Creating and Managing Content Categories

Content Categories Structure

SmartSpace has two types of Content Categories each with two different kinds of basic behaviour.

SmartSpace Created Categories;

Quite a few automated widgets enable easy setup in your website framework.

Not much control on the fine tuned behaviour of how the category is displayed or how it works.

User Created Categories;

You must insert the category number in various menus or panels in the framework to call content in those categories.

Fine grained control on how the category works and how it is displayed.

In most cases we recommend that you use this type of content category for general content and blogs

Basic Category Behaviour

Each of the category types can be set to order by order number of the content within the category or by last modified date (descending).  This basic difference is extremely important, and central to how content within that category is displayed.

Because SmartSpace automates a lot of the hard work in developing and maintaining a website, it is important that the correct selection is made when choosing this option in category setup.

Order by Modified Date (or Order By Publshed Date desc)

This category type is best used when you want the latest information to be seen as most prominent on your website;

• Each time you add an article, it is shown first on any automated list or menu of articles.
• You can restrict the list that is shown by;
  • Limiting the number of articles returned in the website framework settings,
  • Use the Show Archive From field to limit any menus to those articles published after that date.
• Other archive records are still available through the Category Archive page.
• Using this option for Categories where there is a constant supply of fresh content enables you to simply create the content, and the appearance of it on your website is automated.
• Used in blogs, news, and any category where there are regular posts over time.
• Usually select Order By Published Date (desc) when the catgeory is being used for a blog

Order By Order Number

This content type is normally used where the content is relatively static.

To get any article to appear in a list or to be shown automatically, it must be numbered (>0) in the Order Number field of the content page itself.

Whilst articles with an order number of 0 (zero) can be viewed by the public, they must be linked directly.  They will not appear in auto generated lists.

The numbering does not have to be continuous (e.g. 1,2,3,4,5,6 etc.) to work.

If two articles have the same number, the system will decide in what order they appear.

Completing Category Setup - Other Category Fields

Content Category

This is the Content Category name.  Consider this name carefully as it will be seen in many places including;

• In search engine result pages (serps), where your category archive page is included in the results,
• As part of the page title in the browser window or the category archive page.

Title Behaviour

The Title Behaviour selection determines how titles appear in the archive and how titles in archive menus appear in the archive and each of the articles within that category.

• Include all titles - all titles or title images are included as normal.
• Ignore all titles and title images for column menus - the main title is displayed, but column titles for the menu are ignored when menu is displayed.
• Ignore all titles and title images for archive - menu titles are left intact, but the main title or title image is ignored in the archive.
• Ignore all titles and title images for all - all titles and title images are ignored in the archive.

Category Title Pic

SmartSpace allows you to show a title image in place of a text title.  If you have uploaded an image into a titles album they will appear in this list (see here for important details on image titles).

• You should ensure that your category name is accurate as, although the name itself, in normal circumstances, will not appear on the website it appears;
  • In the page title seen at the top of the browser,
  • In search results pages as the main title and link.
• It will also be seen if, for some reason, the title image cannot be seen.

Category Page Name

The page name is used to help with search engine optimisation (SEO) of the category archive page.

• If there is no page name, the page ID will be used instead.
• Pagenames are better for SEO and are more user friendly, helping inform users of the topic of the archive.
• Read more about pagenames here.

Description

This text is a descriptive passage on the subject of the content category.

• A later selection allows this to be seen on the website (where supported in the template framework).
• This is also inserted into the unseen page header.
• This text will often appear in serps as the passage beneath the result title.
• Advanced users can insert html tags into this area to manipulate what is seen on the website and what is placed in the page description;
  • e.g. Often website owners will want special code to link to social networking sites.  This code often has no text attached, or text can be stripped from the code,
  • Because all tags are stripped out of this text when appearing in the page description, a tag like "
    your description...
    can be seen in the description but not on the website",
  • The social networking code will also disappear in the page description but is seen on the website.
• When being used as a page description, only 150 characters of the text will be shown.
• Your text should contain words that you think will be used to search for content on that archive page.
• Tick the box below the description text area if you want to show the description on the website (where supported by the website framework).

Archive Keywords

This field is also used for SEO purposes;

• You should insert four or more key words and phrases that relate to the content on the page, using up to 250 characters.
• The first of the keywords is appended to the Category Name to form the page title - an extremely important element in SEO.
• Comma separate each word or phrase with no space after each comma.

User Access

Normally only staff should be able to create content on your website;

• Only select the user created content where you have some form of forum where your users can post content.
• At present, the system does not support moderation of comments.

Archive Format

There are a number of ways you can display the content archive.

• Content Details - shows publication and modification date and any replies that have been made and who wrote it, with a link to the actual content.
• Content Preview (with pic) - shows a short preview of the content with an attached image thumb if available, with links to the content.
• Blog Style (standard) - displays as a blog page with each post appearing under each other;
  • All of the current months posts will appear or some from the previous month to show up to 10 posts,
  • The category menu shows in blocks of months and years depending on the state and age of the archive.
• Blog Style (with images) - Shows attached images (numbered 2) along with each article text;
  • This style of page is good when there are short blocks of text and an anchor menu is required at the top of the page,
  • Make the anchor menu selection in the menu configuration below.

Default Images

Often you will want images to be attached to the archive page as backgrounds and for other purposes;

• You can reuse the images in one of the pages of content already created by inserting the ID number of that content into the Default Images field.
• The images appear as they would for ordinary content pages.

Allow Replies

If you tick this box, registered users can reply to content that has been created in this category. Please note that Replies must be enabled in Content Settings for this to work.

• Replies will appear under the content on the content pages, but not on the archive pages at present.
• Administrators can moderate  article comments
• Facebook comments are now available on Smartspace

Show Category Menu

On the category archive page and on each page of content within that archive, up to 10 links to other content within that category can be shown (if supported by the website framework);

• Show no associated category menu - no menu is seen in the archive or in each content page.
• Show normal links menu of other Category content - links to each of the content pages listed and shows an archive link if more than 10 items are available.
• Show page anchor menu of other Category content - links to each of the items of content on the archive page by sliding down the page to the selected content.
• Show page anchor menu of content anchors in Content Pages only - create anchor links within the page and a menu of all achor links will appear in the associated menu
• Show Previous/Next links in content only - This will show previous and next links at the bottom of each content page (handy for blogs)
• Blog style menu - where menu is navigable by the month and year.

Auto Navigate

The Auto Navigate field can provide two elements which indiciate to either search engines and/or users that the content is linked

1. Ignores like content - no action is taken to link content
2. Include Full Category Navigation at the foot of each numbered article - Shows links to all pages in the category (Must be numbered > 0) overides previous/next links above
3. Include Like Content SEO settings into the header of all numbered content - Instructs major search engines that each page of content is part of the one subject heading
4. Include Full Category Navigation and Like Content SEO settings - Does both 2 and 3 above

Content Image Default Size

The images that are shown as a preview image in the category archive and as the default size of those images attached to the included content (as number 11 or greater);

• You can vary the size of attached images in each page of content by making another selection in the content page itself.
• Remember that the sizes here are maximum sizes.  Smaller images will not be expanded.

Show Archive From

This field enables you to create an archive effect on your website;

• If you have a lot of content continuously being created, you may only want your users to see the very latest content.
• Menus will only show that content with a publication date after the date inserted here using the dd/mm/yyyy format.
• The archive page will only show those items published after the date inserted, but other older articles are readily available with the Show All link.

Always ensure that you save any changes by clicking the Save or Update button.