What is a Cover Page?

Modified on Fri, 08 Apr 2016 at 10:26 AM

A cover page is a type of web page that allows you to layout content using a drag and drop interface. It allows you to mix and match content on a single web page within your browser. Each Cover page is made up of rows, columns and tiles.

Rows hold columns
Columns hold tiles
Tiles hold content.

You can modify the Cover page layout by adding rows and columns as necessary by dragging and dropping their respective icons(

) on to the page layout.

Resizing Columns

Columns can be resized by clicking on the resize icon () and then use the resizing window to make the column larger or smaller. NOTE: The layout of a cover page is based on a twelve column layout. If you want the column you are working on to be the full width of the content area, then you would set that column to the value of '12'. If you want two columns that take up half of the content area each, then you would set them to the value of '6' respectively. Make sure you click 'Save' after resizing your columns.

Available Content Tiles

Tiles are content areas within your cover page content area that hold different types of content. They are dragged and dropped into a particular column you want them to be in. There are many options available for the type of content you want to display within your cover page.

Banner - A Banner tile shows an image or heading text pointing to a link; Banner tile fields include title, an image and a URL.

You can drag and drop any object into a Banner tile. Fields in the tile will be populated with the object metadata (information about the banner). You can edit all of the fields and you can even upload a different image into the tile if you want.

Basic - A Basic tile shows almost all metadata of an object; it includes its title, description, date, tags and an image, if the object has one.

You can drag and drop any object into a Basic tile. Fields in the tile will be populated with the object metadata. All fields are user-editable (except for date and tags) and you can even upload a different image into the tile if you want. The title and image fields will include a link to the original object location.

Ploud Carousel - A Ploud Carousel tile shows a slideshow made with a list of individual items; every item will show an image, title and summary with a page link for your patrons click on them. Carousel tiles are 100% website design responsive, support native-like swipe movements and use hardware optimized animations.

You can drag and drop any object in a Carousel tile but images are recommended.

Carousel tile is fully responsive, so be sure to configure it to use the image size that fits better the maximum desired size.

Collection - A Collection tile shows the list of items that are generated by the "Collection" content type (see Creating a Collection); every item will show its title, description, date and image, if the original object has one.

Collection tiles may have a header and a footer; they also include additional fields that help us configure the way it behaves: you can define how many items the tile will shown as a maximum and an offset to start with items different than the first one. This way you can create very simple and yet powerful layout configurations with a couple of tiles and very

Content Body - A Content Body tile shows a block of text of an object.

You can only drag and drop 'Page' and 'News Item' objects into a Content Body tile. Content Body tiles are not editable. To edit the content body tile, you need to edit the original Page/News item and the tile will update with those edits.

Embed - An Embed tile is used to insert external content in your cover page. Embed tile fields includes title, description and the embedding code itself. Embed tiles are only editable: you cannot drag and drop any object on it.

File - A File tile shows metadata about a file and a link to download it. File tile fields include title, description and the download link itself.

You can only drag and drop 'File' objects into a File tiles. Fields in the tile will be populated with the file metadata. All fields are user-editable, except for the download link.

List - A List tile shows a list of individual items; every item will show its title, description and image, if the original object has one.

You can drag and drop any object in a List tile. Items in the tile will be populated with the objects metadata; if an object has an image, it will be shown also. Right now, you cannot edit individual items metadata in the list, but you can remove or reorder them. The title and image fields will include a link to the original object location.

Rich Text - A Rich Text tile shows a block of text; text can be edited using WYSIWYG editor, already built into Ploud and used for all content types. A Rich Text tile includes only one text field.

You can drag and drop another Page object into a Rich Text tile. The text field will be populated with a copy of the object text. You can easily edit the text and you can add images and links to it.

FormGen - This tile allows you to drop an existing Form that you create with the existing Ploud form generator into the tile.

Configuration ()

Each row, column and just about every tile has a setting that you can adjust or modify. If the item has a setting, it will have a gear icon () next to it. Clicking on that gear icon will allow you to adjust that item’s settings. Clicking on a banner Tile, for example will bring up its settings dialog:

Within its settings the banner will allow you to adjust its CSS Class, title, the size of the image you drop on the tile, its position and the size of the HTML tag that gets created.

These are more advanced options and the pre-selected options should be used unless you have a firm understanding how making changes to the configuration will impact the display