Developer Talk:ChemEd Content management system
From ChemEd Collaborative
So it occurred to me that a discussion forum might be a better place to post questions and answers! Here it is!
Aspect and Category
Aspects and categories are similar concepts but are implemented within Alfresco in very different ways.
Aspects are a "lower level" concept within Alfresco than are categories. Aspects define the metadata for the content.
Aspects are defined in the content model. Categories are handled internally more like content nodes.
Categories that are used as values for the aspect generalClassifiable are defined by the Alfresco administrator. generalClassifiable is an Alfresco aspect defined in the out-of-the-box content model. As such categories provide a fixed set of options.
Categories can be hierarchical to provide a tree or path structure. This can be useful for providing browsing interfaces and file folder-like navigation schemes and queries. Categories are used in the Advanced Search form to filter content.
I believe that you can identify other category hierarchies and apply then to other aspects, but there is no built-in interface for doing so and significant programming is likely required.
Some links that might be useful in defining and differentiating aspects and categories are
I recall an Alfresco forum entry that explains these concepts, but can no longer locate it.
