Managing Content
Click on the Staff Login tab in the site navigation and login as robin/romeo ("romeo" is just the phonetic alphabet code for "R"). The Speck toolbar will appear at the top of the page:
When you submitted the login form, the cf_spApp tag processed the authentication details passed as form variables and logged you in as user "robin". When users who have permission to manage content are logged in, the Speck toolbar appears at the top of the document.
Return to the homepage and you'll notice that the content that appears after login is no different to that which was there before. That is because after login, you initially continue to view the live version of the content with administration links hidden.
Promotion levels
Changing the view level set the promotion level at which you want to view content. There are currently three levels in Speck…
- Edit - this is like your own test version of the site. At this level you see content items that you are currently editing and have yet to promote to the review level, and other content items from the review level / staging site. This allows you to view your changes in context, but have those changes isolated from what other users see until you have completed them and promote them for review.
- Review - this is the staging site or test version of the site. Content items at this level are waiting to be reviewed and promoted to the live version of the site
- Live - the live version of the site, obviously.
Note: Speck applications can be set to have promotion disabled. With promotion disabled, all content items are at live level all of the time and changes to content items will appear immediately on the live version of the site.
Editing content
Change the view level to "edit" and uncheck the "hide admin links" checkbox and you will see administration links embedded into the document.
Users only see administration links for content items that they have access to edit (naturally, robin is a super user and can edit anything). Rolling over an administration link will cause the related content item to be highlighted, so users know exactly what they are editing.
At edit level, if the current user has a content item checked out for editing, the admin links will include a promote link because the content has not yet been promoted for review. Administration links will have a line through them if another user has a content item checked out for editing. Click on the edit link for the blurb content item containing the welcome text.
A new window will open containing an edit form and the content history. The properties of the content item are shown in the form, both user defined (blurb) and system defined (id, revision, created date, updated date, updated by, label, keywords). Speck creates these system properties for all content items. If you scroll down you will also see the content history.
After editing a content item, the result of clicking on the Save Changes button depends on whether the revision of the content item you are editing is currently at your edit level or has previously been promoted to review (it may have also been promoted to live, but that doesn't matter here). If the revision is at your edit level, the property values for the revision are updated, i.e. a new revision is not created. This allows you to make multiple changes to a revision at your edit level and test those changes in context before committing to them and promoting them for review. If the revision you are editing is not already at your edit level, saving a change will create a new revision at your edit level. Once the new revision is created, you can continue make further changes without creating a new revision (until you promote this new revision be for review of course).
If you look at the content history, it should be clear that the revision you are editing has previously been promoted to both review and live, so it is not at your edit level. Make a minor change to the blurb property and save changes. A new revision will be created. Note the new revision number.
Promoting and demoting content
After saving your changes above, if you close the edit window, you will see that there are now promote and demote links for the content item you have modified. Click on demote, your changes will be undone and the promote and demote links will disappear.
To see what has happened, click on edit again and look at the history. You made a change and created a new revision at your edit level. You should be able to pick out the revision number you noted above, but it should be the listed fourth in the content history. When you clicked on demote, Speck took the revision immediately previous to the new revision you created in the history and promoted it through all levels, edit, review, live, in order to return the site to the state it was in prior to your changes. Your change is not deleted because we wish to record the complete history of the site at all promotion levels and allow the site to be viewed as it was on a previous date and time.
Return to the history for the blurb content item and click on the revision number that you created (and demoted) earlier. This will load the contents of that revision into the edit form. You will see the changes you made earlier. Click Save Changes and another new revision will be created, then close the window.
Again, the promote and demote links will appear. Now, change the view level in the toolbar to review for a moment and the review level version of the page will load. At review level, administration links will only be shown for content requiring review and either promotion or demotion. As your changes have not yet been promoted for review, no administration links will appear embedded into the document.
If you change the view level to edit again, promote your changes and then change the view level back to review, your changes will appear at review level and you will be able to review the changes and promote them to the live version of the site.
Removing content
When you choose to remove content in Speck, it is normally marked as removed but not actually deleted. Again, this is a result of our wish to record the complete history of the site and allow the site to be viewed as it was on a previous date and time. The exception to this rule is when revisioning is disabled for a content type or application. In that case, content will be deleted. As with all other changes, when the promotion model is enabled, if you mark content for removal at your edit level, the removal will have to be promoted to review before it is approved and promoted to the live version of the site. If promotion has been disabled, the content is immediately removed.
To see what happens when you remove a content item, return to the Sydney Jabiru homepage and set the view level to edit. Then click on remove for the blurb content item containing the welcome text. The content item will not immediately disappear, but a note is added stating that it has been marked for removal. If you promote the removal for review, then it will disappear from your edit level and you can add new content to replace it if you like. The removal still needs to be reviewed and promoted before the content item disappears from the live version of the site.