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• 1 2014-10-01T16:38:34-07:00 Whole-Whole Relationships 13 Creating relationships between whole pieces of content. plain 2016-10-10T13:27:54-07:00

  There are three ways to create relationships between whole pieces of content in Scalar: paths, tags, and comments.

  Paths

  A path is a linear sequence of content. You can turn any page or media file into a path simply by specifying the pieces of content it contains and their order. Any time you want your reader to experience content in a specific order, use a path. Paths can intersect (i.e. they may share pages) and they can contain any kind of Scalar content, even other paths, enabling you to create hierarchical structures.

  Readers who arrive at the path will see its own content (either text or media) first, and then below that, a numbered list of its contents, along with a "Begin" button that takes the reader to the first item on the path. Content items which are contained by a path get navigation options at the top and bottom which show the enclosing path and provide navigation to the next and previous steps of the path.

  To create a path, either make a new page or edit an existing page or media file using the "New" or "Edit" buttons at the bottom. Then, click the Relationships tab of the page editor and select "Path". Look for the text "To make this page a path," and click "specify the items that it contains." A pop-up window will appear containing a list of all content in the book; select all of the items you want to add to the path and click "Add selected." You will see the newly added items in the Relationships area. You can drag and drop individual items to reorder them, or click the "remove" links to remove them.
  
  Note: It's best to keep paths to 100 items or less—consider breaking long paths into smaller sub-paths.

  Tags

  A tag is a non-linear grouping of content. Many websites use tags as content descriptors; ways to identify commonalities amongst heterogeneous items. Scalar tags function in a similar way, with a key difference being that the tag itself is not just a bit of text but its own full-fledged piece of content. Any page or media file can be used to tag other Scalar content, opening up a wide range of possibilities, including using media as tags, modeling relationships between objects of study, and more.

  Readers who arrive at the tag will see its own content (either text or media) first, and then below that, a list of the items it tags. Content items which have been tagged display their tag relationships at the bottom of the page.

  To create a tag, either make a new page or edit an existing page or media file using the "New" or "Edit" buttons at the bottom. Then, click the Relationships tab and select "Tag". Look for the text "To make this page a tag," and click "specify the items that it tags." A pop-up window will appear containing a list of all content in the book; select all of the items you want to tag and click "Add selected." You will see the newly added items in the Relationships area. You can remove an item by clicking its "remove" link.

  To add tags to a page or media file, edit it using the "Edit" button at the bottom. Then, in the Relationships section of the page editor, look for the text "To tag this page," and click "specify items that tag it." A pop-up window will appear containing a list of all the tags in the book; select the ones you want to apply and click "Add selected." You will see the newly added items in the Relationships area. You can remove an item by clicking its "remove" link.

  Comments

  A comment is content which is explicitly identified as a response to other content. Comments are created by readers who use the "Comment on" link that appears beneath all Scalar content, but authors can also turn any content into a comment simply by editing it and specifying the page or media it comments on. As with the other relationships, any piece of Scalar content can be a comment, including media files--and even comments themselves can have their own comments. A single comment can also be applied to multiple pieces of content simultaneously.

  Readers who arrive at the comment will see its own content (either text or media) first, and then below that, a list of the items it comments on. Content items with comments get a "Join this page's discussion" link at the bottom which opens a pop-up window containing all of the comments added to date.