Difference between revisions of "Pages"

Revision as of 04:24, 22 October 2008

Page Management allows content control of every page on the web site. All pages (including home, categories, product pages, checkout pages, shopping cart, etc) are all accessible from this area. Page content and behavior is governed by the Page Templates selected for the page. Due to the flexibility of the page templates, the fields in the page management form could be radically different from page to page.

Page Search Form

File:Pagesearch.jpg

The page search form is the starting point for page management. From this form pages can be created (using Add Page button) or found to edit/delete. The form options are dependent on the tools activated on the website. Authors will only be available if publishing information is activated in Settings. Groups are only available if page authentication is activated in Settings.

Note that the page search form will remember you previous search criteria so long as your session remains active. Be sure to clear old search criteria before starting a new search.

Adding / Editing a Page

Add a page by clicking the "Add New Page" button in the page search form. Edit a page by searching for the page in the page search form, than selecting "edit" for the page you wish to manage. The page form will load configured as per the default template. Remember that the fields available in the page management form are dictated by the Page Template selected for the form and by the Page Field tab in Settings.

The page management form will consist of (up to) 5 tabs and buttons to submit, duplicate, delete and preview the page. Use the tabs to set Content (what / how the page displays), Control (when / and who the page will display for), Relationship (what pages / products are children / parents to this page), Functions (Web 2.0 Polls, Forums, Blogs) and more.

Content

The content area controls what will display and how it will display. The fields in this area could drastically vary based on the template selected. Content fields are controlled by Settings and the Page Template. The fields in this area are broken down into three areas:

• In Page Content: fields that control the content to be show in the page. The template field in this area will select the template that will dictate what content fields are available and how they display / control the output when this page is viewed by visitors.
• Summary: fields that control the content that will be shown in parent pages, representing this page
• Searchability: fields that control how this page will be searchable both in the site and by search engines

Control

The control area dictates if/when the page will be available and who can view it. The control elements available are dictated by Settings. Below are all the possible control elements:

• Availability

• Home Page: The one page that has this field checked will be the default page visitors will see when hitting the web site
• Active: Dictates if the page is available to be seen. If deactivated than the page will be hidden.
• Hide from In Site Searches: If selected, this page will not qualify for in site page searches
• Start Date / End Date: Sets when the page will be visible. Leave these fields blank to have it available always. Both the active checkbox AND the start/end date frame must be met for the page to show.

• Access: Select who can view this page. Users must belong to selected groups to have access. This function is only available if Page Authorization is activated in Settings.

• Event Information: Allows the page to qualify as an event to occur during the date frame entered. If set, than any event / calendar templates created will display the event. This function is only available if Pages as Events is activated in Settings

Relationships

The relationships tab provides the means to view and set the children, products appearing in this page and the parents that will display this page. The relationships area is broken down into four management blocks:

• Children: Controls child pages that will appear within this page. In category pages, child pages act as subcategories. In product line pages, children act as product pages. In product pages, children act as cross sells / up sells. Selecting children in any page will display the summary content information about those children as dictated by the template of this page (so if the template was not built to accommodate children, none will show even if selected).
• Parents: Shows pages that have *this* page as a child. When this page is set a child in another page, that other page will appear here as a parent. Likewise all children set in this page will show this page as a parent when managing those child page(s).
• Search: In conjunction with Custom Search Groups, qualifies this page for custom searches. All custom search groups / options selected here will yield this page (along with other pages with the same group/option selected) when the search is executed.
• Products: Controls which product(s) will be displayed in this page. For use with product pages. The template selected for this page must support products in order to work.

Items can be added to any of the relationship blocks in 2 ways: by ID or by Keyword (as per the fields above each relationship block).

• By ID: Enter the "pageId" into the ID field and select "Add" to post a new page to the top of the relationship list.
• Enter keywords into the keywords field and select "Find" to lookup pages by keyword. A list will be returned of pages qualifying for the search. Check the page(s) you wish to add to the relationship block and hit the "Post" button.

Functions

Web 2.0 functions are controlled here. Web 2.0 functions are only available if selected in Settings. Note that the selected template must support the Web 2.0 function(s) elected here in order for them to display.

• Forums

Forums allow visitors to 'comment' on this page. Selecting "This page is a forum" will display template driven forum content. The selected template must have forum functionality design into it in order for this function to work.

• Polls

Polls will display a questionnaire to page visitors. To use, select "This page is a poll". To add a question, select "add poll question"; enter the question into the question field; enter your answers into the answer field (separate by ENTER); and select the answer layout. Repeat for as many questions as you wish to ask in the page. The selected template must be designed to support polls for the poll to display. The template can also be designed to show the poll results upon submission.

• Blogs

Blogging sets who / how the blogging functionality of the page will work. If the page is selected as a blog, a blogger can be assigned (giving them rights to manage the blog. An entry template can be selected, which is the default page template that will automatically be assigned to blog entries as they are created by the blogger. Blog entries can also selected to be forums, allowing visitors to comment on the blog. The entry template must be designed to display forums for the latter function to work.

Other

• Caching - if caching is available as per Settings these caching controls will set the page to expire at certain intervals. Note that the engine is intelligent enough to automatically expire pages that have content modified.
• Page Notes - just for internal purposes, not displayed to visitors.
• Publishing Information - if available as per Settings than the author, publishing date and publisher can be entered here. This information will only display if the selected template is set up to display publishing information.

Previewing a Page

Click here to see what the page will look like including all changes made thus far but not submitted. Note that changes will not be visible to web site visitors until submitted.

Deleting a Page

Click here to delete the page. A confirmation pop up will verify you want to delete the page. Page deletions are not undoable.

Duplicating a Page

Click here to create a perfect copy of the page. When selected a prompt will pop up asking the title of the page. Upon submission of the prompt, the duplicate page will be added and you will be brought to that duplicate page. Note that when pages are duplicates so are all the relationships, web 2.0 settings and authorized groups.