Dialogs Framework Basic Concepts

Dialogs Pages

Updated: 21 Apr 2023

The traditional organizational unit for website content is the "page". Primary website navigation menus are defined by adding items to the Pages List. In most instances, the majority of pages defined in the website information architecture are expressed as items on the Pages List. (See the Knowledge Base entry on Phantom Pages for a powerful alternative.) Simple websites may store the majority of website content directly in fields found in the Pages List. (Most Dialogs websites have at least a few pages that include content from Dialogs Lists such as events, news, products, etc., but more on that later.) The following fields are commonly found on the Pages List content entry view, but are configurable by the developer.

Page Fields - v.8

Page Setup
- URL The URL defines the actual page name. Any value may be chosen with Dialogs (but the webserver configuration and browser make following convention a good idea). Possible examples: "index.html", "index.htm", "index.asp", "index", "home".
- Position (list_sort) The website navigation menus (typically) sort the pages list by the "position" field, known internally as "list_sort". Pages may be sub-ordinate to other pages (nested) by "dotting" the position value. For example, a page with position "A" may have subordinate pages "A.A", "A.B", or "A.C". The numbering scheme is arbitrary. The position scheme could just as easily be "01", "01.05", "01.10", etc. (Leading zeros are required since the items will be sorted on the value of position.) When viewing pages in tabular view, nested items may be revealed or hidden by clicking on the icon to the left of position.
- Window Title This field is used to populate the HTML title element in the page template. Page templates are usually set up so that if no value is entered here, the HTML title is created based on the Menu Display value, or the Content Headline.
- Meta Keywords / Meta Description These are also used to populate the equivalent elements in the page template. If no values are entered on the page, the default values fom site settings are used.
- Menu Display This value is what is shown in system generated navigation to link to this page.
- Page Group Selects the page group to which the page is assigned.
- Notes About This Page This field, marked with a blue background, is for making any kind of notes about the page that might be useful. This field is for reference only, and is not used anywhere on the front-end display of the page. This field is often used to note things like WYSIWYG must remain turned off because of custom coding in the content fields, that a page is entered into the system as a navigation placeholder, or to indicate that a page is deprecated in favor of a more current version.
Page Content
- Content Headline, Body, Sidebar These fields are typically used by the developer to insert content into page templates at the time the page is rendered.
- Searchable Controls whether or not a page content is included in the Dialogs search index.
Advanced Page Setup
- Use WYSIWYG This turns the WYSIWYG editors off for a page. Developers deactivate WYSIWYG to include contents in text areas of the page (body/sidebar by default) that may conflict with the WYSIWYG editor configuration.
- Active Pages may be toggled active (green on the tabular view) or inactive (yellow if Show in Menu is checked or red if Show in Menu is unchecked on the tabular view).
- Allow Chunks Turns on the chunk functionality for the page.
- Show in Menu Controls whether or not a page shows in the Dialogs generated navigation menu(s).
- CSS Class This field allows you to enter one or more CSS classes, which will be assigned to a designated element in the page template, usually the body. You can enter a single class, like "detail-view", or multiple classes, like "detail-view video-library".
- Page Template Selects the page template assigned to the page.
- Forwarding URL This field is optional and used when a navigational menu links elsewhere (typically off-site). Example: "http://www.google.com/".
- External Link Checking this will cause the link for this page in generated navigation to open in a new window. Often used with Forwarding URL, so that links in the navigation that go off-site open in a new tab or window.
- Automation Any Dialogs page may include an optional "automation" script that gets run as the page is rendered. The included automation script can contain any php programming the developer defines to customize page functionality.
- Insert Into Head / Insert Into Body These fields are used to insert content into the head element, or the end of the body element, of the html when building the page. Convenient for inserting CSS or Javascript for the page.
- Fields w/list views (referential) Shows which fields on this page are running list templates.

Page Fields - v.7

URL The URL defines the actual page name. Any value may be chosen with Dialogs (but the webserver configuration and browser make following convention a good idea). Possible examples: "index.html", "index.htm", "index.asp", "index", "home".
Position (list_sort) The website navigation menus (typically) sort the pages list by the "position" field, known internally as "list_sort". Pages may be sub-ordinate to other pages (nested) by "dotting" the position value. For example, a page with position "A" may have subordinate pages "A.A", "A.B", or "A.C". The numbering scheme is arbitrary. The position scheme could just as easily be "01", "01.05", "01.10", etc. (Leading zeros are required since the items will be sorted on the value of position.) When viewing pages in tabular view, nested items may be revealed or hidden by clicking on the icon to the left of position.
Full URL This field is optional and used when a navigational menu links elsewhere (typically off-site). Example: "http://www.google.com/"
Menu Display This value is what is shown in system generated navigation to link to this page.
SEO Toolbox Fields Search engines primarily rank search results by comparing body copy to the page title and the H1 tag. Search engines use meta keywords to organize indexed content within their own databases. The content of the meta description field is commonly displayed as the search results blurb. Dialogs organizes these four key SEO fields for easy optimization.
Content Title, Body, Sidebar These fields are typically used by the developer to insert content into page templates at the time the page is rendered.
Head The Head field is used to insert content into the head element of the html when building the page. Convenient for inserting Javascript or CSS for the page.
Automation Any Dialogs page may include an optional "automation" script that gets run as the page is rendered. The included automation script can contain any php programming the developer defines to customize page functionality.
Active Pages may be toggled active (green on the tabular view) or inactive (yellow if Show in Menu is checked or red if Show in Menu is unchecked on the tabular view).
Use WYSIWYG This turns the WYSIWYG editors off for a page. Developers deactivate WYSIWYG to include contents in text areas of the page (body/sidebar by default) that may conflict with the WYSIWYG editor configuration.
Borrowing When checked, allows this page to include content from another List item (or page).
Show in Menu Controls whether or not a page shows in the Dialogs generated navigation menu(s).
Prototype (advanced)
Searchable Controls whether or not a page content is included in the Dialogs search index.
Page Group Selects the page group to which the page is assigned.
Template Selects the page template assigned to the page.
List Views (referential) Shows the List templates Dialogs has identified on the page.

The Dialogs Pages List supports all the features of any other Dialogs List: accessible via List Templates; extendable with additional fields; available to define drop-down select content for fields on other lists.

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