Single-node vs multi-node architectures
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Introduction to single-node vs multi-node taxonomy architectures
If you are reading this article, you are in for a deep dive into the mysteries of taxonomy. The concept of nodes in a taxonomy architecture deals with the traditional, quick and dirty way of labeling your content as opposed to the more advanced way of good taxonomy. So, get ready to throw the folders away, pick up the label maker, and dive a little deeper.
Definition of nodes in relationship to taxonomies
Each piece of content can be labeled in many different ways, however, most of those labels are not related to a formal taxonomy structure. They include things like titles, author, publication date, and other pieces of metadata not connected to the taxonomy. Although those pieces of information can, and often should, be associated with a taxonomy, they are free-floating bits of information about the content.
When we refer to nodes in a taxonomy, we mean the formal taxonomy tags we can attach to a piece of content.
Definition of a single-node architecture
A single-node architecture lets you assign one tag to your content. In the taxonomy hierarchy, those tags may have different semantic purposes, such as subject or audience, in the same category tree.
Those who store files in folders are familiar with a single-node architecture. You can only add one name to the folder, which becomes the tag on everything stored in that folder. When you create a sub-folder, you add another tag, and so on until you have created as many folders as needed to categorize your files.
Example of a single-node architecture
Each of these items are tags you could assign to a set of folders. All files in each folder effectively have the folder name as a tag.
File
Company technology policy
List of supported tools
Sales tools
Operational tools
Regional technology policy
List of supported tools
Sales tools
Operational tools
Folder structure
National Office > Human Resources
National Office > Technology
National Office > Sales
National Office > Operations
Regional Office > Human Resources
Regional Office > Technology
Regional Office > Sales
Regional Office > Operations
Definition of a multi-node architecture
A multi-node architecture lets you assign more than one taxonomy tag to a piece of content. In the taxonomy hierarchy, each tag has the same semantic meaning, such as audience or subject, in the category tree.
This is similar to when you have a table with more than one column, and each column represents a tag you can apply to rows in the table. Each row in the table is a single piece of content in your content library.
Example of a multi-node architecture
In this example, each item in the table is a single topic with more than one tag. Each file has all of the tags listed under Audience and Subject.
File
Company technology policy
Regional technology policy
List of supported tools
Sales tools
Operations tools
Audience
National office
Regional office
National office
Regional office
National office
Regional office
National office
Regional office
Subject
Technology
Human resources
Technology
Human resources
Technology
Technology
Sales
Technology
Operations
Comparison of single-node and multi-node taxonomy architecture types
The biggest difference between these two architectures is the total number of taxonomy tags you have in the taxonomy hierarchy. Let’s take a look at some of the differences.
Feature
Number of tags in the taxonomy hierarchy
Duplication of tags
Complexity to apply
Single-node
Many, because you may need to duplicate tags along different branches of the hierarchy.
Many tags are duplicated because they need to be available along many branches of the hierarchy.
Simple, because users can quickly set them up with minimal planning.
Multi-node
Few, because each tag exists only in one branch of the hierarchy.
Duplicate tags only as needed, and then only with a different context based on the root of the hierarchy.
Complex, because users need to establish and follow stricter rules for each tag.
Benefits of using a multi-node architecture over a single-node architecture
There are two ways multi-node architectures improve your Paligo experience:
- Authors work more efficiently in Paligo, and
- Users can use more powerful features in published content.
Fewer labels to maintain
A multi-node architecture has less duplication of taxonomy tags than a single-node architecture. This means authors spend less time updating tags in the taxonomy hierarchy.
See Taxonomy Manager for more information.
Easier to use labels as part of topic metadata
Because each taxonomy tag with a unique criteria only appears once in the taxonomy hierarchy, authors spend less time trying to determine which tag to apply and are more likely to apply the correct tag.
See Taxonomies in the Content Manager and Taxonomies Workflow for more information.
Filter and search for content based on distinct taxonomy tags
Once authors have applied taxonomy tags to their topics, they spend less time looking for those topics. By applying tags, authors can use search in Paligo to filter content based on their unique tags.
See Search with Taxonomy Tags for more information.
Convert taxonomy tags to class tags in HTML output
Once published to HTML, developers can use class tags to enable advanced web functions. Being able to apply multiple ‌nodes to topics enhances this ability by giving more flexibility to those developers.
See Use Taxonomies as HTML Classes for more information.
Apply effective filters to published content
By applying multiple taxonomy tags to each topic, you can more effectively reuse those topics in multiple publications. Use the taxonomy filtering feature to filter your content by each attached tag.
See Taxonomy Filters for more information.
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