Content Editing

All of the free form content web pages in your website are created and edited within the dotCommunity Content Management System (CMS).

The content that can be edited in the CMS consists of everything that is on the public pages that are not part of a preconfigured application.

CMS Administration Interface

When you start editing content, after clicking the Edit This Page button, you will be presented with the Edit sub-tab (1 in the diagram) for the page you were currently viewing. If you navigate to the content centre via the Content Management tab you will be shown the Edit sub tab for the front page of your site. Each of the form fields will be filled in with the current values and the current item will be selected in the content tree (2). Also shown will be the actions buttons (3), the Revisions history and key (4), and the CMS Trash (5).

If you would like to edit an existing page, simply navigate to the content you intend to modify using the content tree. If you would like to edit a new content page first you will create it.

Creating a New Page

To create a new page you need to decide where you would like it to be situated in your list of pages. All content within the dotCommunity CMS is in a hierarchy of pages, so for example in the dotCommunity documentation the "Content Editing" page you are currently viewing is below the CMS section. The highest level sections (e.g. the CMS section in this documentation) are considered to be below the front page.

Once you have decided which section you would like the new item to be below select that section or item from the content tree, and click Create Item from the action buttons. You will be presented with a drop down list of types of content page you can create, currently available content types are:

• Page - A standard content page with a Title, a Menu Title, and an area for text.
• News Story - An content type that includes extra information for news stories including a teaser to be displayed on a news story list.
• Folder - A very simple item useful for creating folders of other content pages.

Select the one you would like, click Go, and you will be presented with your new empty content page.

Editing Content

After creating your new page or starting to edit an existing one you will be presented with the same form. To complete your page fill in each field with the content you would like. Each type of content page will contain a subset of the available form fields that are relevant to that type. The possible fields and their meanings are:

• Full Title - The main title of the page
• Menu Title - A title that will be used in the content tree in the administration interface and as the basis for the URL for public visitors to use to view the page. For this reason the menu title should be simple and shorter.
• Teaser - A shorter description or teaser of the page to be used in listings of pages. For example in a list of news items. This field offers you the full design and layout features of the dotCommunity CMS.
• Body Text - The main body of the page. This field offers you the full design and layout features of the dotCommunity CMS.
• Keywords - Some words specifically associated with your content page to allow it to be more easily searched for.
• Description - A one line description of the page.
• Include in Navigation Menu - This option determines whether the page will be shown in the main navigation menu on the public pages of your website. If you select No to this option you will need to link directly to the page in some of your existing content if you would like visitors to use the page.
• Show Title in Full Page View - All content items show their title at the top of the page by default. If your content doesn't need a title or the title is shown in some other way select No to turn off the automatic displaying of a title.
• Create RSS Feed - This option creates an RSS feed of this page and all the pages below it.

When you have completed the form click Save Changes to have the system save your page but not make it available on your website, and Save and Publish to save your page and make it visible on your website.

If you would like to see how your page will look before you publish it click the Preview action button. This will not make it available on your website but will show you how the current page will look when it is published. Note: the preview action displays the page as it would look at the point it was last saved. To preview your currently edited content you must save it first.

For detailed instructions on using the WYSIWYG editor used throughout the dotCommunity CMS please read the WYSIWYG section.

The Content Tree

The content tree is a hierachical view of the pages within your website. Any item in grey is an application and clicking on the link will take you to the administration pages for that application. An item in red is a content page within your site and clicking on the link will take you to the CMS administration interface for that page where you can edit it. The currently selected item will be highlighted in bold and black.

Revision History

Every time you publish a page a new version of the document is created meaning that at any time you can go back and review all the previous versions. It is also possible to "rollback" a document such that the published live version on your site is a previous version. For more information on publishing different versions of a document please read the Publishing section.

The revision history shows the creation date and time of all versions of the page you are currently editing. As laid out in the key (below the revision box) a red arrow next to a version indicates the current live version of the document. As the revision history is a historical record of the document it is not possible to go back and edit previous versions. To make changes you must be viewing the most recent version.

The Trash

As with some operating systems such as windows or mac os x, the CMS in dotCommunity websites has a trash (5). All items that you delete are moved to the trash and from there can be restored back to the content tree. To make sure inappropriate content is not restored to the website and available to visitors accidentally, all content items restored from the trash are automatically unpublished so they are not publicly visible.

If the trash becomes too full and you know that the items in there are no longer needed you can click the Empty Trash button to permanently delete all pages in the trash.