Components 2.0

When you switch to site design mode (the Design tab), all components embedded in a page show a special component control button:

Note that a composite component shows multiple buttons:

This reason for such a layout is the composite component architecture. The topmost button controls the component core. Other buttons serve to control the simple subcomponents that comprise the composite component.

Clicking the component control button invokes a menu containing the component management commands:

A typical menu contains the following commands:

– edits the component parameters. This command is always available for any component except subcomponents in a composite component. When clicked, this command shows a properties form in which you can edit the component parameters without having to open a page in the editor.

– copies the component template. This command is always available. Shows a dialog window to specify the component template name and to which destination site template the template is to be copied.

– edits the template page. This command is available if the component uses a custom template.

– edits a template CSS file. This command is available if the component uses a custom template.

– clears the component cache.

Other commands are component dependent. For example, the following menu control commands may exist:

– edits menu items.
– creates a menu in a current section.

If a component renders information stored in an information block, the menu can have the following commands:

– adds an information block element, e.g. news, article, product etc.
– adds an information block section.

Virtually any web site shows advertisement or uses web forms. To help manage these web site entities, the following commands exist:

for advertisement banners:

– edits a current banner.
– shows a filtered list of banners.

for web forms:

– edits a web form template.
– edits the web form parameters.