Two ways to build, every page
Exponential 6.0.15+ builds sites two ways: templates in a design extension (code, overrides, tests) and the Layouts editor (no code). These pages show both on the real Fit & Healthy demo site, with the exact screens, commands and files. New here? Start with Two ways to build. In a hurry to change the header menu? Go to Add a header menu item.
Start here
- Two ways to build: what each way is, where they meet, which to use.
- Which way: the decision table: every kind of change and the way to make it.
- Measured steps and times: how the numbers on these pages were measured.
- Two ways to build, the words: the terms.
The header
- Add a header menu item: the short answer and the three ways.
- Header menu in the administration: step by step, no code.
- Header menu by command line:
exp:iniandexp:cache, real output. - Header menu and the content tree: what editors change from the tree.
- Reorder or remove header menu items.
- How the header is built: from the shared layout to
menu.ini. - Header menu troubleshooting.
- A header menu that follows the tree: the template way, tested.
The footer
- Footer menu items: the two link lines and their sources.
- Footer links from the content tree: step by step, no code, no cache clear.
- How the footer is built.
- Change the prefooter in the Layouts editor: step by step, no code.
Layouts and the connection to templates
- The Layouts editor, a tour.
- The Design tab.
- Manual and dynamic collections.
- Which layout does a page get?.
- How a block maps to its templates.
- Shared layouts and zone linking: why one header serves every page.
- Why doesn't my change appear?: the check list.
- Caches after a change: which cache for which change.
- Known editor behaviors.
Building with templates
- Your own design extension: set up, activation order, overrides.
- Add a view type.
- Add a block type.
- Your own template blocks.
- Styling your blocks.
Worked example and life-cycle examples
- Build a campaign page, start to finish: every screen, then the template way.
- Life-cycle examples: one task per page, done both ways, by phase of a site's life.
Moving and keeping layouts
Tools
About these pages
Every screenshot and command output was made on a throwaway copy of a live Exponential 6.0.15+ installation, never on
the live site. File paths are relative to the installation root; host names are replaced by www.example.com.
Related pages
- The layouts editor
- Designer help, every page
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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