Welcome to our advanced content management system with optional catalog.

  • This helps system is being updated to reflect the new administrative interface.
  • All content edits are using the Edge/Chrome/Brave compatible version. 
  • The  content editor widget will replace popup windows with opening in a new window as soon as you edit a page (auto clean up I guess).  We have added a new tag to allow you to install popups:
    |.mkPop:x:y:Link text::address to be displayed in the popup.|  x and y are the size of the popup, Link text is the word or words you click on to open the popup (e.g, here as in click here). The address is the internet address of the content which should appear in the popup.  Pleae note the double :: before the address.  This is so you can have a : inside the link text.

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This help system reflects the revised interface.  Some unused functions have been removed.  Even if your site does not currently use a function (e.g., a Catalog) the supplied software to support it is included. 

Background:  The active part of the site are build by replacing "tag" with system generated content. 

What does a Tag look like:  All tags are begin with '|.' and end with '.|'  For  example to get the Topics box to the left begins with |.f:div class='floatLeft'.| and ends with |.f:/div.| and this applies the class 'floatLeft' to it.  Your site may have similar classes.

 What is a content management system?  Basically this is a system which separates the information (words, pictures and other media) from the appearance of the site.  There are three advantages to this.  First, you can use a system similar to a word processor to changes what is on each page, you don't have to chase down a web designer.  Second, changing the appearance of the site does not require re-entering the information already on the site.  Finally, when you add or remove a page from the system, the navigation (i.e., the menus) automatically reflect this change.  The system also supports a media library with various folders for organizing the media you want to put up on the system.

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Simple to Complex.  The system is set up so various features can be activated depending of the needs of the organization. As a general rule, use the simplest version of the system which will meet your needs.  It is possible to activate some additional features after a site has been created.  Contact support at 909-920-9154 ext 201 to have features added.

  • The content part of the system can be limited to Sections, top level pages,secondary pages and pop-ups or support up to 20 levels of pages under each section. 
  • The content part of the system can have a single editor, multiple groups of editors each of which can edit one or more sections.  No active site uses multiple editor, but the system does support it. Also, in multi-editor sites, it is possible to specify whether page editors in a specific division can see the work of page editors in other divisions.  In this document we will refer to two arrangements: Single Administrator/Author, and Groups of Administrators/Editors .  Note: as soon as you click Add, Update or Delete the change is published and its visible.
  • Multiple editor systems may also have a special class of "editors" who can only receive emails generated by the response forms on the system. 
  • Pages can be restricted to authorized groups of visitors and the display of pages can change once a visitor is authorized (this also includes different displays in the catalog system).  Optionally, the password can be sent to the visitor via email.  A visitor can belong to more than one authorized group.  The site editor(s) normally will belong to all groups so they can view the page they create.
  • One or more calendar can be included in the site.
  • Images can be combined into galleries with pop up enlarged images.  Alternatively the contents of an image gallery can be combined into a "rotator"

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Site Administrator  This special user 'Admin' is responsible for adding and removing all other users.  Admin is also responsible for creating Media Libraries and assigning who can use and who can upload media to each library.

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Limiting Visitor Access:  {opt.}The site can be configured so that specific pages can be flagged to restrict who can see a page.  Admin can create access control groups and assign visitors to one or more of these groups.  A visitor attempting to view a restricted page will be asked for authentication.  Once they have signed in they will have access to any page restricted to any of the groups to which they belong until they turn off their browser or click on the Log Out link.  Content can be changed based on whether the person has logged in.  Categories can be restricted to members of  a specific group.  Product display can be changed based on the specific Group or even User which logs in. See here (catalog) and here (content) for more information.

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Response Forms and Protecting your emails:  To prevent your email addresses from being harvested and sold to Spammers the system allows response forms to be created which do not contain your email addresses.  It is now possible to request the response form retain the information securely and just send a notification for the visitor the visit the site and read the mail. The notification goes to the email recipient specified in the form and they can log in and access the information.  The Admin user can also see the information.  Sec Meg button at the top of he page when they log in.

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Catalogs, Products and Buying Things:  {opt.} A multi-level product catalog and shopping cart can be added into the site.  This add-on supports both off-line and real time credit card processing.

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How is the information stored? (knowing this will help understanding why the system works the way it does)

  • Most of the information is stored in a series of rows in various database tables (think of a spreadsheet with sheets and rows)  The tables correspond to the sheets.  Within each table there is a row for each entry (e.g., if you have 15 categories then the category table will have 15 rows in it).  The fields in each row correspond to the tables in a spreadsheet.
    • There is one table for Products, one for Catalog and two related tables for the Content.   The system generates a special unique identifying number for each row in the table (e.g., for pages its PID {page ID}, for Products its PRID {product ID}, and for Categories its CatID {Category ID}).  Because the system generates these numbers they are guaranteed to be unique, it also enables the system to very efficiently get the information out to display the page.
    • To access the information about a specific product, category or content the site designer or maintainer will use a tag to reference the given information.  Since the system (e.g., |.PRID.| and the system will know to substitute the current product's ID number wherever it finds that tag.
  • Media (e.g., images, documents, 'pdf's) are stored on the server's disk.  In the case of the media loaded through along with a product or category, these have a name associated with the type (i.e., Product or Category), the system generated ID, and finally Field Name (e.g., Category_1_CatSpare2.gif).   They can be accessed either by tag or using the editor.  Remember, for the world to see your media it must be on a web server somewhere on the Internet.  The hard drive on your desktop/laptop doesn't count.  The system provides several systems to get the media from your computer up to our servers so the world can see it.

All of this will be explained in the sections of this help

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