class(ifying) Act Now

  Taxonomy Terms with Fields Now you get to see and hear the chocolate.

  Bind Vocabularies to Content Type Different occasions. Different widgets.

  Path Aliases Taxonomy goes incognito.

Wrapping Up

 CCK Defines. Taxonomy Classifies.

 Know the Feature Set of Each.

 It's Never One or the Other. Always Both.

 Apply Careful Thinking to Make Decisions.

 Drupal 7 is Going to Rock (Of Course)

Questions

  For more information, visit: – http://acquia.com – http://twitter.com/acquia

 Contact us:

–  sales@acquia.com

–  888.9.ACQUIA

  Try Drupal 7 for free – Sign up for beta code at http://drupalgardens.com

  Sign up for a free 30-day Acquia Network Trial

– http://acquia.com/trial

Recording of today’s event and slides will be posted at:

http://acquia.com/community/resources/recorded_webinars