Managing the Block Tree

All the information that makes up your website is organised into data blocks. These data blocks are arranged in a tree structure. These blocks can be either part of the data struture of the module or content blocks related to the parent block. (Please see the data structure document for your website to understand how these blocks are arranged for your site.)

Block Navigation

You can show or hide branches of the tree by clicking the small square icon to the left of the data block. This icon only appears if there are sub blocks (child blocks) present.

Each block has an Add, Delete or Archive option. Add will give you a list of blocks that can be added as a child of the current block, Delete will delete the current block and all its children. The Archive option will hide the block from the tree, if you need to see hidden block use the button at the top of the left hand panel to show hidden blocks. Archiving blocks may have an effect on whether this block is shown on the website depending on how the publishing templates are configured.

Before expanding a block

After Expanding a block

Editing a block

To edit a block, simply click the block in the tree and its contents will appear on the right. Once you have made the required changes, click Save Data. You will see an indication appear at the top of the window when the data is saved.

Adding a Template Block

You add data blocks by adding pre-defined templates

1. Locate the section where you wish to add a data block in the data tree.
   
2. New data blocks are added by clicking Add next to the parent item. In the example above to add a news story you would click add next to the Parent News element.
   
3. You will then see a pop-up list of templates that can be added. Click the template to add. (only templates allowed will be shown.)
   
4. A new item will added and the fields to complete will appear on the right.
5. Complete the details and the click Save Data
6. Changes will now apear on your site the next time you Publish.

Moving Blocks

Depending on how your website is set up, you can change the order in which pages and data are displayed on your website by simply dragging the block up or down the list in that part of the Data Tree. If the blocks are sorted by name or date when we display them on the website, then moving them may have no effect.

Archiving Blocks

Blocks can be archive so that they no longer apear in the data tree but the data remains available to be un-archived at a later date. Depending on how your publishing templates are configured archiving blocks may also hide this content from the website.

1. Locate the section where you wish to archive a data block in the data tree.
   
2. To archive an element click the A to the right of the element to archive.
   
3. The item will now go greay to indicate it is in the archive.
   
4. Next time you view the Edit screen, archived elements will be hidden.
5. To remove an item from the archive just click the A again next to the item.

Showing and Hiding Archived Elements

By default, archived elements are set to be hidden. You can change this by using the button at the top of the block list.

If it says Hiding Archived Elements, then click it to change to Showing archived Elements. Archived elments will now show in the block tree in grey.