Metadata is the mechanism for organizing and discovering information in SAP Community. Tags are used to structure, aggregate, and find content in the community and across the SAP digital landscape. You can see all the available tags on the Browse Community page.
The benefits of metadata are well-documented on the Web. Suffice it to say that metadata is necessary for unlocking the value of content across the site. It powers the dynamic display of content on pages, serves as the basis for filters in faceted search, and defines the dimensions in analytics by which content is measured and tracked.
The purpose of this document is to explain a few key concepts in the metadata implementation on SAP Community.
The metadata schema that powers much of the experience behind these pages comes from thousands of official terms in the SAP corporate taxonomy of SAP products, solutions, and industries, as well as events and other topics. Of course, the schema will adapt as new products hit the market and technologies emerge.
As stated, the metadata schema consists of a set of "official" terms governed by SAP. These are managed tags. You'll find the set of available tags on the Browse Community page. You can also search for tags using this handy tag browser developed by community member Helmut Tammen.
In addition to applying managed tags to a piece of content, users may apply "user" or "social" tags upon creating a piece of content (See How to Create a Blog for more details). A user-defined tag is a word, group of words, or text string that further categorizes a piece of content.
User generated content - meaning blogs and questions - can be aggregated around both managed and user tags. User tags, commonly known in aggregate form as a "folksonomy," provide additional specificity to content and flexibility in the content landscape. User tags not only provide further characterization of a piece of content, but help users extend their questions and conversation beyond subjects afforded by managed tags.
When writing a blog or submitting a question, users may come up with their own user tags or apply existing ones.
A primary tag is just a managed tag that a contributor designates as the main subject matter of the piece of content he or she is creating. Users may choose any of the selectable tags in the primary tag field, as seen in this screen shot.
Managed tags provide a structurally rich experience by aggregating content and displaying it on dynamically generated pages. Users can further drill down into the content in such “tag” pages by filtering by content type or typing something in the search box. By associating primary tags and other managed tags to content, users influence and enhance the overall experience.
