Sitecore - Use DMS profile keys for content categorisation

Question

Our usual approach to categorization in Sitecore is to create a list of basic items (e.g. named Red, blue, Green). Then we have droplinks on each page of the site which specify allowing you to specify a category. We can find related items based on them sharing the same value in the category field.

On a forthcoming site, our UX team have suggested using profile keys in place of categorization items.

So to find the items related to the current one, you would look at its associated profile keys and then get all the other items with those same profile keys.

I would like advice on whether this approach is possible, practical and advisable.

A basic code snippet would also be appreciated.

EDIT

I found this article which shows that the data I need to get hold of is stored as XML in the __Tracking field of each item.

Get Profile Key Score for Individual Page in Sitecore

However, I'm still unsure of the practicality of this, particularly when scaling up to to hundreds of items.

Answer 1

Looks like a combination these were enough get me what I wanted:

• Get Profile Key Score for Individual Page in Sitecore
• Find sitecore items with a specific OMS profile?

I'm using an index that includes the __Tracking field.