Documentation
Documentation

Configuring content items

Content item configurations allow you to:

  • Define how the content item will behave
  • Control how much access you want end users to have
  • Hide configuration details from end users; two instances of the same content item with different configurations can appear as two different controls to the end user
  • Examples:
    • Allow users to edit on a staff-facing site, but display the data in read-only mode on a public-facing site
    • Use multiple instances of a content item on one page to access different sets of data
📘

Note

For more information about the content items available in iMIS, see the various content item galleries.

Where can I find and use Dynamic Content Items?
Creating a new web page containing one or more content items
  1. Go to RiSE > Page Builder > Manage content.
  2. Select New > Website Content.

    3. 📘 Note

    For a detailed explanation of creating a content record, see Managing content.

  3. Select Add content and select the desired content item from the Content Gallery.
  4. Enter the applicable information and select the desired options.

    5. 📘 Note

    For more information about the specific configuration options available for each content item, refer to the in-product help.

  5. Click OK.
  6. Click Save and then Publish.
  7. From RiSE > Site Builder > Manage sitemaps, create new website navigation.

    8. 📘 Note

    See Sitemaps and navigation items for more information about creating navigations for your site. 📘 Note

    If no owner is specified for the content block, the default organization displays as the owner.

  8. Click Publish.
Adding content items to an existing webpage

All iMIS sample sites come pre-filled:

  1. Go to RiSE > Page Builder > Manage content.
  2. Select the content record and click Edit.
  3. Select Add content to open the Content Gallery window.
  4. Navigate to the folder that contains the content item you want to add, select the desired content item and click OK.
  5. Configure the content item by entering applicable information and select the desired options.

    6. 📘 Note

    For more information about the specific configuration options available for each content item, refer to the in-product help.

  6. Click OK.
  7. Click Save and then Publish.
Setting up a user content area

User content areas are created by using content items which can be configured to allow a user to post content on the web. Examples of this user-generated content include forums, message boards, or blogs.

  1. Go to RiSE > Page Builder > Manage content.
  2. Create a content record.

    3. 📘 Note

    See Managing content for details.

  3. Select the Content Block content item from the Content Gallery.
  4. Enter the applicable information and select the desired options. See the help file for details.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Add additional content to page, if desired.
  7. Click Saveand thenPublish.
  8. Go to RiSE > Site Builder > Manage sitemaps.
  9. Create a navigation.

    10. 📘 Note

    See Sitemaps and navigation items for details. Note that if no owner is specified for the content block, the default organization displays as the owner.

  10. Click Publish. The page displays as configured with an area dedicated to user content entry directly on the page.
Run-time versus design-time

Content items have two different views:

  • Design-time view: What you see in a content record when you add a content item and configure it.
  • Run-time view: What your end-user sees when viewing the content item within your website. This may differ from what you see in the Design-time view, because some content items have a different behavior after you publish the content.
Specifying commit sequence

If you place more than one content item on a page, you might need to specify the order in which actions occur on that page. The commit sequence function allows you to explicitly define the execution order of multiple content items in a content record.

You can define a commit sequence value for the processing order of each content item relative to the other content items in the same content record. The commit sequence value must be zero or greater. Content items with a value of zero (the default) are processed after any other content item with a non-zero commit sequence value that are in the same content record.

Setting a commit sequence is only required in a few scenarios and is noted in the content item’s configuration help if needed.

Troubleshooting errors

Review the following information for troubleshooting tips:

Failing content items

Occasionally, a content item might fail. However, it will fail gracefully in place, without disabling the whole page. Typically, a “problem loading” error results from some kind of bad data. By default, iMIS hides the error details.

The settings controlling this error logging reside in the <log4net> section of your site’s web.config file. If you are not self-hosted, you must contact your host for assistance modifying web.config files.

The default settings enable error logging in the Windows Event log and comprehensive logging in the ASI log file, which captures both errors and warnings.  This log file, Asi.WebRoot.log, is in the folder above your website root.

Contact your hosting administrator if you need access to information in these logs.

Hidden content items

When editing an out-of-the-box content record, you may see a message that says a certain content item is hidden:

  • This content item is hidden because the following setting is set to false: [Setting name]

    • 📘 Note

    Turn this specific setting on in order to view this content item.

  • This content item is hidden because you are not licensed for the following features: [feature license key names here]

    • 📘 Note

    In order to have access to items that require a license key, you must contact your AiSP or ASI Technical Support.

Security for content items

Most security is defined at the content record level within iMIS. You can choose that different content items display for different users. For example, an unauthorized user might see the description of a Special Interest Group, but a signed-in member might see the roster for the group and a staff person might have the privilege to add, edit, or delete the group.

Passing URL Parameters

Many content items allow you to change the content they display based on the value of a URL parameter. This gives you the freedom to create a single content record. This record can be reused and the display can be changed based on a value sent in a link to the page. For example, instead of creating a new content record for every event, you can reuse a single content record that displays different event information based on the EventKey value in the URL.

Parameter values are passed to content items from a several types of sources:

  • Search result links
  • IQA query links
  • Navigation items
  • Relative links
  • Absolute links

For any content item that allows URL parameters to be passed, see the configuration help file for detailed instructions.

📘 Note

If multiple values are sent to a page for a single URL parameter, the first parameter value wins. For example, if the URL pointing to the Event Display content item is http://myorg/Events/Event_Display.aspx?EventKey=SPR12&EventKey=FALL12, only the SPR12 event displays. 📘 Note

URL parameters set by navigation items cannot be manually overridden in the URL. A user cannot change the parameter value in the URL to display different content.

Working with forms in dynamic content items

The style guide in the iMIS Member, Member Responsive and Donor sites includes a Forms page that demonstrates HTML elements and CSS commonly used in iMIS forms.

If you build dynamic content items that contain forms, you can use the guide as a reference and learning tool. It does not demonstrate every possible form design pattern, but we plan to gradually expand the number of examples.

The examples in the style guide are in ASP.NET for developer reference. You can see the HTML output of an example by using your browser's developer tools to inspect any element.

Available examples includes panel fields, form classes, input sizes, and MultiSelect. Access this helpful guide at Manage > Style Guide > Forms.

Responsive content items

Many of the out-of-the-box content items are responsive. To determine which content items are responsive, navigate to the a content item's configuration, for example, add the Data Showcase to a content record. If the option to Display on screen sizes (for responsive themes only) is shown then the content item is responsive.