Finding Collections

Every collectionA list of Ektron content links for display on a Web page. is assigned to a folder. You can find collections in the following ways.

Creating a Collection

This section explains how to create a collectionA list of Ektron content links for display on a Web page. in a site that does not support multiple languages. To create collections in several languages, see Working with a Collection in a Multi-Language System.

Prerequisites

To create, edit, remove, delete, or reorder a collection, you must have one of these criteria.

• Administrators group member
• assigned one of these roles See Also: Defining Roles
  • Collection and Menu Admin
  • Collection Admin
  • Folder User Admin
  • Collection Approver
• granted Collections permission for the collection’s folder. Permission is granted on the folder Permission screen > Advanced tab. See Also: Managing Folder and Content Permissions

NOTE: Only users assigned to the Administrators group, Collection and Menu Admin role, Collection Approver, or Collection Admin role can work with Collections via the Collections tab. Users who do not belong to one of these groups can work with collections (if they have Collections permission for the collection’s folder) by selecting a folder then New > Collection or View > Collection.

1. To create a new collection, use one of these methods. The Add Collection screen appears.
   • To create a collection in a specified folder, navigate to it, and choose New > Collection.
   • To create the collection in the root folder, choose Content > Collections > Collections then click Add.
     —Image—

     

2. Hover the cursor over Collections (see previous image), right click the mouse, and click Add Collection. Complete the screen using the following information.
   • Title—Assign a unique title to the collection.
   • Template—Enter the default template for the collection. This template displays the content of the links generated if no template is assigned in the custom function. If left blank, the links use their respective Quicklinks. See Also: Creating a Collection
   • Description—Add a more detailed description for the collection.
   • Include Subfolders—Check if you want to be able to add to the collection content in subfolders of the collection's content folder.
   • Approval is Required—See Setting Up Collection Approval
3. Click Save when finished.

A collection’s folder appears on the Content > Collections > View All Collections screen, in the Path column. No value (\ ) indicates root folder.

After creating the collection, you typically add content to it. See Creating New Content for a Collection and Assigning Content to the Collection.

Deleting a Collection

1. From the Workarea, go to Content > Collections.
2. Click the collection you want to delete.
3. Click Delete (). A confirmation message appears.

   Alternatively, hover the cursor over the Collection, right click the mouse, and click Delete collection name.

   If this collection requires approval, and the user who is deleting cannot approve changes, the following occurs. See Also: Setting Up Collection Approval

   • The collection’s status changes to Marked for Deletion (M), and an email notification is sent to all approval users for the collection. One of the approval users must open the Edit Collection screen and click the Delete or Decline button.
   • If an approval user clicks Delete (), the collection is removed from your website.
   • If an approval user clicks Decline (), the user who submitted the deletion is notified by email but no website changes are made.

   NOTE: Any user with permission to edit a collection can perform the undo function until the content is approved

4. Click OK to proceed.

Creating New Content for a Collection

To create new content while adding content links to a collectionA list of Ektron content links for display on a Web page.:

1. Navigate to the content folder containing the collection.
2. Choose View > Collection. The View Collections screen appears.
   Alternatively, choose Content > Collections > Collections.
3. Choose a collection.
4. Accept or change the language.
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5. Click Add Items. The Add Items to Collection screen appears, displaying all subfolders within the selected folder and content in the folder that is not part of the collection. (Subfolders are available if the Include subfolders checkbox was checked for the collection.)

   Alternatively, hover the cursor over the collection in the left panel, right click the mouse, and click Add Items.

   NOTE: If your collection includes subfolders and you want to add the content to one of them, navigate to that subfolder. Otherwise, proceed to the next step.

6. Click Add Content (). The Add Content screen appears.
   —Image—

   NOTE: If you are using Ektron’s multi-language support, the content’s language appears next to the title. The language is derived from the collection’s language and cannot be changed.**

   

7. Create the content.
8. Click a workflow option in the Add Content screen, such as Publish. The Add Content screen closes, and the new content link appears.
9. Check the content you created and other content.
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10. Click Add.

Assigning Content to the Collection

After creating a collection, you assign content to it as described in the following steps.

NOTE: When viewing a Collection on the website, a site visitor sees last published version of content. If it was never published, nothing appears.

1. Navigate to the content folder containing the collection to which you want to add content.
2. Choose View > Collection. The View Collections screen appears.
   Alternatively, choose Content > Collections > Collections.
3. Choose a collection.
   
4. Accept or change the language.
   —Image—

   

5. Click Add Items. The Add Items to Collection screen appears, displaying all subfolders within the selected folder and content in the folder that is not part of the collection. (Subfolders are available if the Include subfolders checkbox was checked for the collection.)

   Alternatively, hover the cursor over the collection in the left panel, right click the mouse, and click Add Items.

   As another alternative, navigate to a content folder, click items to be assigned, right click the mouse and select Copy. Then, locate the collection, right click the mouse, and select Paste Items to Collection.

   —Image—

   

   NOTE: The file types pulldown remembers your most recent choice and can filter which files appear. You can change the selection if desired.

   —Image—

   

6. Check content to add to the collection. You can only add content from the selected folder or its subfolders. (Subfolders are available if the Include subfolders checkbox is checked for the collection.)
   • Click a subfolder to view its content.
   • To return to the parent folder, click the folder with the up arrow ().
   • Navigating between subfolders deselects content.
7. Click Add to add selected content to the collection.

Editing Content in a Collection

1. Navigate to the content folder that contains the collection that you want to edit.
   
2. Choose View > Collection. The View Collections screen appears.
   Or from the Content tab, click Collections.
   
3. Click the collection whose information you want to change.
4. Select a language.
5. Click Properties ().
6. Click Edit.
7. Change any field values.
   —Field descriptions—

   • Title—Assign a unique title to the collection.
   • Template—Enter the default template for the collection. This template displays the content of the links generated if no template is assigned in the custom function. If left blank, the links use their respective Quicklinks. See Also: Creating a Collection
   • Description—Add a more detailed description for the collection.
   • Include Subfolders—Check if you want to be able to add to the collection content in subfolders of the collection's content folder.
   • Approval is Required—See Setting Up Collection Approval

Removing Content from a Collection

1. Navigate to the content folder that contains the collection and click View > Collection.
   Or from the Content tab, click Collections.
2. Click a collection.
3. Click Remove Items (). The Remove Items from Collection screen appears.

   Alternatively, hover the cursor over the Collection, right click the mouse, and click Remove Items.

4. Check boxes next to content you want to delete.
   —Image—

   

5. Click Delete.

Reordering a Collections List

After a collection is created, and more than one content item is assigned to it, you can reorder a collection list as described in the following steps.

1. From the Workarea, go to Content > Collections.
2. Click the collection you want to reorder.
3. Click the Reorder button (). The Reorder Collection screen appears.

   Alternatively, hover the cursor over the Collection, right click the mouse, and click Reorder Item.

4. Click the content whose order you want to change.
5. Click the up or down arrow to move the content.
6. When you have the desired order, click Update.

Using a Default Template vs. Quicklinks for a Collection

You can specify a template that determines the screen display for a collectionA list of Ektron content links for display on a Web page. when it is published on a Web page. You also can disable the template and, instead, use quicklinks to determine the page template. (See Also: Viewing Quicklinks or Forms)

• If you use quicklinks, every page in the collection uses its original template. As a result, the surrounding information may change for every content item in the collection.

  The following example shows links using Quicklinks. Notice that content uses several templates. As a result, when a user clicks content in the collection, the screen information around the content is determined by its template.

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• If you use a template, all content in the collection uses the template other than the specific content. For example, the page header, footer and information in the right frame of the screen are all the same.

  The following example show links when you use a template named index.asp.

  —Image—

  

NOTE: If a collection item is a form, ekfrm is used instead of id to denote form block.

To toggle between a default template and Quicklinks:

1. Access the Edit Collection screen for the collection you want to edit.
2. Modify the Template field.
3. Click Update.

Working with a Collection in a Multi-Language System

In a multi-language Ektron system, you can create a language-specific edition of each collectionA list of Ektron content links for display on a Web page.. When a site visitor selects a language, then navigates to a page with a collection, Ektron displays the collection in the selected language if available. If not, Ektron displays nothing.

NOTE: Notice the contrast between the collections and content: if a collection is not available in a selected language, nothing appears. However, if content is not available in the selected language, content in the other languages may appear.

IMPORTANT: You can only add content in the language of a collection. So, create content first, then create a collection that links to it.

When you create a collection for a foreign language, decide from the following:

• Create a foreign edition of an existing collection to provide several versions of a single page that change depending on the language selected by the user.
  —Show how—

  1. Form the Workarea, go to Content > Collection.
  2. Click the Collection that you want to create in another language.
  3. From the View drop-down list, select the language of the new collection.
  4. Using AddItems, select content to add to the collection. Navigate through the folders to the content you want to add. You can only add content in the selected language.

• Create a new collection in a foreign language to appear only on a foreign language page, and no other edition of the collection appears on your site.
  —Show how—

  1. Navigate to the folder in which you will create the collection.
  2. Click View > Language and select the language of the collection.
  3. Click New > Collection. The Add Collections screen appears.
  4. Click Add and enter basic information about the collection.
  5. Using AddItems, select the content to add to the collection. Navigate through the folders to the content you want to add. You can only add content in the selected language.

Setting Up Collection Approval

If you require a collectionA list of Ektron content links for display on a Web page. to be approved, only the following users have permission to create or edit a collection and can approve a change to a collection.

• a member of the Administrators group
• users to whom the Collection Approver role has been assigned and who have permission to work with the collection
• users to whom the Folder User Admin role has been assigned and who have permission to work with the collection

You can set up an approval system for any collection. As with a content approval chainA series of users or user groups who must approve content before it can be published., you specify users to approve changes to a collection before it can be published.

• While content can have a chain of approvers, a collection has a list of approvers. Any collection approver can publish or decline changes for a collection.
• While content approval is folder-specific, collection approval is not. When set up, collection approval affects the collection to which it was assigned, regardless of its folder.
• If a user who is not an approver tries to delete a collection, that action also requires approval.

Only administrators or users to whom the folder-admin role has been assigned see the Approval is Required checkbox on the Add and Edit Collection screens.