Categories
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- Last edited 5 years ago by MLR
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- This page is a draft but has an approved version
Contents
What are categories?
Categories work like keywords or tags. You can assign several categories to a page. Categories can be grouped into top categories and it is possible to create subcategories of a category. Therefore, it is possible to create a tree structure and thus to build a hierarchical structure.
Adding categories to a page makes it easier to find the page in the wiki. All pages of the same category are automatically shown on the corresponding category page.
Characteristics
- Category pages: For each category that has not been assigned before, the wiki will create its own empty category page.
- No category limitations: Categories can be generated in any number and by any user. They can be reviewed periodically to ensure that they are organized in a meaningful way.
- Multiple categories per page: a page can of course be assigned to several categories.
- Namespaces: Categories are not contained in namespaces, but are shared wiki-wide.
- Syntax: A category name cannot contain any spaces.
- System categories: Categories are usually created by users. However, in special cases, MediaWiki also assigns auto-generated categories (for example, pages with broken links).
Note: On category pages, umlauts are generally sorted all the way to the back, e.g., "Märchen" after "Muh". You can therefore use the variable {{DEFAULTSORT:sortkey}} to specify an alternative title to be used for sorting (e.g., {{DEFAULTSORT:Maedchen}}).
Create and assign categories
To create a category or assign a page to an existing category, there are multiple options
In the title section of the page
The title section contains the category assignment field. Any user with edit rights can click on the edit link to add or remove categories from the page. To view all existing categories with subcategories, you can click on the tree icon. Once you are done, the categories are confirmed with the check mark:
With Visual Editor
In the page options menu of VisualEditor, you can access a Categories menu item. Here you can add and remove category assignments form the page and also add a sortkey to the category.
In Source code
To add a category in source code, the namespace Category is added before the page name:
[[Category:Training]]
Links to category pages
Links to a category require a colon before the namespace.
Example: [[:category:new_page]]
If this colon is missing, the article will not be linked to the category page, but the article will be assigned to the corresponding category.
Displays of categories
You can view a list of all wiki categories on the page Special:Categories. If a link is shown in red, the category has so far only been linked, but the associated category page has not yet been edited.
On the Category:category_name, you will find a list of all the pages and media associated with a particular category.
If you have accessed a previously unavailable (redlinked) category page, you can add a category description to the page. That way, users understand the purpose of the category.
Multi-level category system
The easiest way to manage categories and sub-categories is with the Category manager page (Special:Category_manager). You can navigate to the Category manager via Global actions.