Getting the most out of contentXXL editing

Jun21
2011

Tags: contentXXL usability — Nina Hofmann

Customize your Basicdata

Tailor the displayed fields to your needs

Hide the fields, the editor doesn’t need and show only those that are required or used in the template.

By default, e.g. the contacts form probably shows far more fields that you might ever need. So, to make editing simpler, just remove those, you don’t need.
Depending on the module type you want to customize, you’ll find the layout of the form in the basicdata files saved in the folder:

/contentxxl/modules/[ moduletype]/admin/basicdata.ascx

Copy this file to your shadow directory, in order to prevent it from being overwritten by a future software update:

/portaldata/[portalid]/shadow/contentxxl/modules/[moduletype]/admin/basicdata.ascx

In the end, your form might look like this:

Beware:

You can’t simply delete those additional controls from the basicdata.ascx, as you’ll run into a problem when trying to save your data: contentXXL requires several fields to be set (NOT NULL values in the database). Therefore, the solution is to simply make the table row runat=”server” and set visible=”false”.

          <fieldset class="admin-fieldset" runat="server" visible="false">

              <legend runat="server" id="Legend4">[l_employee_data]</legend>

              <table class="admin-inner-table">

                  <tr>

                      <td align="right" class="adminlabel">

                          [l_profession]

                      </td>

                      <td class="admin-settingsvalue" id="professionrow2">

                          <asp:TextBox ID="profession" Rows="1" CssClass="admin-element-width" runat="server" />

                      </td>

                  </tr>

Hide tabs based on roles

Hide the tabs the editor doesn’t need, in order not to overwhelm him.

To do this you need to edit the configuration file that defines the edit dialog.

Since you don’t want lose any change through a software update, remember to copy the file into the shadow folder of you portaldata folder.

Then edit editobjectconfiguration.xml to hide the tabs.

          <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

          <oem GlobalIDPrefix="Blogs" MayAttachTask="true" MayPublish="true" ObjectName="Blogs" ShowLangSelection="true" HelpTopic="blogs_editor">

            <tabs>

              <tab name="basicdata" ContainsCustomData="true"

                  Src="/contentxxl/modules/Blogs/Admin/basicdata.ascx"

                  CheckShadow="true" Label="basic_data" Type="page_custom" />

              <tab name="smartedit" ContainsCustomData="true"  Type="page_layout" />

              <tab name="metadata" ContainsCustomData="false"  Type="page_metadata" />

              <tab name="related" ContainsCustomData="false"  Type="page_relatedobjects" loadOnDemand="true" />

              <tab name="publishinfo"  roles="6" ContainsCustomData="false"  Type="page_publishinfo" loadOnDemand="true"/>

              <tab name="security"  roles="6" ContainsCustomData="false"  Type="page_securityinfo" loadOnDemand="true"/>

              <tab name="history" roles="6" ContainsCustomData="false"  Type="page_protocol" loadOnDemand="true"/>

            </tabs>

          </oem>

Get rid of the default WYSIWYG editor

Exchange it with FCK editor, that’s already used for inline forms

You can do this by editing editobjectconfiguration.xml. Remember to please a copy of it into the shadow folder for each module type you want to change the editor (see above).

          <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

          <oem GlobalIDPrefix="Blogs" MayAttachTask="true" MayPublish="true" ObjectName="Blogs" ShowLangSelection="true" HelpTopic="blogs_editor">

            <tabs><br>    <tab name="basicdata" ContainsCustomData="true" Src="/contentxxl/modules/Blogs/Admin/basicdata.ascx"

                  CheckShadow="true" Label="basic_data" Type="page_custom" />

              <tab name="smartedit" ContainsCustomData="true" Src="/portaldata/0/fckeditor/fckeditor_description.ascx"

                   CheckShadow="false" Label="wysiwyg" Type="page_custom" />

              <!--<tab name="smartedit" ContainsCustomData="true"  Type="page_layout" />-->

              <tab name="metadata" ContainsCustomData="false"  Type="page_metadata" />

              <tab name="related" ContainsCustomData="false"  Type="page_relatedobjects" loadOnDemand="true" />

              <tab name="publishinfo" ContainsCustomData="false"  Type="page_publishinfo" loadOnDemand="true"/>

              <tab name="security" ContainsCustomData="false"  Type="page_securityinfo" loadOnDemand="true"/>

              <tab name="history" ContainsCustomData="false"  Type="page_protocol" loadOnDemand="true"/>

            </tabs>

          </oem>

Create a new file, e.g. fckeditor_description.ascx, that will hold the definition of the new WYSIWYG tab (wherever you like)

          <%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="false" Inherits="ContentXXL.Admin.EditObjectManagerControl" %>

          <%@ Register Assembly="ContentXXL" TagPrefix="xxl" Namespace="ContentXXL.Admin.UI" %>

          <asp:TextBox runat="server" Visible="false" ID="Author" />

          <xxl:FCKeditor runat="server" ID="Description" Height="500px" />

The file needs to include a field for Author. If it doesn’t exist, the author field would always be saved as a blank string. Even if something was entered in the basicdata form.

Limitations:
- some functions, like text snippets don’t work yet
- you can’t save while you’re in html editing mode

Simplify page & module creation

Create module settings templates

The process of creating module can be significantly optimized by creating module setting templates.
After creating a new module, the first step would be to select the templates the module should use to display the content.

This can be a bothersome task, if you don’t know what each template does and how the templates have to be used together.

So it’s much easier to import the template settings.

The module setting templates can either be defined manually through the “ModuleSettings” manager:

It allows you to configure most general and custom settings per module type. Especially useful is the “Use as Default” setting, as this will get applied to every new module of that type.

Tip: In most portals the majority of pages contain news modules, which are configured to show one article directly (contentXXL feature mode). Therefore, if you configure a module setting template for “Feature Mode” and set it as the default template, every new module will use it and you can quickly fill in you content.

Another way to create such a template is by using existing modules as a boilerplate:

Beware: Plan ahead when creating modulesettings. If the “Export” function is used without care, you might end up with heaps of settings for the same layout.
Also, consider a naming scheme, e.g. add a prefix based on function.

System_ for settings only an administrator would use
List_ for settings that include list and detailview
SingleView_ for settings that use the feature mode
Hide not required modules

With version 2888 it’s possible to hide not used modules from the user. This can be done for each user role in the role administration.

It affects both the layout mode of the pagesettings manager and the module manager

See also: http://partner.contentxxl.com/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-30/30_read-2198/