About the Tag module…

How impossible is it to have multiple tag fields per weblog?

I need 3 separate fields for tags for one weblog, but there seems to be a limit of only 1 tag field per weblog.

The weblog is “DVDs” and the tags I need are “Stars”, “Studios”, and “Genre”.

Any ideas on how to do this?

Thanks!

Yeah Brainwerk,

You’re bascially wanting hierarchical tags, which is not supported. Also not supported is the concept of tag groups. All are great ideas, but only in the planning stages at this point.

mk

Crap.  That really kills me.

But out of curiosity… is the “tags_from_field” feature related?  Or am I totally misunderstanding what that is?

If I have 3 fields… “Stars”, “Studios”, and “Genre”…

Could I insert those tags using:

{exp:tag:tags_from_field}
{stars}
{format}{tag}{/format}
{/exp:tag:tags_from_field}

{exp:tag:tags_from_field}
{studios}
{format}{tag}{/format}
{/exp:tag:tags_from_field}

{exp:tag:tags_from_field}
{genre}
{format}{tag}{/format}
{/exp:tag:tags_from_field}

Or am I just /off/ on this too?

Thank you Mitchell!

Only one of the fields would be recognized as the official tag field and only that field would therefore be the one from which Tag harvests stuff and adds to the database.

Ok thanks for that.  But I’m still completely mystified as to what the {exp:tag:tags_from_field} function does then.  Does it *display* tags in the template?  Or does it *add* tags to the TAG database (which would make no sense)?  If it does the former, then I’m lost as to how this is really any different from the {exp:tag:tags} function.  They both do the same thing, right?  Oh wait… perhaps the {exp:tag:tags_from_field} function is just a shortcut so that it doesn’t have to make a separate database query?

I’m SO sick of being SO lost with EE.  I’ve been a webmaster/developer for 8 years.  Dealt with a couple hundred different scripts in that time.  I like to think I’m a fairly intelligent life form.  But there’s something about EE that I just don’t get half the time.  I constantly have to stop and re-do hours of work because something doesn’t freakin’ work the way I thought it would.  It’s mad-mad-maddening!  /rant

Mitchell, I’m not angry with you… just frustrated in general.  If the {exp:tag:tags_from_field} is simply a database bypass, then why won’t/can’t it display the info in multiple fields as tags?  Simply because it doesn’t “look” for more than one field?  Or am I still misunderstanding?

Brainwerk,

You can definitely use the tags_from_field function to display the contents of any number of fields as if the contents were tags. But here’s the key. Most of the time when you display a list of tags, the tags are links that point to a page that will show other entries sharing that tag. In order for EE to know which other entries share a tag, the DB needs to know. And the Tag module only keeps track of the tags submitted in one field for any given entry.

The reason the tags from field function is in place is merely to give you, the developer, a way to improve the load time of your pages. I figured that if all of your tags were in a field of your entry, why tell the Tag module to go into the database and find the tags for that entry. Seemed redundant. Why not just give you a convenient way to format the contents of the field you use to collect your tags?

mk

Very nice explanation.  Thank you Mitchell.  I appreciate it.

Whew. I thought it was as clear as mud.