Custom Taxonomy Ideas?

[mfields]

Hi,

I'll be presenting at this month's WordPress Users group here in Portland, OR. I'll also be pitching this presentation for inclusion at WordCamp Portland this year (fingers crossed).

The topic I chose is custom taxonomy more specifically "Unlocking the Hidden Power of Custom Taxonomy for WordPress". The goal of the presentation is two-fold: Inform WordPress users that this functionality exists and inspire them to use custom taxonomies on their own sites by providing a series of use cases.

I'm posting here in hopes that someone uses custom taxonomies and would like to provide a link to their site. I have a handful of decent examples that will be included, but the more the better IMO. Here's what I have planned so far, please feel free to add to the list. I will credit anyone who helps out both in the presentation as well as the blog post that results from the presentation.

Justin Tadlock's Awesome Movie Database
http://popcritics.com/movies

My Art Portfolio uses custom taxonomies to organize pieces by the symbols that they contain. http://art.mfields.org/symbolism/

I use custom taxonomoies to list the version of WordPres that code examples will work on at http://web.mfields.org/

I use custom taxonomoies to create a linked list of my clients at http://design.mfields.org/clients/

A couple of hypothetical examples are listed below:

- Sports Blog
- Teams
- Players
- Coaches
- Leagues

- Music Blog
- Performer
- Band
- Record Label
- Release

Please let me know if you or someone you know uses custom taxonomies in a creative or useful way.

Thanks for reading.
-Mike

[Ryan]

The CSS upgrade plugin that WordPress.com uses makes use of a custom taxonomy I believe.

[mfields]

Ryan, Thanks for posting, unfortunately I have no idea what this plugin does... Is this what is utilized after you pay a fee to be able to edit your stylesheet?

[Cais]

I believe this is the plugin Ryan is mentioning: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/safecss/

[mfields]

Thanks JellyBeen unfortunately, there are no taxonomies there :(

[chipbennett]

Say, couldn't the plugin (or theme) repository be built using custom taxonomies?

Plugin
- Name
- Version
- Author
- WP-required-version
- WP-supported-version
- Downloads
- Author URI
- Plugin URI
- Donate URI
- Description
- etc.

(I don't know what the benefit would be, versus the current implementation - but, theoretically, it could be done.)

[mfields]

Say, couldn't the plugin (or theme) repository be built using custom taxonomies?

Don't know if this is the best use mainly due to the fact that many of the examples that you listed are singular in nature. I see Name, Version, Description and Plugin URI as having a one to one relationship to a specific plugin.

However examples such as "WP-required-version" and "WP-supported-version" would be beneficial IMO - creating pages of all plugins that have been tested with a given version of WordPress could be useful.

"Author" is already linked to a page containing all plugins from the author in question.

[chipbennett]

Don't know if this is the best use mainly due to the fact that many of the examples that you listed are singular in nature. I see Name, Version, Description and Plugin URI as having a one to one relationship to a specific plugin.

However examples such as "WP-required-version" and "WP-supported-version" would be beneficial IMO - creating pages of all plugins that have been tested with a given version of WordPress could be useful.

"Author" is already linked to a page containing all plugins from the author in question.

Right - like I said, not necessarily an advantageous use of custom taxonomies. :)

Basically, I'm seeing anything that is (or is analogous to) a physical collection is well-suited to custom taxonomies: music, movies, books, baseball cards, sports player/statistic databases, etc.

I could see groups (volunteer, fraternity, whatever) using custom taxonomies for member management (event RSVP, logging community service hours, committee membership, etc.).

Hmm... will have to brainstorm more...

[mfields]

Chip, I really like the fact that you brought up "Baseball Cards" I thought for a second that it is much like a sports blog taxonomy system until I realized that baseball cards are things that people collect. "Collectibles" opens a plethora of other examples that I can use. Awesome! Thanks!

[Mark McWilliams]

You know what I think Michael! ;)