Changing a scale on Commtap  

Occasionally we may need to change a categorisation scale on Commtap. These are the steps that you need to do:

1. Create the new scale in the taxonomy

• Go to the taxonomy page and create the new scale;
• Add the terms you want in this scale;
• Enable the taxonomy type for the content type you want it to be used for - e.g. "Language and Communication";
• Do not make the vocabulary a required term;
• If this content type uses a multistep form, go to the edit page for this content type go to Multistep form on the page and then to extra fields, choose which step you want this scale to appear on (probably at the first step);
• To make the vocabulary appear on the page, you could go to Commtap Vocabulary Groups, list TAP other vocabulary, and add a label here to make it appear on pages. For "fun", I added this as the label: <a href="/content/early-years"><img src="/sites/default/files/EYFS%202012%20ready.png"/></a> - that showed an image with a smiley face indicating that the activities page had been categorised with the new scale.

2. Make the changes

For the Early Years change, I created a view which showed a list of all Early Years activity sheets which didn't yet have the new Early Years scale. The Early Years vocabulary appeared as an additional term on an activities sheet (set this up in the Commtap Vocabulary Groups settings).

3. Using the new scale and switching off the old one

• Go to the Commtap Vocabulary Groups page;
• Choose the group you want to change - e.g. the Early Years Scale, click on "list" on the right;
• Click on "edit", add a label to the new scale (e.g. "skill") and remove the label from the vocabulary you no longer want to use;
• Remove it from the tap_other_vocabulary list if you had added it there; 
• Update the vocabulary weights table - go to Commtap Vocabulary Groups settings page, scroll to the bottom and tick the box under "Commtapvocabgroups weights table: update option" to update the commtapvocabgroups weights table;
• Change the taxonomy facets - go to site configuration -> faceted search. Edit tapsheet_search, in the list of facets, untick the vocabulary you no longer want to use - e.g. Early Years (0-5yrs) Skill, and tick the one you want to use instead - e.g. EYFS 2012 Skill. The sort criteria should be set to "term" and you should make sure the new facet has the same weight as the old one (unless you are doing something more advanced!). Save the page;
• You will also need to rebuild the taxonomy facets table - go to site configuration -> faceted search -> taxonomy index. Click on "rebuild the Taxonomy Facets index". It will say it will do this on the next "cron" run (that's a - currently daily - set of maintenance operations the site runs automatically) - click (ONCE) on "cron" to have it start doing that now - NOTE - wait until it says it has done something - it could take a few minutes. Whatever you do, do NOT click on cron again until it says it has finished what it was doing.
• Go to to Content management -> taxonomy -> list. Click on edit for the vocabulary you no longer want to use e.g. "Early Years (0-5yrs) Skill", unclick all the content types and save. Now click on edit for the vocabulary you now want to use instead - e.g. "EYFS 2012 (0-5yrs) Skill", and tick the boxes to get it to be used for the content types you unticked for the vocabulary you no longer want to use; DO NOT click "required" by the way. On the list page, drag the new vocabulary to be in the position just above the old vocabulary and save.
• This should all be working OK - check when you try to create or edit an activities sheet, it needs the new skill to be entered if a corresponding level has been entered with it.

4. Information for the new scale

The next long job is to enter in the new descriptions for the new scale. Go to the new skill (say), click to edit a term, you will be able to enter a description for each level for that skill.