Taxonomies

A taxonomy is a system of classifying data around a set of unique characteristics. Scientists have been using this system for years, grouping all living creatures into Kingdoms, Class, Species and so on. Taxonomies are the primary means for grouping content together by topic or a shared attribute.

Overview

Taxonomies give you the ability to tag your entries and then fetch and sort all the entries who share any given tag. Categories and tags are probably the most common taxonomies, but you're not limited to those two. There are many useful taxonomies that can help group and sort your content. For example, topic, color, genre, and size.

Practically speaking, taxonomies are very similar to collections. They can have their own fields as defined by blueprints and also have their own URLs.

Each entry in a taxonomy is often called a term.

Watch how to set up your first Taxonomy

Collections

Each collection defines which taxonomies are part of its content model in their blueprint. Thus, taxonomies and their terms are connected to entries through the collection in a strict relationship. Once you attach a taxonomy to a collection, the fields, variables, and routes are added automatically.

Taxonomies can be attached to any number of collections but their terms are global, which means that any data stored on each term will be the same no matter the collection it's being related through. This is usually what you want, but if it isn't you can create additional taxonomies for specific collections. For example: product_tags in addition to tags.

Blueprints

Each taxonomy uses blueprints to define the available fields when creating and editing its terms.

If you don't explicitly create a blueprint, your terms will have a basic set of fields: title, markdown content, slug, etc. Of course, you're able to create your own.

If you create more than one blueprint you'll be given the option to choose which one you want when creating a new term.

Routing

Taxonomy routes are automatically created for you if the corresponding view exists.

Hot Tip!

URLs use slugs with dashes, and views use handles with underscores.

  • Global Taxonomy Details
    • Display the details of the taxonomy, so you can list the terms.
    • Accessible at /{taxonomy-slug} (eg. /tags)
    • The {taxonomy_handle}/index view will be used (eg. tags/index.antlers.html)
  • Global Term details
    • Display the details of the term, so you can list the entries.
    • Accessible at /{taxonomy-slug}/{term-slug} (eg. /tags/t-shirts)
    • The {taxonomy_handle}/show view will be used. (eg. tags/show.antlers.html)

For each taxonomy assigned to a collection you will also get these routes:

  • Collection Taxonomy Details
    • Display the details of the taxonomy, so you can list the terms.
    • Only terms that have been used in entries in the collection will be displayed.
    • Accessible at /{collection-url}/{taxonomy-slug} (eg. /products/tags)
    • The {collection_handle}/{taxonomy_handle}/index view will be used (eg. products/tags/index.antlers.html)
  • Collection Term details
    • Display the details of the term, so you can list the entries.
    • Only entries that exist in the collection will be displayed.
    • Accessible at /{collection-url}/{taxonomy-slug}/{term-slug} (eg. /products/tags/t-shirts)
    • The {collection_handle}/{taxonomy_handle}/show view will be used. (eg. products/tags/show.antlers.html)

Term Values and Slugs

A term value is how you might identify a term in your content. For example, “Star Wars”.

A term slug is the URL-safe version, and is what Statamic uses internally to track terms, e.g. star-wars. The slug is created automatically based on a few rules. Let’s cover them now.

How we slugify your terms:

tags:
- Star Wars
- Tatooine
- Droids We're Not Looking For
  • The value Star Wars will be converted to lowercase, and all spaces and special characters will be replaced with hyphens: star-wars.
  • If a term with the slug star-wars already exists, the relation is made.
  • If no such term yet exists one will be created, and the entered value (Star Wars) will become the title.

Titles are saved on a first-come, first-serve basis, which means consistency is important. If you enter Star Wars in one entry, and star wars in another, whichever term Statamic encounters first will be used as the title.

To further clarify, Star wars, star wars, StAr WaRS, and star-wars are all treated as the same term. If case-sensitivity is important, you can add a title field to the taxonomy blueprint.

Templating

Views

Taxonomies use the following view template naming convention:

Purpose View
Taxonomy Index {taxonomy_name}/index
Single Term {taxonomy_name}/show
Taxonomy Index (for collection) {collection}/{taxonomy_name}/index
Single Term (for collection) {collection}/{taxonomy_name}/show

For example, you would set up your "topics" index page in resources/views/topics/index.antlers.html and then a specific topic with a list of all entries inside it at resources/views/topics/show.antlers.html.

The collection equivalents would automatically filter terms that have been associated to entries in that collection.

Outputting Terms

Term values will be augmented into term objects and will have access to all data

tags:
- awesome
- sauce
{{ tags }}
{{ title }}, {{ url }}, {{ slug }}, etc
{{ /tags }}
Awesome, /tags/awesome, awesome, etc
Sauce, /tags/sauce, sauce, etc

When the collection can be inferred, the url and permalink values will include the collection's URL. (eg. /blog/tags/awesome instead of just /tags/awesome)

  • ✅ Looping through tags on an entry's page.
  • ✅ Looping through tags while inside a collection tag pair.
  • ✅ Looping through terms in a taxonomy tag pair, using the collection parameter.
  • ❌ Looping through terms in a taxonomy tag pair, without specifying a collection.

Listings and Indexes

When on a taxonomy route, you can list the terms by using a terms tag pair. For example:

<ul>
{{ terms }}
<li><a href="{{ url }}">{{ title }}</a></li>
{{ /terms }}
</ul>
Hot Tip!

You can replace the terms tag with the name of the taxonomy. eg. {{ tags }} or {{ categories }}

Listing Term Entries

When on a term route, you can list the entries by using an entries tag pair. For example:

{{ entries paginate="5" }}
<ul>
{{ results }}
<li><a href="{{ url }}">{{ title }}</a></li>
{{ /results }}
</ul>
{{ /entries }}

Search Indexes

You can configure search indexes for your collections to improve the efficiency and relevancy of your users searches. Learn how to connect indexes.

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Learn More!

There is more to learn more in these related articles:

Tags

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