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Multiple selection of keywords for article creation

kezza
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Dec 19, 2005, 11:39 PM

Post #1 of 8 (2684 views)
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Multiple selection of keywords for article creation	Can't Post

My client wants to be able to have a pre-defined list of 'keywords' to be added to articles (for search purposes). I'm trying to dissuade them from this requirement because I think it will become cumbersome to administer. However, if they do want this facility I'm concerned that I may not be able to provide it in any case!

I thought I may be able to accommodate this by using checkboxes but I've discovered that Article Manager doesn't use checkboxes (as with Realty/Auto Manager) so that option isn't available. The other option would be a pull-down list that allowed multiple selections - could a pull-down list in the Article Manager 'add article' template be modified to allow for multiple selections?

Other than the above the only option I could think of would be if there were some way of 'firing up' a separate window that had all of the keywords shown from where they could be selected and then the relevant article field populated with the selected words, e.g. The field in Article Manager for keywords has a button marked 'click here to select keywords' ... when that's pressed a pop-up opens with the keywords contained across the page; when a keyword is 'clicked' it gets added to the keyword field in AM (there would have to be a 'done' button on this pop-up). Does that make sense?!

Thanks as always for your guidance!

Kerry
Kerry

jcocking
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Dec 20, 2005, 5:58 AM

Post #2 of 8 (2676 views)
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Re: [kezza] Multiple selection of keywords for article creation [In reply to]	Can't Post

AM can do what you want. I deploy three techniques to get keywords on the page for search engines. The techniques can be used together or independently. Pick which technique will work best for your needs. The three techniques are:

Standard meta tag keywords
Grouping of keywords for categories or common subjects
Unique keywords to the specific article

I first went through my site and defined the major keywords for the site. I then grouped the keywords into the three categories listed above.

1. For the keywords that were to be used on every page, I used the standard meta tag approach:

<meta name="keywords" content="Elan, Lotus, Sprint, Racing, Lotus Elan" />

2. For the grouping of keywords, I use a checkbox approach to allow the article editor to select which grouping of keywords should be attached to the article. This approach will use Article Fields. You are limited to 19 total article fields, so use them sparingly. To setup up this approach do the following:

Go to "SetUp Options" => "General"
Select an open "Article Field"
In the "Field Name" type in the keywords for one of the grouping you created. Use standard meta tag rules: words separated with commas. Place a comma after the last word.
Select the "field type" of checkbox
Enable the article field.
Go to your article template and edit the meta tag. Insert the $art_field7$ with the corresponding number you just created.
Go back and add as many grouping as you want. $art_field8$ $art_field9$ $art_field10$ etc....

<meta name="keywords" content="Elan, Lotus, $art_field7$ $art_field8$ $art_field9$ $art_field10$ Sprint, Racing, Lotus Elan" />

Now when an editor creates/edits an article, there will be a checkbox to select the keywords you defined. If the editor selects the keywords, the "field name" becomes assigned to the $art_fieldn$. When the article is published, AM will insert the value into the meta tag for you.

3. For unique keywords, I use a standard article field with a text box. This will allow the editor to enter free form keywords that are unique to the article. To use this approach do the following:

Go to "SetUp Options" => "General"
Select an open "Article Field"
In the "Field Name" type in "meta tag keywords".
Select the "field type" of text field.
Enable the article field.
Go to your article template and edit the meta tag. Insert the $art_field11$ with the corresponding number you just created.

<meta name="keywords" content="Elan, Lotus, $art_field11$, Sprint, Racing, Lotus Elan" />

Now when an editor creates/edits a page there will be a free form text box for the editor to add keywords that are unique to the article. The editors will need to be taught to use a comma between each word.

Mange your commas as you setup this structure. If you are not careful, you can end up with a meta tag ful of commas with out words between them. Multiple commas are treated as a repeat of a word and will stop most search engines.

There are some limitations to keep in mind as you use these techniques:

There are only 19 article fields. Use them wisely. These are powerful tools, but once they are used, they are gone. Plan ahead on how you will use them.
The variables/assignments of article fields only occur when an article is saved. If you use this approach after your articles have been created, you will need to go back and edit every article to have the article fields assigned to the article. Sounds simple, until you need to go back and edit 200+ articles.

It sounds like AM2.0 will remove some of these limitations, but will let the AM staff speak to what the future holds for AM.

These approaches will allow you to use all three approaches to add keywords to an idividual article. I have been using all three for the last two years. It is fast and very easy.

As I have reread my post to ensure it is accurate, I realized I could also use the category name of the article as part of the meta tag. By inserting, $cat_name$, into the meta tag structure, this will place the article category name into the keywords. If your category names are descriptive, it would be a usefull as a keyword. (thats why you answer these questions. It helps you think of new things to try with AM)

As always, save original copies of the template, save, save and save again. Then test, test and test again.

jeff
Jeff Cocking
Lotus Elan (AM 1.38)
VoIP Phone Comparisons (AM 2.02)

(This post was edited by jcocking on Dec 22, 2005, 7:36 AM)

MikeB
Staff / Moderator

Dec 20, 2005, 11:12 AM

Post #3 of 8 (2655 views)
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Re: [kezza] Multiple selection of keywords for article creation [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Kerry,

Thanks for the post! Smile

It looks like Jeff has put together a great post for you describing how he's using meta tags with Article Manager and I'd suggest taking a look at his suggestions.

What I was going to recommend was similar to Jeff's post but it's always great to hear this straight from an Article Manager user who has been using this method for a few years.

If you have any other questions or comments about this, just let me know! Smile

Cheers,
Mike Briggs - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com

Hire me!
Save time by getting our experts to help with your project. Template changes, advanced features, full integration, whatever you need. Whether you need one hour or fifty, get it done fast with Priority Consulting.

kezza
User

Dec 20, 2005, 1:56 PM

Post #4 of 8 (2648 views)
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Re: [jcocking] Multiple selection of keywords for article creation [In reply to]	Can't Post

Guys, thanks for the repiles - particularly Jeff's In-depth response. However, I think perhaps I didn't explain myself clearly enough (either that or I'm mis-reading the replies!).

AM is going to be used to publish what I'm led to understand will be a high volume of articles on a schools partnership website. There will be numerous contributors. The client wants site visitors to be able to search all content against pre-defined keywords; these keywords would be set up by an administrator and content writers/contributors would have to select relevant keywords from the predefined list; it could be that there would be as many as a hundred or more keywords.

My initial proposal to the client was that keywords would be entered in a text field (separated by commas) which is pretty much has been covered in Jeff's reply, but their new requirement for a pulldown list of keywords is something that I don't think is viable (unless I've misunderstood Jeff's email).

Any comments?!?!

Thanks guys

Regards

Kerry
Kerry

jcocking
User

Dec 21, 2005, 5:52 AM

Post #5 of 8 (2636 views)
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Re: [kezza] Multiple selection of keywords for article creation [In reply to]	Can't Post

What you want is still doable, but will require a slight mod to the article creation templates. I have not made this mod, but it is feasible. The AM staff will need to validate the assumptions.

Set up the dropdown box within the article fields. I am assuming there is a limit to the number of characters you can have in the field, but I do not know what the limit is. I am currently using one with 26 dropdown choices and is 501 characters long. If you have not setup a drop down list before, the format is:

Title(keyword1,keyword2,keyword3,etc)

If your keywords fit then you will need to make an edit to the _art_menus.html. This is located in the templates section within the folder called interface.

Find the following code:

<tr>
<td><font face="arial,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12px;">$name$  </font></td>
<td><select name="spare$num$">$option_list$</select></td>
</tr>

Add the word "multiple" after the "spare$num$". Your code should look like this:

<tr>
<td><font face="arial,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12px;">$name$  </font></td>
<td><select name="spare$num$" multiple>$option_list$</select></td>
</tr>

This will change the HTML in the create/edit article to allow the editor to select multiple options within the dropdown menu. Then place the $art_field$ variable within your meta tags as illustrated in the previous posts. I am not sure how the multiple variables will be stored, so you will need to test this.

Now for all the disclaimers:

Every one of your drop down boxes from this point will allow multiple choices.
Editing your interface templates removes you from the easy upgrade path. For every upgrade from this point forward will require editing the templates. There is also the possibility that a future release of the software will remove the ability to have this mod.
Test this extensively. I have not done this mod, but there could be data validation routines written into the backend code that prevents you from doing this. AM will need to validate if this is even feasible.
Since you are editing the interface templates make a bunch of backups.

AM Staff:

Can you validate if this approach would work? This is an easy mod, but my test server is down and do not want to try this on my production system.

I would also suggest adding this request to the requested features list. This request should be a minor change to add a checkbox on the setup options to make a drop down box have the ability to have multiple responses.

jeff
Jeff Cocking
Lotus Elan (AM 1.38)
VoIP Phone Comparisons (AM 2.02)

(This post was edited by jcocking on Dec 21, 2005, 6:10 AM)

nigelparry.net
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Dec 22, 2005, 7:09 AM

Post #6 of 8 (2556 views)
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Re: [jcocking] Multiple selection of keywords for article creation [In reply to]	Can't Post

Why instead of using one field per keyword don't you just have a single text field, whose placeholder is inserted in the meta tag for keywords, and a little note by the field that reminds users to input several keywords themselves with commas between? These can then be totally customized to each article with far less user input than this method suggests.
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jcocking
User

Dec 22, 2005, 7:34 AM

Post #7 of 8 (2552 views)
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Re: [nigelparry.net] Multiple selection of keywords for article creation [In reply to]	Can't Post

Your suggestion is option #3 in the second post.

The issue is the customer wanted the ability to predefine the keywords. If you have a large number of editors, the ability to police keywords becomes very cumbersome.

I have found the use of predefined keywords has allowed me to work around the issue of one article per category.

Think of a website about American Football. The primary navigation would be structured by Seasons => games => week of xx/2005. But I also wanted to have a navigation structure based on Conferences => divisions => teams. Every article created would be placed in corresponding "week of xx/2005" category. Additionally, the article would have a drop down box with all the teams listed: Cowboys, Patriots, Giants, Jets, etc. The editor would pick the team(s) that were applicable to the article. A new category could now be created called "Jets". This page would be created by using the search.cgi looking for the keyword "Jets" within art_field. You now have the ability to have articles in multiple categories.

By using predefined keywords within the art_field, you know have the ability to do keyword searches. These keyword searches can be used to build a secondary navigation layer.

By using this approach, you can now have an unlimited number of navigation layers on top of the standard AM structure. This allows you to overcome the "an article can only be in one category at a time" feature.

Predefined keywords are powerful tools and greatly extend the flexibility of AM.

jeff
Jeff Cocking
Lotus Elan (AM 1.38)
VoIP Phone Comparisons (AM 2.02)

(This post was edited by jcocking on Dec 22, 2005, 7:43 AM)

nigelparry.net
User

Dec 22, 2005, 7:54 AM

Post #8 of 8 (2543 views)
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Re: [jcocking] Multiple selection of keywords for article creation [In reply to]	Can't Post

I get it. It's more for client ease.

Yes, that whole capacity for pre-defined searches is a really powerful feature of Artman that allows for essentially several approaches to the same information in a site.

The only 'problem' with it -- if that's even a fair word to use -- is that it's yet another layer of customization and sites already have so many levels. From a business point of view, when I sit down and think about what's possible with Artman and then think about what people are prepared to pay for websites, there still remains a gulf.

Thanks for explaining, this is a very interesting thread.
_____________________

For more information about Nigel Parry and nigelparry.net
websites please see http://nigelparry.net

nigelparry.net: award-winning communications
solutions for clients with something to say

Website & print design

Internet, public relations & media consulting

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