1. there is currently no way to display the Categories as a drop down instead of checkboxes without making code changes.
2. Yeah, don't feel bad .. Attributes take a once-through to get used to .. but then it's usually pretty clear.
Adding/using a custom Attribute:
a. On the Repository Settings page . create your custom attribute ( for example Color .. please note that Attributes are case-sensitive .. I know, bad programming ;) )
b. Select your new Attribute and enter one or more valid values ( for example: Red, White, Blue, etc)
c. Save your Repository settings.
So, at this point you've defined yoru custom attribute and given it a name and some valid values. Now, there are 3 things you have to do with regards to template
-. edit the form.html/form.xml files ( the upload form ) to allow users to select from the list of valid values when they upload/edit an item
-. edit the template.html/template.xml files ( the list display ) to display the selected attribute values ( if desired )
-. edit the header.html/header.xml files ( the list header ) to allow users to 'filter' the list based on attribute values ( in this example, so that they can only show items where the Color is Red )
So, let's walk through each one
d. open form.html. Verify that there is a tag named [ATTRIBUTES] in the form.html file. If not, add it where you would like the Attrbitues to be displayed. NOTE: At runtime, this tag will be replaced with a set of either checkboxes or radiobuttons ( depending on a form.xml setting we'll talk about in a minute ) for EACH custom attribute.If you defined 2 custom attributes, you don't need 2 [ATTRIBUTES] tags and you can't only display one set of attributes. The [ATTRIBUTES] tag displays selection controls for ALL of the custom attributes for this particular repository. Decide if you want to allow people to select only one of the valid values ( radiobuttons ) or more than one ( checkboxes ). In the form.xml file, add an Object->Token named ATTRIBUTES and a Setting named Select. Set it to SINGLE for radiobuttons, or MULTIPLE for checkboxes.
This will now display your custom attributes on the upload/edit form and allow the user to select from the list of valid values.
e. edit the template.html/template.xml files. Here you can specify individual attributes if you have more than one. So, in your template.html file, decide where you want to display the selected values and add a tag like this .. [ATTRIBUTE:Color]. Again, make sure the attribute name, in this case Color matches the attribute ( case -sensitive ) that you created on the Setttings page. When rendered, the selected values will be displayed as a comma delimited list. ( for example: Red,White
f. final step. edit the header.html/header.xml files.If you want to allow the user to filter the list by a valid value for a custom attribute, add a tag like this to the header.html file.. [ATTRIBUTE:Color]. Again, case-sensitive. At render time, this will display a drop down list of all the valid values and if the user seelctes one, the list will only show those items where that value is selected. If you have multiple custom attributes, the drop downs are cumulative so if you had Color and Model as custom attributes, you could have 2 drop downs and by selecting values in each one, filter the list to only show Red (color) Fords (model )
I hope that makes it a little clearer. Let me know if you have any problems or further questions.