Managing sections

A section is a label that every object carries, exactly one per object. Sections split the site into parts: roles use them to decide who may read or edit what, the administration uses them to choose the active tab of the top menu, and designs can give a section templates of its own. A new installation has sections such as Standard for the content, Media, Users, Setup and Design.

Who can do this

• Creating and editing sections needs section/edit.
• Putting content into a section needs section/assign. Its NewSection limitation lists the sections you may hand out.
• Administrators have both.

The Sections page

Click Setup in the top menu and choose Sections. The page shows how many sections there are and how many published objects they hold, a search field and filters (With published objects, Used by roles, Can be removed, Need attention ...). Each section has its identifier, its ID, the number of objects, the roles that use it and buttons to view it, edit it and assign content to it.

Create a section

1. On the Sections page, press New section.
2. Fill in Name, for example "Members area". The Identifier is suggested while you type (here members_area). You may change it: letters, digits and _, starting with a letter, unique among the sections.
3. Leave Navigation part at Content structure for ordinary pages.
4. Press Create section. The new section is empty.

Put content into a section

1. On the section's card, press the button to assign content.
2. In the browser, select the item at the top of the part of the tree that belongs in the section and press Select. The item and the content below it now carry the section. For a very large subtree you are asked whether to do it now or in the background.
3. Open the section with its view button and check the number of published objects.

To give one item another section, open it, go to the Details tab, choose the section, and choose what it applies to: Whole subtree, Subtree, except branches in another section or This object only. Then press Set.

Give a group rights in one section

Rights come from roles. Assign a role to a user group with the limitation Section, and the role's policies apply only in that section. See Roles and policies.

What can go wrong

• The content disappeared from the public site. Visitors may only read the sections their role names, usually just Standard. Add a content/read policy for the new section to the role that should see it. See Creating a protected area.
• Some objects below the item kept their old section. Assigning changes the objects whose main location is in that part of the tree. An object that only has an extra location there keeps its section, because an object has one section, wherever it is shown.
• New pages land in the wrong section. New content takes the section of its parent when it is published.
• The section cannot be removed. Remove selected refuses a section that still holds objects (drafts and archived versions count) or that a policy or a role assignment names. Move the objects to another section and take the section out of the roles first.
• A changed identifier broke a template. Override rules, fetches and templates may name the section by its identifier. Roles name it by its ID, so changing the identifier changes no permission.

Read more

• How do I create a section and put content into it?, in the help center.
• How do I give a group edit rights on one section only?