Catalog Creation

Audience

Site Admins

Summary

Catalogs are useful to organize a complex list of items, as in a program directory. See an example at https://www.ncdcr.gov/things-to-do/place-finder.

A catalog consists of 3 kinds of items (see screenshot):

• Parent Categories (a taxonomy term). Aim for 3-6 parent categories.
• Secondary Categories (a taxonomy term that must have a parent). For example, under the parent Colors, secondary categories might be "red" and "blue." Aim for 3-10 secondary categories within each parent category.
• Catalog Items (a content type, that usually links to a page on the website). Each secondary category should have multiple catalog items.
• 

Procedure

1. Determine your parent and secondary categories, and your catalog items. Each catalog item must have at least one parent and one secondary category.
2. Ask Digital Solutions to set up a catalog for you. This provides you with the basis to add your categories and catalog items.
3. Go to Structure > Taxonomy > Catalog Categories and click add terms to create your first Parent Category. Name is the only required field (but that may change in the future). 
   
   
   
    
4. Once you've created a few parent categories, create terms for the secondary categories. The only difference for secondary categories is that you must select the correct Parent term under Relations. Do not choose a secondary term as the parent term, only a primary category term.
   
    
5. Finally, add items to the catalog: Go to Add Content > Catalog Item. Enter a Title and select a Catalog (required fields). Catalog Categories are also required. You can add multiple categories by clicking on the "Add another item" button, and you can add a new secondary category by selecting a primary category (the first element) and choosing "<Add new item>" from the secondary category (second element). Optional fields are description, links, contact and location information. Try to be consistent for each catalog item. Save.
6. To visit the catalog, go to Admin > Structure > Taxonomy, click on 'list terms' for 'Catalog.' Select the term that matches your catalog.