Jun
16
Collections Manager
Filed Under Extensions, SkyBlueCanvas CMS
Collections are perhaps the trickiest concept to grasp in SkyBlueCanvas. A collection is a type of container made up of a variable number of items. Examples of collections include link lists, photo galleries, FAQs and Menus. They are literally collections of things or smaller units that appear within a page. The concept of a collection, allows you, the user to add, edit and delete individual items within a container without having to worry about building the container itself.
Diagram 7
The Collections Dashboard, shown in Diagram 7 shows you a group of buttons. The top and wider button is the Collection Publishing editor. Publishing Collections is explained on the Collections_Publishing page.
The two columns of buttons below the Collection Publishing button give you access to the different types of collections available on your site. SkyBlueCanvas calls these editor Managers because they allow you to Manage your collections. SkyBlueCanvas is extensible so you can add new collection managers through the Manger API.
For our example here, we are going to be using the Links Manager. When you click the Links button, you will be re-directed to the Links List View as shown in Diagram 8.
Diagram 8
SkyBlueCanvas managers come in 1-Dimensional and Multi-Dimensional types. A 1-Dimensional Manager is one that only manages a single item – this means items that appear as a single collection without Groups. A Multi-Dimensional Manger manages items that are arranged into more complex structures likes items and groups. The Links Manager is an example of a Multi-Dimensional Manager because it works with Links and Groups of Links.
Diagram 8-A and 8-B
Diagram 8-A indicates the Add button you use to add a new link item. Diagram 8-B indicates the View Groups button. If you click the View Groups button, your view will be switched to a list of the Links Groups. While you can add Links Items without defining any groups, you will not be able to display the links until you have added at least one group and place the Links Items in that group.
I will only cover adding Links Items here, but the Groups feature works exactly the same. In fact, all Managers in SkyBlueCanvas work essentially the same. The individual form inputs will vary but the concept is exactly the same with all Managers.
So, to add a new link, click the Add button indicated in Digram 8-A. You will be re-directed to the Links Item editor. Shown in Diagram 9.
Before we turn our attention to Diagram 9 and adding links, I will briefly explain Diagram 8-C and 8-D. By now, these features should be familiar to you. These controls allow you to edit an existing Links Item or delete the item.
Diagram 9
Diagram 9-A and 9-B
Diagram 9-A and 9-B indicate the fields where you enter the click-able text that will appear in the list of links on your public site and the URL (page address) to which to link respectively. So if I enter Google in the field marked Diagram 9-A and http://www.google.com* in the field marked Diagram 9-B, on my public site, the link will display Google to the site visitor and take them to www.google.com when they click the link.
Diagram 9-C
In the field labeled Diagram 9-C you can enter a caption for the link. If you enter a caption, the link will appear as something like this:
- SkyBlueCanvas
The most flexible lightweight CMS in the world.
Diagram 9-D
Diagram 9-D indicates the selector you use to assign the link being edited/created to a Group. Remember that we are not going to cover creating groups because the steps are exactly the same. But once you create a group it will appear, along with all other groups in this selector.
Diagram 9-E
Diagram 9-E indicates the selector you use to arrange the order of your items (links in this case). The options you will see are:
- First
- Link 1 Name
- Link 2 Name
- Last
First and Last are self-explanatory. If you select another link from the list, the current link will appear after the link you select when the page is displayed.
Diagram 9-F
To save your new link, click the Save button indicated by Diagram 9-F.
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3 Responses to “Collections Manager”
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What do you add to a skin to have Links, FAQs or Cases appear on the page? Or any of the other managers/extensions etc, for that matter.
The Collections manager has been deprecated. It has been replaced by Fragments. You can read about fragments and how they work at http://blog.skybluecanvas.com/skybluecanvas-lightweight-cms/skybluecanvas-fragments-explained/
I posted an updated version of the FAQs Extension at http://www.skybluecanvas.com/exts/88