How to Create a Glossary

Provide definitions for terms and acronyms for users with a glossary.

Summary

Glossify is a third-party Drupal module added to the Digital Commons platform. It uses filters to scan and parse text content to look for terms you have added to your Glossify vocabulary under taxonomy. When glossary terms are present on a page, Glossify automatically makes the term a link. When a user selects the link, a tool tip shows the definition you provided when you added the term to your glossary. A book icon indicates that the link opens a glossary term to distinguish it from other links.

Example:

content management system
 

Audience

  • Web Managers add new terms and definitions to the Glossify vocabulary.

Learn more about Platform User Roles and Permissions. 

How to Add Terms and Definitions

  • 1

    Go to the Glossify Vocabulary

    Just as web managers can add terms to the Blog or Press Release vocabularies, you can add glossary terms to the Glossify vocabulary. 

    1. Login and navigate to Structure > Taxonomy
    2. In the Vocabulary Name column, find Glossify.
    3. In the Operations column, select List Terms. 
    4. The Glossify Vocabulary opens.
    Glossify Vocabulary interface for adding new terms to the glossary
  • 2

    Add Term and Definition

    All fields with an asterisk(*) are required.

    1. Select the Add term button. If terms have already been added to the glossary, they are provided in a table. 
    2. Name (*) - Enter the term or acronym you want to define as it will appear on page text. This is case-sensitive, so you may wish to provide multiple variations of the same term if you want it defined in every context, i.e., at the beginning of a sentence or in the middle of one. 
      Example: "content management system"
    3. Description - Enter the definition to be provided when the user selects the glossary term.
      Example: "(CMS) A software tool or integrated set of tools that is used to create, manage, and publish material for a website."
    4. Select Save to save the term and definition to the glossary. 
    Filled form fields for a new glossary term added to the Glossify vocabulary.
  • 3

    Test the Glossary Item

    1. Navigate to a page that uses the term you just added to the vocabulary. 
    2. The term now appears as a link within the Text component. A book icon indicates that the link opens a glossary term to distinguish it from other links. (Figure 1) 
    3. Select the link for the term.
    4. A dialogue box opens displaying the term and its definition. (Figure 2)
    5. Select Close or the Exit button to close the dialogue box. 

    Interact with this Example: About Digital Commons

    A glossary term looks like any other link when it appears in context on a web page.
    Figure 1: Glossary terms become links when appearing in the Text component. Enlarge
    The dialogue box that appears to display the definition when a glossary link is selected
    Figure 2:  A dialogue box with the term and definition appear above the webpage. Enlarge
    Accordion
    Tab/Accordion Items

    When testing, if your glossary item does not appear on a page that uses the term you just added to the vocabulary, check the following:

    • Ensure that you have provided a definition for the vocabulary term in the Description field and saved the term.
    • Ensure that the term you added matches the case of the term in context of the page. If you add "Content Management System" to the glossary using uppercase letters but use "content management system" on the page with lower case letters, the term will not be linked. You may need to create variations of your terms if it is reasonable to expect inconsistent casing.
    • Check that the Text format drop-down menu is set to Paste Filtered HTML. The Full HTML option may override the glossary feature. 
    Text format paste options drop down box.