Creating page types

In this example, you will learn how to define a new custom page type.

1. Open the Page types application.
2. Click New page type. A New page type wizard opens.

Step 1

1. Fill in the following values:

   • Page type display name: Computer (the system displays this name to users in the administration interface)

   • Namespace: custom (namespace to distinguish your page types from the default system types that use the cms namespace)

   • Name:computer (the identifier of the page type)

     

2. Click Next.

Step 2

1. Enter a Table name for the database table that stores the page type data.

2. Enter a Primary key name for the table.

3. (Optional) Select if you want the page to to Inherit fields from page type.

   

4. Click Next.

The wizard creates the database table.

Step 3

Now, you need to define fields of the page type (columns of the table).

1. Click New field.

2. For each field, enter the values, click Save and repeat the procedure until you have defined all the listed fields.

   • Field name: ComputerName

   • Data type: Text

   • Size: 200

   • Required: yes (checked)

   • Field caption: Computer name

   • Form control: Text box

   • Field name: ComputerProcessorType

   • Data type: Text

   • Size: 200

   • Field caption: Processor type

   • Form control: Drop-down list

   • Editing control settings -> Data source: select List of options and enter the following items into the text area, one per line:

     Copy

     
     
     
       Athlon;Athlon
       Pentium XEON;Pentium XEON
       Pentium Core 2 Duo;Pentium Core 2 Duo
     
       

   • Field name: ComputerRamSize

   • Data type: Integer number

   • Field caption: RAM (MB)

   • Form control: Text box

   • Field name: ComputerHDDSize

   • Data type: Integer number

   • Field caption: HDD (GB)

   • Form control: Text box

   • Field name: ComputerImage

   • Data type: File

   • Field caption: Image

   • Form control: Upload file

     

3. Click Next.

Step 4

Now you need to choose the field that will be used as the name for page’s of this type.

1. Choose the ComputerName option from the drop-down list.
   This ensures that computer pages will use the value of the ComputerName field as the name displayed in site navigation and in the Page application’s content tree. The field is available in the drop-down list because you set it as Required in the previous step and it’s a text field.

   

2. Click Next.

Step 5

Select the page types that will be supported as parents for computer pages in the Page application’s content tree.

1. If necessary, click Add page types and select the Page (menu item) page type.

2. Click OK.
   Users are now only allowed to place computer pages under pages of the Page (menu item), not under articles, news items or other page types.

   

3. Click Next.

Step 6

Assign the page type to all websites on which you want to use it.

1. Click Add sites.

2. Check the appropriate websites in the selection dialog.

3. Click OK.

   

4. Click Next.

Step 7

The wizard has finished the configuration of the new page type. It has automatically created not only the database table, but also the SQL queries for SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE operations and the default transformations. 

Click Finish. You have created a new page type.