When publishing with DXA and a nested keyword structure, "ParentKeywords" does not get populated

Question

When viewing something published with DXA and a nested Keyword structure, is doesn’t seem that "ParentKeywords": [], gets populated when generated using DXA Component Template Generate Dynamic Component.

"Fields": {
    "theKeyword": {
        "Name": "theKeyword",
        "Values": ["Little Jimmy"],
        "NumericValues": [],
        "DateTimeValues": [],
        "LinkedComponentValues": [],
        "FieldType": 3,
        "CategoryName": "TestCategory",
        "CategoryId": "tcm:286-27081-512",
        "XPath": "tcm:Content/custom:Content/custom:theKeyword",
        "KeywordValues": [{
            "Description": "",
            "Key": "littleJimmy",
            "TaxonomyId": "tcm:286-27081-512",
            "Path": "\\TestCategory\\Stuff2\\Jim\\Little Jimmy",
            "ParentKeywords": [],
            "MetadataFields": {},
            "Id": "tcm:286-164010-1024",
            "Title": "Little Jimmy"
        }]
    }
},

What is the purpose of "ParentKeywords": [], and how can I get it to provide useful data?

Answer 1

The JSON for a Keyword contains all the properties that are available on an actual Keyword, if you take a look at the properties of a Keyword in the CMS, you will find the following:

Also when you look at the API documentation, you see there is a Keyword.ParentKeywords property, with the following description:

Parent Keywords are used to form a Taxonomy of Keywords. Typically, a parent Keyword is a broader term/concept. The Parent Keywords must be from one of the allowed parent Categories of this Keyword's Category.

This all is related to the Taxonomy API and the ability to create a Keyword tree structure. When yoi create an Abstract Keyword, you can create Keywords under that. When such a Keyword is used, you should see its parent listed in the ParentKeywords array. If you would use the Taxonomy API on the CMS to assign multiple parents to a Keyword (something which can only be done uisng the API programatically, not using the UI), you will get multiple items in the mentioned array.