4.2. Using Topics

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A topic allows you to collect content from disparate places throughout a Plone site and provide it in one location. Topics work by creating a criterion that's common to all the objects you'd like to gather. This criterion could be all images or all news items with Plone in the text. Because topics are a rather complicated type of content, only managers can add them initially. If you can't see Topic in the list of items to add, then you don't have the permission to do so.

To add a topic, select Topic from the drop-down list. After adding the topic, you can create key criteria on the criteria tab. The list of criteria and types is available in the drop-down box at the bottom of the page. This is a rather confusing list; I won't try to discuss it here. Unfortunately, what those terms are and what they mean is based heavily on the underlying technology, such as catalog indexes and object attributes. For this reason, Chapter 11 covers this in detail.

For example, to create a topic that shows all the images, you need to add a criterion that searches for content based on portal_type. For this, select a field name of portal_type, select String Criterion, and then click Add. These criteria will be added to the top of the page; in the field to the right of portal_type, enter Image, and then click Save. You now have criteria for your topic that will show all content that's an image. Returning to the view tab, you can now see all the images on a site.

As stated, topics are quite complicated, have a rather unfriendly interface, and are recommended for only advanced users. Many people have found topics useful, which is why they're still available in Plone; however, a more user-friendly system will be developed in the future.

Next: Discussing and Finding Content Previous: Using Folders