3.5 Categories

Categories are a way of grouping your posts based on their content within a Survey. The setup in this guide is demonstrated in the below video as well. You can watch and follow the guide at the same time!

Video setup guide

Video coming soon

Setup Guide

To access the Categories configuration page, on the sidebar, click on Settings

Then, click on Categories. You’ll be redirected to a page where you can manage categories on your deployment.

3.5.1 Adding and Configuring Categories

Unlike previous Ushahidi platform, your deployment DOES NOT come with pre installed/set-up categories. You will need to create this on your new Ushahidi deployment. Categories are now treated as custom fields within a Survey. This gives you the flexibility to add certain categories to some surveys, but not others.

There are two ways to create new categories.

First way to create categories: Navigate to Settings → Categories. Click on the Add Category button as shown below.

Add the following details to the form

Category Name: Give your category a name that will appear on your homepage and when users are creating new posts.
Description: You can provide a brief description of what kind of information you will fall under this category
Child / parent settings: You can choose to set any category as a “child” to another, creating a hierarchy within the categories themselves, and will reflect this in their positioning on the sidebar.
Default language: Click on the drop down menu to select your preferred default language
Roles: You can opt to set your category as visible to specific user roles on your deployment here. This list is populated based on custom roles created. More on Roles here.

In the upper right corner of the category page, you will see the default language that your deployment is currently in.

You can translate the category into other languages. To do that:

Click on Add translation at the upper right-hand corner of category form.
A pop-up module will appear on your screen, check/select the language(s) you want to translate to.
Click on Add to finish.

You will be redirected to a page with the translatable content in the default language and fields where you can add your translations.

Next:

On the empty fields, translate the category name and description details into the chosen language e.g in the above image the default language is English and the added language is Spanish.
Click Save when all is done to create the category. You can now choose to add this category to any of your Surveys.
In the dropdown (inside the form), you will see the available languages the category has been translated into.

Second way to create categories: Add categories as custom fields as you build and edit Surveys. First, navigate to Settings → Surveys, and either select the already existing Survey you’d like to edit, or create a new Survey.

Click on Add field button in the survey builder/form and select Categories from the list of field options.

Configure the following

Name: Name or prompt for your category survey field
Field description: Optional description for the category
Which labels should be available: Select which categories you’d like to add to the field as options

Click save to save your new categories field. It will now appear as a custom field with the appropriate categories on your Survey form.

3.5.2 Editing Categories

To edit a category, click on the desired category from the category list page.

You’ll get redirected to the Edit Category page, where you should be able to add/edit details as described in the adding categories section above.

When done, click on Save, and your changes will reflect shortly.