EXCITED by 4.0 Content management

[xert77]

Hi,

Today I was involved in a discussion with several members of the community in this thread: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/408095-ips4-feature-plan/?page=2

I am making this thread to show my excitement for what I have learned today & hopefully encourage some pros here in the IPB community to offer more advice or share what they have created already & the steps they took to do it.

 

1. What is a Database?

I learned the difference between Databases, Pages & Categories.

 

Think of a database like an application - it's a collection of data for a particular thing. A database can contain categories, which contain records. In Pages (and IP.Content), we provide a built-in database called "Articles", so you might create your "News" category inside that database. That's probably similar to what you did in Joomla.

But if your site was about fishing (for example) and you wanted to create an area of your site that has loads of information about all different kinds of fish, you could do that by creating a new database. Your categories might be "Freshwater" and "Sea", and then you add a record for each fish in one of those categories. Our database feature lets you set up your own fields too, so you might have fields like "Color", "Average Size", "Taste Rating", and then you can automatically filter records based on some/all of those attributes and so on. Our bug tracker is a good example of a simple database.

​

 

2. SIMPLE Page Builder

I learned that there is a SIMPLE page builder if you click 'add page'.

I had never considered this when moving to IPB 4, I was always trying to edit the old previous pages. But the new Simple Page builder makes it as simple as Drag & drop!!!

 

3. Database Fields

I learned you can add custom fields to a particular Database. So you can easilly create easy Submit Record pages for Community users to submit articles & content for you.

These are all the fields you can add to a Database, so if you want users to submit videos. You could have a simple Text Area field followed by a YouTube field.

 

4. Wiki-Style Editing (Wikipedia Style)

I learned that there is a Database Wiki option where users can submit/edit & review content!

This looks so cool & I can't wait to try it & see how well it works. The ability to allow users to update and review content keeping it constantly updated. Then you can lock it to stop people ruining stuff.

 

I know this is all probably babys play to you guys, but I honestly didn't know all this was possible until today & also how much easier it seems compared to 3.4.

I seriously can't wait to try out more of this stuff & learn how it all works. I also can't wait for documentation when 4.0 is fully done. What makes me even more excited is the follow function added in 4.0 - Where you can follow a user and all content they upload. So if someone you like uploads daily articles you can get e-mails from them etc. Prime example is in the Feature planner, I follow it & I receive e-mails when ever it gets updated X'D: http://community.invisionpower.com/4featureplan/

4.0 is just seeming cooler and cooler the more I learn.

 

If you know of any other cool Content features or guides, advice, tutorials etc. Please post them!

[openfire]

I'm in the same boat as you and the lightbulb went off as I was reading that exact same thread! I was like ahhhh, now I get it!

I think the possibilities with IPS4 are endless. This software is KILLER. Totally excited!

[xert77]

I'm in the same boat as you and the lightbulb went off as I was reading that exact same thread! I was like ahhhh, now I get it!

I think the possibilities with IPS4 are endless. This software is KILLER. Totally excited!

​ahaha I know how you feel. I felt so stupid reading all these people saying how easy everything was, when to me it all seemed like Rocket Science. Thanks to the pro community users informing those in need we are beginning to learn XD