My company is currently on Umbraco, but is exploring other CMS options because we've been backed into a corner with how our development agency built our CMS. We have about 5 different page types to choose from, each with very specific predefined fields for titles, body text, images, etc. For example, on our homepage configuration, I am given the following fields:
[Image] [Image Link URL] [Image] [Image Link URL] [Image] [Image Link URL]
I can change out any of the content within the bracketed fields above, but if I wanted to add a second Full-width Image to the page, I can't because I am limited to those fields and those fields alone. We were given a page type with a WYSIWYG editor to build any pages from scratch that we may want that aren't templated, but that's not ideal given there are many components we use regularly across the site, and it's a pain to have to rebuild layouts each time we want to add them to another page.
I've seen things about MVC, grids, and macros that may be a solution, but I need help understanding and conveying this to our development company. We basically want a blank page with an area to add building blocks (macros) so we can build pages from scratch and vary the layouts. So we might be able to configure the page like this one day:
Content Area:
Macro A
[Image] [Text]
Macro B
[Text] [Image]
Macro C
[Image] [Text] [Button] [Button URL]
But then be able to rearrange/add/remove those modules on another page so we can reuse the styling from each module while rearranging them in a new order to build a new page like this:
Content Area:
Macro C
[Image] [Text] [Button] [Button URL]
Macro A
[Image] [Text]
Macro A
[Image] [Text]
Macro B
[Text] [Image]
Macro C
[Image] [Text] [Button] [Button URL]
How should I tell the development agency to go about creating pages and building blocks to achieve this/
Depending on the veresion, any of these packages / datatypes could be options. I wouldn't use macros but use the grid and grid editors instead or use something like nested content. Basically they can create editors for you for the things you mentioned above and you can freely add rows / columns as you wish.
Thank you, Amir! I knew how to describe what I wanted, but didn't know how to locate the resources to pass to the development agency. These URLs will be perfect for conveying what we want as well as how the agency should go about programming this. Thanks again!
Building Pages in Module-like Style with Macros
My company is currently on Umbraco, but is exploring other CMS options because we've been backed into a corner with how our development agency built our CMS. We have about 5 different page types to choose from, each with very specific predefined fields for titles, body text, images, etc. For example, on our homepage configuration, I am given the following fields:
Hero Area:
[Hero Image] [Title Text] [Subtitle Text] [Button Text] [Button URL]
Full-width Image:
[Image] [Image Link URL]
Three-column Images:
[Image] [Image Link URL] [Image] [Image Link URL] [Image] [Image Link URL]
I can change out any of the content within the bracketed fields above, but if I wanted to add a second Full-width Image to the page, I can't because I am limited to those fields and those fields alone. We were given a page type with a WYSIWYG editor to build any pages from scratch that we may want that aren't templated, but that's not ideal given there are many components we use regularly across the site, and it's a pain to have to rebuild layouts each time we want to add them to another page.
I've seen things about MVC, grids, and macros that may be a solution, but I need help understanding and conveying this to our development company. We basically want a blank page with an area to add building blocks (macros) so we can build pages from scratch and vary the layouts. So we might be able to configure the page like this one day:
Content Area:
Macro A
[Image] [Text]
Macro B
[Text] [Image]
Macro C
[Image] [Text] [Button] [Button URL]
But then be able to rearrange/add/remove those modules on another page so we can reuse the styling from each module while rearranging them in a new order to build a new page like this:
Content Area:
Macro C
[Image] [Text] [Button] [Button URL]
Macro A
[Image] [Text]
Macro A
[Image] [Text]
Macro B
[Text] [Image]
Macro C
[Image] [Text] [Button] [Button URL]
How should I tell the development agency to go about creating pages and building blocks to achieve this/
Depending on the veresion, any of these packages / datatypes could be options. I wouldn't use macros but use the grid and grid editors instead or use something like nested content. Basically they can create editors for you for the things you mentioned above and you can freely add rows / columns as you wish.
Grid editor WYSIWYG builder (to create the eidtors themselves, not the pages): https://our.umbraco.com/packages/backoffice-extensions/leblender/
Another similar option using document types, it will achieve the same effect just with a different strategy: https://our.umbraco.com/packages/backoffice-extensions/doc-type-grid-editor/
Nested content is also built into newer versions: https://our.umbraco.com/documentation/getting-started/backoffice/Property-Editors/Built-in-Property-Editors/Nested-Content/
Docs on the grid itself: https://our.umbraco.com/documentation/Getting-Started/Backoffice/Property-Editors/Built-in-Property-Editors/Grid-Layout/
Thank you, Amir! I knew how to describe what I wanted, but didn't know how to locate the resources to pass to the development agency. These URLs will be perfect for conveying what we want as well as how the agency should go about programming this. Thanks again!
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