Accessing Reserves

After creating course reserves, you'll need to provide your users/partrons a way to navigate to this content. There are various ways to accomplish this, including by adding links to the reserves listing page via menu links, header buttons, other Stacks features, or as a footer link.

No one method is necessarily the best; ultimately, the best method is determined by how you want your users/patrons to find and navigate to content on your site. 

This article will explain these various methods for directing users/patrons to your news articles, as well as the settings that can be configured to control the display of the new article listing page and the content seen on the news article detail view.

Menu Links

Stacks has 2 menu areas, the main menu and the top menu, either will allow for custom links for navigating to your reserves listing page.

Main and Top Menu

To add menu links:

1. From the Dashboard, click the Menus tile
2. Click the List Links button to the right of Main Menu or Top Menu, depending on where you wish to place the link
3. Click the +Add link button
   1. Menu link title, enter a title for the menu link, this is the value users/patrons will see in the menu
   2. Link, enter the path to the reserves listing page, in this case /reserves
      1. Note: for internal Stacks pages, the full URL is not required in the link field, just the path mentioned above
   3. Enabled, ensure this box is checked to enable the link to appear in the menu
   4. Description, if required, enter a description for the menu link
   5. Show as expanded, when checked, this will expand the menu link if there are child links added under the main link
   6. Language, select the appropriate language, if applicable
   7. Parent Link, select the appropriate option
      1. <Main menu>, select this option to display the link in the main menu
      2. <--link name>, select from other menu links listed to embed this link as a child link under the selected option
      3. <Top menu>, select this option to display the link in the top menu
   8. Weight, enter a numerical value to determine the order of appearance
      1. Alternatively, after saving, click and drag the 4-way arrow in the list link page to change the order of appearance
   9. Click Save to complete the creation of the menu link

Header Button

Call to Action (or CTA) buttons are up to 4 custom buttons that can be enabled in the header and used for navigating to content, other Stacks pages, or external websites. Depending on the header layout, these buttons typically appear beside or just under the main search bar in your header. 

1. From the Dashboard, click the System Configuration tile
2. Click the Header tile, then the Header CTA Buttons option from the menu on the left
3. Enable, check this box to enable the CTA button feature
4. Header Button 1 through 4
   1. Title, enter the button name, this will be visible to the user/patron
   2. URL, enter the path or URL to the page users/patrons will be directed to when the button is clicked
      1. For the reserves listing page, enter the path /reserves in the URL field
   3. Click Save configuration when done

Other Stacks Features

Another method to direct users/patrons to your news listing page is through another Stacks feature such as a Callout, Slider, or Custom Block as example. The advantage of using features like this in particular, are the image options that can be used as a way of drawing attention to the content the user/patron may want to access.

As described in the sections above, the key to directing people to your reserves listing page is by using the path /reserves in the appropriate Link or URL field.

For more information on creating or editing content such as Callouts, Sliders, Custom Blocks, etc. please see the associated user guide article(s) for the desired feature type. 

Footer Link

The footer of your Stacks site allows for the addition of custom content and links that can be used for navigating throughout your site, including the reserves listing page. 

1. From the Dashboard, click the System Configuration tile
2. Click the Footer tile, then the Contact Info option from the menu on the left
3. In the Staff Directory URL field, enter the full URL to your directory listing page
   1. Unlike other areas, this requires the full URL (example: https://yoursitename.com/reserves)
4. Click Save configuration when done