Before we get into the details on how to configure your Stacks site and create content, we'll start by looking at the different components of your site and introduce you to some terminology to get familiar with.
Anatomy of your Stacks site
At a basic level, Stacks can be broken into 2 parts, a "front-end" and a "back-end."
The "front-end" is essentially the website and subsequent pages that are accessible to the general public (if site-wide password protection is not enabled), and both your patron users and staff users. The Layout Builder and Style Editor features (which will be discussed more later) are administrative areas that will be visible on the front-end, but only to logged in administrator users.
The "back-end" is referred to as the Dashboard, this area of your Stacks site is only accessible by users with an administrative user role. This is where staff users will go to create, edit, or delete content, as well as access system configuration settings and other features that will be discussed in more detail throughout the following user guide articles.
Front-end components of your site
Header
Your Stacks site has 2 header areas that can contain various buttons and links which can direct your users/patrons to other pages or content in Stacks or to outside websites and services.
Top header and user bar
When logged into your site with a administrative staff user account, a "user bar" will appear at the very top of the window. Here, you will see the Dashboard button, to access the dashboard when on the front-end view; as well as buttons to access Support and Help, and your username. Clicking your username will toggle a menu to appear just below, which is where you can also logout.
Below the user bar is the top menu; this is where anyone with access to your site could see a Login (or Logout) option, My Account link (for logged in users/patrons only), and other options that could include:
- Location & Hours information
- Font Resizer
- Language Selector
- Icons that link to Database Listings, Site Search, or Events
All of these items may be toggled on or off depending on the functionality you plan to use.
Header
The second header area is directly below the top header, this larger header area will contain the primary search bar and can be configured to meet your branding needs with an image or solid color background and additional items that could include:
- Your logo
- Site name and slogan
- Call-to-action buttons
- Main navigation menu
Between the header and content area, users logged in with either the Administrator or Moderator role will see a series of tabs; most tabs are links to areas in the dashboard, but the Layout tab, when clicked will provide open the Layout Builder.
The layout builder is used to add sections in either 1, 2, or 3 column configurations to the content area of your homepage (and all other landing pages) where content will then be added to be displayed on the pages. This functionality will be discussed in more detail in the Landing Pages section of the user guide.
Content area
The content area of your Stacks homepage is where you can add a variety of different content types for your site's visitors to interact with. As just mentioned, this area can be configured in different sections with a 1, 2, or 3 column layouts, within these sections blocks of content is then added.
Footer
At the very bottom of the site is the footer; this space can be used to display additional important information that could include:
- Additional branding
- Copyright notices
- Contact details
- Links to various social media accounts
Style editor
Users logged in with the Administrator role, will see a icon fixed in the bottom right corner, this is the how to access the Style Editor.
When the icon is clicked, a menu will open on the right side of the screen, from here you can access and configure settings associated with the appearance of your site and the content added to it. The style editor is discussed in more detail in separate user guide articles.