Relations

The CMS provided as part of your website allows page authors to relate dotCommunity CMS items to each other, be it another page or an image.

A relation can be thought of as a reference to another related document. For example in a page discussing a specific exhibit in a zoo the author could relate or reference an article about the zoo in general from their page. This feature means that the system can automatically create a network of related articles for you, to help visitors to your site navigate via their interest rather than only by the navigation menu you have created.

A relation is created in a single direction so if you would like a relation in both directions you need to create both individually.

Adding Relations

To add a relation from a page to another article visit the page you are relating from and click the Relations sub-tab. On the resulting page click the action button for the relevant item type depending on what you would like to relate to and then select the related item from the list. As with adding links or images to your content you can upload a new image/link at the same time if the one you want to relate to is not currently stored in your website.

In the example above, you might want to add a relation to some pictures you have taken that depict the exhibit. To add the relations you would first navigate to the CMS administration page for the exhibit discussion page, and then click the Relations sub-tab. Next click the Add related image action button and select the image you want to relate. Finally repeat the relation process for each image you want to add.

Managing Relations

The Relations sub-tab lists all items that are related to the current item and all items that have the current item as a relation. Beside each entry is a button to edit or remove the relation.

All items related to the current item are stored in a specific order which is used when displaying the relations on the pages your site visitors see. In the set of action buttons on the Relations tab there is a button to re-order these relations.

Displaying Relations

All relations to an article are stored when they are added but they are not immediately made visible on the public page to allow you to position the list where you would like. To display the list of related items to a page you need to add the Relations includelet. For more information on adding includelets including the relations includelet please see the Layouts section.