NYCPHP Meetup

[Andrew Yochum]

On Wed, Nov 02, 2005 at 11:41:00AM -0500, csnyder wrote:
> Not strictly a PHP question, but maybe other developers on this list
> are thinking about folksonomies and adding labels or tags to content,
> so...
> 
> Suppose I have an image object stored in my system, with the single
> label "fun". And suppose that I attach an audio object, describing the
> image in my own words.
> 
> The image is at /csnyder/images/001.jpg and the audio is at
> /csnyder/images/001/description.mp3.
> 
> Should the audio object inherit the "fun" label?
> 
> On the surface I would say no, because the audio might not be "fun" in
> the same way that the image is "fun". But the audio is directly
> related to something that is "fun", and should probably show up on the
> "fun" summary page and RSS feed.
> 
> And in applying the same situation to messages in a discussion thread,
> you would almost always want the labels you assign to the thread to be
> inherited by the individual messages, as long as those messages are
> "on topic"...
> 
> Any thoughts?

I don't think you can generalize this easily, it depends on the nature
and structure of the content in question.  It may be nice to allow for
inherritance in some cases, but suppress it in others.  I frequently
find the need to turn on and off inherritance in content models.

If all child objects of an object are always directly related to the
object, allow the inherritance - it is essential a new attribute of the
parent object.  Sometimes objects might just be broad containers for
other content, and in that case, suppress it - its really just a
sub-object, very little relation otherwise.

In your case of the image - your audio describes the image.  In your
content structure, if all sub objects of images further qualify the
image, give it more value as content, or are attributes of it like I
suggested above I'd say sure, appropriate to inherrit there.

In the case of discussion thread messages, thats tough.  I don't think
there is a hard and fast rule there, as the nature of the content is not
structured.  You can't say whether a sub-object (a reply/comment) should
always inherrit.  You almost have to leave it to the message authors or
maybe a moderator to determine whether it is "on topic", and therefore
should inherrit.

HTH,
Andrew

-- 
Andrew Yochum
Plexpod
andrew at plexpod.com
718-360-0879