[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #10142: Add metadata support for taxonomy terms

[WordPress Trac]

#10142: Add metadata support for taxonomy terms
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 Reporter:  sirzooro         |       Owner:
     Type:  feature request  |      Status:  reopened
 Priority:  normal           |   Milestone:  Future Release
Component:  Taxonomy         |     Version:
 Severity:  normal           |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  needs-patch      |     Focuses:
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Comment (by johnjamesjacoby):

 I agree that a general object-to-object table would be extremely helpful,
 but those relationships will still need metadata and taxonomy-terms are
 the best way to accomplish this today without completely reinventing
 something new, which is not any less likely to have it's own issues ten
 years from today.

 I think the Posts-to-Posts plugin is pure genius and find it incredibly
 useful, but it's ambitious for WordPress core adoption when nothing in the
 Posts/Pages/Categories/Tags/Menus/Users objects needs it.

 A taxonomy term metadata table would be an absolutely huge improvement for
 all WordPress installations.

 * A performance compromise was made in bbPress 2.x's because of a lack of
 term metadata to keep counts of both topics & replies in a "Forum" post
 type vs. a taxonomy & terms.
 * Without term-meta, it's impossible to describe a tag or category beyond
 it's literal description. Terms are crippled without metadata, and are
 infinitely powerful with it.
 * Taxonomies & terms are everywhere on the web, and they have metadata
 attached to them. Github issues, Trac milestones & severities, etc... They
 have colors, timestamps, orders, priorities, and other little nuances that
 set their functionalities apart, but they're only real purpose is
 connecting a central object together with other similar objects.
 * Taxonomies & terms are everywhere in real life, and we connect arbitrary
 metadata to them. Shirts, pants, socks. Hangers, folded, drawers. Large,
 34/34, athletic. Black, blue, black. Center, top, bottom. Right now, you
 can only describe a "Shirt" as "This is a shirt" without any other
 designation.

 Incoming screenshots will show off a few taxonomy term applications in the
 wild, to hopefully help steer this conversation back towards metadata and
 away from inventing something new, which IMO is out of scope for this
 feature & idea.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/10142#comment:129>
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