Second Site News #038

Second Site Version 2.2 Build 6 Released

This is a maintenance release that corrects a few issues introduced in version 2.2. See the Change Log for a list of changes.

All existing Second Site Version 2 customers should download this free upgrade. When you install the latest version, you will not lose any SDF files or sites you made with any previous version of Second Site 2.

If you install the new version of Second Site 2 over a previous version of Second Site 2, you should not need your registration information.

Maps, Calendars, and Custom Pages^{Note 1}

Judging by the amount of email messages I have been receiving, the new Calendar User Item and Map User Item are very popular, but some users are having difficulty understanding the role of the Custom Page User Item and how to use Maps and Calendars with it. I hope this explanation will help.

By themselves, the Map User Item and Calendar User Item do not create a web page. They create content for a page, but not the page itself. For that reason, they must be placed on a Custom Page. In that respect, they are similar to the Picture User Item which works the same way. Such items are called Content Items because they do not create a page on their own and they must be added to a Custom Page to be visible.

Adding Maps and Calendars

To add a Map or a Calendar to your site, you need to add at least one Custom Page. If you wanted to add a page with a Map and a page with a Calendar, here's how to do it:

1. Choose Custom Page... from the Add menu. The Edit Custom Page window will open.
2. Key the Title of the page that will hold the Calendar and click [OK]. The Edit Custom Page window will close.

3. In the list of User Items, click on the Title of the Custom Page User Item you just added to select it.
4. Choose Calendar... from the Add > Custom Page Item menu. The Edit Calendar window will open.
5. Set the Calendar properties as desired; the properties are described on the Calendar User Item page. Click [OK] when you are done.
6. Choose Custom Page... from the Add menu. The Edit Custom Page window will open.
7. Key the Title of the page that will hold the Map and click [OK]. The Edit Custom Page window will close.

8. In the list of User Items, click on the Title of the Custom Page User Item you just added to select it.
9. Choose Map... from the Add > Custom Page Item menu. The Edit Map window will open.
10. Set the Map properties as desired; the properties are described on the Map User Item page. Click [OK] when you are done.

After you complete the steps above, you should see the following new User Items in the User Items list:

• Custom Page for Calendar
  • Calendar
• Custom Page for Map
  • Map

The diagram shows two Custom Pages ("Custom Page for Calendar" and "Custom Page for Map"), a Calendar User Item and a Map User Item.

A very import step in the process is to select the Custom Page User Item before you choose the Add > Custom Page Item > Calendar or Add > Custom Page Item > Map command (steps #3 and #8). 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 move User Items after they are created, but the method described above is a little easier than the other ways of achieving the same result.

You can learn more about how to manipulate items on Custom Pages on the Custom Page User Item page.

Creating a List of Maps or Calendars

If you follow the directions above, both Custom Pages will be included in the MenuBar of the site. Some users want to create multiple maps or calendars and they do not want all the pages to be part of the MenuBar. They'd rather have a single link in the MenuBar that opens a page that contains a list of maps or calendars. You can do that by adding another level to the User Item hierarchy: you put Custom Pages on a Custom Page. The resulting User Item list would look something like this:

• Custom Page for List of Maps
  • Custom Page for Map 1
    • Map 1
  • Custom Page for Map 2
    • Map 2
  • Custom Page for Map 3
    • Map 3

The same technique will work for any set of Custom Pages, and so to create a list of Calendars you'd follow the same basic model:

• Custom Page for List of Calendars
  • Custom Page for Calendar 1
    • Calendar 1
  • Custom Page for Calendar 2
    • Calendar 2
  • Custom Page for Calendar 3
    • Calendar 3

Combining Maps or Calendars with Other Content

So far, the example content pages have contained a single Map or Calendar User Item. That doesn't really exploit the flexibility of Custom Pages. Here's a more involved example:

• Custom Page: Ancestral Home
  • Text (introduction)
  • Map
  • Text (explanation of map)
  • Picture
  • Text (explanation of picture)

The diagram shows a single Custom Page that contains multiple Content Items including a Map and Picture of the "Ancestral Home." The Second Site 2 demonstration site shows a similar example where multiple Content Items have been combined on a page. Rather than a Map and a Picture, as shown above, the example includes two Maps with some intervening text.

As you can see, Content Items can be combined on a Custom Page, and that provides great flexibility. Using Content Items you can create HTML for content that would be difficult, tedious, or impractical to create manually, such as Maps, Calendars, and Pictures. By nesting Custom Pages, you can create lists of pages and thus organize your content to make your site easy to use and understand.

If you haven't used Custom Pages to hold Content Items in earlier versions of Second Site, the Map and Calendar User Items may be a good reason to start!

Notes

1. This article was originally titled Maps, Calendars, and SubPages. When SubPages were merged with Custom Pages in Second Site v3, the article was updated to use the new terminology.

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