eZ Publish allows the grouping of attributes on content classes. This is useful for you to get a better overview in the object edit interface.

The system comes with two predefined grouping categories "Content" and "Meta". You can also configure new categories using the ini settings.

Note that "Default (Content)" is the default category and implies that no attribute grouping is defined and the configuration is set to fall back on the predefined group "Content". In order to group attributes select either the "Meta" category, or use one of your own defined categories as described below.

Note: The grouping of attributes function is now also available from the eZ WebIn interface when you select a content class that has been set up with the grouping attributes function.

Grouping based on predefined categories

In order to group the attributes in the edit screen according to the predefined categories, go to "Setup"-"Classes"-"Content class", then select the object class that you want to group attributes on, and open it in edit mode. In the "Category" field you select the category to group by. In the example below the attribute "Tags" is grouped to the "Meta" category. That attribute is part of the class "Article", and this activates attribute grouping on the "Article" object.

See screenshot below:

Attributes for this object (in this case "Article") will now be grouped and collapsed under the label "Meta" when you edit on this object. This is shown in the screen below. Any other attribute grouping that you have configured will also show the same way in the edit object screen for this object.

Click "Meta" to expand the attributes for the object, when you are in the object edit screen.

Configure new category for grouping

In order to configure a new category for grouping of attributes you need to create the category. A new category will make it possible for an editor to get access to the fields that are relevant for that editor only in the "Object edit interface". Configuring a new category is done in the "content.ini" settings file, in the "[ClassAttributeSettings]CategoryList" setting, for example:

<i>[ClassAttributeSettings]</i>
 <i>CategoryList[publish]=Publish settings</i>

Note: Clear template cache to be able to get the new option in the class edit interface.

Then; go to "Setup"-"Classes"-"Content class", select the object class that you want to group attributes on, and open it in the edit mode. In the "Category" field you select the category to group by. In the example below the attribute "Publish date" is grouped to the "Meta" category. That attribute is part of the class "Article", and this activates attribute grouping on the "Article" object.

See screenshot below:

Attributes for this object (in this case "Article") will now be grouped and collapsed under the label "Publish settings" when you edit on this object. This is shown in the screen below. Any other attribute grouping that you have configured will also show the same way in the edit object screen for this object.

Click "Publish settings" to get the attributes for the object, when you are in the object edit screen. See an example of an expanded view of the "Publish settings" category in the screen below.

In this example you can set publish dates for articles in the article edit screen.

Starting from eZ WebIn/Website Interface

For those who prefer using eZ WebIn as their editing tool, the categories for grouping will be accessible in the "Edit object interface", the same way as if you logged in to the administration interface. In the eZ WebIn start menu, please select the class where you grouped attributes, as shown in the screen below:

Then follow the description under "Grouping based on predefined categories" to activate attribute grouping on an object using the predefined categories. If you would like to make a new category and activate that, then follow the description under "Configure new category for grouping".