Im going through a few tutorials and wondered the correct purpose of a block list.
Is a block list just used for creating different section on a page? Which can lead to another page if you only create a link for it and select a page when you create the item?
Can a block list be used for parent/child pages? So if i created a page of customers in a block list where the file sits under Views> partals >blocklist > components > childRow
Could i have a list of children in the parents page to link them to a separate child page?
The Block List is a very flexible property editor and can be bent to solve a number of situations.
It 's evolved from a need to content manage those website designs from a few years back which consisted of a series of different types of full width horizontal blocks, you know with different background colours between each band of content. You might have a block with a video or a block with a carousel of images or a block with two columns etc
The Block List property editor allows you to define the way content is managed within each block. The editor chooses the block type adds the content, sets the background colour etc and has opportunity to alter the sort order of the blocks.
You could also use the block list property editor to just repeat the same type of repeating item, so perhaps a call to action block, image plus link plus text...
You can also have a block list property editor defined within another block list property editor, eg in the two scenarios above you could have a call to action panel as a full width block in your series of horizontal blocks and have a variable number of call to action blocks managed by a nested block list property editor!
You can also use it as a way to manage optional configuration. By having a block list property editor only allowed to pick a single item, from different types of configuration blocks, the editor could choose to add a simple configuration block to the page or perhaps a more advanced configuration block with more options... This strategy can keep document type design simpler instead of having lots of checkboxes presented to editors that are rarely used but take up editing screens pace, eg. Hide From Navigation, Hide From Site map etc
The main difference is a block of content on a page doesn't have a direct Url (although you can write out anchor tag) and can't be picked to display on another page very easily, so if you have customers that might need their details displayed within different pages on the site and might also have their own Url. I would tend to create a CustomerSectionPage and allow pages of CustomerPage to be created underneath, then each customer would have their own Url eg /customers/top-customer
And then you could create a DataType Multinode Tree Picker property editor and configure it to pick CustomerPage type content from the CustomerSectionPage and then you could add this DataType to other pages on the site or to a CustomerPickingBlock within a block list, enabling editors to add a block to a page and enable them to pick which customers to display, with the content coming from the picked customer pages...
Purpose of block list
Im going through a few tutorials and wondered the correct purpose of a block list.
Is a block list just used for creating different section on a page? Which can lead to another page if you only create a link for it and select a page when you create the item?
Can a block list be used for parent/child pages? So if i created a page of customers in a block list where the file sits under Views> partals >blocklist > components > childRow
Could i have a list of children in the parents page to link them to a separate child page?
Thanks
Hi Linx
The Block List is a very flexible property editor and can be bent to solve a number of situations.
It 's evolved from a need to content manage those website designs from a few years back which consisted of a series of different types of full width horizontal blocks, you know with different background colours between each band of content. You might have a block with a video or a block with a carousel of images or a block with two columns etc
The Block List property editor allows you to define the way content is managed within each block. The editor chooses the block type adds the content, sets the background colour etc and has opportunity to alter the sort order of the blocks.
You could also use the block list property editor to just repeat the same type of repeating item, so perhaps a call to action block, image plus link plus text...
You can also have a block list property editor defined within another block list property editor, eg in the two scenarios above you could have a call to action panel as a full width block in your series of horizontal blocks and have a variable number of call to action blocks managed by a nested block list property editor!
You can also use it as a way to manage optional configuration. By having a block list property editor only allowed to pick a single item, from different types of configuration blocks, the editor could choose to add a simple configuration block to the page or perhaps a more advanced configuration block with more options... This strategy can keep document type design simpler instead of having lots of checkboxes presented to editors that are rarely used but take up editing screens pace, eg. Hide From Navigation, Hide From Site map etc
The main difference is a block of content on a page doesn't have a direct Url (although you can write out anchor tag) and can't be picked to display on another page very easily, so if you have customers that might need their details displayed within different pages on the site and might also have their own Url. I would tend to create a CustomerSectionPage and allow pages of CustomerPage to be created underneath, then each customer would have their own Url eg /customers/top-customer
And then you could create a DataType Multinode Tree Picker property editor and configure it to pick CustomerPage type content from the CustomerSectionPage and then you could add this DataType to other pages on the site or to a CustomerPickingBlock within a block list, enabling editors to add a block to a page and enable them to pick which customers to display, with the content coming from the picked customer pages...
Hope tgat helps give you a steer
Regards
Marc
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