Content settings

Fields

Content Type

Indicates the type of web content that the viewer renders. You can select the following types of content:

• Content item
• Component
• Element

When you select a content type, only fields related to the selected content type are displayed in the settings window.

Content Behavior

You can reference content with the following methods:

Select content and path

This setting directly references content.

Select content and use the content association of current page

This setting causes the viewer to construct the path to referenced content relative to the web content association for the page containing the viewer. If no content association is defined for the page, this option is not available.

When this portlet is added to a page

When the viewer renders content, you can specify that the viewer references existing content or that the viewer creates content and renders the new content. This field is available only in the Configure mode of the viewer and cannot be used when referencing components.

Display existing content

This setting causes the viewer to render existing content, as defined by the content path in the Content field.

Create content (based on selection)

This setting creates a copy of the content referenced in the Content field and then renders the new content in the viewer. When using this option with a template page, the content referenced by the template is copied when a new page is created from the template. The content is copied under the specified site area, which is automatically defined as a content association on the new page.

Content

This setting identifies the path to the rendered content. The path is composed of two parts:

• The web content library that contains the content
• The site area hierarchy where the content is located

You can specify the path to the content by editing the setting. If you do not explicitly select content, the site area identified by the web content association of the page is used to locate the content.

When you are rendering a component, the content item selected here gives the component a context. For example, you might select a content item called "news" as the context for a navigator. In this case, when the page is first opened, the navigator behaves as if "news" is the current content item.

Component

This setting identifies the component to be rendered by the viewer.

Element

This setting identifies the element in the selected content to be rendered by the viewer. To use this setting, there must be an element in the content referenced by the Content field.

Alternate Presentation Template

This setting identifies an alternate presentation template to use when the content item is rendered. If no alternate presentation is selected, the content item is rendered with the default presentation template.

Page context

If the current page has an active page context, the configured content item or element is not visible if the portlet is configured to receive links from other portlets. A page context always exists when a portlet has broadcast a content item to this page previously. You can delete an active page context by clicking Clear page context.

Locked settings

You can lock settings in the Configure mode of the viewer. When a setting is locked, a lock icon is displayed in the Edit Shared Settings mode of the viewer, and no Edit link is available.

Content paths and unique IDs

When configuring the viewer, content paths are represented as readable paths that include the library and site areas containing the content. However, in the viewer configuration, the location of a content item is typically stored as the unique ID of the item. The use of the unique ID is helpful because the viewer can still render the content even if the item is renamed or moved.

If you configure the viewer with the XML configuration interface (xmlaccess), you have the option of specifying content location with the content path instead of the unique ID. With the content path, you do not have to determine the unique ID of the content item. But if the content item is moved or renamed later, the viewer can no longer render the content.

If a viewer has been configured to use content paths, a path icon () is displayed after the title path. If you change the configuration to reference different content, the location of the new content item continues to be stored as a content path. If you want to store the location as a unique ID instead, you must click Clear before selecting the new content. The path icon is also removed to indicate that the content path is no longer being used.