Title: Tags vs. Entry Tags vs. Links vs. Relationships

Traction TeamPage supports four main types of connecting content: tags (formerly referred to as Labels), entry tags, links, relationships.

Tags (in other apps, commonly referred to as topics, labels, categories, etc.) are applied to articles/pages, or to individual paragraphs. Tags may be used to describe content type (meeting, requirement), priority (p1, headline, alert), assignment (manager:jordan, manager:finance, milestone:alpha), status (todo, done) or subject / category (shoe, bus, wifi). Tags connect content indirectly in that if you click a tag you can see everything bearing that tag, but there is not a direct reference between any two articles bearing the same tag.

Entry Tags are created dynamically for Projects, Milestones, Tasks and Events. An internal "tag" is basically generated for a Project when it's created. This method is used for internal indexing purposes but does not express a Tag that you will find in the Tag cloud or other tag views. When you add a Task to a Project via the Project selector, a connection is made from the Task to the corresponding project. There are no obvious ways to exploit this in the UI, except to use techniques such as the one described in Support2917.

Links are direct reference links made in body content from one article to another. In this case, a link is made by TractionID or by Wiki Page Name. This creates a References / Referenced By relationship.

Relationships describe direct connections between articles. Traction itself defines many types of relationships, which are not created in your journal until the first time they are needed.

Relationships are created / modified automatically or by hand

1) When you comment on an article, a relationship is created between the comment and the article it comments on. The same case applies when you email an article from Traction or when you erase an article. Further, a link from one article to another will form a References relationship but that form of relationship is not identified in the Add/Edit Relationships dialog of the Edit Article form (see #3 below).

2) To Add a relationship from one article to another, click "Add Relationships" in the Add New Article / Edit Article form.

3) to Edit an existing relationship, click Edit Relationships in the Edit Article form. This can allow you, for example, to remove or change a comments on relationship.

Relationships are Bi-Directional, can use Active / Passive Voice

When a relationship is used to connect two articles, you can often read it as a sentence, e.g. "Research11 references Sample12.02".

Subject

Verb

Direct Object

Research11

References

Sample12.02


Since relationships in Traction are bi-directional, this is also expressed as "Sample12.02 is referenced by Research11".

When the subject comes first, this is the active voice. When the direct object comes first, this is the passive voice.

Built In Relationships

The table below lists the built-in relationship types. You can add your own types. If you don't define active/passive forms by editing the config file, the name of the relationship is used for both forms.

Relationship

Meaning

Active/Passive Forms

References

Used when one article mentions another's Traction ID. This is referred to as a "reference" or "citation"

references

referenced by

Comments

One article is a comment on another

comments on

commented on by

Relates

Used when adding a related article to a Project from the Related Article section in a Project Dashboard

is related to

Changes Labels

Reclassification records use this relationship.

changes labels

changes labels by

Updates

When an article is edited, the newer article expresses an "updates" relationship with the original.

updates

updated by

Emails

When an article is enclosed in an outgoing email, it has an "emailed by" relationship with the article posted as the cover letter.

emails

emailed by

Replies

When an email reply is sent from Traction, the replies relationship is used.

replies to

is replied to by

Erases

When an article is erased, this relationship is used between the article and the explanation for the erasure.

erases

erased by

Trackbacks

When a TrackBack is received from outside Traction and is posted, this relationship is established between the TrackBack and the article it refers to.

trackbacks

Pings

When traction sends a TrackBack ping and the ping is logged, this relationship is used to associate the article and the contents of the ping.

pings

Describes

Not currently used.

describes

described by

Summarizes

Not currently used.

summarizes

summarized by

Agrees

Not currently used.

agrees with

agreed with by

Disagrees

Not currently used.

disagrees

disagreed with by


Creating New Types of Relationships

There are two ways to create your own relationships.

1) By hand when authoring or editing an article, you can click Add Relationship and click to Create a New Relationship. This method will work but wont give you the option to create active / passive voice. If you use the text Supports, then the relationship from article A will read Supports B and it will appear the same in B, indicating Supports A (rather than A Supports B and B is Supported By A).

2) By Plug-in Over-ride of the ReferenceTypes configuration file. A configuration file (config/misc/referencetypes.properties) defines how each voice should be expressed in the interface. You can write a plug-in that adds to the referencetypes properties file. Doing this with a plug-in ensures that your relationship type and active/passive voice won't be over-written in an upgrade.



Related Articles
referenced by (2)
Doc360: Advanced Features and ConceptsDoc74: Edit an Article
Article: Doc292 (permalink)
Date: March 22, 2008; 4:22:02 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Author Name: Documentation Importer
Author ID: importer