IP.Content, by it's nature, is largely managed via the admin control panel. While there are front-end capabilities available to allow you to distribute some of the work load to your moderators (and, in some cases, members), the majority of the setup and management is performed via the admin control panel. Additionally, because IP.Content is a framework tool designed to allow you to build your website utilizing features and APIs made available through the IP.Board suite framework, sometimes the available options can become a little overwhelming for new users.
We have literally made thousands of changes to the IP.Content admin control panel interface for version 2.3, and we wanted to take some time to explain some of these changes you can expect to see with the next release.
Template Help Improvements
IP.Content has had a built-in help function for pages, templates and blocks for many releases now. A small button above the template editor opens a sidebar to show you the available template tags based on the area you are editing (a page, a template, or a block). We identified several ways to improve the template tag help for IP.Content 2.3 to make it more noticeable and usable, and we think these changes will make editing templates much easier in the next release.
- In reviewing feedback and requests, many customers seemingly did not even realize the template tag help feature was available. They had overlooked the buttons, causing them to miss this extremely valuable feature.
- The styling of the help was inconsistent with the rest of the ACP
- There was inline help and advanced help available. The advanced help showed descriptions and additional information about the inline help tags, but was otherwise duplicative of the existing inline help panel.
- The database help always opened a popup and often felt clunky in real-world use.
Beginning with IP.Content 2.3, the buttons have been removed entirely. The inline template tag help panel will be open by default, helping you to know it is available immediately without having to discover this very useful feature. You can still close the panel if you are familiar with the available tags; closing the panel will minimize it to a small clickable vertical bar to the right of the editor, which you can then click to reopen the panel. If you close the panel, this is remembered via a cookie so that you will not have to close the panel on other pages or when working with other blocks within the ACP.
For database templates, the help panel is tabbed, with one tab showing the regular template tags and one tab showing the available database variables you can utilize in the template. Database templates are context-sensitive, showing different available tags based on what kind of database template you are working with.
Additionally, we have implemented "click to insert" functionality for all of the tags now. This means there will be a small button next to tags within the template tag help panel that, upon being clicked, will insert that tag into the editor for you automatically. This has been an oft-requested enhancement we are happy to announce will be available in IP.Content 2.3.
Video: http://screencast.com/t/ZAZR55GJic
Field auto-population
What does that even mean? Well, in IP.Content 2.3 we identified many areas of the software where a value was needed, but often times you were not required to supply one, or one could be extrapolated from other data automatically. For instance, templates, fields, blocks and databases all require a unique key that is utilized throughout the software to refer to that object. Categories require a friendly URL key, and articles and other database records allow you to (optionally) specify a static FURL key. You use the database key to refer to the database when inserting it into a page; same with blocks. Generally speaking, however, most administrators don't understand what a "key" is, why it is needed, or why they need to manually supply it. Indeed - they shouldn't need to manually supply one in most cases. The software can figure this out for you.
In IP.Content 2.3, we have hidden many of these fields (for non-developers, at least) and will now auto-populate the key based on the title of the content. For example, when you add a template you will no longer be prompted for a template key (unless you have enabled developer mode) - one will be set for you automatically behind the scenes. For areas where even non-developer administrators may want to specify the key, we have made the field hidden by default (and auto-populated for you), but you can still override the automatically set key manually if you wish. We have implemented this method of value auto-population in many areas of the IP.Content ACP. Additionally, when you opt to manually specify this key (where available), an AJAX callback is triggered that will ensure it is unique and automatically append a unique string to the end of it if necessary.
Video: http://screencast.com/t/y5WOpYvL7xb
In this video you will see the new implementation available when adding a database. The database key is automatically determined based on the name of the database you specify. When you enter a name that would result in a unique key (such as "Articles", as an articles database is provided out of the box), a unique string is automatically appended to the key real-time. Finally, you can manually override the automatic key and specify one manually, should you wish to do so.
Specifying title and content fields
When you create (or edit) a database, you must specify which field in that database represents the title of records submitted, and which field represents the record content. These options are available on the bottom of the second tab when adding/editing a database. When you are adding a new database, however, you run into a chicken-egg scenario - you are asked to specify these two fields, however you cannot create fields for a database until the database itself exists. Many users will finish creating the database, then create the respective fields, however they forget to go back and update the database configuration to set these field mappings.
This situation creates an issue some users have run in to - your friendly URLs in that database do not work correctly, redirecting you back to the database index. We have resolved this issue in IP.Content 2.3, ensuring that the URL still works if the title field is not correctly specified (and you are using friendly URLs). However, that is not what this blog entry is about. :wink:
We have added new checkboxes to the add/edit field forms to allow you to specify if a particular field represents the title or content for the database right from the field form.
If you check one of these boxes while adding or editing a field, the database will be updated for you automatically. If you edit a field already marked as the title or content field, the checkbox will be checked (to indicate this to you), but disabled (to prevent you from deselecting a field as the title field and inadvertently leaving the database with no title field specified).
This should help your workflow immensely when creating new databases. You will no longer need to create the database, create the title and content fields, and then update the database to specify these. Now, you can set these special fields right from the field addition form, saving you from having to do something manually which you will be likely to forget.
More to come
This is part 1 of a two part blog outlining some of the major interface and workflow changes you can expect to see coming in IP.Content 2.3. Stay tuned to read about further changes you can expect to see in IP.Content 2.3, with our next blog entry outlining some of the other major ACP interface changes. If you have ideas to enhance the software, please post them in our IP.Content feedback forum. Otherwise, we welcome your comments below!