Management of slices
Once you have planned your data model, you know quite well how many slices you will need and how are they going to be structured. Now you need to make it happen by physically creating and customizing them.
Contents
Creating a new slice
You will need to follow this process any time you add a new slice to your organization's Website. If you have any problems, contact your APC Server Administrator.
Setup of a new slice
- Log in to ActionApps (see How to Log In)
- In main menu click on "AA"
- Now there are two possibilities:
- In you want to setup new module, then click on "Create new" in the left menu
- If you just need to setup ordinary slice, it is probably easier to click "Create new wizard". This way you can also optionally create New user to manage this slice.
- Next screen will differ somewhat, depending on type of slice are you creating. If it is ordinary slice, it will look like Pict.2. You must fill in at least Title, owner (select existing one or create new one) and owners e-mail. These mandatory fields are underlined on the image.
- Done. You can now start adding fields.
Attributes of slices
The Slice Attributes function allows you to define the general characteristics and notification information for a slice. For example, the name attribute sets the name of the slice. Other slice administrators will see the name of your slice if you select their slices to be a Content Pooling partner.
You control your slice's overall attributes in the Main Settings: Slice control panel. When you click Slice in the left navigation, the title changes to Admin - Slice settings.
To configure your slice's settings, you must fill in information for a number of fields (see Pict.3).
Title Field
The Title of your slice is the name of your slice within the administrative interface. This name appears in the top right hand corner of the screen. If other organizations feed content to your slice, this is the name they will see when they select your slice. Choose an obvious name for your slice, such as the name of your organization and the slice feature (e.g. News - Your Organization).
URL Field
If you are delivering your slice using Server Side Includes (SSI) encapsulated within an .shtml page, then you should put the URL of your slice into this field (e.g. http://www.yourorg.org/news.shtml) This will ensure that the View Site preview function in the Item Manager works properly.
Note: If ActionApps deliver your whole page, you do not need to complete this field. You will only need to complete this field if your slice is embedded in an .shtml file.
Owner
The Owner of your slice should be the name of your organization. Although this field is not used in the current version of ActionApps, in future versions it may be used for a variety of purposes, so it is best to set this field now.
Listing Length
The index page will have a certain number of content items on the front page. In ActionApps, this is the listing length. If a slice has a listing length of 20, for example, and the slice has more than 20 items, the Index page will show only the first 20 items, then it will display a More Items link at the bottom of the page. If you want to display all items on a single page, then set this to a very high number, for example 10,000.
Anonymous Posting of Items
Normally, only people with Author or Editor permissions can contribute content to your slice. However, you can set up a form which allows for items to be submitted via a public Web site; this is called Anonymous posting.
The first step is to permit anonymous posting from web, using the drop-down selection on the "Admin" -> "Main settings - Slice" for "Allow anonymous posting of items". Select to which bin the anonymous posted items should go. If "Active" is selected anonymous submissions will be published automatically. If "Holding bin" is selected the editor will have to approve or reject the item.
You can find more about anonymous posting in the FAQ.
Offline Item Filling
Offline Item Filling allows you to enter information items offline and submit them to your ActionApps slices in a batch when you connect to the Internet.
See "How to set the off-line filling up" in the ActionApps FAQ for details.
