Using Editing Interface: Index Template Settings

There are five separate sections in the Settings for your Index Template:

1. Basic Settings
2. Main Page
3. Archive Pages
4. Archive Links Page
5. Date Formatting Options

1. Basic Settings

There are five Basic Properties that you can view or configure in this section:

• Name of Template
• Description
• Location
• Type of Template
• Source of Content

Name

This is the name of the Template.  It will appear in your Templates menu pulldown off of the Editing Interface, so make sure that you pick an intuitive name.

Description

This is the description of your Template, largely for Internal use.

Location

This is the location of the file where you'd like to output the files generated by this template.

If you'd like to put the pages generated by WebCrimson into the main folder of your webhost, leave Location set to "Top Level".  If you'd like to put the apges into sub-folders, feel free to use any of the sub-folders you've created already... or even create "New Folders" using the grey button.

Type

This non-editable field shows where your Index Template it is getting its data from.

In other words, is the Index Template:

• Getting Content Directly from a Database, or
• Linking to Pages generated by another Single Entry Template

In the first case, WebCrimson will display "Index Template".  In the second case, WebCrimson will display "Index with Links Template".

Content

Every Index Template draws on an underlying database of Content.  This field displays the name of that database. 

Like the Type field just above it, this field is also not editable.

2. Main Page

There are three setting you can configure to customize the Main Page generated by this template:

• Order of Entries
• Number of Entries
• File Name

Order of Entries

You can set the order of the entries to go in chronological or reverse chronological order, sorted by their respective Publications Dates.

These two options are represented by a toggle in the settings:

• Chronological (Newest to Oldest)
• Chronological (Oldest to Newest)

The first option is by far the most frequent, and is the default setting: a main page with the most recent entries on the top, and the older entries below.  In other words, reverse chronological order.

The second option places your entries in chronological order.

Number of Entries

This option sets the number of entries you'd like to display on the Main Page generated by this Index template:

• Show All Entries
• Show ___ entries
• Show ___ days of entries
• Show ___ weeks of entries
• Show ___ months of entries
• Show ___ years of entries

The first two options: Show All Entries and Show ___ Entries are fairly straightforward.

The remaining four options let you select how many days/weeks/months/years of entries you'd like to display on your Main Page.  It's important to clarify what we mean by "weeks" or "months": we're referring to calendar days and weeks.

For example, if you want to show all your entries so far this month (e.g. July) choose to "Show 1 month of entries".  If you do that, all of the posts on your Main Page will be from the current calendar month of the last publish.

If you'd prefer not to use calendar weeks, months, or years, that's not a problem.  For example, say you'd like to show all your entries from the last thirty days - even if those thirty days span more than one calendar month.  You can do just that by setting this option to "Show 30 days of entries".

File Name

This is the field where you can name the Main Page generated by this template.

The default file name is index.html.  If you'd like to rename the file, feel free to do so.  Make sure to include the file extension (e.g. .html, .htm, .shtml).  There are no restrictions on the file extensions you can use.  Feel free to add .asp, .jsp, or any other file extension.

3. Archive Pages

Archive Frequency

This pulldown lets you answer the question, "How often should we archive your content?"

There are four options in this pulldown:

• never
• weekly
• monthly
• yearly

If you set it to never, no archive pages will be generated.  If you set it to weekly, WebCrimson will generate a separate Archive Page for every week worth of entries.  If you set it to monthly or yearly, WebCrimson will create an Archive Page for each month or year that contains an entry. 

Archive Template

Most users will leave this pulldown set to the default option:

• Archive Template: Use Same as Main Page

If you've chosen to generate Archives (see Archive Frequency above), then this default will generate those Archive Pages using the same template as the Main Page.

Some advanced users would like to have the Archive Pages be generated off of a separate template than the Main Page (note: this is an Advanced User feature only!).

In that case, you can move the pulldown to the other option:

• Archive Template: Use a Different Template

Once you select "Save Changes" to save these Template Settings, you'll notice a new link in your secondary navigation called "Archive Links".  If you click on that link, you can paste and save your different Archive Template into the form on that page.

File Names

If you're generating Archive Pages, each page is going to need a separate name.

For example, suppose you are generating archives every month.  You might want the names of your files to look something like this:

• June's archives: weblog-06012002.html
• July's archives: weblog-07012002.html
• August's archives: weblog-08012002.html

To achive that, you would put the following text into the File Name field:

• weblog-%d.html

The "%d" portion of the File name will automatically pull the file's publication date.

Other variables you can use in the File Name include:

• %t
  • the data type
  • EX: Weblogs, PressReleases, Jobs, Articles, Companies...
• %p
  • the name you gave to your template
  • EX: Fronttemplate

4. Archive Links Page

If you're creating Archive Pages, then you'll probably want a page that links to the various Archive Pages.  We call this page the "Archive Links" page.

There are two options in this section of the Template settings:

• Link Format
• File Name

Link Format

You have the option of formatting the links to your Archive Pages in several standard formats:

• 03/06/2002 - 03/13/2002
• March 06, 2002 - March 13, 2002
• March 2002
• 2002

Just choose the format that matches your Archive Frequency and design preferences best.

File Name

This is the field where you can name the Archive Links page.

The default file name is archives.html. 

If you'd like to rename the file, feel free to do so.  Make sure to include the file extension (e.g. .html, .htm, .shtml).  There are no restrictions on the file extensions you can use.  Feel free to add .asp, .jsp, or any other file extension.

5. Date Formatting Options

This section contains the Date Formatting Options for your entire template.

Date Headers

Using special tags in your templates, you can set a Date Header (such as "July 2001") to appear above each entry or chronological group of entries (i.e. above each day, week, month, or year of entries).

Here are some of the formatting options supported by WebCrimson:

• Wednesday, March 6, 2002
• Wednesday, March 6
• wednesday, march 6
• March 6, 2002
• march 6, 2002
• Wednesday
• wednesday
• 03/06/2002
• 03/06/02
• 3/6/02
• 3.6.2002
• 3.6.02
• 02.03.06
• 06/03/02
• 6.3.02
• 06-03-02
• 20020306
• 2002/03/06
• 02/03/06
• 2002-03-06
• March 2002
• 2002

Note: Date Headers are optional. They will appear only if you put the special Date Header tags in your templates.

Date/Time

Using special tags in your templates, you can display each of the Time Fields associated with your data entries. Select a date/time format for each of the Time Fields that you want to display:

• 8:14 pm
• 8:14:06 pm
• 8:14 PM
• 8:14:06 PM
• 20:14
• 20:14:06
• 3/6/2002 8:14 pm
• 3/6/2002 8:14:06 pm
• 3/6/2002 8:14 PM
• 3/6/2002 8:14:06 PM
• 3/6/2002 20:14
• 3/6/2002 20:14:06
• March 06, 2002 8:14 PM
• Wednesday, March 6, 2002
• Wednesday, March 6
• wednesday, march 6
• March 6, 2002
• march 6, 2002
• Wednesday
• wednesday
• 03/06/2002
• 03/06/02
• 3/6/02
• 3.6.2002
• 3.6.02
• 02.03.06
• 06/03/02
• 6.3.02
• 06-03-02
• 20020306
• 2002/03/06
• 02/03/06
• 2002-03-06
• March 2002
• 2002
   

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