Sections versus Categories

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  • Wiets
    Member
    • Jan 2009
    • 39
    • 3.8.x

    [CMS] Sections versus Categories

    I have just installed VB4 CMS and is really struggeling to understand many things - excuse my ignorance.

    What is the difference between a Section and a Category?
    When should I use a Section rather than a category - vice verse.

    Thanks in advance!
  • d3nnis
    Senior Member
    • Jun 2003
    • 620
    • 3.7.x

    #2
    section is like the forum category

    category is like the forum sections.

    eg...

    section A contains cat A , cat B, cat C

    section B contains cat D, cat E

    the layout will be like this:

    Section
    Section A
    Section B

    Category
    Cat A (0)
    Cat B (0)
    Cat C (0)
    Cat D (0)
    Cat E (0)

    when u click on Section B, Category will shows up as Cat D (0) and Cat E (0)

    hope u understand what i am saying

    Comment

    • South Fork
      Senior Member
      • Jul 2004
      • 115
      • 3.8.x

      #3
      d3nnis, I understand it a bit differently.

      Sections contain your articles. In other words, that's where articles physically park. They also allow the group settings such as layouts to be applied and used by more than one article based on the section they fall in.

      Categories aren't much different than tags. The difference is the admin must spend un-needed time adding them before the article can use the category. Additionally they need to be built for each section, even if there is an overlapping category between two sections. What you get is a topical list of articles. That topic may be of interest to the visitor so they acquire an article list more specific to their needs, beyond what is the most logical placement within the sections.

      If you're looking to implement a bit faster, prioritize your time towards sections and articles, and come back to the categories when you have time or, and this is wishful thinking, vB does the right thing and re-approaches "categories".

      And one correction Wiets. You're not ignorant, you're just confused. Once you get to know it better, you will conclude that it's just that it doesn't make sense. vB's CMS Section should be categories. vB's CMS Categories should be tags. Tags should be applied as they do in the forum, at the time of post or in the CMS's case, time of publishing an article and not within the Control Panel > vBulletin CMS > Category Manager. Should have nothing to do with a "section" and there should be tag cloud available to choose from and a forum to enter new tags not previously used.

      South Fork
      Last edited by South Fork; Thu 7 Jan '10, 9:39pm.

      Comment

      • Edwin Brown
        Former vBulletin Developer
        • Mar 2009
        • 1393
        • 5.5.x

        #4
        There is a tag cloud. If you don't like categories you are welcome to not use them. They'll take up some space in the admincp and the article edit page, but otherwise they can be ignored if you don't like them.

        But if you like them, they're available. What South Fork said- categories are another tagging system. They are hierarchical although the current widget doesn't display the hierarchy. To me the difference is:
        Sections are the canonical structure, and that's how you control styles, layouts, and permissions. You could for example create a section with paid access only.

        Categories are a tagging system, intended to encourage discovery. Articles can belong to no categories, or any arbitrary number.

        There are two category widgets. One displays categories for the current section and any children (top-down). One displays for the current section and any parents (bottom-up).
        Please- I'm not tech support. Don't send your problem reports to me unless I've asked you to.

        Comment

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