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Content Sections

part of the ArsDigita Community System by Tarik Alatovic and Sarah Ahmed

The Big Picture

This module allows the site administrator to create and manage different content sections of the site. Administration of content sections can be done on a site-wide level and a group level. It supports four different types of content sections - admin, system, custom and static. System sections correspond to one of the system modules of the site, e.g. news, bboard etc. Custom sections serve like url directories. So if group administrator of group travel at photo.net defines custom section sweden (e.g. photo.net/travel/sweden), he will be able to upload files for this section (see content_files table) in order to display the file photo.net/groups/travel/sweeden/stockholm. Details on custom sections can be found at /doc/custom-sections. Static sections serve as html pages and address of html page is specified in section_url_stub. If you have file arsdigita in your careers directory then section_url_stub should be /careers/arsdigita. Admin sections are system sections that do not have associated public pages. They only have administration pages.

After creating appropriate content sections for the site, the system allows to view/edit/enable/disable the sections. It also allows to link different content sections so as to be shown on the page navigation bar (using ad_scope_navbar).

At this stage, we only support creation and administration of system/admin/custom content sections at the group level. Site wide administrator can only create and manage static public pages.

The Medium-Sized Picture

This system consists of three tables. The content_sections table holds information about different content sections; e.g. their scope, type , pretty_name etc. A row in the table would be news,bboard etc.
create table content_sections (
        section_id              integer primary key,
        -- if scope=public, this is the content sections for the whole system
        -- if scope=group this is the content sections for particular group
        -- is scope=user this is the content sections for particular user
        scope                   varchar(20) not null,
	-- if section_type=system, this section corresponds to one of the system sections
	-- such as news, bboard, ...
	-- if section_type=custom, this section is custom section
	-- custom sections serve like url directories. so if group administrator of group travel 
	-- at photo.net defines custom section sweeden (e.g. photo.net/travel/sweeden), he will be 
	-- able to then to upload files for this section (see content_files table) in order to display
	-- the file photo.net/groups/travel/sweeden/stockholm
	-- if section_type=static, this section is static section
	-- static sections serve as html pages and address of html page is specified in section_url_stub
	-- if you have file arsdigita in your carrers directory then section_url_stub should be
	-- /carrers/arsdigita  
	-- if section_type=admin, this section is system section but does not have associated public pages
	-- it only has administration pages.
	section_type                    varchar(20) not null,
	-- does user have to be registered in order to access this page
	requires_registration_p	char(1) default 'f' check(requires_registration_p in ('t','f')),
	-- if visibility=public this content section is viewable by everybody
	-- if visibility=private this content section is viewable be a user only if scope=user
	-- or by group members only if scope=group
	visibility		varchar(20) not null check(visibility in ('private', 'public')),
        user_id                 references users,
        group_id                references user_groups,
        section_key             varchar(30) not null,
	-- this is used only for system sections
	-- each system sections is associated with an acs module
	module_key		references acs_modules,
        section_url_stub        varchar(200),
        section_pretty_name     varchar(200) not null,
        -- if we print lists of sections, where does this go?
        -- two sections with same sort_key will sort 
        -- by upper(section_pretty_name)
        sort_key                integer,
        enabled_p               char(1) default 't' check(enabled_p in ('t','f')),
        intro_blurb		varchar(4000),
        help_blurb      	varchar(4000),
        index_page_enabled_p    char(1) default 'f' check (index_page_enabled_p in ('t','f')),
        -- html content for customizing index page (this is used only for content sections of section_type custom)
        body                    clob,
        html_p                  char(1) default 'f' check(html_p in ('t','f'))
);


The content_files table holds information about different files that belong to a custom section. The files can be of type text/binary.


create table content_files (
	content_file_id 	integer primary key,
	section_id 		references content_sections,
	-- this will be part of url; should be a-zA-Z and underscore
	file_name		varchar(30) not null,
        -- this is a MIME type (e.g., text/html, image/jpeg)	
        file_type               varchar(100) not null,
        file_extension          varchar(50),    -- e.g., "jpg"
	-- if file is text or html we need page_pretty_name, body and html_p
	page_pretty_name        varchar(200),
	body			clob,
	html_p			char(1) default 'f' check(html_p in ('t','f')),
	-- if the file is attachment we need use binary_data blob( e.g. photo, image)
	binary_data             blob
);


The content_section_links table contains information about links between sections that is used to generate the page navigation bar.


create table content_section_links(
	section_link_id integer primary key,
	from_section_id references content_sections,
	to_section_id references content_sections,
	constraint content_section_links_unique unique(from_section_id, to_section_id)
);

Legal Transactions

From the group administration pages at /groups/admin/$group_name/content-sections the group administrator can

  • Add/View/Edit/Enable/Disable a Static Section
  • Add/View/Edit/Enable/Disable a Custom Section
  • Add/View/Edit/Enable/Disable a Module
  • Set up Link between different sections to be shown in the navigation bar.

As mentioned before, the side wide administrator can Add/View/Edit/Enable/Disable a Static Section from /groups/admin/$group_name/content-sections.


tarik@arsdigita.com

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