Everyday functions
The admin interface
The admin user face in Exponential 3 is where you do all the work on your content.
You can say that this is where you build your site. In the admin interface you
create and edit articles, add pictures and manage workflows - this is where you manage your site.
Sections
You will use sections to name the different parts of your site. In our demo the sections are Standard,
Whitebox, News, Crossroads, Bookcorner, My company, Intranet and MySite. For a newspaper typical sections
can be News, Sports, Economy, Weather etc.
The section information is basically used for two things, permissions and layout. You make different
people access different parts of your site based on the section information. You normally also use
the section information to create different layouts in the different parts of your site.
Visit the SDK documentation for a more in-depth tutorial.
How to create a folder
Making a folder in Exponential 3 is very simple. A folder is where you store other content. "Sports"
can for instance be a folder. In this folder you put all the content (articles, pictures, forums etc.)
that you want to publish in "Sports". For a newspaper the folders could be: Editorial, News, Sports, Weather
and Economy. There are no limit to how many folders you can create.
When you want to create folders you have to be sure that you are in the Content view mode (list). You will
get there by using the "Content" tab in the admin interface.
In the "Content" window you will get a view over all the folders you have created.
When in this window you will also see a button and a dropdown menu that says "New" and "Folder".
Click "New" and you will go to the "Edit folder - New folder" page. Write in the name of the folder,
for example "Sports" and a description of the folder if you want that.
You will also get some different choices of what you want to do with your folder. You can preview it,
store it as a draft that you can work with later or publish it.
We choose to publish it. Now this folder will appear on your site as "Sports".
Now you have created a folder. When you have clicked the "Publish" button you will see the Folder in a
new window. The next step is to put content like articles and pictures in the folder.
How to add content in a folder
Now that you have made a folder it's time to create content and add that to the right folder.
First you have to find the folder that you want to add content to. You can find content in Exponential
in several ways; through the "Content" box, the "Sitemap" and through the "Search engine".
If you just made the folder you are where you are supposed to be, in the folder window.
You will now get the same choice you got when creating the folder. But instead of creating a new folder
you choose "Article" in the drop down menu.
Click "New" and you will get the "Edit article - New article" window. Write in the title, the intro
and the body of the article. You can also add pictures to your article.
You will then get the same choices for what you want to do with your article that you got for your folder.
Again we choose to "Publish" the article.
You are now done. The article is published under the "Sports" folder and can be read on your site.
How to add pictures to an article
Often you want to add pictures to a site. Sometimes you want pictures in an article or for a product, or
perhaps your site is an image gallery. This is done very easily in Exponential. Use exactly the same
procedure as you use when making folders or articles. Mark "Image" and click "New".
In the "Edit image - New image" window you name the image and write a caption/ picture text to the image.
Get the image and click on the desired function for the picture. Voila, the picture is published.
Usually you want to add a picture to an article or a product. To do this you go into the article where
you want to add a picture. The picture that you add at the bottom of the article edit page will be a
standard picture that is connected with your article.
If you want to add more pictures than this one in your article you can use the "Related objects" function
in Exponential. With this function you can include other files in your article, Including other articles,
images, MPEG's etc. Click the "Find object" button and find the object that you want to add to your article.
Select the file with the check box and click the "Select" button.
This will take you back to the "Edit article" page and show the selected file in the "Related objects"
box. If you want to show this file in the article, copy the and paste it wherever you want in the
text.
 .
Repeat the procedure if you want to add more objects to your article.
Finding content
Often a site can be very large and the content can be difficult to find or perhaps you have forgotten where
you saved it. There are several ways to find the content in Exponential 3.
You can find the content through the "Content" box where you can access everything that is published on
your site. You can also choose to use the "Sitemap" where you can view your content in a more familiar tree
structure.
A third option is to search for the content. Exponential 3 includes a powerful search engine.
We have placed this search engine on the top of the Admin user interface so that it will always be easily
accessible. In the search field you can search between everything that is published on your site. We have
also included an "Advanced search".
With the search engine you can search through your site in many ways. Search for words, exact phrases or
folders. You can also search within sections. There are also possibilities to do advanced searches like:
Search for all images of a "Ball" in the "Sports" section that is published the last year.
With this functionality you can find what you need on your site without problems.
Drafts
Have you ever experienced writers block? Or perhaps you have lost an article that you started because you
had to leave the office for the night?
With the draft function in Exponential 3 you can start writing on an article and save it as a draft. Then
you can bring up this draft some other time and continue writing on it. Let's say that you have ideas for
several articles and want to start writing on them before you forget your ideas. Store them as drafts and
publish them when you are ready.
You can save several drafts at the same time that you want to continue working on at a later time.
To store an article as a draft choose "Store draft" at the bottom of the "Article edit" page. You will
get this message: "Input was stored successfully" (or an error message explaining what to do if something
went wrong). This means that your draft is saved. When you want to continue working on it, you will find it
in the "My drafts" section under the "Personal" tab.
Publish in several locations
An object like an article or a product can often be placed in several folders. A bookstore can have several
books on programming and computers. A book about PHP programming could be put in a PHP folder. But it can
also be put in other folders like Programming books and Computers. This is easily handled in Exponential 3.
First you find the article or product that you want to publish in several folders. Click the "Edit"
button and you will get to the "Edit article - article name" page. On that site you will find the button
"Add location". With this button you can add as many places you want your article to be published in.
Click the "Add location" button. You will now get an overview of all the folders on your site. If you
want your article to be published on the top level of one of these folders you select that folder by ticking
the "Select" box. If you want to publish your article deeper down in the tree you click on the links until
you find the location you are looking for.
When you have selected where to publish your article you will get back to the "Edit" window again. There
you can see in what places your article is published.
To remove a location for your article tick the tiny box next to the location that you want to remove and
click the "Remove location" button. That's it. Your article or product is removed from that specific
location.
Remove objects
Objects like folders, articles, forums and products can be edited any time you wish. To remove an object you
need to find the object you wish to remove, click check box to the right of the object to mark it for
removal, and click the remove button under the list of objects. Objects are not totally removed from the
system, they are just removed from the site and placed in the trash. When you remove objects the behaviour
of the system differs in some cases. When the object is published in several places and you try to remove it
from its main place, the object will be removed from all places. You will be warned about this. If you try
to remove the object from an additional placement the object will be removed only from that additional
place.
Edit objects
Objects like folders, articles, forums and products can be edited any time you wish. This is no big deal in
Exponential 3 and it really explains itself. All you need to do is find the object you want to edit, click
the "Edit" button and start editing.
You can edit everything in the object. Change the title, location, intro and body text, add pictures or
relate other objects. Everything is done in this window.
Every time you edit an object, like an article, you can choose to save the different versions of the
object.
Related objects are files you can connect to other objects. That can be an article, a product or a
picture etc.
Let us say that you have an article in which you want to add another article and a picture. Again, you
have to find the specific article that you want to work with. Open the article with the "Edit" button and
you will find the "Related objects" function.
With this function you can include other files in your article. include other articles, images, MPEG's
etc. Click the "Find object" button and find the object that you want to add to your article. Select the
file by ticking the tiny box and click the "Select" button. This will take you back to the "Edit article"
page and show the selected file in the "Object info" box. if you want to add this file in the article use
the "Include in article" button.
The selected object will appear in the article where the indicator is. To move the related object within
the article use the cut and paste function or mark it and move it to wherever you want. Go through the same
process for all objects that you want to relate or relate all the objects at the same time.
All the related objects will appear in the "Related objects" window, as thumbnails if they are pictures,
and "filename" in something else.
NB! If you use Internet Explorer there is a WYSIWYG editor available from
www.ez.no that will make the entire "Related objects" process even easier.
Version control
After you have written or edited an object you can save this and publish it immediately. But perhaps
after you published it you want to change it by adding some more text and a picture. You can work on this
new version of the object without worrying about the current published version.
When you have opened the object (article) and changed the content you will find a box that says "Version
info" on the right side. In this box you will find a "Manage" button. This button will open a new window
where you see all the different versions of the article you are working on. The list will tell you
version numbers, who wrote the article, when it was written and when it was edited or modified.
There will also be a (*) that shows the present version of the article that is published. if you want
to change a version to be the "Current" tick the box next to the version that you want to set as "Current".
If you want to work on the published and current version you need to make a copy of it. You do that by
clicking the "Copy" button. Now you can edit the copy of the "Current" version and publish this. You can
also save it as another draft. When you have published the "Copy", that is set to be the current version and
the former current version is set to "Archived". Back in the "Edit view" you will find information about
which version you are now working on and how many versions exist of this object.
In the picture we are editing version "2" while version 1 is the current version.
Preview your content
The preview function shows how your object (article) will look after you have published it.
When you click the "Preview" button
you will get the "Preview" window. Here you can also change what design you want this article to be
previewed in by changing the "Site design" drop down menu.
By doing this you can preview the article in the different designs you have on your site.
This function gives you the possibility to edit your article if you're not satisfied with it. When in the
preview window you can choose to publish the article or go back to the editing page.
Translate your content
Many sites have the opportunity for users to show content in different languages. International sites with
users in more than one country will find this helpful. Exponential 3 has multi-lingual support. In short that
means that you can publish an article in different languages depending on where your users come from.
To translate you go to the object (article) you want to translate and click the "Manage" button in the
"Translations" box.
This will take you to the "Translating - object" window. Click the "Translate" button. Now you will see a
different window with the text you want to translate on the right side and the "Edit" windows for your new
language on the left side. Now you simply add the new language text in those windows and click "Store".
To go back to the article you just added a new language to click "Edit object". This will take you back
to the "Edit Article - article name" window where you now can see your new translation in the "Translations"
window.
Sorting content
Exponential 3 gives you the possibility to sort your content in different ways. You can sort an article
by path, by publication/modification date/time, by priority etc.
If you want to sort the contents of a folder, click the "Edit" button on the folder itself.
Then you will get the "Edit folder - Folder name" page. Use the "Sort by" drop down menu and decide
in what manner you want to sort your content.
Let us say that you want to sort it by Priority. Highlight "Priority" and click "Send for publishing".
Back in the Folder page you will now find a new box on the right hand side with a "0" inside.
Now you decide the different objects' priority by typing 1,2,3,4 etc in the boxes. When you have prioritised
the objects you click the "Update Sorting Priority" button and you are done.
The sorting decides in what way your content will be displayed when published.
- Path: sort by path
- Published: sort by publishing date/time
- Modified: sort by modification date/time
- Section: sort by sections
- Depth: sort by item depth (in sitemap)
- Class identifier: sort by class identifier
- Class name: sort by class name
- Priority: sort by user-defined priorities
You can also decide if you want to sort in a ascending or descending order by the arrows to the right
of the sorting drop down menu.
Some of your objects, for instance articles, may have XML-formatted text fields. When editing these
you will be using a simplified set of tags, similar to HTML.
NB! If you use Internet Explorer there is a WYSIWYG editor available from
www.ez.no that will make this process much easier.
These are the tags you can use in XML-formatted text fields:
- <em [class="foo"]>emphasize text. Attribute 'class', which used to classify the tag, is optional.</em> (alias to emphasize)
- <i [class="foo"]>emphasize text. Attribute 'class' is optional.</i> (alias to emphasize)
- <emphasize [class="foo"]>emphasize text. Attribute 'class' is optional.</emphasize>
- <b [class="foo"]>bold text. Attribute 'class' is optional.</b> (alias to strong)
- <bold [class="foo"]>bold text. Attribute 'class' is optional.</bold> (alias to strong)
- <strong [class="foo"]>bold text. Attribute 'class' is optional.t</strong>
- <ul [class="foo"]>unordered list. Attribute 'class' is optional.</ul>
- <ol [class="foo"]>ordered list. Attribute 'class' is optional.</ol>
- <li>list element</li>
- <h [level="1-6" class="foo"]>heading text. Attribute 'level' and attribute 'class' are optional. Attribute 'level' could be used to
define heading size, while 'class' could be used to classify the tag.</h> (alias to header).
- <header [level="1-6" class="foo"]>heading text. Attribute 'level' and attribute 'class' are optional. Attribute 'level' could be used to
define heading size while 'class' could be used to classify the tag.</header>
- <link href="link url" [target="_self|_blank" class="foo"]>link text</link>
or <link id="id" [target="_self|_blank" class="foo"]>link text</link>
where id is an existing eZ url id. Attribute 'target' and 'class' are optional.
- <a href="link url" [target="_self|_blank" class="foo"]>link text</a>
or <a id="id" [target="_self|_blank" class="foo"]>link text</a> where id is an existing eZ url id.
Attribute 'target' and 'class' are optional. (alias to link)
- <object id="id"[ align="left|right|center" size="small|medium|large"
class="foo" view="embed|text_linked" href="link url" target="_self|_blank"]/> where 'id'
should be an existing eZ object id and all other attributes are optional. Attributes 'href' and 'target' are used to make object(image) as link.
- <table [class="foo" border='0-10' width="1-100%|size(in pix)"]>table content</table> The attributes 'class', 'border' and 'width'
are optional attributes. Table content should be written according to normal HTML table syntax with <tr> and <td> tags.
- <tr>table row content</tr>
- <th [class="foo" width="number" rowspan="number" colspan="number"]>table header content. All attributes are optional.</th>
- <td [class="foo" width="number" rowspan="number" colspan="number"]>table cell content. All attributes are optional.</td>
- <literal [class="foo"]>unformatted text (html, xml source, etc.). Attribute 'class' is optional. </literal>
- <custom name="customtagName">custom tag content. A custom tag could either be bloack or inline,
and this should be defined in [CustomTagSettings] in content.ini.</custom>
|
