In a few clicks from your browser, you can have a new panel that displays the data you want, labeled and made editable as you need: enable Surf-to-Edit, click add content, choose Panel Editor, select (new panel), drag in and arrange your data, then Save and Publish.
Once you have placed a panel iPart into a content record and published it, you can then edit the panel directly: As a system administrator, you see a run-time Design command, which lets you make quick changes to the panel, changes that save and publish for you automatically. For extensive panel work, such as to change the type of data it shows, use surf-to-edit to access all of the content design features.
Best practices for panel layout
Here are key layout features to help you design the best use of screen real estate on the page:
■ Multiple columns: Click the [+] and [–] icons next to the panel layout to add/remove columns in your panel. For best display results, place multi-column panels into single-column content records.
■ Hide in Summary View: Check this box on certain properties to trim the initial display of the iPart to the read-only information that is most useful. Only when users open the full window for viewing or adding/editing (as you configured it) do they see the additional information.
■ Read-only: Check this box to provide information in read-only form while still allowing users to edit other information on the panel.
Tip: To prevent editing of all of the properties, simply disable Allow users to edit on the iPart Configuration, rather than in the Panel definition.
■ Collapsible panel: Use the Display … collapsible panel and Show…collapsed options to combine multiple iParts on the page for maximum utility with minimal scrolling.
Tip: Be sure to add an optional Title to any iPart that you make collapsible, so that title bar text guides your users as to what information they will access by clicking Show.
Panels for Activity data
Most organizations need to show activity information on their websites. All of the Activity data in your iMIS database appears as complex (multi-entry) sources when you use Panels.
Suppose you created new award types in the general lookup table called AWARDS and want to add them to a page for dynamic editing. In a few clicks, you can have exactly that: just surf-to-edit, click add content, choose Panel Editor, select (new panel), show multiple entries data sources, drag in your new data sources, enable user editing, then Save and Publish.
All of your Activity data appears as available sources when you select multiple entries for the type of data source.
Tip: If you want to combine data from different sources, be sure to show simple sources (the first radio button option). Only one complex table can display in a panel, so the others are grayed out as long as any one of them has properties placed in the panel.