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Intelligent navigation

Intelligent navigation is a Content Delivery API that allows you to generate website navigation, and other navigational features, from taxonomy hierarchies created using Categories and Keywords.

You implement intelligent navigation as follows:

1. Create Categories and Keywords
In the Content Manager, you use Categories and Keywords to define taxonomies that provide you with a rich classification scheme to define a knowledge map of your content domain:
  • A Category is a general classification defining the root of a taxonomy. A taxonomy consists of a nested hierarchy of Keywords defined in a tree structure (your "knowledge map").
  • A Keyword defines a value within the taxonomy hierarchy. You use Keywords to classify content and apply metadata. Tagging your content with Keywords applies the knowledge map to your content to define how content is related.
2. Classify content
When you have created your taxonomies you can classify content with it. Classifying content involves creating Schemas for Components and using Keywords as list field values in Component fields and Metadata fields. When content authors create Components using these Schemas, they can then tag content with Keywords. (Note that you can also bulk classify content.)
3. Publish taxonomies
When you publish taxonomies you can use them on the Presentation Server to implement Intelligent Navigation in your websites.
A taxonomy published by the Content Management System and presented to the Content Delivery System consists of a hierarchy of Keywords. For every request made through the Taxonomy API, the taxonomy tree data is processed and transformed into an in-memory taxonomy structure consisting of Keywords.
4. Implement Intelligent Navigation
You implement Intelligent Navigation on Content Delivery as follows:
  • Add the <tridion:TaxonomyControl> to your JSPs or ASPXs. The taxonomy control allows you to display a taxonomy and exposes properties to control how a taxonomy is displayed.
  • Use the Content Delivery Taxonomy API to retrieve taxonomy trees, get related content based on Keywords or metadata, and filter content.
  • Use the Content Delivery Query API for fine-grained control over retrieving content including taxonomic relationships (related content) and over the filtering and sorting of content.