Custom Pages

Overview

Custom Pages are User Items that provide an easy way to add custom content to your site. They can be used for any content that is not supplied via your TMG database. Some users add Custom Pages to provide surname histories or place histories, others use them to describe the history of their research project, and there are many other possible uses.

• Families
  • Smith Family
  • William Smith
  • Descendants of William Smith
  • Jones Family
  • John Jones
  • Descendants of John Jones

Custom Pages are unique among User Items because they can be used to group (or "contain") other User Items. The diagram on the left shows a Custom Page named "Families" that contains a set of other User Items that are indented below it. A Custom Page can contain any type of User Item, including other Custom Pages.

Some User Items are called Page Items because they create a page of content. If a Page Item is added to a Custom Page, the Page Item contributes a link to the Custom Page. The link opens the page created by the Page Item.

Some User Items are called Content Items because they create HTML content that is not a complete HTML page. Content Items must be placed on a Custom Page or they will not work as expected: the Calendar, DNA Grid, Heading, Icon Description, List Type, Map, Picture, Slideshow, and Text User Items are provided specifically to add content and organize User Items on Custom Pages.

Custom Pages follow the overall look of the site and include the header, footer, navigation menus, and other elements of site pages. You provide the primary content, and Second Site supplies the rest of the page.

Custom Pages are User Items and are added to the site via the User Items Section.

By default, Custom Pages are members of the User Pages Page Set, but a specific Custom Page User Item may be assigned to a different Page Set as described below.

Edit Custom Page

The Edit Custom Page window controls the properties associated with a Custom Page.

Title

The Title property sets the title of the Custom Page. The Title will also appear in the menu or on the Custom Page where the link appears.

Filename

The Filename property sets the filename for the Custom Page. Enter the filename only; Second Site determines the filetype based on other program settings. Second Site proposes a filename for new pages; accept that name or provide a more descriptive one.

Main Content

The Main Content textbox controls the initial text (and HTML) of the main content section of the page. Provide whatever content you wish. In the Edit Custom Page window only a small portion of the Main Content is visible; use the Edit > Open Editor... command (or [F7]) to open a window to edit the text.

See the Adding Content to Custom Pages section for more information.

Page Set

By default, Custom Pages are members of the User Pages Page Set, but you can use the Page Set pull-down menu to control which Page Set is assigned to the Custom Page. The layout and other characteristics of a Page Set are controlled via properties in the Layouts Section, and depending on how those properties are set, changing the Page Set of a Custom Page can dramatically change a page.

The Page Set choices are shown in the table below.

Other Properties

See the Common Properties section of the User Items page for a description of the remaining properties.

Adding Content to Custom Pages

When you add a Custom Page to your site, the Custom Page will start with no content. To make it useful, you need to add text to the page or add other User Items to it.

To add text to the page, you may key the text into the "Main Content" property in the Edit Custom Page window. You may use the [F7] key to open the HTML Editor which includes support for creating HTML content and also provides a larger window for editing the text.

Adding Items to Custom Pages

You may add other content by adding User Items. Which User Items you add are up to you. The Examples section on this page lists some possible goals and which User Items might be added to achieve them.

The easiest way to add a User Item to a Custom Page is to select the parent Custom Page before adding the new User Item. When you select the Custom Page User Item before the Add command, Second Site will place the new User Item on the selected Custom Page.

You can also add User Items to a Custom Page by moving them beneath the Custom Page item and indenting them. When a User Item is indented beneath a Custom Page User Item, it is said to be in, on or contained by the Custom Page. User Items may also be described as nested in a Custom Page. All those phrases indicate that the User Item has been added to the Custom Page, and the User Item will appear indented beneath the Custom Page on the list of User Items.

To add an existing User Item to a Custom Page, move it directly beneath the Custom Page Item if it is not there already. You can use the [Up] and [Down] buttons beneath the User Items list to move User Items, or you can use drag-and-drop.

Once the User Item is directly beneath the Custom Page (or beneath the last item already on the Custom Page), use the [Right] button to move the User Item into the Custom Page. Clicking [Right] will indent the User Item to indicate that the User Item is on the Custom Page.

Once a Custom Page contains at least one User Item, you can use drag-and-drop to add other items to the Custom Page. You can also add more User Items to the Custom Page using the [Right] button: when a User Item is directly below the last User Item in a Custom Page, click [Right] and the User Item will be added to the SubPag as the last item in it.

You can use the [Left] button to move a User Item out of a Custom Page, but only when a User Item is the last User Item in a Custom Page. You can also use drag-and-drop to move a User Item out of a Custom Page.

Examples

The examples in this section describe a few different ways you might use Custom Pages. The brief list below describes why you might do so, and the sections that follow describe how.

Please note that links in the examples will not lead anywhere useful. They show how the output pages might look but are not functional.

Add a page with a list of charts

Using a Custom Page to contain a list of charts is a common goal and one of the better ways to organize charts.

Add a page with a list of links to people on the site

Using a Custom Page to contain a list of Person Link User Items is an easy way to build a list of "notable ancestors."

Add a page with a mix of User Items

Your site may include charts, Custom Pages, and Person Links that are related to a specific family or geographical area. If so, you can group them on a Custom Page, which will emphasize the logical connection between them.

The examples below show how to arrange the User Items to achieve the desired result. The steps used to arrange the User Items are not described here. For details about how to move User Items into Custom Pages, see the Adding Items to Custom Pages section earlier in this document.

A List of Charts

• Charts
  • Descendants of William Smith
  • Descendants of John Jones
  • Pedigree of John Doe

The diagram shows a Custom Page named "Charts" with three nested chart User Items: two Descendant Charts and one Pedigree Chart. That arrangement would create a page with a list of three links, one link per chart. Chart User Items create charts, and the presence of the charts on the Custom Page would add links to those charts to the Custom Page. The contents of the resulting Custom Page would be similar to the following:

A List Of Links To People

• Notable Ancestors
  • William Smith
  • John Jones
  • Phineas J. Whoopee

The diagram shows a Custom Page named "Notable Ancestors" with three nested Person Link User Items. That arrangement would create a page with a list of three links, one link per person. Person Link User Items create links to people on the site, and the presence of the Person Links on the Custom Page would add those links on the Custom Page. The contents of the resulting Custom Page would be similar to the following:

If the Person Link User Items had descriptions, the contents of the resulting Custom Page might be similar to the following:

A Mix of User Items

• Families
  • Smith Family
  • William Smith
  • Descendants of William Smith
  • Jones Family
  • John Jones
  • Descendants of John Jones

The diagram shows a Custom Page named "Families" with six nested User Items. The User Items include items from previous examples as well as Heading User Items to separate the items into two groups. The contents of the resulting Custom Page would be similar to the following:

List Management

Second Site automatically detects where lists start and stop based on the sequence of User Items. In the Mix of User Items example above:

1. The presence of the "William Smith" Person Link triggers Second Site to open the first list on the output page and add the first item to it.
2. The "Descendants of William Smith" Descendant Chart adds another entry to the first list.
3. The "Jones Family" Heading triggers Second Site to close the first list. The Heading is not part of the first list; it stands on its own.
4. The presence of the "John Jones" Person Link triggers Second Site to open the second list on the output page and add the first item to it.
5. The "Descendants of John Jones" Descendant Chart adds another entry to the second list.
6. If there is an open list when there are no further User Items on a Custom Page, Second Site will close the list. That is the case in this example.

Table Management

Similar to List Management as described above, Second Site automatically detects where tables start and stop based on the sequence of Table Row User Items and Icon Description User Items.

If Table Row and Icon Description User Items are intermixed, Second Site will not put them in the same table. They are considered different types of content even though both are rendered using HTML tables.

Error Pages

You may use a Custom Page User Item to create an error page. Error pages are used by some web servers to respond to invalid requests.

Second Site treats any page whose filename matches the pattern "40n.shtml" as an error page. If that file resides in the top-level-folder for a domain, and the web server uses Apache, the web server will use the page to respond to the error indicated by the number in the filename.

The most common error is 404, "Not Found". If you set the Filename property to "404.shtml", the filename passes the filter described above and Apache will use the page to respond to a request for a page that is not found.

Limitations

There are several limitations associated with testing and deploying error pages. For Second Site users who publish to the main folder for their own domain, and whose web hosting service uses Apache, most of the limitations below will not be an issue or will not apply. In other cases, it may not be practical to use Second Site to create error pages.

• When testing a site locally, an error page will not appear when you attempt to open a non-existant page. When reviewing pages locally, your web browser opens the web page files and does not use a web server. As mentioned above, error pages are designed to be compatible with the Apache web server, and that web server is not part of the process of viewing local pages.
• You may open an error page by locating the file in Windows Explorer and double-clicking it to open it. If you do that, you will discover that the page is unstyled, i.e., your site's colors, backgrounds, etc., will be missing. The menus will look like lists, and everything will use default fonts. Also, the links will not work.

  All that is normal.

  When the page is published, and when it resides at the top-level of a domain as described above, the styles will be applied and the links will work. The missing styles and the broken links only occur when viewing the page locally, and are the result of not using a web server to serve the page.

• If your Second Site-produced pages are not at the top-level of your domain, the error pages will not work.

  For example, if your domain was "example.com", and you put your Second Site pages in a subfolder named "tree", the URL for your Second Site pages is www.example.com/tree. The URL for a "404.shtml" page would be www.example.com/tree/404.shtml. Without a custom configuration, Apache will not use that URL for error pages. Also, if configured to use that URL, some HTML techniques that Second Site uses in the error page will not work properly.