Content Type Basics - Web 8 XPM

Content Type - It is predefined Component presentation that can be added to a Page using Experience Manager if that Component type is allowed on particular Page Template.

How to create  - Go to publication Property on the tab "Content type", at bottom click on Insert. you will see following form on the screen.

Already defined component presentation on a page automatically become content type for that page.

All the fields are very descriptive itself.  Define you content type at some common publication 

e.g Website Site Master. so that it gets available to all the site publication in XPM.

Settings:

There are two types of settings in Content Type:

• Blueprint Context Setting
• Content type mapping Setting

Blueprint context Settings: Here we define if  a component for is created for a page in any publication what should be physical location of that component. as pages and components are created in different publications.

Just choose the publication here.

Content Type Mapping: In this mapping we basically specify mapping between Page template and Content type. e.g Carousel content type should only be available on Article and home page template. 

So you can do this setting on parent publication and post that. its get available to all child publication. 

Because "Inherit setting from Parent" is selected by default on all publications. so this setting get automatically available to all child publications. if you wan to override these settings, you can un-check the check-box and define new setting for that required publication.

Here you see all content type available in choose publication. here you can define what all Content type are available to which page template

Content type usage in XPM

After defining the content type, time to use it on desired pages. So load the XPM with the target page where you need to insert the content. when page loads. make sure lock sign in not there on top of the page. else you will not see options under Insert Content, as shown below

when you load a page in Xpm, and select Create and insert New Content option, on left side slider all content type enabled(which we did in last steps) on that PT is shown here. You choose it and it show you form to give a name to the component and choose the folder of that component, if you want to go ahead with earlier selected location that is also OK.

Publication for the component is chosen as per the blueprint context you set in settings.

Some issue exists in Content type

1. Only first level of components are cloned in content types any linked component is not cloned but same component is used.
2. When we create Content-type and choose folder location, it does not pick the blueprint context but show the folder from that publication only.
   but when you create component in XPM publication and folders are selected as per blueprint context. if folder choose at creation of content type not exists in the publication as per blueprint context, XPM throws Error.

How to use page-type

Continuing from my last post on Page type Demystified Tridion. in which i explored different options in page type creation. In this post i will explore how to use already created page type. 

Enter into Experience Manager and click on new Page in Ribbon-Bar, you will find a new slide-out option on left with list of all page-types available in system you can find-out page type created in the last blog post.

you can see name and description which were entered while creating the page type. so while creating page type i  did not entered the Example page URL, to show the use of that i have entered my blog URL in that now. it should be actual page which is similar to the page being created.

In the Page Types list, if you single click any of the page type. it will start loading Example page on right side in a iframe, to visually show user what kind of pages can be created with it.

You can either double click or select apply to create page from the desired page type. you will see following screen for entering the page details.

Few things to notice on this screen:

1. Page location: so if you are on a page \home\discovery\discovery.html. and creating a page from page type, it will copy same location in the Page Location textbox by default, though you can change it 
2. Configure Folder for Components: This option will only be visible if you have defined custom folder path for your component presentation. Check my previous post where we defined the location.
   You can override previously selected location for all the component presentation here, after clicking on Configure Folder for Components.

keep in mind publication will be chosen from the blueprint context defined for this publication (where you are creating this page)

so when we defined page type, we selected folder locations for all components. at that time interface shows folder of that publication only where page type was being created.

But now when component are created , publication is chosen from blueprint context, but folder path(sans publication) is same which you selected while creating page type.

now if that folder does not exist in that context publication(that might be local folder). page creation fails. so you have to little careful here that folder location exists.

After you click on the "Create Page" it may take some time depending upon the no of components on your page. After all the components get created, Xpm will show the page with Sample data which can be changed by editor happily as per need.

Again mentioning only first level of components will be created any component link in sample component will be used as-its.