What is taxonomy in wordpress?

 In general parlance, the term “ta ” refers to a system of defining, naming, and organizing various things into similar groups.  WordPress uses taxonomy as a mechanism for grouping blog posts, links, or custom post types. It allows users to take advantage of four built-in taxonomies. Also, the developers have option to create custom taxonomies according to their precise needs while using WordPress 2.3 or later.  Hence, it becomes essential for web developers to understand types and usage of taxonomies in WordPress.

Default or Built-in Taxonomies in WordPress  While using the latest version of WordPress, a user can avail four built-in or default taxonomies – category, post_tag, link_category and post_format. The category taxonomy enables users to organize blogs into multiple categories. The users can even use subcategories to help readers understand the nature of the blog post clearly.  The post_tag taxonomy allows users to provide more specific information about various blog posts adding multiple tags. A user can further define these tags dynamically without any restriction.

 Unlike category and post-tag taxonomies, link_category is used internally and remain invisible. But the users can take advantage of the link_category taxonomy to categorize various links based on certain parameters for organizational reasons.

 Many bloggers use link_category taxonomy to organize links into specific groups to be displayed on the side bar. WordPress 3.1 allows bloggers to use a new taxonomy – post-format.  Post-format, unlike other taxonomies in WordPress, can be used only as meta information. A blogger can use the post-format taxonomy to provide the information required by themes to customize blog post presentation.

Custom Taxonomies in WordPress ďƒ˜ In addition to using the default taxonomies, web developers also have option to create custom taxonomies according to specific needs.

WordPress 2.3 enabled users to create their own taxonomies. ďƒ˜ At present, most web developers create custom taxonomies to meet precise content organizational needs. A user who is proficient in web technologies can create custom taxonomies by writing some simple lines of code. Otherwise, he can use specific plug-ins for WordPress to create custom taxonomies without writing any code.

 When a user decides to create a custom taxonomy programmatically, he has to register the taxonomy using the register_taxonomy() function.  The register_taxonomy() function can be used for adding new taxonomies and overriding existing taxonomies. It even takes name and object name, along with a set of parameters.  But the function does not return anything. Once the new taxonomy is registered, WordPress will add a meta box to the blog post. The meta box is designed just lie the tags box. The developers can use the meta box to define and add custom tags to the blog post.

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