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Accessing Collections

After adding one or more collections and adding/importing it's collection items, the next step is to make sure your user/patrons are able to access this information. There are various methods could be used to direct people to your collections, these can include through menu links, header buttons, or through other Stacks features.

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.

Considerations

Depending on the number of collections you have in your Stacks site, you can direct your users/patrons to your collection content using a couple of links

  • Use the path /collections to direct users/patrons to the pre-built Stacks page that displays a list of all collections. From here they can click a collection title view it's content
  • Use the path (URL alias) created when the collection was created to direct users/patrons to a specific collection

Also towards the end of this article, we'll discuss some of the settings that can be configured to control the display of collection content when viewing the list and detail view pages associated with them.

Menu Links

Stacks has 2 menu areas, the top menu and the main menu; either could be used to provide access to your collections.

To add a menu link:

  1. From the Dashboard, click the Menus tile
  2. Click the List Links button to the right of Main Menu
  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 collection, example: /collections
      1. Note: as this is an internal Stacks page, the full URL is not required in the link field
    3. Enabled, ensure this box is checked to enable the link to appear in the menu
    4. Language, select the appropriate language, if applicable
    5. Parent Link, Important! this and the remaining items described below are found on the right side of the screen. Under this section select the appropriate option
      1. <Top menu>, select this option to display the link in the top menu
      2. <Main menu>, select this option to display the link in the main menu
      3. <--link name>, select from other menu links listed to embed this link as a child link under the selected option
    6. Display Settings, click to expand this section
      1. Show as expanded, when checked, this will expand the menu link if there are child links added under the main link
      2. 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
    7. Description, click to expand this section
      1. Description, if applicable, enter a brief description to be displayed when hovering over the link
    8. Click Save to complete the creation of the menu link

Call to Action Button

Call to Action (CTA) buttons are custom buttons that can be enabled in you header and used for navigating to content, other Stacks pages, or external websites. You can add up to 4 buttons to be displayed and depending on the header layout, these will typically appear beside or just below 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 the 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 to the collection (or /collections page) the user/patron will be directed when the button is clicked
  5. Click Save configuration when done

Other Stacks Features

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

As described in the sections above, the key to directing people to the collection content is to use the path to the collection page (/collections) or the specific collection in the appropriate link or URL field. 

For more information on creating or editing features such as Callouts, Sliders, Custom Blocks, etc.. please see the associated user guide articles for the desired feature type. 

View Settings

As discussed above, collection items can be displayed in a list view as well as in a detail view; one of the last steps to look at when creating new collections is to consider and configure how the collection information will be displayed to your site's users.

List and Detail view configuration can be done from one of two places:

  • Site Configuration area of the System Configuration dashboard; or
  • Collections dashboard

To access these areas:

  1. From the Dashboard click:
    1. System Configuration, then Site Configuration, then click the Collections tab to expand the settings; OR
    2. Collections, then click the Settings menu tab near the top of the screen
  2. Click the Listing View sub-tab to configure the display of collections when viewing the Listing view page
    1. Listing View
      1. Title, this will appear at the top of the Collections listing view (ex: yoursite.com/collections)
        1. By default the title will be 'Collections'
      2. Description, this text will appear at the top of the listing view page, above the list of collections
        1. This can be a good place to provide context as to what the collections are or how to use them
      3. Display section
        1. Expand first group by default, when checked, and when the collections are grouped by title, the first group will be expanded to show a list of collections within the same group
        2. Display Search Form, when checked, the right-side search bar will appear, allowing users to search for a collection by name
        3. Display A-Z Link index, when checked, this will display A-Z Link Index on List View when "Group by None" is selected for the collection
        4. Enable Add to saved list button, when checked, an Add to saved list button will appear, allowing logged-in users the ability to save this list
          1. Saved lists will be viewable from the users "My Account" page
      4. Defaults section
        1. Default Page Limit, select the number of collection(s) to be listed per page on the listing view
          1. By default, this value is set to 10
        2. Default Grouping, select the default value by which collections will be grouped
          1. By default, this will be set to None
        3. Default Sorting, select the default sorting of either Ascending (A-Z) or Descending (Z-A)
      5. Field Visibility section
        1. Select the fields to be displayed when viewing the listing page
          1. Checked indicates the field will be displayed
          2. Unchecked indicates the field will not be displayed
      6. Comments section
        1. Enable comments for collection item, when checked will allow users to enter comments on collection items
          1. Note: this feature is still in development
      7. Click Save Configuration
  3. Click the Details View sub-tab to configure the display of collections when viewing the details view page for a collection
    1. Field Visibility section
      1. Select the fields to be displayed when viewing the listing page
        1. Checked indicates the field will be displayed
        2. Unchecked indicates the field will not be displayed
    2. Click Save Configuration
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