Tag-me Plugin

Plugin to tag wiki content collectively in order to find content by tags and to get a meaningful page ranking.

Introduction

The larger a wiki gets, the harder it is to find content. This wiki tagging plugin attempts to solve the issue based on these assumptions:

• Assertion 1: Intranet search does not work well due to inadequate ranking of search engines on intranets. This is because there are typically not many cross-links between pages.
• Assertion 2: Let the individuals build their own taxonomy to find content quickly
• Assertion 3: Let the users do the ranking to get an "human intelligence" ranking of important content

There are clear benefits in tagging content in a large wiki (10K or more topics):

• Find relevant content in a large system quickly,
  • by quickly accessing related topics via the tags on a topic
  • by quickly accessing related topics via related tags listed in a specific tag view
  • by quickly identifying important tags in the tag cloud
• Access my favorite topics quickly (assuming I tag topics of interest)
• Solve the search ranking issue of wiki content indexed by a search engine
• Help solve stale content issue (old topics do not get tagged)

The design goals of the TagMePlugin were as follows:

• Any topic can be tagged by individuals → create taxonomy for individuals
• Show tag statistics of all users on each topic → show popularity
• Encourage users to reuse the same tag on a topic → get a "collective ranking", or "vote for a tag", or "tag count"
• Make it as easy as possible to increase the tag count
• Make it as easy as possible to add a new tag to a topic
• Encourage users to create new tags, but try to avoid use of similar tags for the same subject
• Search for topic by tag, sorted by tag popularity

User interface

Tag list on topic

Every topic has a list showing all tags associated with the topic. Additional tags can be added to the topic, and new tags can be created.

Default style

Screenshot of tags shown on a topic:

You see:

• a list of tags with vote count and add/remove vote buttons,
• an add tag selector
• a link to create a new tag
• a link to the all tags view

"blog" style

But the same control can have a different look and feel if we specify style="blog". In view mode it has a terse apperance:

But, if you click on Tags, and that you have an account and can edit tags, you will see:

"jqui": an AJAX interface

An experimental interactive user interface is also provided, implemented using the latest version of JQueryPlugin in TagMeAjaxHelper.

All features work without having to re-load the topic:

• Auto-complete tag names. Saves newly selected tags immediately
• The entered tag is created and added even if the tag did not previously exist.
• Access tag cloud in a modal dialogue at the click of a button. Check-box toggles are applied immediately (show cloud for just this web/all webs, just my tags/all tags)
• Clicking a tag from the topic's tag list or tag cloud takes you to the TagMeSearch topic, where the tag cloud will still be generated from the originating web (avoids reliance on browser back button when exploring a web via tag cloud)
• Removing a tag may optionally clear the tag from the current topic regardless of vote count (default for members of AdminGroup).
  • Set TAGMEPLUGIN_JQUIREMOVEALL = everybody
    will allow any logged-in user to remove a tag, or
  • Set TAGMEPLUGIN_JQUIREMOVEALL = topicchange
    to only give this ability to those users who have CHANGE permission on the current topic (everbody else will still be able to vote down tags as usual)
    
  • jqui uses an undocumented feature of TagMePlugin to access the removeall feature, which does not appear to follow any access controls internally. This function is

To use the AJAX insterface, add to the skin path: tagmeajax,
or include it into the top bar (See WebTopBarExample) or any part of your skin that has horizontal space to spare, as follows:

%INCLUDE{"%SYSTEMWEB%.TagMeAjaxHelper" section="jqui"}%

Dependencies:

• JQueryPlugin
  • textboxlist
  • simplemodal
  • autocomplete
  • queryobject
• FilterPlugin

Create, Rename, Delete tags

Create new tags

Go to TagMeCreateNewTag to create new tags.
Any logged-in user is allowed to create new tags - but only users with change permission can add tags to topics.

For developers:
Use the url parameter createtag=my+tag+name to pass a new tag name to the form.

Add tag to topic

Once a new tag is created, it can be added in the tag list of the topic. Only users with change permission can add tags to topics.

Rename tags

Go to TagMeRenameTag to rename existing tags.
Rename permissions are controlled with ALLOW_TAG_CHANGE (see Plugin Settings below).

For developers:
Use the url parameters renametagfrom=my+old+tag+name and renametagto=my+new+tag+name to pass the old and new tag names to the form.

Delete tags

Go to TagMeDeleteTag to delete existing tags.
Delete permissions are controlled with ALLOW_TAG_CHANGE (see Plugin Settings below).

For developers:
Use the url parameter deletetag=my+tag+name to pass the to-be-deleted tag name to the form.

List all tags

TagMeViewAllTags shows all tags used in the system. The font size indicates the overall tag count of a tag.

Screenshot of tag cloud in the list all tags view:

Tip: In a WebHome of a web you can show a tag cloud of all tagged topics in that web with this variable:

<div class="tagmeTagCloud" style="line-height:2em;">
%TAGME{ tpaction="showalltags" format="<a href=\"%SCRIPTURL{view}%/%SYSTEMWEB%/TagMeSearch?tag=$tag\" style=\"font-size:$size%\">$tag</a>" separator="&nbsp; " minsize="94" maxsize="220"}%
</div>

List my tags

TagMeViewMyTags shows all tags used by logged-in user. The font size indicates the overall tag count of a tag.

Tag search

TagMeSearch shows a list of topics that are tagged with all of the selected tags, sorted by relevance. Topics with a high tag count are shown first.

Plugin variable

The Plugin handles a %TAGME{}% variable that performs different actions. The tpaction="" is a required parameter.

• %TAGME{ tpaction="show" ...}% - shows the tag list on topic

  Parameter	Comment	Default
  style="blog"	will expand into a "tag edit" frame that allows tag management as commonly found in blogs or tag systems like delicious, but only if tpaction is actually present. If tpaction is omitted, but the style is "blog", will show nothing. Thus a button to make the edit tags frame appear can be put as: <a href="%SCRIPTURL{viewauth}%/%WEB%/%TOPIC%?tpaction=show">Edit tags</a>	"foswiki"
  label=", "	(for style=blog) link label (text) to open the edit tags form	""
  button=", "	(for style=blog) the complete button, link or html construct that will be shown when not in edit tag mode. Should open the Edit tag form when clicked by redirection to this same topic with a tpaction=show added. Overrides label.	""
  header="..."	(for style=blog) Printed before the edit tags form if it is not empty, $n can be used for newlines. e.g: header="Manage your tags: <i>"	""
  footer="..."	(for style=blog) Printed after the edit tags form if it is not empty, $n can be used for newlines. e.g: footer="</i>"	""

• %TAGME{ tpaction="showalltags" … }% - view all tags or my tags as a tag cloud

  Parameter	Comment	Default
  by="me"	My own tags only; can also be a USERNAME	all tags
  web="%WEB%"	Limit query to a web	all webs
  topic="*Plugin"	Limit query to a topic, or a comma-space delimited list of topics with optional asterisk wildcards	all topics
  exclude="fixme"	Exclude tags; specify a tag, or a comma-space delimited list of tags with optional asterisk wildcards	all tags
  mincount="2"	Exclude tags below the threshold of mincount votes	all tags
  minsize="90"	Minimum size of tag $size (typically percent font size)	"90"
  maxsize="180"	Maximum size of tag $size	"180"
  format="..."	Format of a tag, tokens $tag, $size, $marker (adds selected="selected" for use in html options), $count, $order	"$tag"
  header="..."	Printed before the list of tags if it is not empty, $n can be used for newlines. e.g: header="Tags: <i>"	""
  separator=", "	Separator between tags	", ", unless format has been specified
  footer="..."	Printed after the list of tags if it is not empty, $n can be used for newlines. e.g: footer="</i>"	""

• %TAGME{ tpaction="query" … }% - tag search

  Parameter	Comment	Default
  by="me"	My tagged topics only; can also be a USERNAME	all tagged topics
  web="%WEB%"	Limit query to a web	current web
  topic="*Plugin"	Limit query to a topic, or a comma-space delimited list of topics with optional asterisk wildcards	all topics
  tag="..."	Name of tag	(required)
  sort="web"	Sorting of tagged topics: "tagcount" by tag count (relevance), "web" by web then topic name, "topic" by topic name	"tagcount"
  norelated="on"	Do not show the list of "related tags"	(show related tags)
  nototal="on"	Do not show total number of topics found	(show total)
  minsize="90"	Minimum size of topic $size (typically percent font size)	"90"
  maxsize="180"	Maximum size of topic $size	"180"
  format="..."	Format of a topic, any token of FormattedSearch can be used, such as $web, $topic, $summary, $rev, $n. In addition, $votecount expands to the number of tag votes, $size to the suggested font size, and $taglist to the tag list of the topic.	(nice formatting)
  separator=", "	Separator between tags, $n or $n() can be used for newlines	"$n"
  limit=""	limit number of results if sort="web"
  header=""	if sort="web", add this header once per web with results (only $web is interpreted)	---+++ $web
  footer=""	if sort="web", add this footer once per web with results (only $web and $count and $showmore are interpreted)	showing $limit out of $count results $showmore
  refine	Normally related tags are shown that when clicked on will search for the related tag. If refine is set to 1, then the link instead will add the clicked tag to the set of tags being searched for, allowing you to incrementally refine search results. If not set the value of ALWAYS_REFINE is used.

• %TAGME{ tpaction="newtag" … }% - create new tag

  Parameter	Comment	Default
  tag="..."	Name of tag. Accepts alphanumeric and underscore characters only (unless NORMALIZE_TAG_INPUT is set to 0 to allow any user input)	(required)

• %TAGME{ tpaction="add" … }% - add tag to topic, or add vote to existing tag

  Parameter	Comment	Default
  tag="..."	Name of tag	(required)
  nostatus="on"	Turn off status text shown when a tag is added or voted on	(show status text)

• %TAGME{ tpaction="newtagsandadd" … }% - create new tag and add tag to topic

  Parameter	Comment	Default
  tag="..."	Name of tag. Accepts alphanumeric and underscore characters only (unless NORMALIZE_TAG_INPUT is set to 0 to allow any user input)	(required)

• %TAGME{ tpaction="remove" … }% - remove my tag vote on existing tag

  Parameter	Comment	Default
  tag="..."	Name of tag	(required)
  nostatus="on"	Turn off status text shown when a tag is removed or voted on	(show status text)

How to put tags on every page

To show the tag interface at the top of the page directly below the breadcrumb (like on foswiki.org), use the default template view.tagme.tmpl in the templates directory.

This template is in fact a 'skin' template. To enable it, write in Main.SitePreferences:

   * Set SKIN = tagme,pattern

The list of skins can be appended, for instance: tagme,corporate,pattern.

For the "blog" style, use for a simple "Tags: list-of-tags (edit)" at the top of the page:

   * Set SKIN = tagmestyleblog,pattern

And for an alternate style, with no tags line shown if no tags exists, and the button to open the tag edit frame placed at the right of the Edit and Attach ones, in the same style, on the upper right:

   * Set SKIN = tagmestyleblogbutton,pattern

Customizing the appearance

If you customize your site you probably want to change overall appearance. You can find instructions how to do that - at least for default pattern skin - in System.PatternSkinCssCookbook.
The short summary is:

• Create an empty CSS file, for instance sitestyle.css
• Copy the CSS styles for tagmetags (see below at Example styles) into the file
• Attach the file to Main.SitePreferences
• In Main.SitePreferences, write:

   * Set USERSTYLEURL = %PUBURL%/%MAINWEB%/SitePreferences/sitestyle.css

Other places for the tag interface

To show the tags in the top bar, edit System.WebTopBar and copy:

<div class="tagmetags">
Tags: %TAGME{ tpaction="%URLPARAM{tpaction}%" web="%WEB%" tag="%URLPARAM{tag}%" }%, [[%SYSTEMWEB%.TagMeViewAllTags][view all tags]]
</div>

To show the tags at the bottom of every page, write in Main.SitePreferences:

 * Set WEBCOPYRIGHT = Tags: %TAGME{ tpaction="%URLPARAM{tpaction}%" web="%WEB%" tag="%URLPARAM{tag}%" }%, [[%SYSTEMWEB%.TagMeViewAllTags][view all tags]] %BR% Copyright © 1999-%GMTIME{"$year"}% by... etc

How to show the tags without vote buttons

To just show the tags for a topic, without buttons or "Create new tag" link, use a showalltags search:

Tags: %TAGME{ tpaction="showalltags" web="%WEB%" topic="%TOPIC%" format="<a href=\"%SCRIPTURL{view}%/%SYSTEMWEB%/TagMeSearch?tag=$tag\">$tag</a> " }%

Tag styles

CSS styles

TagMePlugin writes the following CSS styles:

Class	Used where
tagMeControl	Around 'tags shown on a topic': tag link plus vote counter plus add/vote button
tagMeVoteCount	Around vote count number
tagMeNotification	span: One-line notification feedback after adding or removal of a tag and on in this process
tagMeNotification	div: Block of notification feedback after creation of a tag and on errors in this process
tagmeAction	Link style for buttons add and remove tag vote
tagmeNavigation	Table style for tabbed admin pages

Search results CSS Styles

Class	Used where
tagmeRelated	Text style of the line "Related tags (Click to refine the search)"
tagmeResultsTable	Table style for search results
tagmeResultsTableHeader	Table header with link to topic, last modified date and author. These have the additional classes td.tagmeTopicTd, td.tagmeDateTd, td.tagmeAuthorTd, tagmeTopicTdWeb
tagmeResultsDetails	Wrapper around tagmeResultsSummary and tagmeResultsDetails
tagmeResultsSummary	The topic summary
tagmeResultsTags	List of tags for the topic

Preventing link wrap

If users are allowed to use spaces in their tag names (when NORMALIZE_TAG_INPUT is set to 0), tag links may break halfway to the next line. To prevent wrapping, add a wrapper div around the tags:

<div class="tagmeTagCloud">
%TAGME{ ... }%
</div>

This CSS style is included in tagme.css:

.tagmeTagCloud a {
   white-space:nowrap;
}

Example styles

To show the 'tags shown on a topic':

<div class="tagmetags">
Tags: %TAGME{ tpaction="%URLPARAM{tpaction}%" web="%WEB%" tag="%URLPARAM{tag}%" }%, [[%SYSTEMWEB%.TagMeViewAllTags][view all tags]]
</div>

CSS styles:

.tagmetags select {
   font-size:.8em;
   margin:0 .25em;
}
.tagmetags a {
   text-decoration:none;
   white-space:nowrap;
}
.tagmetags a:link,
.tagmetags a:visited {
   color:#8E9195; /* all links are gray; for blue links use: #06c */
   text-decoration:none;
}
.tagmetags a:hover {
   color:#FBF7E8; 
}
.tagMeControl {
   color:#8E9195; /* gray for non-links */
}

command line useage

./rest  /TagMePlugin/addTag tag=TEST webtopic=Main.WebHome will add the tag TEST to the Main.WebHome topic.

This allows you to do 'fun' things like adding an Admin tag to all topics that have Admin in a tml heading

grep '\-\-\-+' ../data/System/*.txt | grep -s Admin | sed 's/..\/data\/System\//.\/rest \/TagMePlugin\/addTag tag=Admin webtopic=System./' | sed 's/.txt.*//' | sh

Plugin settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<setting>%, e.g., %TAGMEPLUGIN_SHORTDESCRIPTION%

NOTE: In a change from previous releases, preferences cannot be set in this topic. Use the standard preference setting topics, such as SitePreferences, instead.

Preference name	Meaning	Default
TAGMEPLUGIN_LOGACTION	Log add/create actions	1
TAGMEPLUGIN_NORMALIZE_TAG_INPUT	Optionally normalize tag names. Set to 1 to translate international characters to their latin match (ü to ue, å to aa, etcetera), and to convert spaces to underscores. Set to 0 to allow any user input, except for the reserved characters =,#'"	*=. Setting to 0 also sorts tags case insensitive: 'U' comes after 't'.	0
TAGMEPLUGIN_ALWAYS_REFINE	If 1, then the refine parameter is always added to TAGME queries.	1
TAGMEPLUGIN_ALLOW_TAG_CHANGE	List of users and groups that are allowed to change (rename and delete) tags (names separated by commas). Users that are not allowed to change post their change requests to TagMeChangeRequests. If not set anyone can change tags.	AdminGroup
Set TAGMEPLUGIN_BUNDLES	Bundles are groups of tags that are presented as menus for convenience. It is a list of space-separated (or comma-separated if your tags may contain spaces) prefixed by bundle labels terminated by colon (":"). e.g: * Set TAGMEPLUGIN_BUNDLES = Rating: * * * Todo: to_blog to_read * Set BUNDLES = Rating:, , *, **, Todo:, to_blog, to_read
TAGMEPLUGIN_DEBUG	Generate debug trace in foswiki debug log

Foswiki:Extensions.SolrPlugin integration.

To index TagMePlugin tags for use in SolrPlugins's faceted search, your Foswiki admin needs to enable this optional feature from configure.

This can be done from the Extensions | TagMePlugin tab - tick the {Plugins}{TagMePlugin}{SolrPluginIndex} option and save.

Plugin Installation instructions

You do not need to install anything in the browser to use this extension. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the extension on the server.

Open configure, and open the "Extensions" section. Use "Find More Extensions" to get a list of available extensions. Select "Install".

If you have any problems, or if the extension isn't available in configure, then you can still install manually from the command-line. See http://foswiki.org/Support/ManuallyInstallingExtensions for more help.

• Change the Plugin settings as needed:
  • Determine who will be allowed to rename and delete tags.
  • For international character support: set TAGMEPLUGIN_NORMALIZE_TAG_INPUT to 0.
  • To allow any user input as tag name also set TAGMEPLUGIN_NORMALIZE_TAG_INPUT to 0.
• To put the tags interface on every page, see the instructions above at How to put tags on every page
• Test if the installation was successful:
  • Go to TagMeCreateNewTag and add a tag

Plugin info

Change History:
10 Jan 2017:	2.2: Foswiki:Tasks.Item13916: Support Unicode Web, Topic and Tags.
27 Jul 2012:	2.1.1: FlorianSchlichting: Foswiki:Tasks.Item8344: allow everyone to change tags by setting TAGMEPLUGIN_ALLOW_TAG_CHANGE to an empty value (bugfix). Foswiki:Tasks.Item12009: allow any logged-in user to create new tags (bugfix).
23 May 2012:	2.1.0: Arthur Clemens: allow adding of tags only if user has change permission. Only show close buttons if user is allowed to remove tags (AJAX interface).
22 May 2012:	2.0.2: Arthur Clemens: fixed format of log entries. Foswiki:Tasks.Item11887: remove underscores from template names: tagme_styleblog is now named tagmestyleblog; tagme_styleblogbutton is now named tagmestyleblogbutton.
13 May 2012:	2.0.1: Arthur Clemens: fixes to AJAX interface plus cosmetic update.
29 Jun 2011:	Foswiki:Main.SvenDowideit: add a command line resthandler to allow larger scale importing of tags
26 Jun 2011:	Foswiki:Main.SvenDowideit: add Foswiki:Main.SolrPlugin indexing and facet support to TagMePlugin (Foswiki:Tasks.Item10917), fix some bugs - Foswiki:Tasks.Item4628,
08 Jun 2011:	Foswiki:Main.PaulHarvey: Minimal fix to experimental jqui to work with jQuery > 1.3
02 Mar 2010:	Foswiki:Main.PaulHarvey: Fix IE compatibility, link tag items to TagMeSearch topic with web parameter
01 Mar 2010:	Foswiki:Main.PaulHarvey: Added an interactive user interface implemented with JQuery; ship missing blog style tmpl files; fix docs/implementation of newtagsandadd
11 Jun 2009:	Foswiki port, and moved settings out of this topic
30 Aug 2008:	Foswiki:Main.ColasNahaboo: enhancements to the "blog" style: Bundles, count of known tags, option to delete tags
28 Aug 2008:	Foswiki:Main.ColasNahaboo: prefix & suffix options renamed as header & footer. New parameter style to TAGME to be able to define different UI style for the default "show" action of TAGME. Implemented a first one, "blog" for the simpler case of authors managing the same tags
26 Aug 2008:	Foswiki:Main.ColasNahaboo: prefix & suffix options to TAGME
16 Oct 2007:	Arthur Clemens: added backward compatible example template.
26 Sep 2007:	Foswiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie Item4728 fixed incorrect cloud font sizes to reflect relative importance of tags actually being displayed
11 Sep 2007:	Arthur Clemens: updated example template to TWiki template convention.
11 Jun 2007:	Arthur Clemens: fixed sizing of tags with the same tag count; fixed CSS class for select box; updated documentation with "How to put tags on every page".
07 Jun 2007:	Arthur Clemens: removed dependency on (unreleased) TWiki 4.2.
21 May 2007:	Foswiki:Main.WillNorris: added view.tagme.tmpl and updated installation instructions.
30 Apr 2007:	Arthur Clemens: fixed calculation of sizes in tag cloud; if mincount is passed only the shown tags are calculated.
18 Apr 2007:	Arthur Clemens: added permissions for rename and delete; added TagMeChangeRequests.
17 Apr 2007:	Foswiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie for Escape Studios: contributed support for incremental refinement of tag searches.
12 Apr 2007:	Foswiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie contributed ability to search for multiple tags. TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit for Escape Studios: added parameters needed for custom search result display.
05 Apr 2007:	Arthur Clemens: The "topic tags" select box is now created with Javascript to prevent the tag options getting indexed by search engines. The former select box is used for noscript fallback.
02 Apr 2007:	Arthur Clemens: Added "Delete Tag" interface. Added tabbed interface for Create, Rename, Delete tags.
30 Mar 2007:	Arthur Clemens: Added "Rename Tag" interface.
22 Mar 2007:	Arthur Clemens: Added option NORMALIZE_TAG_INPUT (to be set to 0) to allow any word as tag name (including upper case, punctuation characters and spaces). Moved "Create New Tag" to dedicated page. Created CSS styles in tagme.css. Added mincount parameter to TAGME{tpaction="showalltags"}.
14 Nov 2006:	Fix IE browser crash issue on print (forms can't be named "tags"; debug by TWiki:Main.KevinKalmbach)
14 Oct 2006:	Fix show default problem introduced by version 07 Oct 2006 (contributed by TWiki:Main.ChristianSuenkel)
07 Oct 2006:	nostatus="on" parameter for add/remove tag (contributed by TWiki:Main.FredMorris)
05 Oct 2006:	Fix issue of missing topics in tag search if topic name contains plus or minus sign (workaround for TWiki core TWikibug:Item2625 and TWikibug:Item2967)
04 Oct 2006:	Fix issue of statistics moving WebHome tags to WebStatistics
02 Oct 2006:	Support for topic rename (tags are no longer lost)
14 Sep 2006:	MAKETEXT support (TWiki:Main.KoenMartens); fixed nested webs issue; fix in generated XHTML (TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens)
20 May 2006:	Support international characters (contributed by TWiki:Main.AntonioTerceiro)
09 May 2006:	Support for sub-webs; enclose tag list on topic in span class="tagMePlugin"; tag selector not shown if empty; limit max size of new tags to 30 characters
21 Mar 2006:	TagMeSearch with minsize and maxsize parameters; TagMeSearch format with $votecount, $size; fixed JavaScript compatibility issue on TWiki 4.0
11 Mar 2006:	TagMeSearch with sort, norelated, nototal, format and separator paramters; linked tags in create new tag section; renamed TagMeViewSpecificTag to a shorter TagMeSearch; workaround for Dakar TWikibug:Item1838 to fix broken links in top bar
06 Mar 2006:	Remove my tag vote; added exclude="", minsize="" and maxsize="" parameters; more intuitive icons; in default view, sort tags alphabetically instead of sort by tag vote
03 Mar 2006:	Allow underscore in tags (and convert space and dash to underscore); added web="" and topic="" parameters; fixed font size issue in tag cloud with disproportional counts
28 Feb 2006:	Use tabs in all/my/specific tags view; show related tags in specific tags view; check if topic exists when adding tags;
26 Feb 2006:	Added view all tags / my tags (as tag clouds); view specific tag (sorted by tag count); do not allow guests to create new tags; log add/create tag actions
20 Feb 2006:	Initial version

Related Topics: TagMeViewAllTags, TagMeViewMyTags, TagMeSearch, TagMeDebugViewTags, TagMeDebugSearch, TagMeAjaxHelper, Plugins, DeveloperDocumentationCategory, AdminDocumentationCategory, DefaultPreferences, SitePreferences