Types of Pages in HS-CMS
It should be noted that the term “Pages” is used loosely. Drupal might call what we call “Pages” by a number of names, such as “nodes,” “stories”, “pages”, or even “aliases”. Ruby on Rails would occaisionally call pages “applications.” This is because the HS-CMS “page” can be anthing from a static web page, to a dynamic page to an application which handles URLs downstream from it (i.e. example.com/application/called/for/id/4), to a representative of a page not handled by HS-CMS at all, etc.
Here we attempt to list everything an HS-CMS page could possibly be, and how these are kept straight in the “Pages” database table under the “type” column.
| Database value | Description |
|---|---|
| authored |
A typical website page, blog entry, or anything else that is fundamentally (but not necessarily entirely) static content made for reading **and has an author**. Typically this kind of page is **categorizable** and *not an “about” page* or anything like that. Most certainly, this type is meant to exclude 404s and other error pages not “meant” to be read or searched for. Pages are listable by list-generating pages such as one that, say, searches for pages with a certain tag. They are automatically included in sitemaps and submitted to search engines. |
| error | Error pages, such as a custom 404 file-not-found or 403 forbidden handler, are like pages except they are never shown in any public lists, menus, or sitemaps. They are hidden from search engines. |
| app | Applications take command of all URLs beginning with their own and ending with anything under the moon, as long as there is no more-specific page of another type. Example: app “foo” does not get “foo/bar” if “foo/bar” is an actual page. App pages are visible to search engines but the details of whether or not they are listable and in the sitemap by default have not yet been worked out. |
| alias | Make a request act as if it was a request for another page. Soon: Hard and soft aliases. Currently: all are hard redirects. |
| static | Pages like “About me,” “about us,” etc. which are not considered blog entries or readily taggable, categorizable, etc. |
| representative | Representatives are just that: Not actual pages, but representatives of them. They should be used when HS-CMS would benefit from being aware of pages outside its control. While at first this might sound silly, you get the following, totally-worth-it benefits:
Naturally, representative pages will probably have empty and non-applicable columns in the Pages database. Obviously, they won’t have a stored content location defined, or a custom skin, etc. If this paragraph is still here, there is probably not a “representative importer” tool, but there should be. Whine for one at http://alanhogan.com/contact, please! |