This section is intended for both site designers and maintainers.
Overview: Content is can be thought of as the non-catalog section of sites (e.g., the home page, about us). This page describes the kinds of content and how the site can be organized. Later we will walk through the methods of actually adding and updating content. Note: as is described below, certain content can be used in the catalog part of catalog enabled sites.
Kinds of content: There are two basic kinds of content "pages", those that represent actual web site pages (like this one) and those who are hidden, but whose content is used on other pages (like the one which contains the contents that appear at the bottom of each of these help pages). Content from these hidden pages can also be used in various parts of the Catalog part of this system. For the purposes of this section the only significant difference is whether the page is not hidden, and thus will show up on a table of contents.
Pulling in content: In the Site Configuration of this help file we mentioned the use of special tags in templates to pull in the content from these hidden pages.
- On the Content Pages |.pContent:#.|, and |.fContent:#.| are available. In both cases # refers to the unique Page ID (PID) which supplies to content. The difference is |.fContent:#.| refers to a page on a linked site and so requires special configuration.
- The |.pContent:#.| is also available on the pages generated by the secure buy program, the standard thank you program and the track-order programs. The editor's drop down list cannot supply graphics for the content which will appear on the secure server because the apparent location on the secure server is different than on the non-secure part of the site.
- Within the catalog, |.pContent:#.| is suppressed except on the shopping cart page. Use |.SC_Content:#.| for all catalog pages. Unlike the content pages, these content tags on the catalog pages cannot themselves contain other tags. This is a easy way for the maintainer to modify instructions or put up notices without editing templates. It is up to the site designer to keep a list of what templates contain what text.
- Reminder: always put up the target of a link before linking to it. This applies to both visible pages and content supplying pages. The system generates the '#' when the page is created. If necessary, create a page with no content to get this number. This can also be used to display content which occurs only occasionally (e.g., seasonal sales or specials, if there is no special, remove the content from the hidden page, but don't remove either the page or the references to it, when you have specials, just put them on the hidden page and they will automajically appear everywhere the tag exists).
Basic Page Layout: One way to arrange a page consists of: (please see Page Template section here for a fuller explanation of how to set this up)
- A static Top section
- A menu bar across the top (each entry of which will refer to a section)
- A table of contents on the left
- The main content area in the middle
- An optional list of links going down the right side in a column, this latter is called a Side Column and this content system supports its creation. Note: since the system supports multiple templates for the content section, the site designer can build a template that supports the Side Column and another one which does not.
- A common footer element.
- The pages in the site are organized into Sections and with in each section, top-level and secondary pages.
- Pages within a section share the same Section Name which is just of string of characters and spaces. Pages within a section whose section Names which begin with '~' cannot be deleted. It is often a good idea to place all the content supplying pages in such a section, particularly if the pages are used in templates. If there is no information, rather than deleting the page, just remove its content.
- Within a section pages are listed in tables of contents (TOC) by their display order. The display order consists of two numbers (primary and secondary order) separated by a '-'. Pages with a secondary order number of one are top level pages and will always display in the section TOC, unless they are hidden. All pages with the same primary order number in a section form a family. If any page in a family is being displayed then all the non-hidden pages in that family will show up in the TOC.
- If access control is turned on for a site it is possible to limit access to pages using the following technique.
- The site builder creates a sub-directory in the site and applies access control to that directory. (see the help under Site Management for details).
- Create a top level page which has a static link to index.stm in that directory.
- Create another top level page which is hidden. This page and the other pages to be protected are secondary pages under this page. Note the top level page's PID (in this example assume its '200' and the database name is 'testing').
- In the sub-directory create a file with the name of index.stm and put the following one line in it
{!--#include virtual="/cgi-bin/cNc/showPage.plx?db=testing&pid=200"--}
- Even though the special hidden pages are hidden they are part of this organization. This means that they cannot have the same Section, primary and secondary display order. It is recommended that hidden pages used in templates be placed in their own section(s) and that the section names aways begin with '~'. Finally these pages should be marked as hidden.
- Site designers need to create at least empty pages that may be used to supply content to the various templates.
- Creative uses of these hidden sections in templates for a specific part of a site can enable the maintainers to add a common image or message in that section which they can change as needed (e.g., to highlight a special event). The templates do need to be structured so that they can handle variable size content and/or the site designer needs to ensure the maintainers know of any special limitations on a specific pContent:#, e.g., images must be smaller than 50 pixels wide and 100 pixels tall).
- If a page that no longer exists is requested the system will display the "Default Page". The system determines this by looking for lowest display order and then alphabetically first title. For this reason, it is recommenced that the title of the site's home page begin with a space.
More Help: Under this help page are pages which describe the five sections of the Page Content Form (click here to view) which is used to edit and manage all content on the site.
- Organization section, on the right displays the sections with the current section expanded. Use it to browse to find a specific page.
- On the left, right below the words "MANAGE SITE CONTENT" is a search box where text can be entered to allow search by title.
- Next Site Organization area (e.g., display order)
- Next is the Image and Content area
- Next is the Meta Information area
- Next is the side column reference area
- Finally are the Add, Update or Delete buttons.
- Special rules/features for secure content pages.
- Referencing a category or product from a content page.
