MetaLocator Categories are the primary way you can separate, filter and organize your data in MetaLocator. You can place a single record in multiple categories. To view the existing Categories in the MetaLocator Control Panel, click Data, then Categories.
Categories can be used to:
Present a list of checkboxes on your search that filter by category
Display a drop-down list of categories
Display groups of drop-down lists or checkboxes
Filter the data in your Interface to a certain category or categories
Prioritize one group of records over another
Control the map marker icon of certain records
Display a legend of map marker icons above or below the map
To create a Category, click New in the toolbar in the upper right. To edit a Category, click it's name.
Either operation will open the Category Editor. Similar to other editors, the Category information is organized into a tabbed layout. Here we see it opened to the Basic Information tab.
Basic Information:
Name: The Name of the Category. Your users will see this label. If you have multiple languages to manage, see this article.
Color: The color class to use for the category. This corresponds to the color selected in the Interface Builder under Style & Color settings.
Icon: The icon used to represent the category.
Category Options:
Ordering: The numerical ordering of the category. This is also used when choosing the icon to display when a Record is in multiple Categories.
Group Name: Categories can be assigned to groups by providing the same Category Group for multiple Categories. This is used on the search form to group multiple Categories into collections of options.
Marker URL: The image file used to display the map marker.
Prioritize In Search Results: If set to Yes, this will promote Records in this category *above* others within the same set of search results. This is useful for promoting special, or preferred Records in your database.
Show in Legend: This option allows you to prevent the display of certain Categories within the Legend if it is displayed.
Show in Front-end Location Form. This option allows you to hide certain Categories from the public data entry form displayed in the Record Form Layout.