Building Content Pages from Fragments

After Page Fragment collections are published, you are ready to create Page Templates. A Page Template is composed of some number of Fragments—one or fifty; it doesn’t matter.

Creating a Page Template

You create Page Templates in the Pages page in Site Administration.

1. From Site Administration for your Site, go to Build → Pages.

2. Select the Page Templates tab. Like Fragments, Content Page Templates must be created in Collections. Your Collections appear on the Page Templates page.

3. Click the New button to add a Collection.

4. Name your Collection, provide a Description, and click Save.

5. Click on the new Collection.

6. Click the Add icon ( ) and select Content Page Template from inside the Collection.

7. Set the Name and click Submit.

Now you’re on the Page Template creation page. Fragments are added by selecting a Collection from the Fragments tab on the right and adding them to the page. You can add multiple Fragments from different collections, and you can add the same Fragment to the page multiple times. To see the Fragments that comprise the current page, you can check the Added tab. The template is automatically saved as you work, but you must click Publish to make it available for use.

Figure 1: Drag Fragments to create a Page Template.

If the template contains editable text, you can click on the editable text area to change the text.

Figure 2: Editing text in-line lets you customize what's on the template.

If the template contains an editable image, you can click on the image and replace it by uploading your own image or selecting one from Documents and Media.

Figure 3: When you mouse over an editable image, a blue outline appears. You can replace it by clicking on it.

Note: While creating Page Templates, you can change editable Fragments. While creating the final Content Page, you can make changes to the Page Template. Changes you make to the Fragment for a Page Template are only reflected in that Page Template, and don’t affect the Fragment itself. Likewise, when you apply edits to the text or images of a Content Page, those changes only exist on the current page and not on the Page Template itself.

Click on the back arrow at the top to stop editing the template.

Creating a Content Page

When you’re finished creating a Page Template, you can use that template to create a Content Page. A Content Page is a page created from Fragments. Any attributes of the page that were defined by the developer as editable can be edited during the creation of the page or page template.

1. Go back to Build → Pages.

2. Click the Add icon ( ) for Add Page and select Public Page.

3. Select the Collection that contains the template you want to use from the Collections menu on the left.

4. Click on the template you want to use.

5. Enter a Name.

6. Click Save.

The page is published immediately, but you can edit the final page. You can change the chosen Fragments and edit any editable fields so that the final page is different from the Page Template.

Figure 4: Selecting you page template.

Alternatively, you can create a Content Page without a template. From the page creation screen,

1. Select Basic Pages from under Collections.

2. Select Content Page.

3. Enter a Name and click Save.

4. Add Fragments to create your new page.

By default, your new page is added to the Navigation Menu and users can access the page you created.

Note: While portlets are rendered according to render-weight on Widget Pages, that is not true for Content Pages. Portlets are rendered in the order they appear on the page on Content Pages (i.e. left to right, top to bottom).

Propagation of Page Fragment Changes

If you make an update to a Page Fragment or Content Page Templates it doesn’t automatically propagate changes, but you can access the Usages and Propagation page to selectively propagate changes.

1. From the Site Configuration menu, go to Build → Page Fragments

2. Select the Collection containing the changed fragment.

3. Open the menu for the fragment and select View Usages.

Figure 5: Select *View Usages* to propagate fragment changes.

The Usages and Propagation Page shows a list of every Page, Page Template, and Display Page that uses the selected Page Fragment. You can then selectively propagate fragment changes to any or all of the pages listed. You can use the various filters and selection options to apply updates to pages quickly.

Figure 6: Viewing the Usages and Propagation page.

To update a page or template,

1. Select the page or pages you want to update by checking the box next to the page name.

2. Click the Propagate icon ( )

After you propagate changes, visit any effected pages to verify there were no unexpected side effects of the changes. Changes to existing editable fields are not propagated since this overwrites content currently in content pages. To force propagation to content in an editable field, a developer must change the field ID. Any content created in that field will no longer display in the Content Page when the changes are propagated, but it will remain in the database and can be retrieved using the old ID.

Next you’ll learn how to import and export Page Fragments.