Extend Tag operators to allow an arbitrary field to be used

[AnthonyMuscio]

Folks,

I was recently exploring ways to make use of tags and asked myself could there be a way in wiktext and widgets to specify an alternate field to "tags". The basic reason is, behind the operation of tags, is a set of filter operators, actions and widgets which help dealing with multi-value fields. However there are many occasions where such lists are useful for other purposes.

The alt-tags plugin provides a form of full feature alternative tags, I am not so much suggesting such a solution (as it exists) but at least a set of operators and widgets that provide similar handling for other arbitrary fields, rather than having to resort to listops.

It is possible to reuse the ideas and techniques users obtain from the tagging system and use it to apply to other fields. perhaps instead we could call these "tiddler label's" rather than tags. Then provide a set of label operators, widgets and actions that also require the name of the label field to be given. Arguably the tags field could be a special case.

Examples would be using a label field for keywords, categories, subjects etc.. and the tags space can be kept unpolluted.

I do not know the details of tag handling in the core but I would imagine the provision of a labels solution would largely replicate the current tag mechanisms and thus be a simplified development activity. Providing performance indexing for such labels would also be useful allowing users to tap into a more optimised mechaisium.

Presumable a parametrized version of the current View and Edit templates for tag handling that could be used for a given label would be fairly strait forward.

I would be comfortable with this being a core plugin, rather than core change that introduces the labelling functionality, only if installed, especially if it required substantial bytes.

Regards
Tony