Plugins / Extensions

Plugin: “Checkbox Assign Keywords”

Being my first post on this site, it’s only polite that I first introduce myself and let you know who I am and what I’m about!

My name is Kim Dezen and I currently head up RedDot CMS/LiveServer development at Areeba. Areeba is based in Melbourne Australia and we have been developing projects in RedDot CMS since 2001. I personally have been working with RedDot CMS and LiveServer over the past 4 years, however I also have a strong background in .NET, PHP, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and Flash.
In this time, I’ve worked on over 15 separate RedDot projects, including the recent redevelopment of the RedDot global websites (US, DE, AU and UK) for RedDot.

The reason for posting on this blog??
Well, I strongly felt it was about time that I contributed to the wider RedDot community in some way or another. As we all know most RedDot developers tend to keep all their hints and tips close to their chest (myself included!!!), however I feel that sharing information exposes you to new ideas and processes – which in turn makes you a better developer.

And on that note, let’s get back to the programme!

One of the things I constantly ask myself when I’m working on a project is “How easy is it for the user to maintain content within this site?”. 
One of the quickest and easiest ways you can make your projects easier to use, is to reduce the amount of clicks (i.e. Reddot’s) required to create and maintain pages.
Although there are many built-in templating features that you can use to reduce the amount of clicks, the ‘Keywords’ interface in my opinion has always been extremely frustrating to use. Not only for users, but also for developers!!

Just take a look at how many steps are required to assign a new keyword to a page:

1. Open up the page
2. Click on the ‘Keywords’ link
3. Click the ‘+ Add’ link
4. Using the drop down menus, select the appropriate category (which i find can be buggy at times!!)
5. Select the keyword from the list
6. Click OK
7. Repeat steps 1-6 again, if you need to select another keyword
8. Click OK to save

In an attempt to make this process simpler, I’ve created a plugin called “Checkbox Assign Keywords.” This allows you to add/remove keywords that are assigned to a page or link from the same window, simply by clicking on the corresponding checkboxes.

You can also restrict category keywords the user can select, which can be handy if you are using keywords to tag up pages (for custom Verity queries in LS) or apply a taxonomy. To do this, pass in the name(s) of the Categories via the ’shownCategories’ querystring variable:

?shownCategories=Category 1~Category 2 ...

To install the plugin:

• Copy the ‘rdUICheckboxAssignKeywords’ folder in the RedDot plugins folder
• Install the plugin via the Server Manager

Plugin: “Checkbox Assign Keywords” (ZIP, 25KB)

Check out my blog for more RedDot CMS plugins.

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About the author:

Kim Dezen is a Senior RedDot CMS (Open Text Web Solutions) CMS Consultant, Developer and Freelancer. Part time DJ and obsessed music / vinyl junkie. Follow me on Twitter: @kimdezen                  Check out my blog: http://www.kimdezen.com for all things related to Red Dot, SEO/SEM and Web Development.

Tags: CMS, Keywords, RedDot, RedDot plugins