Fields: content types

These fields control the properties of content types that are defined in the system.

■    To create a content type, select Content Management > Maintenance > Content types, then from the toolbar choose New > Content Type

■    To change a content type, select Content Management > Maintenance > Content types, select an existing content type, then from the toolbar choose Edit.

To place your control into the iPart Gallery for easy sharing and reuse, create a content type.

Tips

■    The class libraries and user controls that you specify must be manually copied to a file path that resolves to the same root-relative URL on all servers that host CM websites.

□    The class libraries must be placed in the bin folder below the root of the physical path for the IIS application or IIS web site that hosts your CM websites.

□    The user controls can be placed in any folder below the root of the physical path.

■    When specifying paths to controls, be sure to use forward slashes (/) for the segment delimiters.

Name of the Content Type, Description of the Content Type

Specifies the name and description of the associated iPart. If you are publishing this iPart in the Gallery (see next), be sure this text is as you want it to appear to users in the Gallery when they select iParts for use in content records, and do not duplicate any iPart names already appearing there.

URL to the control or page that is used to display items of this type at runtime

Specifies a relative URL from the root (~) of the physical path for the IIS application or IIS web site that hosts your CM websites to the web user control that should be used to display instances of the iPart associated with this content type. By default, the root corresponds to C:\Program Files\ASI\iMIS\Net. For example, ~/CustomControls/myUserControl.aspx.

If you have not created a custom IContentType class (you entered Asi.Business.ContentManagement.ContentType.ContentTypeBase in the Name of the IContentType class within the assembly field), a declaration to this control is embedded in published pages that use the iPart, and the control will be dynamically loaded and inserted into the page when rendering the control (for preview or for search). If you've implemented a custom IContentType class, you can change this behavior to match your own requirements.

Advanced Properties (optional)

Name of the .NET assembly that contains the class that implements this content type

Specifies the name of the class library that contains the compiled serializable class.

Name of the serializable class within the assembly that implements this content type

Specifies the name of the class that implements the iPart in Content Designer (which must inherit the base class Asi.Business.ContentManagement.ContentItem). You must enter the fully qualified class name, including the namespace.

Name of the .NET assembly that contains the IContentType class used to publish this content type

Specifies the name of the class library that contains the compiled IContentType class.

■    If you are using the base IContentType class provided with CM for this content type, enter Asi.Business.ContentManagement.

■    If you are using a custom-developed IContentType class, enter the name of the class library that contains the compiled class.

Name of the IContentType class within the assembly

Specifies the name of the class that implements the IContentType interface that CM uses to render and publish the iPart.

■    To use the default rendering and publishing behavior provided by the base IContentType class provided with CM, enter Asi.Business.ContentManagement.ContentType.ContentTypeBase.

■    To perform custom actions when an iPart is published or rendered, you can instead create a custom IContentType class (which must inherit the base class (Asi.Business.ContentManagement.ContentType.ContentTypeBase). You must enter the fully qualified class name, including the namespace.

URL to the control or page that is used to collect the properties of a new item of this type

Specifies a relative URL from the root (~) of the physical path for the IIS application or IIS web site that hosts your CM websites to the web user control that should be used to collect properties when creating new instances of the iPart associated with this content type. By default, the root corresponds to C:\Program Files\ASI\iMIS\Net. For example, ~/CustomControls/myUserControl.aspx.

In most cases, you should specify the same control here as for the URL to the control page that is used to edit the properties of an existing item of this type.

Note: This control is currently unused in this version of CM. Instead the control specified in URL to the control page that is used to edit the properties of an existing item of this type is used for collecting the properties for newly created iParts and for existing iParts that are being edited.

URL to the control or page that is used to edit the properties of an existing item of this type

Specifies a relative URL from the root (~) of the physical path for the IIS application or IIS web site that hosts your CM websites to the web user control that should be used to collect properties when editing the configuration of an existing iPart associated with this content type. By default, the root corresponds to C:\Program Files\ASI\iMIS\Net. For example, ~/CustomControls/myUserControl.aspx.

In most cases, you should specify the same control here as for the URL to the control page that is used to collect the properties of a new item of this type.

URL to the control or page that is used to collect parameters for content items of this type

Specifies a relative URL from the root (~) of the physical path for the IIS application or IIS web site that hosts your CM websites to the web user control that should be used to collect parameter overrides for the iPart associated with this content type. By default, the root corresponds to C:\Program Files\ASI\iMIS\Net. For example, ~/CustomControls/myUserControl.aspx.

You use this type of control to override the configuration of an iPart on a per-navigation-item basis. The parameter overrides can be specified in two different ways in a navigation item, depending on what type of input this control is written to accept:

■    The URL parameters field can pass parameters in an ampersand-delimited string that is appended to the URL that fetches the associated content record.

■    The Content parameters field can actually display selected properties from the control that defines the configuration page for the associated iPart. (In other words, a subset of the properties defined in the control specified in the URL to the control or page that is used to edit the properties of an existing item of this type field.)

Only one of the content types shipped with CM uses this field (ContentTaggedList), and the corresponding control is written to collect parameters from the Content parameters section of a navigation item.

URL to the icon graphic that represents items of this type

Specifies a relative URL from the root (~) of the physical path for the IIS application or IIS web site that hosts your CM websites to an image file that should be displayed on rendered web pages as the Surf-to-Edit (STE) icon for iParts associated with this content type. By default, the root corresponds to C:\Program Files\ASI\iMIS\Net. For example, ~/CustomControls/mySurfToEditIcon.gif.

The image file must be 16x16 pixels in size. If this field is left blank, a default STE icon is used (~/AsiCommon/icon_con_usercontrol.gif).

URL to the configuration help page

Specifies a relative URL from the root (~) of the physical path for the IIS application or IIS web site that hosts your CM websites to the Configuration Help for the iPart associated with this content type. This Help page displays when you click the  link when configuring an iPart. By default, the root corresponds to C:\Program Files\ASI\iMIS\Net. For example, ~/iparts/Common/QueryMenu/QueryMenuHelp.htm.

The visual look and feel of the Help page is based on the iMIS theme you have selected. To be consistent with the rest of iMIS, we recommend that you only use basic HTML and allow iMIS to style the page. However, if needed, you can tailor the page using internal CSS.