Categories: setting them in code, extending them

[mildlydiverting]

Currently, our categories are (i think) defined in site.rb lines 6-14

  CATEGORIES = [
    'Art', 
    'Literature',
    'Music', 
    'Performance', 
    'Fashion', 
    'Media', 
    'History'
  ]

They're also then listed out in _prose.yml line 18 on

 - name: "categories"
        field:
          element: "multiselect"
          label: "Categories"
          options:
            - name: "Art"
              value: "Art"

QUESTIONS:

To add a new category, or rename an existing category, is it just a case of editing them in those two places? Can Categories take spaces? If so, do they need to be surrounded by quotes in site.rb and any of the source.md files?

[frankieroberto]

@mildlydiverting the categories array in site.rb is only used for displaying the filters interface. The _prose.yml file is similarly used only for defining the interface in Prose.io

You don't need to do anything special to create a new category - simply start using it within the YAML section of the files. However, for it to appear within the left nav / Prose.io, it has to be added to those files, and to match exactly.

To rename existing ones, you have to edit all the relevant files (site.rb & any markdown files that use it).

Spaces should work fine – the strings already quoted in the YAML and site.rb files.

If you have any suggested changes to the categories list I'd like to discuss them first though. I'm quite pleased with the list as it is.

[mildlydiverting]

Lovely

We need to change 'Art' to 'Visual Arts' though - from a conversation with @we-are-caper

We may also need categories that are something equivalent to :

• Collection / Catalogue / Museum / Institution / Heritage too, for more general stores of data.
• Commerical / Audiences / Market Data - for eg. attendance data, audience demographics, auction sales etc But we'll deal with them when they come up with genuine need.

The ultimate call on the categories is with Rachel.

On 13 Nov 2013, at 13:55, Frankie Roberto notifications@github.com wrote:

@mildlydiverting the categories array in site.rb is only used for displaying the filters interface. The _prose.yml file is similarly used only for defining the interface in Prose.io

You don't need to do anything special to create a new category - simply start using it within the YAML section of the files. However, for it to appear within the left nav / Prose.io, it has to be added to those files, and to match exactly.

To rename existing ones, you have to edit all the relevant files (site.rb & any markdown files that use it).

Spaces should work fine – the strings already quoted in the YAML and site.rb files.

If you have any suggested changes to the categories list I'd like to discuss them first though. I'm quite pleased with the list as it is.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[frankieroberto]

I can see why 'Visual Arts' might be better than 'Art' from a strict classification point of view, but in terms of user experience, especially for a developer/designer/data-viz person point of view, I think 'Art' is lot more friendly and understandable.

It's what the Barbican use, it what Time Out uses, etc etc. At the risk of opening a can of worms, I'd suggest that whilst performance, fashion, literature, etc might well be 'art forms' or part of 'the arts' (plural), they're not what most people would understand by 'art' (singular).

[mildlydiverting]

I'll leave you to discuss Art v Visual Art with @we-are-caper, but worthing thinking about where would you categorise Design (e.g. Cooper Hewitt) under the current headings...

On 13 Nov 2013, at 14:10, Frankie Roberto notifications@github.com wrote:

I can see why 'Visual Arts' might be better than 'Art' from a strict classification point of view, but in terms of user experience, especially for a developer/designer/data-viz person point of view, I think 'Art' is lot more friendly and understandable.

It's what the Barbican use, it what Time Out uses, etc etc. At the risk of opening a can of worms, I'd suggest that whilst performance, fashion, literature, etc might well be 'art forms' or part of 'the arts' (plural), they're not what most people would understand by 'art' (singular).

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[frankieroberto]

Good point – I think there's an excellent case for adding a 'Design' category. The V&A data could be categorised under there too (as well as Fashion and History).

[we-are-caper]

I would go for "visual art" as, you know, it's all Art-with-a-capital-A and so that might be a bit confusing. Nod to Design though. Strictly visual art and design are two different things, with different copyright laws etc., so once you were in there it wouldn't be too confusing. The V&A for instance is the "national museum of decorative art and design"; it has a small paintings collection, but the majority of stuff is clothes and swords and coins, so would be "design" rather than "art".