Categories (taxonomies) are one of Drupal's strengths. This was my attempt to get started on building one, primarily to categorize blog entries.

I decided I didn't want too deep a taxonomy hierarchy (a depth of three seemed right), nor one that had a lot of vocabulary items, or top level taxa (three to five). So, I've initially defined three vocabularies corresponding to the three areas I teach, research and play in: Computing, Statistics, and Forestry. I set each of these to be a single hierarchy. Each, for now, is only activated for blog node types.

For each vocabulary I have any number of terms. Right now for Computing those are: Languages, OS, and Software. For Statistics the terms are: Sampling, Regression, Spatial, and Design. For Forestry the terms are: Modeling, Inventory, and Measurements.

What I found for clean URL setup was a little confusing so here's what I did. I'm running Apache 2 and Drupal 4.7.? on Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy.

Add-in the Apache rewrite module:
sudo a2enmod rewrite

Modify .htaccess in my Drupal root (folder /var/www/burk):

1. Around line 52, be sure line 'RewriteEngine on' is uncommented
2. Add line 'Options All' right after line 'RewriteEngine on'
3. Around line 68, uncomment 'RewriteBase /drupal' line and make it 'RewriteBase /burk' (my Drupal root)
4. Uncomment the three groups of lines that follow the 'RewriteBase' line related to rewrite conditions and rules