This quick start guide should get you started.
Goal
Creating basic pages.
Create Channel for Content Pages
* Open the “Channel Management” page: “Admin” > “Channel Administration” > “Channels”
* Click on “Create a New Channel button”. This will open the “Create a New Channel” page.
* Set the “Full Channel Name” field to “Content Pages”.
* Set the “Channel Name” field to “pages”
*Click “Submit”
Custom Channel Fields
* Go to: “Admin” > “Channel Administration” > “Custom Fields” (screenshot)
* Click “Create a Channel Field Group” (screenshot)
* Type “Basic Content” for the name of the group. This will allow you to make simple content pieces.
You will be returned to the Channel Fields page
* Click “Add/Edit Custom Fields” on your newly created “Basic Content” group (screenshot)
* Click “Create a New Custom Field” on the “Add/Edit Custom Fields” page (screenshot)
In Custom Field Settings do the following: (screenshot)
* Set “Field Type” to “Textarea”
* Set “Field label” to “Page Content”
* Set “Field Name” to “page_content”
* Set “Field Instructions” to “Enter content for the page.”
In Custom Field Options (screenshot):
* Set “Textarea Rows” to “18”.
* Set “Default Text Formatting for This Field” to “xhtml”
* Set “Show Formatting Buttons” to “Yes”
Leave the remaining fields set to their defaults for now.
*Click “Submit”
Link Channel to Field Group
* Return to Channel Management Page. “Admin” > “Channel Administration” > “Channels”
* Click “Edit Group Assignments” for “Content Pages” Channel.
* Edit the following settings on Edit Group Assignments page:
* Leave “Category Group” to none for this example.
* Set “Status Group” to “Statuses” from the drop down list
* Set “Field Group” to “Basic Content”
* Click “Update”
Publish Some Pages
* Go to “Content” > “Publish” > “Content Pages”
* Enter a “Title”. “URL title” should be auto generated from the title. For this example the “URL Title” is very important. This is what we will use to load the individual pages.
* Enter something for “Page Content”
* Click “Submit”
Repeat those steps at least one more time so you have multiple entries. For the sake of this example make one of the entry Titles “About”.
Create Template Group
* Open the “Template Manager” page: “Design” > “Templates” > “Template Manager”
* Click “New Group” in the “Template Groups” area.
* Set “Template Group Name” to “page”
* Do not Duplicate an existing Template Group
* Make sure “Make the index template in this group your site’s home page?” is not checked.
* Click Submit. This action will return you to the “Template Manager” page
Create Template
* Click on “page” in the “Template Groups” section if it is not already selected. This will ensure you are editing templates in the correct group.
* With newly created “page”: group selected click on “index” to edit the template.
* Enter the following into the template
{exp:channel:entries channel="pages" limit="1" require_entry="yes"}
{if no_results}
{redirect="site/404"}
{/if}
<h1>{title}</h1>
{page_content}
{/exp:channel:entries}
The code above will display one entry specified by entry ID or URL Title. If neither are supplied then the {if no_results} will evaluate to true and the code between the {if} pair will be run. In our case it is a fictional template called “404” inside the “site” template group.
* Click “Update and Finished”
The Result
Now you have a template set up that will display any individual page from the channel “Content Pages”.
*Visit your site: http://example.com/index.php/page/about . You should see a Blank white page with “About” as the heading and whatever you entered as “Page Content”. When you try the other entry URL_titles you will see that you also get the individual page information.
I hope this makes it easier for you to understand and follow. Try it out and let us know if that matches what you are looking for.
