Tackling taxonomies

PaperThin has announced CommonSpot Content Server Version 4.6, which provides advanced content classification and discovery capabilities. The product's taxonomy module now offers complete out-of-the-box taxonomy management for Web content administrators and contributors. New features include a taxonomy term editor and a taxonomy API, along with a facet-based navigation element.

The company explains that the taxonomy term editor lets organizations build and manage flexible taxonomies directly within CommonSpot. Each taxonomy defines one or more facets, or hierarchical views, into the data by defining "broader than" and "narrower than" relationships between terms. Terms can also be defined to have other relationships in accordance with ANSI Z.39, allowing for the definition of taxonomies that meet critical business requirements. PaperThin adds that content can then be rapidly assigned to terms using the taxonomy classification custom metadata field. Taxonomies can be refined as an organization's classification needs evolve over time.

The taxonomy API allows developers to programmatically access any of the terms and relationships within a taxonomy. This capability enables easy development of unlimited custom interfaces to related content.

The company further reports that CommonSpot's new facet-based navigation element leverages content classification by allowing users to intuitively navigate through a defined taxonomy. Users can easily browse and discover information within topic areas based on one or more selected facets within a taxonomy. By narrowing terms under a facet, a filtered subset of narrower terms and possibly other related 'see-also' references are presented. Facet-based navigation dramatically enhances the user experience and facilitates a faster information discovery process by only displaying content that is relevant to the user.