Pages
Introduction to Pages in Agility CMS: Building and Managing Sitemaps
Manage pages and control what content is on them without a developer.
What is the Pages section of Agility and what are Sitemaps?
A Sitemap typically represents a website and its general structure. It’s the hierarchy of the pages as they’ll appear on the front-end of your digital solution.
The Pages Section in Agility is the area where you can build and manage your sitemaps and the pages that live within them. They’re conveniently organized to show you where each page lives and how they relate to the pages around them.
This section allows Editors to manage those Pages and Content without the need for a Developer. Your Pages can then be used to build front-end content for your online property, such as the pages of your website.
Structure
Sitemaps in Agility are the main representation of your site or online properties structure. There are 3 elements to a Sitemap.
1. Page
A page in Agility is made up of a Page Model, Content Zones, and Components to define what content will live in those Zones.
A page can also be either Static or Dynamic. A Dynamic Page allows you build a page based on a Content Model (i.e., a container of posts or products)
Static Page Properties
1. Page Type - The kind of page you're building, either Static or Dynamic
2. Page Model - The Page Model currently in use (The page model designates which zones are available to add components to)
3. Requires Approval - Enables the Approval Workflow so editors must request Approval to Publish changes
Dynamic Page Properties
1. Page Template – Same as in a Static Page
2. Build Page From - The Content Container whose contents we want to dynamically build Pages from
3. Page Path Formula – Creates a smart URL for the page based on Page info
4. Menu Text Formula – Creates the Menu Text for the page based on Page info
2. Folder
A Folder simply allows you to group a selection of Pages
Folder Properties
1. Menu Text – Just like a page, this is the text that appears on links in navigation or a sitemap.
2. Folder Name – Also like with Pages, the name that represents the directory in the context of a website, i.e., a folder named “news” means that all pages below it would start with "~/news/"
3. Link
This element can be used to place a link in the sitemap to another Page, document, or even to a completely different website.
Note
Links added here should link to actual website URLs. When directing to a mailto link we recommend using a contact page or creating a blank page with a simple Rich Text Area that includes a description as well as the mailto: link you'd like to use
Link Properties
1. Menu Text – Same as our last two elements, the text that appears on links in navigation or a sitemap
2. Link Name – The name you’d like link to appear as
3. Link – The link to the resource, page or external site you’re linking to
4. Target – The window you’d like the link to open in
Other Features
You can easily choose which Locale you want to work with straight from the Sitemap using the Locale toggle. Choosing a different language from this drop-down will reload all open items for that Locale.
Sitemap Actions
Refresh – You can refresh at any time by clicking the hidden menu icon to the right of your sitemap name
Expand – You can expand the branches of sitemap using the ⌄ icon next to the parent
Move – You can move pages around the sitemap by dragging and dropping
Further Reading
The Pages (area) in Agility represent pages you would typically have in a website or mobile app. They are objects you can add to your Sitemap which will make up the URLs/Views you have in your solution.
The Pages (area) enables editors to manage their pages and what content is on them without requiring a developer.
Pages for editors to manage content with Agility CMS Select an Image
For each Page you have defined in Agility, you can add content to that page by adding Page Modules.
Page Modules are pre-defined components that a developer/architect will enable for editors to use on Pages.
Viewing published pages in Agility CMS Select an Image
Pages Overview
Pages in Agility are the main representation of the structure for your website or digital solution. In general, there are 3 simple types of pages:
- Page
- Folder
- Link
Page
A Page is composed of a Page Template, Content Zones, and Page Modules. Pages can either be a standard Page or a Dynamic Page, which allows you to build pages dynamically based on entries in a Content Model (i.e. a list of posts or products).
Page Properties
- Page Template
- Menu Text
- Page Title
- Page Name
Dynamic Page Properties
- Page Template
- Build Pages From
- Page Path Formula
- Page Title Formula
- Menu Text Formula
A Page is comprised of a Page Template, Content Zone(s), and Page Modules.
A page includes templates, content zones and modules in Agility CMS Select an Image
Folder
This is a virtual folder to group pages. The folder Itself cannot be accessed as a resource.
Folder Properties
Menu Text - The same as in a page, this is the text that appears as the directory on links in a navigation control or on a sitemap.
Folder Name - Similar to the page name above, this is the name that represents the directory in the context of a website: so a folder named “news” means that all pages below it would start with "~/news/".
Link
A Link can be used to place a link in the sitemap to another page, a document, or to a completely different website.
Link Properties
- Menu Text
- Link Name
- Link
- Target
Managing Pages
Managing pages for SEO in Agility CMS Select an Image
Let's take a closer look at the various sections of the details of a Page that control what content is on it, its SEO, and more.
Content
Content is the place to change the structure and content of your site. You can add new modules, edit your existing modules or rearrange the structure of your modules and content zones. You will have a list of available modules to add and you will have to make sure you add it within the right content zone since this determines where the module will be placed on your site. Click here for more information about how to structure your pages through page templates, content zones and modules.
SEO
This is where you are able to add metadata in the shape of keywords and descriptions of your content. This can either be linked to a specific module or a whole page.
Search Engine Optimization is essential to make sure that you will obtain a lot of relevant traffic on your pages. Below are some helpful links on SEO best practices.
Settings
In settings, you can change the page type and page template. If you click on 'change', you will be able to pick a new template and rearrange the modules.
Settings bar in Agility CMS Select an Image
When you click on change the box below will appear. Say, you want to switch from a two-column template to a one-column template.
In that case, you will have to drag your modules to a new content zone in your new template. You can always click 'apply new template' and then preview to see how your page looks and go back and edit before you publish it.
How to change a template in Agility CMS Select an Image
If you want to clone the template click Clone and select the module zones you want to share across pages using the same page template. Here, you are also able to apply the template changes to all sub-pages using the same page template.
Cloning a template in Agility CMS Select an Image
Scripts
This is usually where you would enter any JavaScript that needs to be run on this page. Typically, you would use this to enter any page-specific analytics scripts such as a tracking pixel of a custom google analytics event. From this section, you can also optionally exclude this page from your Global Scripts which normally contains a global analytics script across the site. This can be useful for excluding a page from your google analytics.
Alerts
Alerts give you the option to create a list of users who will be notified when workflow occurs on an item. First, you select the user you want to assign alerts. Next, you can choose between the alert types as seen below.
Creating alerts for workflows in Agility CMS Select an Image
You can easily add and delete users from the list. If you want to propagate alerts to all modules, linked content, and child pages, click on the following button:
Propagating alerts in Agility CMS Select an Image
Security
Security settings are normally controlled from settings/user management by administrators or managers. These settings will work globally - i.e the role the user gets will determine the permissions the user has on all items. However, there is a security tab within all modules and pages as well. This allows you, if you are a manager or administrator globally, to give users another role on the specific item.
The roles are listed below and determine what the users are capable of doing. As an administrator or manager, you can easily add or delete users from your list as well as changing the users’ roles.
None - No access to the page
Report Viewers - Can access the dashboard and reports. Report viewers are able to read all reports and export these.
Readers - Can see all content and properties but cannot make any changes
Contributors - Can create new pages and modify the pages they have created
Editors - Can create new pages and modify the pages they or others have created
Publishers - Can create new pages and modify the pages they and others have created and publish content.
Approvers - Can create new pages and modify the pages they have created as well as approve pages that require approval.
Deleters - Can create new pages and modify the pages they and others have created. Can also delete pages.
Designers - Can create new pages and modify the pages they and others have created. Can create page templates, content zones, and modules. Can define what modules appear in the module zones of each page.
Managers - Can create new pages and modify the pages they and others have created. Can publish content, approve pages that require approval, delete pages and change security settings on pages and modules.
Administrators - Can use all functions within the system. Can also create new users and configure global settings such as dashboard links, language configuration, website configuration, domain setup)
Scheduling
Sometimes you want a page to be released or pulled automatically at a certain date and time. This function allows you to pick a specific date and time. If you set a pull date, you might wanna set a Redirect URL to redirect traffic to another page. On the pull date and time, all traffic will automatically be redirected.
Scheduling published content in Agility CMS Select an Image
You can either make a new page or schedule an update for an existing page. In any case, make sure to press ‘publish’ after you scheduled the release date. In this way, your new page (or your old updated page) will be released as scheduled.
It is always the latest version of your page as will be published on the release date, so even if you make any changes after you scheduled the release date these will still be included as long as you remember to click “publish” after your editing.
History
You can at any time recover an old version of your pages that has been saved.
If you remember the time and date of the version you want to recover you can easily find the right version on the list which is in reverse chronological order with the current version first. If you are unsure about which version you are looking for, you can click on any of the versions from the list. This will show you the structure of the old version through modules and content zones. You can also see the content if you press on your modules.
Page version: home in Agility CMS Select an Image
If you want to see how it looks in live mode you can view the version by clicking ‘recover this version’. The chosen version will not be published automatically, you will have to press ‘publish’ if you want to publish the version you just recovered.
Sitemaps Overview
In Agility, Sitemaps allow editors to manage multiple content destinations within a single Instance. A content destination can be considered a website, application, IoT, digital signage, etc. where editors can manage the pages and module components that make up the front-end of their digital solution.
Sitemap
An instance in Agility can have either a single Sitemap or multiple. In most cases, a Sitemap represents a Website. Sometimes called a "Page Tree", the Sitemap is a blueprint of your website's architecture.
In Agility, your Sitemaps are conveniently located within the Pages section of the Content Manager app. At a glance, you can see your Sitemap(s), which pages are within each Sitemap, and you can tell where each page is and how it relates to other pages around it. This shows the hierarchy of the pages as they will appear on the front-end of your digital solution.
Pages sitemap on Agility CMS Select an Image
Each Sitemap can be composed with completely different pages, but utilize the same underlying architecture such as Page Templates, Modules & linked content models.
Locale Toggle
You can easily choose which Locale you want to work with straight from the Sitemap using the locale toggle. Choosing a different language from this drop-down will reload all of your open items.
Locale toggle in Agility CMS Select an Image
Sitemap Actions
You can hover over each of the actions below the Locale drop-down to discover what it will do.
Sitemap actions in Agility CMS Select an Image
- The + icon is used to add new pages to your Sitemap.
- The Up and Down icons are used to move the currently selected page up or down in the Sitemap. If you are using a browser with a mouse and keyboard, you can also drag and drop a page to a different location in the Sitemap.
- The Search icon will lower a search bar down from the action bar and allow you to search for any page within the Sitemap. If more than one page is returned by the search, the results are displayed in a flat list.
Permissions
All users associated within an Agility instance can access all of the content across each Sitemap, however, Permissions can be set to limit users to "read-only" on Sitemaps that are not relevant to the user.
Sitemap Configuration
In Agility, Sitemaps often get associated with Domains, and each sitemap usually has one or more domains.
For example, a Sitemap called Website might have the following domains associated with it:
- Production
- Preview
When setting up a Sitemap for the first time, or adding a domain to an existing Sitemap, you'll need to map the domain(s) you'll be using to the Sitemap which can be done within the Domain Configuration section of settings in the Agility manager.
Sitemap configuration in Agility CMS Select an Image
Page Templates Overview
When an editor creates a Page in Agility, they must select which template the page will use from a pre-defined list. The user can then add managed content to the page by placing Page Modules in the Content Zones defined by the Page Template.
A Page Template consists of a Name and Content Zones.
Page templates with names and content zones in Agility CMS Select an Image
Some digital solutions may only have a single page template that is used throughout, others may have multiple templates to allow for more flexible layouts.
Content Zones Overview
A Content Zone is an area defined in the CMS on the Page Template where an editor can add Page Modules.
Content zones overview in Agility CMS Select an Image
A page template may have one or many Content Zones.
Page Modules Overview
In Agility, Page Modules are the individual functional components that populate a page layout. Developers create a toolbox of modules Editors can use to compose what type of content is on each page, and in what order they appear, by placing them within a Content Zone.
Ordering content in Agility CMS Select an Image
Developers define what page modules are available in the CMS and what fields they have. Each module defined in Agility CMS should correspond to a Code file within your digital solution.
Generally speaking, if you don't have any modules defined or editors don't add modules to pages, then there won't be anything to output for your pages.
Whats In a Page Module?
A Page Module in Agility CMS has a name and fields.
The name is a friendly representation of the module's intended functionality such as Posts Listing or Rich Text Area. This way, editors can easily identify them and add them to pages appropriately.
Fields represent content that can be managed by editors. These fields are then used in code (passed as props) to display the content the editor intended.
Page Modules are similar to Content Models in that they have fields and can relate to other content, but a Page Module is meant to represent a functional UI component that will ultimately render on a website or app. An editor should be able to add a page module to a page and it should render some UI and display content based on the fields on the module or its related content.
You can create anything from a simple, structured piece of text, a more complex item, or have any functionality and integrate with other platforms and systems.
For example, you have a Page Module called Image Slider:
- Number of Slides => [Number]
- Rotation Speed => [Number]
- Slides => [Linked Content Reference to Slides]
Image slider in Agility CMS Select an Image
A property of that module allows a set number of images to display and you can control the rotation speed. Then you pull in content from Shared Content for the images and text.